Article
Hitler's Geostrategist?: The Myth of Karl Haushofer and the “Institut für Geopolitik”
David Thomas Murphy,
David Thomas Murphy
Search for more papers by this authorDavid Thomas Murphy,
David Thomas Murphy
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Footnotes
- 1For a discussion and refutation of the “stud-farm” myth, see Michael Burleigh, Confronting the Nazi Past: New Debates on Modern German History, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1991, 173–174. See also Colin Summerhayes and Peter Beeching, “Hitler's Antarctic Base: The Myth and the Reality,” Polar Record 43, 2007, 1–21. For Hitler and the “spear of Longinus” (a tale which involved Karl Haushofer as well) see Trevor Ravenscroft, The Spear of Destiny, New York: Putnam, 1973. For the soap story, Joachim Neander, “ ‘Seife aus Judenfett’: Zur Wirkungsgeschichte eine urban legend.” Paper presented at the 28th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association, Washington, DC, October 2004.
- 2 Susanne Heim, Research for Autarky: The Contribution of Scientists to Nazi Rule in Germany, Berlin: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften, 2001, 14–15.
- 3On this issue, see the essays in Sara Buttsworth and Maartje Abbenuis, eds, Monsters in the Mirror: Representations of Nazism in Post-War Popular Culture, Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010, especially xvi–xvii.
- 4See the treatment of this issue in Ronald Smelser and Edward J. Davies II, The Myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular Culture, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008.
- 5See below in 6-9.
- 6See Derwent Whittlesey, “ Haushofer: The Geopoliticians,” in Edward Mead Earle, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy: Military Thought from Machiavelli to Hitler, Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1944, 388–411, and specifically the chronology of Haushofer's career on 411, which lists him as director of the Institute from the year 1933.
- 7 Louis L. Snyder, Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976, 139.
- 8 S.D. Brunn and K.A. Mingst, “ Geopolitics,” in Michael Pacione, ed., Progress in Political Geography, London: Routledge, 1985, 41–76: 43; Geoffrey Parker, Western Geopolitical Thought in the Twentieth Century, London: Routledge, 1985, 57. The Institut für Geopolitik is also mentioned in J.P. Cole, Geography of World Affairs, London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1983, 15; in Klaus Dodds and David Atkinson, eds, Geopolitical Traditions: A Century of Geopolitical Thought, London: Routledge, 2000, 2–3; and in numerous other articles, essays, and books of this period.
- 9 Saul Bernard Cohen, Geopolitics of the World System, New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002, 22.
- 10 Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, sixth ed., 1 November 2011: “Haushofer founded (1922) the Institute of Geopolitics in Munich,” available at: http://www.answers.com/topic/geopolitics, accessed 25 October 2013. See also the discussion of the IfG in historical works not concerned with geography, like the account of Albrecht Haushofer's career in William E. Duff, A Time for Spies: Theodore Stephanovich Mally and the Era of the Great Illegals, Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt UP, 1999, 118.
- 11One article noted in July of 1946 that “No trace has yet been found of any large research-intelligence organization under Haushofer's direction” (Thomas R. Smith and Lloyd D. Black, “German Geography: War Work and Present Status,” Geographical Review 36, 1946, 398–408: 404).
- 12The first of a number of books on Japan was Dai Nihon: Betrachtungen über Groβ-Japans Wehrkraft, Weltstellung und Zukunft, Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, 1913.
- 13See Brian W. Blouet, Halford Mackinder: A Biography, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1987, 191–192.
- 14 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Verzeichnis der Vorlesungen, Winter Halbjahr 1922/23, Munich: Buchhandel bei den Universitätsbuchhandlungen, 1922, 31 and 36. See the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Verzeichnis der Vorlesungen, Munich: Buchhandel bei den Universitätsbuchhandlungen, 1928, 41.
- 15 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Verzeichnis der Vorlesungen, Winter Halbjahr 1934/3, Munich: Buchhandel bei den Universitätsbuchhandlungen, 1934, 48.
- 16
Andreas Dorpalen, The World of General Haushofer: Geopolitics in Action, Port Washington, NY: Farrar and Rinehart, 1942;
Johannes Mattern, Geopolitik: Doctrine of National Self-Sufficiency and Empire, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1942;
Hans Weigert, Generals and Geographers: The Twilight of Geopolitics, New York: Oxford UP, 1942;
Derwent Whittlesey, German Strategy of World Conquest, New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1942. The books by Dorpalen, Weigert, and Whittlesey were reviewed together by Werner J. Cahnman: See Werner J. Cahnman, review of Generals and Geographers by Hans Weigert, German Strategy of World Conquest by Derwent Whittlesey, and The World of General Haushofer by
Andreas Dorpalen, Journal of Political Economy 3, 1943: 268–272. Note, as a contrast, Cahnman's own description of Haushofer's ideas written at the time, in which there is no mention of an Institut:
Werner J. Cahnman, “Methods of Geopolitics,” Social Forces 2, 1942, 147–154.
