 His father, Ernst Habermas, was Executive director of the Cologne Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and was described by Habermas as a Nazi sympathizer and, from 1933, a member of the NSDAP.Habermas himself was a "Jungvolkführer", a leader of the German Jungvolk, which was a section of the Hitler Youth.He was brought up in a staunchly Protestant milieu, his grandfather being the director of the seminary in Gummersbach.