 Lorenz is married to the literary scholar Karin Lorenz-Lindemann.After studying mathematics and physics in Tübingen, Hamburg, Bonn and Princeton, Lorenz earned his Ph.D. in 1961 under Paul Lorenzen in Kiel with a thesis about "Arithmetic and Logic as Games".In 1969 he received his habilitation degree in philosophy also under Lorenzen but this time in Erlangen.