German philosopher Jürgen Habermas dies at 96

Jürgen Habermas, one of Germany's most influential modern philosophers, has died at the age of 96.

Habermas died on Saturday in the Bavarian town of Starnberg, his publisher Suhrkamp Verlag said.

Widely regarded as a towering European public intellectual of the 20th century, his major works were developed in Frankfurt, where his career began in the 1950s at the Institute for Social Research under philosopher Theodor W. Adorno.

Habermas was born in Dusseldorf on June 18, 1929, and studied philosophy, psychology, German literature and economics in Göttingen, Zurich and Bonn.

His political analysis helped shape Germany's post-war intellectual climate beginning with the publication of "The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere" in 1962.

His "The Theory of Communicative Action," published in 1981, is also considered a seminal work of philosophy.

Habermas' studies frequently examined the concept of the public sphere and explored the forms of discourse best suited to organizing democratic societies.