Habermas home on Lake Starnberg becomes listed monument

The former home of philosopher Jürgen Habermas on Lake Starnberg is now an official listed monument, BR reported. The building, which Habermas shared with his family, has remained almost unchanged since it was built in the 1970s.

Mathias Pfeil, director general of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection, called the house “built philosophy” and said it was an outstanding record of the self-image of one of the 20th century’s most important German philosophers.

Habermas developed the ideas for the house with its architects over coffee, Pfeil told BR. The building therefore also reflects the philosopher’s intellectual world, he said, adding that it allows people to understand a person in three dimensions.

The rationally designed house stands on a hillside overlooking Lake Starnberg. Inspired by Le Corbusier and the Vienna Secession, it has a wall of books as its central axis. The building was the first project by Munich architects Heinz Hilmer and Christoph Sattler and is now regarded as an important example of the transition from post-war neofunctionalism to postmodernism.

Sattler, now 87, recalled that the commission had been “adventurous” for the young architects. They had recently won a European competition and suddenly appeared promising, he said, describing the period as one of youthful euphoria.

Bavarian Science Minister Markus Blume welcomed the decision. Habermas, who died in March, was “a passionate defender of democratic reason,” Blume said. The house was “a special place in intellectual history” because it made visible how life and thought, space and work were connected for Habermas.

Publisher Michael Krüger, a longtime guest of the Habermas family, also welcomed the monument status. He called the house one of the most beautiful buildings in an increasingly bleak architectural setting around the lake.

Krüger said the house had been ideal for modern social gatherings, where “the spirit of the age” came together. Guests included Marcuse, Scholem, Martin Walser, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Ernst Tugendhat and Peter Hamm.