Michel Friedman, the journalist, praised the recently deceased philosopher Jürgen Habermas as a formative influence on his life. Speaking to “Die Zeit”, Friedman said, “It is people like Jürgen Habermas who have made it possible for me, as a Jew, to live in Germany despite Auschwitz”. He added that in a post‑war society marked by denial, figures from the younger generation-Habermas among them-offered hope. Habermas’ advocacy for reason, public discourse, and a liberal society accessible to all is difficult to over‑state. “His appeal to reason, his insistence that democracy needs public debate, and the principle that the public sphere must be equally open to everyone have deeply shaped my thinking” Friedman noted.
Habermas’ steadfast commitment to the idea of communicative reason remains exemplary. Friedman remarked, “A human can think. He must think. Otherwise he becomes a pawn of populists”. He further stressed that a culture of debate is “the oxygen of democracy”.
