[1] Zubiri's philosophy has been categorized as a "materialist open realism",[2] which "attempted to reformulate classical metaphysics, in a language that was entirely compatible with modern science".

There, he was hosted in Harnack House, which enabled Zubiri to socialize with important minds of this great period of academic activity in the Weimar Republic.

For example, Albert Einstein (whom Zubiri had already met in Madrid, at Universidad Central, in 1923),[5] Max Planck, Werner Jaeger, Erwin Schrödinger, among others.

There, he continued having an intensive intellectual life, attending courses with Louis de Broglie, Frédéric Joliot, Irène Curie, Elie Joseph Cartan and Emile Benveniste, among others.

For the same reasons outlined above, Zubiri's contact with the formal academic environments of the English speaking world was limited.

[19] In 1979, the German government awarded Zubiri and Laín Entralgo the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.