Geopolitik was a German school of geopolitics which existed between the late 19th century and World War II.
123-535: It developed from the writings of various European and American philosophers, geographers and military personnel, including Oswald Spengler (1880–1936), Alexander Humboldt (1769–1859), Karl Ritter (1779–1859), Friedrich Ratzel (1844–1904), Rudolf Kjellén (1864–1922), Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840–1914), Homer Lea (1876–1912), Halford Mackinder (1861–1947) and Karl Haushofer (1869–1946). The ideology of Adolf Hitler adapted, and eventually incorporated some of its tenets. The defining characteristic of Geopolitik
246-692: A "cynical intelligence" (zynische Intelligenz) and their "money thinking" (Gelddenken). Therefore, they were incapable of adapting to Western culture and represented a foreign body in Europe. He also clarifies in The Decline of the West that this is a pattern shared in all civilizations: He mentions how the ancient Jew would have seen the cynical, atheistic Romans of the late Roman empire the same way Westerners today see Jews. Alexander Bein argues that with these characterizations Spengler contributed significantly to
369-581: A "respectable pedigree" to their ideology, Spengler later criticized Nazism due to its excessive racialist elements. He saw Benito Mussolini , and entrepreneurial types, like the mining magnate Cecil Rhodes , as examples of the impending Caesars of Western culture —later showcasing his disappointment in Mussolini's colonialist adventures. Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler was born on 29 May 1880 in Blankenburg , Duchy of Brunswick , German Empire ,
492-541: A "very ingenious and learned dilettante", while philosopher Karl Popper called the thesis "pointless". Both volumes of Decline were published in English by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. In 1924, following the social-economic upheaval and hyperinflation , Spengler entered politics in an effort to bring Reichswehr General Hans von Seeckt to power as the country's leader . The attempt failed and Spengler proved ineffective in practical politics. A 1928 Time review of
615-595: A Culture enters its late stage, Spengler argues, it becomes a 'Civilization' ( Zivilisation ), a petrified body characterized in the modern age by technology, imperialism, and mass society, which he expected to fossilize and decline from the 2000s onward. The first-millennium Near East was, in his view, not a transition between Classical Antiquity , Western Christianity , and Islam , but rather an emerging new Culture he named 'Arabian' or 'Magian', explaining messianic Judaism, early Christianity , Gnosticism , Mandaeism , Zoroastrianism , and Islam as different expressions of
738-610: A New Afro-European Order and eventually to a Eurasian Order. That concept became known as a pan-region, taken from the Monroe Doctrine, and the idea of national and continental self-sufficiency. It was a forward-looking refashioning of the drive for colonies, something that geopoliticians did not see as an economic necessity but more as a matter of prestige and putting pressure on older colonial powers. The fundamental motivating force would be not economic but cultural and spiritual. Beyond being an economic concept, pan-regions were
861-557: A View.” The next year, publisher of the Zeitschrift fur Geopolitik , Kurt Vowinckel, had to write to Haushofer that there was a lot of criticism and distrust of geopolitik emanating from several party and state departments, including the pro-Russian attitude and overemphasis on the influence of space that neglects the race doctrine. In the contest race contra space, Hitler was more influenced by race, while Haushofer by space. Haushofer's biographer, Andreas Dorpalen, distinguished between
984-543: A concept, was historically used almost interchangeably with race or ethnicity . Even under the legalistic framework of the League of Nations for European state relations, states had been drawn upon ethnically determined boundaries, following the tenets of Woodrow Wilson 's Fourteen Points speech. The first priority of the National Socialists was to focus on the racial aspects of foreign policy. Socialism , on
1107-536: A goal-directed teaching method Dyad symmetry , in genetics Triad (disambiguation) ("group of 3") Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Dyad . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dyad&oldid=1160326307 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
1230-501: A great historical organism of definable compass at the point preordained for it hundreds of years ago. When the first volume of The Decline of the West was published, it was a wild success. Spengler became an instant celebrity. The national humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), followed by economic depression in 1923 and hyperinflation , seemed to prove Spengler right. Decline comforted Germans because it could be used as
1353-465: A latecomer to nationhood proper, lacking colonies or reserved markets for industrial output but also experiencing rapid population growth , Germany desired a more equitable distribution of wealth and territory within the international system. Some modern scholars have begun to treat the two World Wars, participated in by Germany, as a single war (1914–1945) in which the revisionist Germany attempted to bid for hegemonic control with which to reorder
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#17327732111141476-403: A lesson from World War I: those that are neutral gain a little in trade but lose their seat at the victor's table and thus their right to decide the structure of the peace to follow. He thus renounced neutrality and committed his country to taking vital risks that would lead to greater gains. Hitler's racial ideas were indirectly expressed in his concept of space for German foreign policy. Space
1599-539: A member of the German Academy that year. The Hour of Decision , published in 1934, was a bestseller, but was later banned for its critique of National Socialism . Spengler's criticisms of liberalism were welcomed by the Nazis, but Spengler disagreed with their biological ideology and anti-Semitism . While racial mysticism played a key role in his own worldview, Spengler had always been an outspoken critic of
1722-459: A more equitable international redistribution of material resources and markets. Hitler's foreign policy strategy can be divided into two main concepts: race and space. In 1928, Hitler dictated the text of a follow-up text to Mein Kampf focused on the elaboration of the foreign policy concepts he had previously set forth. Unedited and unpublished, it allows a clearer picture of Hitler's thoughts than
1845-484: A rationale for their diminished pre-eminence, i.e. due to larger world-historical processes. The book met with wide success outside of Germany as well, and by 1919 had been translated into several other languages. The second volume of Decline was published in 1922. In it, Spengler argued that German socialism differed from Marxism ; instead, he said it was more compatible with traditional German conservatism. Spengler declined an appointment as Professor of Philosophy at