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- 17 Dorpalen, World, 17–18.
- 18 Whittlesey, German Strategy, 108.
- 19See, for example, the references to the “Geopolitical Institute of the German Academy” in the review essay by Cedric Larson, “Propaganda, Publicity and the War,” Public Opinion Quarterly 6, 1942, 298–301.
10.1086/265554 Google Scholar
- 20 Frederic Sondern, Jr., “The Thousand Scientists behind Hitler,” Reader's Digest, June 1941, 23–8.
- 21 Frederic Sondern, Jr., “Hitler's Scientists: 1,000 Nazi Scientists, Technicians and Spies Are Working under Dr. Karl Haushofer for the Third Reich,” Current History and Forum 53, 1941, 10–12.
- 22 Frederic Sondern, Jr., “The Brainpower of Hitler's Army,” Reader's Digest, July 1941, 7–11.
- 23 Sondern, Jr., “Hitler's Scientists,” 10.
- 24Ibid.
- 25
Charles Kruszewski, “Germany's Lebensraum,” American Political Science Review 5, 1940, 964–975.
10.2307/1949220 Google Scholar
- 26Ibid., 971.
- 27Ibid., 973.
- 28 Anonymous, “Hitler's World Revolution,” The New Statesman and Nation, 26 August 1939, 301.
- 29Ibid. A similar article on Haushofer's influence appeared in mid-December in The Daily Express, as recounted in Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, ed., Karl Haushofer: Leben und Werk, vol. 2, Ausgewählter Schriftwechsel, 1917–1946, Boppard am Rhein: Boldt, 1979, 411–412.
- 30Since the mid-1920s, for example, Haushofer and representatives of the Zeitschrift collaborated with the so-called “Arbeitsgemeinschaft deutscher Zeitschriften für die Interesse Grenz- und Auslandsdeutsche,” or “Workgroup of German Journals for the Interest of the Border and Foreign Germans.” Both Haushofer and the magazine played a part in the account of the seventh convention of the group (see Bundesarchiv Koblenz: NL 160 (Pechel): “Arbeitsgemeinschaft deutscher Zeitschriften für die Interesse Grenz- und Auslandsdeutsche,” Streng vertraulich Bericht, 7. Tagung, 29. Mai 1925).
- 31See the discussions and letters in Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, ed., Karl Haushofer: Leben und Werk, vol. 1, Lebensweg 1869–1946 und ausgewählte Texte zur Geopolitik, Boppard am Rhein: Boldt, 1979, 248–249, and Jacobsen, ed., Karl Haushofer, vol. 2, 152–154, and Henning Heske, “Karl Haushofer: His role in German Geopolitics and in Nazi Politics,” Political Geography Quarterly 6, 1987, 135–144.
- 32See the memorandum on the AfG and the ZfG, “ Denkschrift: Richard Wagner an das Ministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda,” 1933, in Jacobsen, ed., Karl Haushofer, vol. 2, 152–154.
- 33
Andrew Gyorgy, “The Application of German Geopolitics: Geo-Sciences,” The American Political Science Review 4, 1943, 677–686: 678.
10.2307/1950008 Google Scholar
- 34
Andrew Gyorgy, “The Geopolitics of War: Total War and Geostrategy,” The Journal of Politics 4, 1943, 347–362: 356n. There is no evidence of such a network in Haushofer's correspondence at the Federal Archive in Koblenz, but Haushofer did at times help publish articles written pseudonymously by German diplomatic personnel. See, for example, his correspondence with Rudolf Pechel from 1931, attempting to place an article written by the German consul in Bangkok under the name “Kalamba na M'Putu” (Bundesarchiv Koblenz: NL 160 (Pechel): 77; Haushofer to Pechel, 29 July 1931).
10.2307/2125293 Google Scholar
- 35 Detlev Lehnert, “‘Politik als Wissenschaft’: Beiträge zur Institutionalisierung einer Fachdisziplin in Forschung und Lehre der Detuschen Hochschule für Politik (1920–1933),” Politische Vierteljahresschrift 3, 1989, 443–465. The Hochschule was funded, in part, with money from the Carnegie Foundation.
