Patriarch German was born Hranislav Đorić on August 19, 1899 in the spa of Jošanička Banja in central Serbia, in a ministerial family. He received a broad education and was a most educated member of the Serbian clergy, attending primary school in Velika Drenova and Kruševac, seminary in Belgrade and Sremski Karlovci (graduating in 1921), studying law in Paris (Sorbonne) and finally graduating at the Orthodox Theology Faculty in Belgrade in 1942.