1968-494: A responsibility for law and order but also for social welfare / progress , and economic welfare /progress. Autarky, for Kjellén, was a solution to a political problem, not an economic policy proper. Dependence on imports would mean that a country would never be independent. Territory would provide for internal production. For Germany, Central and Southeastern Europe were key, along with the Near East and Africa . Haushofer
2091-699: A role as a land power rather than a sea power and focused his foreign policy on attaining the highest possible concentration of land power resources for a future that lay in Europe. The racial struggle for space envisioned by Hitler was essentially unlimited, a policy that could only have two results: total defeat or total conquest. Hess discovered in 1927, while the two were imprisoned at Landsberg prison, that Hitler believed only one race with total hegemony could bring about world peace. Hitler confirmed this attitude, regarding Europe specifically, in August 1943 speaking to his naval advisors and declaring, "Only if all of Europe
2214-779: A single Culture sharing a unique worldview. The great historian of antiquity Eduard Meyer thought highly of Spengler, although he also had some criticisms of him. Spengler's obscurity, intuitiveness, and mysticism were easy targets, especially for the positivists and neo-Kantians who rejected the possibility that there was meaning in world history. The critic and aesthete Count Harry Kessler thought him unoriginal and rather inane, especially in regard to his opinion on Nietzsche . Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein , however, shared Spengler's cultural pessimism. Spengler's work became an important foundation for social cycle theory . Prussianism and Socialism ( German : Preußentum und Sozialismus [ˈpʁɔʏsn̩tuːm ʔʊnt zotsi̯aˈlɪsmʊs] ),
2337-496: A state's growth. Ratzel's writings coincided with the growth of German industrialism after the Franco-Prussian war and the subsequent search for markets that brought it into competition with England. His writings served as welcome justification for imperial expansion. Influenced by Mahan, Ratzel wrote of aspirations for German naval reach, agreeing that sea power was self-sustaining, as the profit from trade would pay for
2460-534: A strategic concept as well. Haushofer acknowledges the strategic concept of the Heartland , put forward by the British geopolitician Halford Mackinder . If Germany could control Eastern Europe and subsequently Russian territory, it could control a strategic area to which hostile seapower could be denied. Allying with Italy and Japan would further augment German strategic control of Eurasia, with those states becoming
2583-463: A struggle led by those with the greatest capacity for organization, a characteristic held by Germanic peoples more than any other. Nations of pure and strong racial makeup would eventually prosper over those with ideas of racial equality: France is condemned in this regard because of its acceptance of blacks and the use of black units in World War I against German troops. Acceptance of inferior races
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#17327732111142706-414: A teacher was uneventful. In 1911, following his mother's death, he moved to Munich , where he lived for the rest of his life. While there, he was a cloistered scholar, supported by his modest inheritance. Spengler survived on very limited means and was marked by loneliness. He owned no books, and took work as a tutor and wrote for magazines to earn additional income. Due to a severe heart problem, Spengler
2829-411: Is our freedom, freedom from the economic despotism of the individual." Spengler addressed the need of Germans to accept Prussian socialism to free themselves from foreign forms of government: Prussiandom and socialism stand together against the inner England , against the world-view that infuses our entire life as a people, crippling it and stealing its soul…The working class must liberate itself from
2952-576: Is a 1919 book by Oswald Spengler originally based on notes intended for the second volume of The Decline of the West , in which he argues that German socialism is the correct socialism in contrast to English socialism. In his view, correct socialism has a much more "national" spirit. Spengler responded to the claim that socialism's rise in Germany had not begun with the Marxist rebellions of 1918 to 1919, but rather in 1914 when Germany waged war, uniting
3075-418: Is a question not of nominal possession but of the technique of administration. For a slogan’s sake to buy up enterprises immoderately and purposelessly and to turn them over to public administration in the place of the initiative and responsibility of their owners, who must eventually lose all power of supervision—that means the destruction of socialism. The old Prussian idea was to bring under legislative control
3198-741: Is an ideologue, i.e., a danger for the nation. Idiotic." Spengler, however, regarded the transformation of ultra-capitalist mass democracies into dictatorial regimes as inevitable, and he had expressed acknowledgement for Benito Mussolini and the Italian Fascist movement as a first symptom of this development. Spengler influenced other academics, including historians Arnold J. Toynbee , Carroll Quigley , and Samuel P. Huntington . Others include fascist ideologues Francis Parker Yockey and Oswald Mosley . John Calvert notes that Oswald Spengler's criticism of Western civilisation remains popular among Islamists . dyad From Misplaced Pages,
3321-414: Is best known for his two-volume work The Decline of the West ( Der Untergang des Abendlandes ), published in 1918 and 1922, covering human history . Spengler's model of history postulates that human cultures and civilizations are akin to biological entities, each with a limited, predictable, and deterministic lifespan. Spengler predicted that about the year 2000, Western civilization would enter
3444-528: Is intimately connected to the Jewish menace and its threat to the strength of the Germanic race. The vital strength of a race and its will to survive were the most important conditions which would lead to a resurgence of Germany despite its lack of resources and materiel . The re-establishment of a truly nationalist German army, free from the hired mercenaries of the imperial era, was Hitler's first goal. With
3567-478: Is little evidence of a global geopolitical blueprint derived from Mackinder's work underlying his ambition. "Hitler’s decision to turn on Russia in 1941 clearly violated the precepts of geopolitik as propounded by Haushofer and derived from Mackinder." Geopolitik, as Kjellen and Ratzel founded, was imbued with scientific materialism and environmental determinism. National Socialism took a fundamental inspiration that runs directly and explicitly counter to this approach:
3690-452: Is nicely ironic" that the article appeared on virtually the same time that Hitler invaded Russia, a country with which Haushofer in his writings had consistently advocated peace and alliance. There is no doubt, wrote Mackinder's biographer William Parker, that Haushofer adopted Mackinder's ideas, but there is no direct evidence to prove that Hitler adopted Haushofer's ideas. Hitler's reaction on Rapallo Treaty (1922) between Germany and Russia
