World-renowned German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas passed away on Saturday in the town of Starnberg near Munich, where he has lived since 1971, numerous news reports announced.

One of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, he remained active until his final years and was one of the few public intellectuals in Germany to regularly take a stand on political issues, according to a first obituary-type article by DW.

Having advocated for the right to asylum during the 2015 migrant crisis, and for a unified European Union in the face of what he called right-wing populism and nationalism, Habermas remained actively committed to his cosmopolitan ideal of an open and rigorous democracy.

He was awarded the German French Media Prize in 2018, and after turning 90 the following year, published a two-volume, 1,700-page work, This Too a History of Philosophy, a look at the evolution of human rationality and reason that the Boston Review called “a masterpiece of erudition and synthesis.”