- 36On Albrecht's institute at Berlin, see Kurt Vowinckel, “ Lage und Aussichten der ‘Geopolitik’,” 8 July 1941, in Jacobsen, ed., Karl Haushofer, vol. 2, 511–516.
- 37
Carl Sauer, Review of Macht und Erde by Karl Haushofer, Political Science Quarterly 3, 1935, 449–452. Later critics described the work as “the German geopolitical camarilla's collective magnum opus. …” (
10.2307/2143709 Google ScholarRainer Matern, “ Karl Haushofer und seine Geopolitik in den Jahren der Weimarer Republik und des Dritten Reiches. Ein Beitrag zum Verständnis seiner Ideen und seines Wirkens,” unpubl. PhD diss., University of Karlsruhe, 1978, 265).
- 38
S. K. Padover, “How the Nazis Picture America,” Public Opinion Quarterly 4, 1939, 663–669: 664–5.
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- 39Not in Jacobsen's work on Haushofer, repeatedly mentioned above, nor in the exhaustive Klaus Kost, Die Einflüsse der Geopolitik auf Forschung und Theorie der Politischen Geographie von ihren Anfängen bis 1945, Bonn: F. Dummler, 1988, nor in the Dutch-language Geert Bakker, Duitse Geopolitiek, 1919–1945: een imperialistische ideologie, Assen: Van Gorcum, 1967. See for another critical discussion of the Institut myth, Christian W. Spang, “ Karl Haushofer und die Geopolitik in Japan. Zur Bedeutung Haushofers innerhalb der deutsch-japanischen Beziehungen nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg,” in Irene Diekman, et al., eds., Geopolitik: Grenzgänge im Zeitgeist, Potsdam: Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, 2007, 591–629.
- 40For example, no mention of the supposed Institut is found in the well-informed evaluation in Holger Herwig, “ Geopolitik: Haushofer, Hitler and Lebensraum,” in Colin S. Gray and Geoffrey Sloan, eds, Geopolitics, Geography and Strategy, London and New York: Cass, 1999, 218–241. See also Heske, “Karl Haushofer,” 135; and G. Henrik Herb, “Persuasive Cartography in Geopolitik and National Socialism,” Political Geography Quarterly 8, 1989, 289–303: 289.
- 41Cited in Herwig, “ Geopolitik,” 218.
- 42 Bruno Hipler, Hitlers Lehrmeister. Karl Haushofer als Vater der NS-Ideologie, Erzabtei St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1996, 207 ff.
- 43At least 500 book, article, and book review titles are attributed to him in a half decade during the 1920s (see Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, “ Auswärtige Kulturpolitik als ‘geistige Waffe’. Karl Haushofer und die Deutsche Akademie [1924–1927],” in Kurt Düwell and Werner Link, eds, Deutsche Auswärtige Kulturpolitik seit 1871, Köln: Böhlau, 1981, 218–255: 218).
- 44See Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, tr. John Chamberlain et al., New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1940, 933–940. The edition is subtitled “unexpurgated,” and attributes Hitler's ideas about space, in a footnote, to the influence of “R. Haushofer” ( ibid., 937n).
- 45Matern claims that Haushofer told a friend in the year 1934 that he had been personally acquainted with Hitler since the year 1919 (Matern, “ Karl Haushofer,” 110); Bakker says they met in the year 1920 ( Bakker, Duitse Geopolitiek, 49n); Jacobsen says that the likeliest date is sometime in July 1921 ( Jacobsen, Karl Haushofer, vol. 2, 470); in his memoir, the conservative journalist Rudolf Pechel implied after the war that the year was 1922 (see R. Pechel, Deutscher Widerstand, Zurich: Rentsch, 1947, 277); and Haushofer claimed after the war that the year was 1922, as recounted in Edward A. Walsh, “The Mystery of Haushofer,” Life, 16 September 1946, 106–120.
- 46 Ilse Hess, Gefangener des Friedens. Neue Briefe aus Spandau, Leoni am Starnberger See: Druffel-Verlag, 1955, 24.
- 47 Woodruff D. Smith, The Ideological Origins of Nazi Imperialism, Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986, 305n. The episode of the Ratzel work is noted in Mark Bassin, “Race contra Space: The Conflict between German Geopolitik and National Socialism,” Political Geography Quarterly 2, 1987, 115–134: 124. Friedrich Ratzel, Politische Geographie, München and Leipzig: R. Oldenbourg, 1897.
- 48 Othmar Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches. Adolf Hitlers “Mein Kampf”, Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2002, 145 [Author's translation].