3813-520: Is the inclusion of organic state theory, informed by social Darwinism . It was characterized by clash of civilizations -style theorizing. It is perhaps the closest of any school of geostrategy to a purely nationalistic conception of geostrategy, which ended up masking other more universal elements. Germany acted as a revisionist state within the international system during both World Wars by attempting to overthrow British domination, and to counter what it saw as rising US and Russian hegemony . As
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3936-424: Is their collective biography." 'Mankind'… has no aim, no idea, no plan, any more than the family of butterflies or orchids. 'Mankind' is a zoological expression, or an empty word. … I see, in place of that empty figment of one linear history which can only be kept up by shutting one’s eyes to the overwhelming multitude of the facts, the drama of a number of mighty Cultures, each springing with primitive strength from
4059-442: Is united under a strong central power can there be any security for Europe from now on. Small sovereign states no longer have a right to exist". In Mein Kampf , Hitler states his view that the total (but, as he saw it, temporary) destruction of civilization was, to him, an acceptable condition of final Aryan victory. Lebensraum as a foreign policy concept was based upon domestic considerations, especially that of population growth and
4182-649: The Sturmabteilung (SA) were executed. In 1934, Spengler pronounced the funeral oration for one of the victims of the Night of the Long Knives and retired in 1935 from the board of the highly influential Nietzsche Archive which was viewed as opposition to the regime. Spengler considered Judaism to be a "disintegrating element" (zersetzendes Element) that acts destructively "wherever it intervenes" (wo es auch eingreift). In his view, Jews are characterized by
4305-758: The Associated Press , Hitler commented that if Germany acquired Ukraine , Urals and territory into the heartland of Siberia , it would be able to have surplus prosperity. Thus, Germany would have to be concerned about the newly independent states to the East, sitting between Germany and its goal of Russian territory. Such states, especially the reconstituted Poland, were viewed as Saisonstaat , or states that exist for no enduring reason. No alliance with Russia would be possible either because of German designs on Eastern territory. Still, Hitler maintained faith that if Germany were to make clear its aspirations for space in
4428-745: The Harz mountains and to Italy. Spengler died of a heart attack on 8 May 1936, in Munich, at age 55. He was buried in the Nordfriedhof in Munich . In the introduction to The Decline of the West , Spengler cites Johann W. von Goethe and Friedrich Nietzsche as his major influences. Goethe's vitalism and Nietzsche's cultural criticism, in particular, are highlighted in his works. I feel urged to name once more those to whom I owe practically everything: Goethe and Nietzsche. Goethe gave me method, Nietzsche
4551-536: The Munich Putsch in 1923, Haushofer spent six hours visiting the two, bringing along a copy of Friedrich Ratzel's Political Geography and Carl von Clausewitz 's Vom Kriege . After World War II, Haushofer would deny that he had taught Hitler, and claimed that the National Socialist party perverted Hess's study of geopolitik. He viewed Hitler as a half-educated man who never correctly understood
4674-473: The University of Göttingen , saying he needed time to focus on writing. The book was widely discussed, even by those who had not read it. Historians took umbrage at his unapologetically non-scientific approach. Novelist Thomas Mann compared reading Spengler's book to reading Arthur Schopenhauer 's works for the first time. Academics gave it a mixed reception. Sociologist Max Weber described Spengler as
4797-613: The allied victory in preparation for the Nuremberg trials , disagreed with Haushofer's assessment that geopolitik was terribly distorted by Hitler and the Nazis. He cites Hitler's speeches declaring that small states have no right to exist and the Nazi use of Haushofer's maps, language and arguments. Even if distorted somewhat, Fr. Walsh felt that was enough to implicate Haushofer's geopolitik. Haushofer also denied assisting Hitler in writing Mein Kampf , saying that he knew of it only once it
4920-476: The "arbitrary" goal of the border of 1914, expanding into the East and adopting policies toward the Western European nations, Great Powers, and treaty arrangements, which would facilitate this land redistribution. A lack of space for a race's growth would lead to its decay through degenerate population control methods and dependence upon other nations' imports. Expansion is directly correlated to
5043-703: The Animal Kingdom ( Die Entwicklung des Sehorgans bei den Hauptstufen des Tierreiches ), a text now lost. It was approved and he received his teaching certificate. In 1905, Spengler suffered a nervous breakdown . Spengler briefly served as a teacher in Saarbrücken then in Düsseldorf . From 1908 to 1911 he worked at a grammar school ( Realgymnasium ) in Hamburg , where he taught science, German history, and mathematics. Biographers report that his life as
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5166-627: The Canadian TV series Orphan Black Other uses [ edit ] Dyad (biology) , a pair of sister chromatids Dyad (philosophy) , used by the Pythagoreans for the number two, representing "twoness" or "otherness" Dyad (sociology) , a group of two people Grizzled Young Veterans , also known as The Dyad, a British professional wrestling tag team See also [ edit ] Dyadic (disambiguation) Diad , in cell biology Dryad (disambiguation) Dyad pedagogy ,
5289-739: The Elder , Cicero , Seneca , Florus , Ammianus Marcellinus , and later, Francis Bacon , who compared different empires with each other with the help of biological analogies. The concept of historical philosophy developed by Spengler is founded upon two assumptions: Spengler enumerates nine Cultures: Ancient Egyptian , Babylonian , Indian, Chinese, Greco-Roman or 'Apollonian', 'Magian' or 'Arabic' (including early and Byzantine Christianity and Islam), Mexican, Western or 'Faustian', and Russian. They interacted with each other in time and space but were distinctive due to 'internal' attributes. According to Spengler, "Cultures are organisms, and world-history
5412-511: The Führer vulgar. He met Hitler in 1933 and after a lengthy discussion remained unimpressed, saying that Germany did not need a "heroic tenor" [: one of several conventional tenor classifications] but a real hero ". He quarreled publicly with Alfred Rosenberg , and his pessimism and remarks about the Führer resulted in isolation and public silence. He further rejected offers from Joseph Goebbels to give public speeches. However, Spengler did become
