Jürgen Habermas, the philosopher who shaped the public debate in post-war Germany more than any other intellectual, died on Saturday at the age of 96 in Starnberg, Bavaria, the publishing house Suhrkamp announced.
The news of his death marks the end of a seven-decade run during which Habermas did not confine himself to the university walls, but actively intervened at every turning point in modern history.
From the Hitler Youth to the Frankfurt School
Born in 1929, Habermas belonged to the generation that lived through the horrors of Nazism in its teenage years. This experience, combined with a congenital speech problem, which led him to the study of communication, shaped his work. Influenced by Adorno and Horkheimer, he highlighted the importance of the “public sphere” and rational dialogue as bulwarks against totalitarianism.
The Battle for “German Guilt”
One of the most important milestones of his career was his stand in 1986, when he defended the uniqueness of the Holocaust against historians who tried to relativize it. For Habermas, coming to terms with the past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung) was not just a moral obligation, but the foundation of Germany’s democratic identity.
Ukraine and Militarism: The Last, Bitter Warnings
In the last years of his life, Habermas found himself at the center of intense criticism. His reluctance to send heavy weapons to Ukraine and his calls for negotiations with Moscow have sparked angry reactions. He, however, remained true to his belief that Europe is in danger of slipping back into a “war mentality”, which threatens its democratic conquests.
A legacy under siege
His biographer, Philip Fels, describes a man who left “melancholic”, seeing pacifism on the wane and the far-right (AfD) on the rise. Habermas’ death leaves an unfilled void at a time when the need for rational consensus seems more pressing—and at the same time more unattainable—than ever.
