i might be remembering this wrong, but in the supplemental material on the dvd, it said that newt and hermann were internet friends before meeting each other in real life, and shared ideas and all that, and then they met irl and took an instant dislike to each other

so they were friends online, and then they had to learn how to be friends again in real life

(although i'm not sure if that supplemental material even counts as canon since it got newt's age wrong but it's the only somewhat official thing we have about how they met, so i'll take it)