5535-539: The German military, the League of Nations and the situation with France. Hitler's first concern was the reinvigoration of the German military without which all other aims could not be achieved. The League of Nations was a prohibitive factor in the development and change of Germany because those with influence in the League were the same states that had demanded Germany's crippling. Germany could not hope for allies found outside
5658-439: The German nation in a national struggle that he claimed was based on socialistic Prussian characteristics, including creativity, discipline, concern for the greater good, productivity, and self-sacrifice. Spengler claimed that these socialistic Prussian qualities were present across Germany and stated that the merger of German nationalism with this form of socialism while resisting Marxist and internationalist socialism would be in
5781-606: The Heraclitean Philosophy ) and conducted under the direction of Alois Riehl —because of insufficient references. He took the doctoral oral exam again and received his PhD from Halle on 6 April 1904. In December 1904, he began to write the secondary dissertation ( Staatsexamensarbeit ) necessary to qualify as a high school teacher. This became The Development of the Organ of Sight in the Higher Realms of
5904-467: The Jews had betrayed Germany in World War I, which necessitated a domestic revolution to remove them from power. He saw history as governed by the racial aspects of society, both internal and national. In his mind, a vulgarized sort of Social Darwinism determined the rise and fall of civilizations. The world was composed not of states but of competing races of different values, and politics was fundamentally
6027-477: The League but only discontented states that would be willing to break away. They would not be willing to leave unless Germany established a clear and articulated foreign policy, with clear costs and consequences, which the others could then follow. He cautions, however, that Germany cannot rely upon inferior allies, undesirable either by dint of their race or past military weakness. France and the containment alliance it led against Germany could not be challenged without
6150-488: The anti-rationalist, anti-materialist, “volkish” one. Through stressing the primary importance of inherited genetic qualities and immutability of races, environmental conditions become logically irrelevant. The character of society and the individual was neither determined, nor even influenced by the physical environment, but was entirely pre-determined through racial inheritance. By infusing the Volk with racial qualities, emphasis
6273-574: The borders would not unite all ethnic Germans under the Reich. To commit to a nation of all German-speaking peoples, the borders of 1914 must be abandoned as incompatible with racial unity and their arbitrary nature. Open advocacy of border restoration would only urge a coalition to form against Germany before it could raise an army to achieve its ends. Further, he believed that empty saber rattling on this issue would shift public opinion against Germany in support of France's anti-German measures, and even if it
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#17327732111146396-637: The break between Haushoferism and Hitlerism, with Hitler deliberately ignoring advice of his would-be mentor. Barbarossa , wrote John O'Loughlin, completely contradicted the argument of Haushofer about mutually beneficial Continental bloc between Germany and the Soviet Union and represented a decisive political event demonstrating that that the Nazis used geopolitics only as the tool of propaganda but not as science defining their politics. A British banker with headquarters in Berlin, Eric Archdeacon, traced down
6519-413: The capitalist, so that the proletariat could live a life of leisure on this expropriation. In summary, Spengler concluded that "Marxism is the capitalism of the working class" and not true socialism. In contrast to Marxism, Spengler claimed that "true socialism" in its German form "does not mean nationalization through expropriation or robbery." Spengler justified this claim by saying: In general, it
6642-414: The dangers of technology and industrialism to culture. He especially pointed to the tendency of Western technology to spread to hostile "Colored races" which would then use the weapons against the West. It was poorly received because of its anti-industrialism. This book contains the well-known Spengler quote "Optimism is cowardice". Despite voting for Hitler over Hindenburg in 1932, Spengler found
6765-618: The difference between England's capitalist nature and Prussian socialism by saying: English society is founded on the distinction between rich and poor, Prussian society on the distinction between command and obedience...Democracy in England means the possibility for everyone to become rich, in Prussia the possibility of attaining to every existing rank. Spengler denounced Marxism for having developed socialism from an English perspective, while not understanding Germans' socialist nature. In
6888-409: The economic condition of autarky in which the German people would be self-sufficient, no longer dependent on import or subject to demand shifts in international markets, which had been forcing industry to struggle against other nations. To achieve Lebensraum, Hitler cautioned against what he saw as a dangerous Weimar policy of demanding a return to the 1914 borders. Foremost and inexcusable in his mind,
7011-497: The edited and revised Mein Kampf or his populist and over-simplified speeches. There is a lack of development or major shifts in his worldview between the 1926 volume and his assumption of power in 1933, supporting the idea that Hitler was not a foreign policy opportunist but that his ideas were specific and formed before he had the power to implement his designs. Hitler outlined eight principles and four goals that were to guide his foreign policy. The principles were concerned with
7134-435: The enforcement of Jewish stereotypes in pre-WW2 German circles. Spengler viewed Nazi anti-Semitism as self-defeating, and personally took an ethnological view of race and culture. In his private papers, he remarked upon "how much envy of the capability of other people in view of one's lack of it lies hidden in anti-Semitism!", and arguing that "when one would rather destroy business and scholarship than see Jews in them, one
7257-510: The enmity of England, and France its willing ally. Therefore, land expansion was Hitler's primary goal, eschewing the borders of 1914; he calls them nationally inadequate, militarily unsatisfactory, ethnically impossible, and insane when considered in light of Germany's opposition in Europe. While the goals and principles Hitler enunciated were primarily focused on the redistribution of space, they grew out of his focus on race. By 1923, Hitler had outlined his basic ideas on race. According to Hitler,
7380-644: The famous article in Reader's Digest , “The Thousand Scientists behind Hitler,” published in 1941. Those hypothetical “Thousand” were concentrated at the hypothetical Munich Institute of Geopolitik headed by Haushofer. This was the supposed significance of the geopolitik research for the Nazis. After the War, instead of the institute, the Allies found only Haushofer's cabinet and the Professor himself, assisted by his wife. “It
