All of Habermas’s significant professors except one had Nazi pasts

Evidence

From 1949 to 1954 he studied philosophy, history, psychology, German literature and economics, in Göttingen, Zurich and Bonn. His most important teachers in philosophy were Erich Rothacker, a theorist of the human sciences who followed Dilthey, and Oskar Becker, a student of Husserl’s belonging to Heidegger’s generation, who distinguished himself in the fields of mathematics and logic. Apart from one, Theodor Litt, all the professors who were of significance to him during the course of his studies had been either convinced Nazis or at least conformists, carrying on their work as usual during the Nazi regime. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2293

Categorization

• XREF: This resonates with the broader theme of unbroken Nazi continuities in postwar German institutions, which connects to the delayed influence of exiled Critical Theorists back on Germany. — connects to: Habermas was shaped by post-war re-education rather than Nazi experience — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2292
• QUESTION: Could be worth chasing how Habermas absorbed critical theory essentially outside his formal philosophy curriculum, given that all his professors were compromised.

Broader Connections

• Habermas was shaped by post-war re-education rather than Nazi experience #qualifies (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2292