On the Passing of Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas shaped Suhrkamp Verlag for decades, as a philosopher, author, public intellectual, and as a friend and companion. His work, published by Suhrkamp since the 1960s and translated into more than forty languages, continues to resonate around the world. Through his close friendship with Siegfried Unseld, Suhrkamp became Habermas’s publishing home and the starting point for the dissemination of his work.

Over the decades, Habermas himself became one of the central pillars of the publishing house, as an author, advisor, and personality. This bond was shaped by shared ideas and a common understanding of the importance of Enlightenment and of a critical public sphere.

Until very recently, he supported the endeavours of the publishing house with great dedication. We mourn the loss of a significant philosopher, a trusted advisor, and a dear friend.
Jonathan Landgrebe

Jürgen Habermas passed away on March 14, 2026, in Starnberg.

Born in Düsseldorf in 1929, Habermas is widely regarded as Germany’s most important philosopher and sociologist. From 1949 to 1954 he studied philosophy, history, psychology, German literature, and economics in Göttingen, Zurich, and Bonn. He taught, among other places, at the universities of Heidelberg and Frankfurt am Main, as well as at the University of California in Berkeley, and was director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of the Conditions of Life in the Scientific and Technological World in Starnberg. His book Erkenntnis und Interesse (Knowledge and Human Interests) became the first volume of the series suhrkamp taschenbuch wissenschaft in 1973, which has since brought together classics of theory with innovative publications from a wide range of academic fields.

For his scholarly work, Habermas received numerous distinctions and awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2001. In 2019 he published his two-volume magnum opus Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie (This Too a History of Philosophy), in which he traces the successive secularization of philosophy and examines contemporary transformations in science, law, politics, and society. Most recently, the volume »Es musste etwas besser werden …« (»Things Needed to Improve…«) was published in autumn 2024. In conversations with Stefan Müller-Doohm and Roman Yos, Habermas reflects on the genesis of his work, meaningful formative encounters with colleagues, and the circumstances under which his philosophical thinking developed.

Suhrkamp Verlag mourns the loss of its author.

You can find the German condolence page here.