7503-410: The focus that it lacked in the previous thirty-five years of "aimlessness.". He calls for a clear foreign policy of space, not international trade or industry. The concept of Lebensraum in the East overrided any perceived need for naval power, which would only bring Germany into conflict with England and Italy. Industrial exports and trade would require a merchant marine force, meeting most directly with
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#17327732111147626-454: The formal structure of the whole national productive force, at the same time carefully preserving the right of property and inheritance, and leaving scope for the kind of personal enterprise, talent, energy, and intellect displayed by an experienced chess player, playing within the rules of the game and enjoying that sort of freedom which the very sway of the rule affords…. Socialization means the slow transformation—taking centuries to complete—of
7749-475: The 💕 [REDACTED] Look up dyad in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Dyad or dyade may refer to: Arts and entertainment [ edit ] Dyad (music) , a set of two notes or pitches Dyad (novel) , by Michael Brodsky, 1989 Dyad (video game) , 2012 Dyad 1909 and Dyad 1929 , ballets by Wayne McGregor Dyad Institute, a fictional biotech corporation in
7872-407: The illusions of Marxism. Marx is dead. As a form of existence, socialism is just beginning, but the socialism of the German proletariat is at an end. For the worker, there is only Prussian socialism or nothing ... For conservatives, there is only conscious socialism or destruction. But we need liberation from the forms of Anglo-French democracy. We have our own. Spengler went further to demonstrate
7995-486: The impending war. Others, including the Munich geopolitical school of Haushofer, sought not just neutrality of the Soviet Union but a military alliance with it. Endorsing the “prophetic statements” of Homer Lea and Mackinder, the "Haushoferites" proudly proclaim that such a combination of land Powers would certainly “liberate” not only Eurasia but the entire Western Pacific region from “hateful Anglo-American hegemony.” Three famous contemporary observers noted in 1942 that in
8118-465: The inferior East, the Great Powers in Europe would not intervene, with the possible exception of France. Hitler's persistence to ally with Britain and conquer Russia marks radical difference with geopolitik which overwhelmingly designed a Eurasian continental combination between Germany, Russia and Japan. Some of them have repeatedly expressed their hope that the Soviet Union would only stay out of
8241-505: The influence of the ideas of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Nietzsche . At 17, he wrote a drama titled Montezuma . After his father's death in 1901, Spengler attended several universities ( Munich , Berlin , and Halle ) as a private scholar, taking courses in a wide range of subjects. His studies were undirected. In 1903, he failed his doctoral thesis on Heraclitus —titled Der metaphysische Grundgedanke der heraklitischen Philosophie ( The Fundamental Metaphysical Thought of
8364-488: The influence of the materials Haushofer brought Hitler and Hess while they were imprisoned. Haushofer was never an ardent Nazi, and did voice disagreements with the party, leading to his brief imprisonment. He did profess loyalty to the Führer and make anti-Semitic remarks on occasion. However, his emphasis was always on space over race. He refused to associate himself with anti-Semitism as a policy, especially because his wife
8487-448: The interests of Germany. Spengler claimed that socialistic Prussian characteristics existed across Germany that included creativity, discipline, concern for the greater good, productivity, and self-sacrifice. Spengler described socialism outside of a class conflict perspective and said "The meaning of socialism is that life is controlled not by the opposition between rich and poor, but by the rank that achievement and talent bestow. That
8610-467: The international system. German foreign policy was largely consistent in both wars. The foreign policy of Nazi Germany (1933–1945) was unique insofar as it learned from what it saw as past imperial mistakes but essentially followed the very same designs laid out by German Geopolitik in the historical record of the German Empire . German geopolitik contributed to Nazi foreign policy chiefly in
8733-537: The leader of the German geopolitik school of thought, Haushofer would establish the Zeitschrift für Geopolitik monthly, devoted to geopolitik. His ideas would reach a wider audience with the publication of Volk ohne Raum by Hans Grimm in 1926, popularizing his concept of lebensraum. Haushofer exercised influence both through his academic teachings, urging his students to think in terms of continents and emphasizing motion in international politics, and through his political activities. While Hitler's speeches would attract
8856-636: The masses, Haushofer's works served to bring the remaining intellectuals into the fold. Geopolitik was in essence a consolidation and codification of older ideas, given a scientific gloss: The key reorientation in each dyad is that the focus is on land-based empire rather than naval imperialism. Ostensibly based upon the geopolitical theory of US naval officer Alfred Thayer Mahan , and British geographer Halford J. Mackinder , German geopolitik adds older German ideas. Enunciated most forcefully by Friedrich Ratzel and his Swedish student Rudolf Kjellén, they include an organic or anthropomorphized conception of
8979-443: The merchant marine, unlike land power. Haushofer was exposed to Ratzel, who was friends with Haushofer's father, a teacher of economic geography , and would integrate Ratzel's ideas on the division between sea and land powers into his theories by saying that only a country with both could overcome the conflict. Here, Hitler diverged with Haushofer's writings in consigning Germany to sole pursuit of land power. Ratzel's key contribution
9102-481: The nation. Haushofer adopts the view that borders are largely insignificant in his writings, especially as the nation ought to be in a frequent state of struggle with those around it. Ratzel's idea of Raum would grow out of his organic state conception. The early Lebensraum was not political or economic but spiritual and racial nationalist expansion. The Raum-motiv is a historically driving force, pushing peoples with great Kultur to naturally expand. Space for Ratzel
9225-438: The national interest, oversimplifying issues and representing itself as a panacea . As a new and essentialist ideology , geopolitik found itself in a position to prey upon the post–World War I insecurity of the populace. In 1919, General Karl Haushofer would become professor of geography at the University of Munich . That would serve as a platform for the spread of his geopolitical ideas, magazine articles and books. By 1924, as
