Karl Ernst Haushofer

Karl Ernst Haushofer (1869-1946), German army officer, geographer, and prominent advocate of the geopolitical basis for Nazi plans for world domination (see National Socialism). He spent the years 1908 to 1910 in Japan, where he observed the nation’s expansionist policies in Asia and collected data for his political geography of that country. After his retirement from the army in 1919, he turned his focus to Germany, where he became director of the Institute of Geopolitics at the University of Munich. He had great influence on the German army and on Adolf Hitler. Under investigation for war crimes after Germany's defeat in World War II, he and his Jewish wife committed suicide.