The Earth According to Haushofer, Geopolitician Extraordinary and Prophet of Nazi Dominion
- Title:
- The Earth According to Haushofer, Geopolitician Extraordinary and Prophet of Nazi Dominion
- Alternate Title:
- The Earth According to Haushofer
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Petruccelli, Antonio
- Date:
- 1941
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 2127.01
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_2127_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Subject:
- Ethnocentrism
Between the Wars
Deception/Distortion - Measurement:
- 26 dia on page 35 x 27 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This polemic map was intended to rebut the theories of Karl Haushofer, the founder of the German school of geopolitics, "Geopolitician Extraordinary and Prophet of Nazi Dominion." It was published a month before Pearl Harbor. Haushofer, building on the work of the Englishman Halford Mackinder, argued that the "Heartland" or "Pivot Area" of an expanded Germany, with its greater "Lebensraum," would inevitably dominate not only the "Inner or Marginal Crescent" of Western Europe and South Asia, but also the "Outer or Insular Crescent" of the rest of the world, including the Americas. Fortune argues here that the Haufhofer-Mackinder map is deceptive because it is drawn on a Mercator projection centered in Europe, and therefore improperly shows America at the periphery. Fortune's map by artist Antonio Petruccelli is on the azimuthal projection, reflecting the roundness of the earth, and it supports the claim that "the 'outer crescent" is not a crescent at all" but "a ring - welded . . . In North America." The Fortune article ends by referring to a map it had published in August 1941 "showing the significant pivotal position of the U.S. in world strategy." This is a reference to Richard Edes Harrison's iconic "World Divided," ID #1297, which (like this map) employed a polar azimuthal projection.
Geopolitics has been defined as the scientific discipline "which particularly attempts to show how geographical knowledge can be transformed into intellectual equipment for political leaders." See Smith 1986, 220. During the Weimer years, German "Geopolitical thinkers" led by Haushofer "argued that geography determined the development of political and economic structures. . . . By 1933, geopoliticians had succeeded in infusing geocentrism and other key geopolitical ideas into the . . . public debate about Germany's political, economic, and cultural future." Murphy 1997, viii-ix.
Haushofer's impact on Nazi policy is disputed. His work and that of his colleagues are typically said to have had a "significant" effect on the development of Adolf Hitler's imperialist conceptions and ideology, particular Hitler's expansive notion of "Lebensraum." Smith 1986, 218, 223. The consensus view during and after the War has been to "credit Haushofer with introducing Hitler to the concept of Lebensraum and related geopolitical notions, and with convincing Hitler of the need for an aggressive German program of continental expansion" as well as "exercising a decisive influence upon Hitler’s wartime strategy." Murphy 2014, 2. That is consistent with the Fortune headline. However, recent scholarship suggests that Haushofer's importance as "the evil genius and geopolitical mastermind behind Nazi aggression" has been overblown; one scholar suggests that it is "exposed upon careful reflection as no more than a caricature, and a badly drawn one." Ibid. 21.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Source:
- Fortune Magazine, November 1941.
- Cite As:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography, #8548. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.