Clausewitz and the Legitimate German Geopolitics

Abstract

During the first, classical period of German geopolitics – labelled legitimate by its establisher, Karl von Haushofer – a deep academic discussion took place about the interpretation and intellectual background of the new discipline. This discussion is also included in the latest works on the history and theory of science. Geopolitics is an important element of the history of science, although a coherent position has not been constructed regarding it. Academic research focusing on the discussion has paid little attention to the fact that classical German geopolitics had a certain military quality, even in its legitimate period. This feature of the discipline was illustrated not only by the fact that some of its research focused on military and war issues, but also by a new direction of military geography promoted by geopolitics. Based on this military quality – due to the development of military science – it can be supposed that Carl von Clausewitz’s views of military geography were also among the foundations of legitimate German geopolitics. However, this claim is difficult to prove, since general research on Clausewitz’s work has not studied his geographical theses. The present study discusses the main features of these geographical theses and compares them to those of Rudolf Kjellén, who established the discipline of geopolitics, and to those of Friedrich Ratzel, the forerunner of geopolitics. The goal of the present study is to examine whether Clausewitz’s main work, Vom Kriege, could have served as one of the academic foundations of classical legitimate German geopolitics.