Comment by grzm

As a German speaker and (I assume) English speaker, you're likely aware that the sound represented by ö is not at all common in English. One can argue that it's not like "r", but it's a closer approximation of the mouth position and sound than others. The IPA for Gödel is /ˈɡɜːrdəl/ : the symbols don't map one-to-one with English orthography (then again, what does), but it's no accident that there's an r in there. And then there's the question of whether or not to pronounce names closer to how they're pronounced in their native tongue, or how they're more properly understood, or some other rational.