9348-408: The naval arms protecting Germany's insular position. Final solution Parties Evidence points to a disconnect between geopoliticians and the Nazi leadership, although their practical tactical goals were nearly indistinguishable. Rudolf Hess , Hitler's secretary who would assist in the writing of Mein Kampf , was a close student of Haushofer's. While Hess and Hitler were imprisoned after
9471-506: The oldest surviving child of Bernhard Spengler (1844–1901) and Pauline Spengler (1840–1910), née Grantzow, the descendant of an artistic family. Oswald's elder brother was born prematurely in 1879, when his mother tried to move a heavy laundry basket, and died at the age of three weeks. Oswald was born ten months after his brother's death. His younger sisters were Adele (1881–1917), Gertrud (1882–1957), and Hildegard (1885–1942). Oswald's paternal grandfather, Theodor Spengler (1806–1876),
9594-593: The other hand, is focused on the equitable distribution and redistribution of material goods within an economic system. As a latecomer to nationhood proper and industrialization, Germany was far behind other older colonial powers in the acquisition of territory abroad. Burdened with a burgeoning population, Germany had lagging ability to raise agricultural production to meet food demands, compete in markets for industrial goods, obtain cheap sources of raw materials, and find an acceptable outlet for emigration . National Socialist foreign policy thus focused on what they perceived as
9717-454: The pamphlet, a central argument is that the corrupt forces promoting English socialism in his country comprised an "invisible English army, which Napoleon had left behind on German soil after the Battle of Jena." Spengler accused Marxism of following the British tradition in which the poor envy the rich. He claimed that Marxism sought to train the proletariat to "expropriate the expropriator",
9840-475: The past year Hitler had "sharply" departed from Haushofer's doctrine. “The German attack upon Russia in 1941 ended the hope of voluntary cooperation between the two nations feared by Mackinder and hoped by Haushofer.” “But neither Germany nor Japan listened to their would-be mentor. On June 22, 1941, Haushofer's dreams were smashed by another dreamer of the Bavarian mountains.” For Hans Weigert, Barbarossa marked
9963-475: The payments from German industry and discovered that they went to the Munich Institute fur Geopolitik, run by Haushofer. The institute, it was reported, sent many field expeditions all over the world to collect geopolitical data. “At Munich this data was worked out by a staff estimated at 1000 experts and much of it found its way into Institute’s Journal, Zeitschrift fur Geopolitik .” This report led to
10086-467: The period of pre‑death emergency which would lead to 200 years of Caesarism (extra-constitutional omnipotence of the executive branch of government) before Western civilization's final collapse. Spengler is regarded as a German nationalist and a critic of republicanism , and he was a prominent member of the Weimar -era Conservative Revolution . The Nazis had viewed his writings as a means to provide
10209-428: The preceding centuries—not years. ... Thereafter I saw the present—the approaching World-War—in a quite other light. It was no longer a momentary constellation of casual facts due to national sentiments, personal influences, or economic tendencies endowed with an appearance of unity and necessity by some historian's scheme of political or social cause-and-effect, but the type of historical change of phase occurring within
10332-584: The pressure it placed upon existing German resources. War, for Lebensraum, was justified by the need to re-establish an acceptable ratio between land and people. Whereas the Weimar Republic foreign policy was based on borders, the National Socialist foreign policy would be based on space and expansionism and point to fundamentally different conceptions of world order: the bourgeois saw in terms of states and law, but Hitler maintained an image of ethnic or racially defined nationhood. Lebensraum served to create
10455-512: The principles of geopolitik passed onto him by Hess, and Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop as the principle distorter of geopolitik in Hitler's mind. While Haushofer accompanies Hess on numerous propaganda missions, and participated in consultations between Nazis and Japanese leaders, he claimed that Hitler and the Nazis only seized upon half-developed ideas and catchwords . Furthermore, the Nazi party and government lacked any official organ that
10578-415: The questioning faculty… Spengler was also influenced by the universal and cyclical vision of world history proposed by the German historian Eduard Meyer . The belief in the progression of civilizations through an evolutionary process comparable with living beings can be traced back to classical antiquity, although it is difficult to assess the extent of the influence those thinkers had on Spengler: Cato
10701-402: The race's vitality, space allowing for larger families that would repopulate the nation from the losses it incurs fighting wars for territory. Where Hitler's expansionism differed most from that of imperial nations was his idea of racial purity, which required driving out or exterminating the native populations of any conquered territory. Industry and trade were only transient solutions, subject to
10824-406: The racial theories professed by the Nazis and many others in his time, and was not inclined to change his views during and after Hitler's rise to power. Although a German nationalist, Spengler viewed the Nazis as too narrowly German, and not occidental enough to lead the fight against other peoples. The book also warned of a coming world war in which Western Civilization risked being destroyed, and
10947-458: The reconciliation and friendship with Russia from the beginning, and Hitler's noisy crusade against the arch-enemy, Bolshevism, made no impression on them.” Oswald Spengler Defunct Defunct Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German polymath whose areas of interest included history , philosophy , mathematics , science , and art , as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He
11070-493: The right to the soil, to the land in the widest sense, not only the land within the frontiers of the Reich but also the right to the more extensive Volk and cultural lands". Culture itself was seen as the most conducive element to dynamic special expansion. It provided a guide as to the best areas for expansion and could make expansion safe, but projected military or commercial power could not. Haushofer even held that urbanisation
11193-515: The second volume of Decline described the immense influence and controversy Spengler's ideas enjoyed during the 1920s: "When the first volume of The Decline of the West appeared in Germany a few years ago, thousands of copies were sold. Cultivated European discourse quickly became Spengler-saturated. Spenglerism spurted from the pens of countless disciples. It was imperative to read Spengler, to sympathize or revolt. It still remains so". In 1931, he published Man and Technics , which warned against
