THE NAZI DISTORTION - The Revenge of Geography - page 65

Whereas in Mackinder's hands the Heartland is an arresting way to explain geopolitics,
in Haushofer's hands it becomes both a crazed and dreamy ideology. Yet Strausz-Hupé
takes it very seriously, and informs his fellow Americans to do likewise: “To the Nazis,”
Strausz-Hupé writes, Haushofer “transmitted something that the vaporous cerebrations of
Adolf Hitler had failed to provide—a coherent doctrine of empire.” While Mackinder
saw the future in terms of a balance of power that would protect freedom, Haushofer
was determined to overthrow the balance of power altogether: thus he perverted geopol-
itics. To wit, just as Haushofer distorted Mackinder, he also distorted Lord George Nath-
aniel Curzon. Curzon delivered a lecture in 1907 about “Frontiers.” Haushofer, inspired by
Curzon, wrote a topic entitled Frontiers , which was, in fact, about how to break them. Ac-
cording to Haushofer, only nations in decline seek stable borders, and only decadent ones
seek to protect their borders with permanent fortifications: for frontiers are living organ-
isms. Virile nations build roads instead. Frontiers were but temporary halts for master na-
tions. To be sure, German Geopolitik is perpetual warfare for “space,” and thus akin to ni-
hilism. Strausz-Hupé adds:
It should not be assumed, however, that this perverted use, destructive to world
peace as it is, necessarily invalidates all geopolitical theories; anthropology is no
less a science for having served as a vehicle to racism. 5
Haushofer, even within the confines of his own violent worldview, had few fixed prin-
ciples. On Hitler's fiftieth birthday, in 1939, he described the Führer as a “statesman”
who combined in his person “Clausewitz's blood and Ratzel's space and soil.” 6 Haushofer
greeted the Russo-German pact of 1939 with enthusiasm in an editorial, stressing Ger-
many's need to join its land power forces with those of Russia. Yet after Hitler invaded
Russia in 1941, he wrote another editorial, celebrating the invasion as a way to capture the
Heartland. Of course, nobody dared criticize Hitler's decision. There is a strong case to be
made that Haushofer's specific links to Hitler were greatly exaggerated, even as Haushofer,
nevertheless, came to represent a typical Nazi strategic view. 7 In any case, as the war turned
badly, Haushofer fell out of favor with the Führer, and was imprisoned in the Dachau con-
centration camp in 1944. The same year, Haushofer's son, Albrecht, also a geopolitician,
was executed for his participation in the army plot against Hitler. This was after Haushofer
and his family had been incarcerated. Then there was the fact that Haushofer's wife was
part Jewish: the couple was protected from Nazi race laws by Hess, who was imprisoned
in Britain in 1941 after a solo flight there to negotiate a separate peace. The contradictions
in Haushofer's life must have become too much to bear, as he gradually became aware of
the monumental carnage and destruction in a world war that he did his part to bring about.
Haushofer's life is a signal lesson in the dangers inherent for men of ideas who seek des-