'Friedrich Ratzel' (
August 30,
1844,
Karlsruhe,
Baden –
August 9,
1904,
Ammerland) was a
German geographer and
ethnographer, notable for coining the term ''
Lebensraum'' ("living space").
Life
Ratzel's father was the head of the household staff of the Grand Duke of Baden. He attended high school in Karlsruhe for six years before being apprenticed at age 15 to
apothecaries . In
1863, he went to
Rapperswil on the
Lake of Zurich,
Switzerland, where he began to study
the classics. After a further year as an apothecary at
Mörs near
Krefeld in the
Ruhr area (1865-1866), he spent a short time at the high school in Karlsruhe and became a student of
zoology at the universities of
Heidelberg,
Jena and
Berlin, finishing in
1868. He studied zoology in
1869, publishing ''Sein und Werden der organischen Welt'' on
Darwin.
After the completion of his schooling, Ratzel began a period of travels that see him transform from zoologist/biologist to geographer. He began field work in the
Mediterranean, writing letters of his experiences. These letters led to a job as a traveling reporter for the ''
Kölnische Zeitung'' ("Cologne Journal"), which provided him the means for further travel. Ratzel embarked on several expeditions, the lengthiest and most important being his
1874-
1875 trip to
North America,
Cuba, and
Mexico. This trip was a turning point in Ratzel’s career. He studied the influence of people of German origin in
America, especially in the
Midwest, as well as other ethnic groups in North America.
He produced a written work of his account in
1876, ''Städte-und Kulturbilder aus Nordamerika'' (Profile of Cities and Cultures in North America), which would help establish the field of
cultural geography. According to Ratzel, cities are the best place to study people because life is "blended, compressed, and accelerated" in cities, and they bring out the "greatest, best, most typical aspects of people". Ratzel had traveled to cities such as
New York,
Boston,
Philadelphia,
Washington,
Richmond,
Charleston,
New Orleans, and
San Francisco.
Upon his return in
1875, Ratzel became a lecturer in geography at the Technical High School in
Munich. In
1876, he was promoted to assistant professor, then rose to full professor in
1880. While at Munich, Ratzel produced several books and established his career as an academic. In 1886, he accepted an appointment at
Leipzig. His lectures were widely attended, notably by the influential American geographer
Ellen Churchill Semple.
Ratzel produced the foundations of
human geography in his two-volume ''Anthropogeographie'' in
1882 and
1891. This work was misinterpreted by many of his students, creating a number of
environmental determinists. He published his work on
political geography, ''Politische Geographie'', in
1897. It was in this work that Ratzel introduced concepts that contributed to
Lebensraum and
Social Darwinism.
Ratzel continued his work at Leipzig until his sudden death on
August 9,
1904 in
Ammerland, Germany.
Writings
Influenced by thinkers like Darwin and
zoologist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, he published several papers. Among them is the essay ''Lebensraum'' (1901) concerning
biogeography, creating a foundation for the uniquely German variant of
geopolitics: ''
geopolitik''.
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 the
American geostrategist Alfred Thayer Mahan, Ratzel wrote of aspirations for German naval reach, agreeing that
sea power was self-sustaining, as the profit from
trade would pay for the
merchant marine, unlike
land power.
Ratzel’s key contribution to ''geopolitik'' 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 the nation.
Ratzel’s idea of ''Raum'' (space) would grow out of his organic state conception. This early concept of ''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, was a vague concept, theoretically unbounded. ''Raum'' was defined by where
German peoples live, where other weaker states could serve to support German peoples economically, and where
German culture could fertilize other cultures. However, it ought to be noted that Ratzel's concept of ''raum'' was not overtly aggressive, but theorized simply as the natural expansion of strong states into areas controlled by weaker states.
Influence
Rudolf Kjellén was Ratzel’s
Swedish student who would further elaborate on
organic state theory and who coined the term “geopolitics”.
The German geostrategist
General Karl Haushofer was exposed to Ratzel, who was friends with Haushofer’s father, and would integrate Ratzel’s ideas on the division between sea and land powers into his theories, saying that only a country with both could overcome this conflict. in his writings, Haushofer also adopted the view that borders are largely insignificant, especially as the nation ought to be in a frequent state of struggle with those around it. Further, Haushofer would adopt Ratzel's conception of ''Raum'' as the central program for German ''geopolitik''.
Quotes
"A philosophy of the history of the human race, worthy of its name, must begin with the heavens and descend to the earth, must be charged with the conviction that all existence is one—a single conception sustained from beginning to end upon one identical law."
Further reading
★ Dorpalen, Andreas. ''The World of General Haushofer.'' Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., New York: 1984.
★ Martin, Geoffrey J. and Preston E. James. ''All Possible Worlds.'' New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc: 1993.
★ Mattern, Johannes. ''Geopolitik: Doctrine of National Self-Sufficiency and Empire.'' The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore: 1942.
★ Wanklyn, Harriet. ''Friedrich Ratzel, a Biographical Memoir and Bibliography.'' Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 1961.
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