- 49The political geographer Friedrich Ratzel introduced the term in his essay “ Der Lebensraum. Eine biogeographische Studie,” in K. Bücher et al. eds, Festgaben für Albert Schäffle, Tübingen: Laupp, 1901, 101–189. See Karl Lange, “Der Terminus ‘Lebensraum’ in Hitlers ‘Mein Kampf,’” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 13, 1965, 426–437. See further on this matter also the comments in Smith, Origins, 83–111 and 232–54; and Roger Chickering, We Men Who Feel Most German: A Cultural Study of the Pan-German League, 1886–1914, Boston, MA: George Allen and Unwin, 1984, 37, 78–80.
- 50 Jacobsen, “ Auswärtige,” 223.
- 51See the program elaborated in his speech of 17 April 1923 on the Treaty of Versailles, for example, in Norman H. Baynes, The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, vol. 1, Oxford: Oxford UP, 1942, 57. The fact that even at this time matters of race were far more significant in the Nazi view of what constituted a meaningful and effective German foreign policy is pointed out in Mark Mazower, “National Socialism and the Search for International Order,” Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 50, 2012, 9–26.
- 52The great enemy for Haushofer was the Anglo-Saxon condominium of the Anglo-American world, and Russia would be Germany's valued ally in combating this (see Karl Haushofer, “Der Ost-Eurasiatische Zukunftsblock,” Zeitschrift für Geopolitik 2, 1925, 81–87).
- 53 Jacobsen, ed., Karl Haushofer, vol. 2, 257–258.
- 54Ibid., 145.
- 55
Ulrich Heinemann, Die verdrängte Niederlage. Politische Offentlichkeit und Kriegsschuldfrage in der Weimarer Republik, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1983.
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- 56
Donald H. Norton, “Karl Haushofer and the German Academy,” Central European History I, 1968, 80–98: 88, and
10.1017/S0008938900014795 Google ScholarMatern, “ Karl Haushofer,” 7 and 115–18.
- 57 Dan Diner, “‘Grundbuch des Planeten.’ Zur Geopolitik Karl Haushofers,” Viertelsjahrhefte für Zeitgeschichte 32, 1984, 1–28: 6–10.
- 58 Jacobsen, ed., Karl Haushofer, vol. 1, 170. The Nazi term was Ehrearier.
- 59Bundesarchiv Koblenz: NL 122 (Haushofer), 834: “Was ist Geopolitik?”, “Deutsche Welle” broadcast, 28 May 1929 [Author's translation].
- 60 Karl Haushofer, “ Geopolitik und Kaufmann,” in Karl Haushofer, et al., eds, Bausteine zur Geopolitik, Berlin-Grunewald: Kurt Vowinckel Verlag, 1928, 270–285: 283–4 [Author's translation].
- 61 Jacobsen, ed., Karl Haushofer, vol. 1, 162.
- 62 Walsh, “Mystery,” 108.
- 63 A. Whitney Griswold, “Paving the Way for Hitler,” The Atlantic, March 1941, 315.
- 64See the account in Heske, “Karl Haushofer,” 142.
- 65 Franz Schoenberner, Confessions of a European Intellectual, New York: MacMillan, 1946, 303–304.
- 66 Hess, Gefangener, 48.
- 67For examples of his attitudes and activities, including subsidizing anti-Repubican geopolitical publications, see Bundesarchiv Koblenz: NL 122 (Haushofer) 896: Dr. Erich Obst, “Aufsatz über Außenpolitik, Sept. 1930,” and ibid., 898: “Bericht über der deutschen Akademie, 7. Mai 1929.”
- 68 Albert C. Wedemeyer, Wedemeyer Reports!, New York: Henry Holt, 1958, 51.
- 69See Karl Haushofer, Der nationalsozialistische Gedanke in der Welt, Munich: Georg D. W. Callwey, 1933.
- 70Quoted in Heinz-Werner Hübner, “Vom Feldzug zum Krieg,” Die Zeit, 14 June 1991, 12.
- 71The figure of 700,000 appears in Herwig, “ Geopolitik.” But see Richard Wagner's memorandum from Jacobsen, cited above, which estimates the annual circulation in 1933 at “between 3,000 and 4,000.” Jacobsen, ed., Karl Haushofer, vol. 2, 153. Eight years later, in July 1941, at perhaps the peak of Haushofer's influence, his publisher Kurt Vowinckel (a man in a position to know the truth) claimed the circulation had reached 7,500 (see “ Manuskript Kurt Vowinckels,” ibid., 514).
- 72See the account of Hess's bizarre interaction with Haushofer under Allied interrogation in Richard Overy, Interrogations: The Nazi Elite in Allied Hands, 1945, New York: Viking, 2001, 406–407.
- 73Cited in Cahnman, Review, 271–272.
