He grew up in Protestant family, supportive of “political consensus” The profile of Hamberma, one of the most influential philosophers of our time

Habermas, a major figure in Germany's intellectual history after World War II, is best known for his theory of building political consensus. widely considered one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, it also helped shape the debate about European integration and the creation of the European Union, writes. The Guardian.

Despite his background from Frankfurt School of Neo-markets and reputations as a dictator of the Social Democrat Party, his influence crossed party boundaries. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, from the conservative Christian Democracy Union, described it as “one of the most important thinkers of our time”.

His analytical vision shaped the democratic discurs far beyond our country's borders and served as a guiding light in a turbulent sea”, Merz said in a statement. His voice will be missing “

The seven - decade career of Habermas focused on the foundations of social theory, democracy, and rule of law.

His belief that the formation of public opinion was vital to the survival of democracies explains why Habermas continued to write books and newspaper articles at very old age. In a 2015 interview with The Guardian, he criticised then Chancellor Angela Merkel for using Germany's post-war reputation” with her government's harsh stance during the Greek debt crisis.

Finally, such interventions have brought criticism from younger intellectuals. In 2022, he criticised then German Green Party Foreign Minister Annalena Bayerbock for her sentences “agrely self-confidence” and sharp “to Russia's fight for aggression in Ukraine. His statement that Israel's Gaza war following Hamas' attacks on October 7th was “justified in principle” was met with distrust by many philosophers who followed the tradition of “theories critical” of Frankfurt School, who published a critical letter.

His most recent work, Things Need to Get Better, was published in December last year. In it, he refuses “to allow defetism to have the last word”, arguing that it is possible “to face the present crisis firmly and finally to overcome”.

His publisher, Suhrkamp Verlag, said he died Saturday in Strasbourg, near Munich. Two of his three children remain behind.

Born June 18, 1929, in a bourgeois family in Düsseldorf, Habermas underwent two operations after birth and early childhood due to a crack in the roof, resulting in a speech barrier.

This obstacle is often cited as an impact on his work on communication. Habermas said he had experienced the importance of speaking as “a layer of unity without which we as individuals cannot exist”, and remembered the difficulties of becoming understandable.

He grew up in a strongly Protestant family. His father, an economist who ran the local Chamber of Commerce, joined the Nazi Party in 1933, but according to Habermas, it was only a passive “sipatist. Habermas himself joined the Nazi youth organization Hitler Youth at the age of 10, like most German boys back then. At the age of 15, as World War II drew to a close, he managed to avoid military mobilization by hiding from military police.

He later said he would not have found his way to philosophy and social theory if he had not faced the reality of Nazi crimes as a youth. He thought that “you suddenly realized it was a politically criminal system in which you had lived”.

Educated at University of Bonn, where he met his wife Ute, he first became known as a journalist and academic in the 1950s. He belonged to the second generation of Frankfurt School, following the footsteps of Marxist thinkers like Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.

In the 1980 ' s, Habermas was a prominent figure in Historyster, an intellectual debate in which conservative historians, particularly Ernst Nolte, argued that Nazi Germany's atrocities were not unique and that similar crimes were committed by other governments.

Habermas and other opponents of this prospect argued that conservative historians were trying to reduce the extent of Nazi crimes through such comparisons.

Defending the distinction of the atrocities of the Third Reich, Habermas believed that Verhegenheitsbeitältigung faced with the past should be essential to Germany's identity.

His wife, Ute Habermas-Wesselhot, died last year. The couple had three children: Tillmann, Judith, and Rebekah, who died in 2023. /Periscope