11316-457: The soil of a mother region to which it remains firmly bound throughout its whole life-cycle; each stamping its material, its mankind, in its own image; each having its own idea, its own passions, its own life, will and feeling, its own death. Spengler also compares the evolution of Cultures to the different ages of human life, "Every Culture passes through the age-phases of the individual man. Each has its childhood, youth, manhood and old age." When
11439-415: The state, and the need for self-sufficiency through the top-down organisation of society. The root of uniquely German geopolitik rests in the writings of Karl Ritter who first developed the organic conception of the state that would later be elaborated upon by Ratzel and accepted by Hausfhofer. He justified Lebensraum, even at the cost of other nations' existence, because conquest was a biological necessity for
11562-518: The strategy and justifications for Lebensraum . It contributed five ideas to German foreign policy in the interwar period: the organic state ; lebensraum; autarky; pan-regions and the land power /sea power dichotomy . Geostrategy as a political science is both descriptive and analytical like political geography but adds a normative element in its strategic prescriptions for national policy. While it stems from earlier US and British geostrategy , German geopolitik adopts an essentialist outlook toward
11685-407: The strong military that Hitler envisioned and a decisive preemptive strike . He recognized that no matter what path Germany takes to regain its strength, France would always assist or even lead a coalition against it. Hitler's goals for Nazi foreign policy were more straightforward, focusing on German space rather than the strictly racial aspects of his policy. His designs are meant to give Germany
11808-473: The threat or use of force, Germany would be able to move forward in achieving its goals for space. Thus, he implemented the Four Year Plan in order to overcome internal obstacles to military growth. A German army of considerable size would push its neighbors into conciliation and negotiation without the need for actual military adventures. In justifying the need for decisive military action, Hitler cites
11931-504: The uncultured elements of the Nazi Party, with their racial doctrines, and the cultural Professor, who firmly holds that “space rather than race is the touchstone of mankind’s destiny.” Regarding the policy towards Russia, Haushofer advised: The worse the situation appears, the more reason for Germany "to think in global terms without regard for mistaken racial prejudices.” "The editors of Zeitshcrift fur Geopolitik had stubbornly advocated
12054-441: The vicissitudes of the market, likely leading to war as economic competition escalates. Lebensraum was thus the only permanent solution for securing the German race's vitality. Colonies would take far too long to solve the Reich's agriculture and space problem; furthermore, they constitute a naval and industrial policy rather than a land-based agricultural policy, which is where Germany's strength lies. Thus, Hitler committed Germany to
12177-476: The vital German order. These states were seen as being too small to maintain practical autonomy even if they maintained large colonial possessions and would be better served by protection and organization within Germany. In Europe, he saw Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Switzerland, Greece and the "mutilated alliance" of Austria-Hungary as supporting his assertion. Haushofer's version of autarky
12300-477: The witnesses of a catastrophe which will be the strongest confirmation of the soundness of the nationalist theory of race.” The evidence suggests that Hitler framed his decision to invade Russia not in geopolitik terms but in racial ones. Barbarossa contradicted the logic of Haushofer's whole position. Geopolitical concepts and terms did not provide some sort of blueprint for Hitler's war. Hitler's ethnic hatred of Jews and Slavs had nothing to do with geopolitik. There
12423-481: The worker into an economic functionary, and the employer into a responsible supervisory official. True socialism according to Spengler would take the form of a corporatism in which "local corporate bodies organized according to the importance of each occupation to the people as a whole; higher representation in stages up to a supreme council of the state; mandates revocable at any time; no organized parties, no professional politicians, no periodic elections." Spengler
12546-466: The wrong way by Spengler's harsh aphorisms" and his pessimistic predictions. On 13 October 1933, Spengler became one of the hundred senators of the German Academy . Spengler spent his final years in Munich, listening to Beethoven , reading Molière and Shakespeare , buying several thousand books, and collecting ancient Turkish , Persian and Indian weapons. He made occasional trips to
12669-409: Was Ratzel's Swedish student who would further elaborate on organic state theory and first coined the term "geopolitics". Kjellén's State as a Form of Life would outline five key concepts that would shape German geopolitik. Kjellén disputed the solely legalistic characterization of states by arguing that state and society are not opposites but rather a synthesis of the two elements. The state had
12792-523: Was Spengler's maternal grandfather, Gustav Adolf Grantzow (1811–1883)—a solo dancer and ballet master in Berlin, who in 1837 married Katharina Kirchner (1813–1873), a solo dancer from a Munich Catholic family; the second of their four daughters was Oswald Spengler's mother Pauline Grantzow. Like the Grantzows in general, Pauline was of a Bohemian disposition, and, before marrying Bernhard Spengler, accompanied her dancer sisters on tours. In appearance, she
12915-611: Was a metallurgical inspector ( Hütteninspektor ) in Altenbrak . Spengler's maternal great-grandfather, Friedrich Wilhelm Grantzow, a tailor's apprentice in Berlin, had three children out of wedlock with a Jewish woman named Bräunchen Moses ( c. 1769–1849) whom he later married, on 26 May 1799. Shortly before the wedding, Moses was baptized as Johanna Elisabeth Anspachin; the surname was chosen after her birthplace— Anspach . Her parents, Abraham and Reile Moses, were both deceased by then. The couple had another five children, one of whom
13038-430: Was a symptom of a nation's decline by giving evidence of a decreasing soil mastery, birth rate and effectiveness of centralized rule. To Haushofer, the existence of a state depended on living space, the pursuit of which must serve as the basis for all policies. Germany had a high population density , but old colonial powers had a much lower density, a virtual mandate for German expansion into resource-rich areas. Space
13161-438: Was a vague concept, theoretically unbounded just as was Hitler's. Raum was defined by where German people live, where other inferior states could serve to support German people economically and German culture could fertilise other cultures. Haushofer would adopt that conception of Raum as the central program for German geopolitik, and Hitler's policy would reflect the spiritual and cultural drive to expansion. Rudolph Kjellén
