On June 3, 2005 Prof. Dr. Wilfried Dotzauer was appointed as honorary member on the occasion of the 255^th death-day of Rathgeber:

Prof. Dotzauer wrote a dissertation thesis on "The sacred music of Valentin Rathgeber". He analyzed all sacred works of Rathgeber regarding their form and referred to many similarities and pecularities of his style. Thus, he could emphasize especially the importance of Rathgeber for the history of liturgy, genre, form, style, music and region. Apart from his dissertation thesis, Prof. Dotzauer has edited various works of Rathgeber and has repeatedly commented on Rathgeber. 
On June 5, 2010 Prof. Dr. Charles Jurgensmeier SJ from Chicago/Illinois was appointed as honorary member on the occasion of the 2^nd International Rathgeber-Symposium "At the beginning of the classical era" and the 260^th death-day of Rathgeber.

Prof. Jurgensmeier is the most prominent authority on Rathgeber in the United States of America and performs many compositions of Rathgeber in his homeland. Prof. Jurgensmeier is also responsible for the increasing popularity of Valentin Rathgeber in the US. This year it was his tenth visit to Oberelsbach for academic studies. All the times he used the large archive of the International Valentin-Rathgeber-Society e.V.