13284-444: Was achieved, it would guarantee only instability without achieving the racial goals that he sees as so central to German vitality. The doctrine of space focused on Eastern Europe, taking territory from the ethnically inferior Slavs. While Western European nations were despised for allowing racial impurity, they were still essentially Aryan nations, but the small and weak Slavic nations to the East were legitimate targets. In talking to
13407-476: Was an important influence on Nazi ideology. He "provided skeletal Nazi ideas" to the early Nazi movement "and gave them a respectable pedigree". Key parts of his writings were incorporated into Nazi Party ideology. Spengler's criticism of the Nazi Party was taken seriously by Hitler, and Carl Deher credited him for inspiring Hitler to carry out the Night of the Long Knives in which Ernst Röhm and other leaders of
13530-399: Was based on the quasi- Malthusian idea that the earth would become saturated with people and no longer able to provide food for all. There would essentially be no increases in productivity . Haushofer and the Munich school of geopolitik would eventually expand their conception of lebensraum and autarky well past the borders of 1914 and "a place in the sun" to a New European Order and then to
13653-522: Was completed in 1914, but the first edition was published in the summer of 1918, shortly before the end of World War I . Spengler wrote about the years immediately prior to World War I in Decline : At that time the World-War appeared to me both as imminent and also as the inevitable outward manifestation of the historical crisis, and my endeavor was to comprehend it from an examination of the spirit of
13776-465: Was exempted from military service. During the war, his inheritance was useless because it was invested overseas; thus, he lived in genuine poverty for this period. He began work on the first volume of The Decline of the West intending to focus on Germany within Europe. However, the Agadir Crisis of 1911 affected him deeply, so he widened the scope of his study. According to Spengler the book
13899-538: Was half-Jewish. Haushofer admits that after 1933 much of what he wrote was distorted under duress: his wife had to be protected by Hess's influence; his son was murdered by the Gestapo ; he himself was imprisoned in Dachau for eight months; and his son and grandson were imprisoned for two-and-a-half months. The name "National Socialism" itself describes the fundamental orientation of Hitler's foreign policy. The nation, as
14022-645: Was in print and never read it. Fr. Walsh found that even if Haushofer did not directly assist Hitler, discernible new elements appeared in Mein Kampf , as compared to previous speeches made by Hitler. Geopolitical ideas of lebensraum, space for depth of defense, appeals for natural frontiers, balancing land and seapower, and geographic analysis of military strategy entered Hitler's thought between his imprisonment and publishing of Mein Kampf . Chapter XIV, on German policy in Eastern Europe, in particular displays
14145-530: Was moved from external influence to innate, inherited biological qualities which were supreme and could not be affected through environmental factors. This radical difference laid the groundwork for conflict between geopolitics and National Socialism. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, their divergences with geopolitik became increasingly problematic, and resulted in official attacks upon geopolitik. A minor party functionary, Wilhelm Seddin, published an article in 1936 entitled “The Mistaken Ways of “Geopolitics' as
14268-428: Was negative, while Haushofer's positive. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , it was asserted, marked the triumph of geopolitik over the racist school. Geopolitik cannot adequately explain Hitler's decision of Barbarossa and Hitler's racial ideology must be taken into account as a determining factor. A passage in Mein Kampf states: “This colossal empire in the east is ripe for dissolution … We have been chosen by Fate to be
14391-432: Was not a global concept in the same way that older imperial states conceived of it, with their massive colonial empires dividing up the world abroad. Hitler saw value in only adjacent and agriculturally viable land , not in trade and industry outlets that required a maritime orientation. He had no faith in increasing productivity , thus leading to the need to expand within Europe. Lebensraum for Germany required moving beyond
14514-620: Was not interested in economic policy, but advocated autarky as well; a nation constantly in struggle would demand self-sufficiency. Haushofer's geopolitik expands upon that of Ratzel and Kjellén. While the latter two conceive of geopolitik as the state as an organism in space put to the service of a leader, Haushofer's Munich school specifically studies geography as it relates to war and designs for empire. The behavioral rules of previous geopoliticians were thus turned into dynamic normative doctrines for action on lebensraum and world power. Haushofer defined geopolitik in 1935 as "the duty to safeguard
14637-432: Was plump. Her temperament, which Oswald inherited, was moody, irritable, and morose. When Oswald was ten years of age, his family moved to the university city of Halle . Here he received a classical education at the local Gymnasium (academically oriented secondary school), studying Greek, Latin, mathematics and sciences. Here, too, he developed his propensity for the arts—especially poetry, drama, and music—and came under
14760-399: Was receptive to geopolitik, leading to selective adoption and poor interpretation of Haushofer's theories. Ultimately, Hess and Von Neurath, Nazi Minister of Foreign Affairs, were the only officials Haushofer judged to have had a proper understanding of geopolitik. Father Edmund A. Walsh S.J. , professor of geopolitics and dean at Georgetown University , who interviewed Haushofer after
14883-437: Was seen as military protection against initial assaults from hostile neighbors with long-range weaponry. A buffer zone of territories or insignificant states on one's borders would serve to protect Germany. Closely linked to that need was Haushofer's assertion that the existence of small states was evidence of political regression and disorder in the international system. The small states surrounding Germany ought to be brought into
15006-405: Was the expansion on the biological conception of geography, without a static conception of borders . States are instead organic and growing, with borders representing only a temporary stop in their movement. It is not the state proper that is the organism but the land in its spiritual bond with the people who draw sustenance from it. The expanse of a state's borders is a reflection of the health of
15129-514: Was widely distributed abroad before eventually being banned by the National Socialist German Workers Party in Germany. A Time review of The Hour of Decision noted Spengler's international popularity as a polemicist, observing that "When Oswald Spengler speaks, many a Western Worldling stops to listen". The review recommended the book for "readers who enjoy vigorous writing", who "will be glad to be rubbed
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