Friedrich Ratzel (August 30, 1844 – August 9, 1904) was a German
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
and
ethnographer, notable for first using the term ''
Lebensraum
(, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Imper ...
'' ("living space") in the sense that the
National Socialists later would.
Life
Ratzel's father was the head of the household staff of the Grand Duke of Baden. Friedrich attended high school in Karlsruhe for six years before being apprenticed at age 15 to
apothecaries
''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...
. In 1863, he went to
Rapperswil
Rapperswil (Swiss German: or ;Andres Kristol, ''Rapperswil SG (See)'' in: ''Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses – Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen – Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS, LSG)'', Centre de dial ...
on the
Lake of Zurich,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, where he began to study the
classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
. After a further year as an apothecary at
Moers
Moers (; older form: ''Mörs''; archaic Dutch: ''Murse'', ''Murs'' or ''Meurs'') is a German city on the western bank of the Rhine, close to Duisburg. Moers belongs to the district of Wesel.
History
Known earliest from 1186, the county of Mo ...
near
Krefeld
Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, ...
in the
Ruhr
The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...
area (1865–1866), he spent a short time at the high school in Karlsruhe and became a student of
zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...
at the universities of
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...
,
Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...
and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
, 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 saw him transform from zoologist/biologist to geographer. He began field work in the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
, 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
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
,
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...
, and
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
. This trip was a turning point in Ratzel's career. He studied the influence of people of German origin in
America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, especially in the
Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
, as well as other ethnic groups in North America.
He produced a written account of his travels in 1876, ''Städte-und Kulturbilder aus Nordamerika'' (Profile of Cities and Cultures in North America), which would help establish the field of
cultural geography
Cultural geography is a subfield within human geography. Though the first traces of the study of different nations and cultures on Earth can be dated back to ancient geographers such as Ptolemy or Strabo, cultural geography as academic study first ...
. 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
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
,
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, Californi ...
,
Charleston,
, and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
.
Upon his return in 1875, Ratzel became a lecturer in geography at the Technical High School in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
. 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 University. His lectures were widely attended, notably by the influential American geographer
Ellen Churchill Semple
Ellen Churchill Semple (January 8, 1863 – May 8, 1932) was an American geographer and the first female president of the Association of American Geographers. She contributed significantly to the early development of the discipline of geography ...
.
Ratzel produced the foundations of
human geography
Human geography or anthropogeography is the branch of geography that studies spatial relationships between human communities, cultures, economies, and their interactions with the environment. It analyzes spatial interdependencies between social ...
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
Political geography is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures. Conventionally, for the purposes of analysis, po ...
, ''Politische Geographie'', in 1897. It was in this work that Ratzel introduced concepts that contributed to
Lebensraum
(, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Imper ...
and
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...
. His three volume work ''The History of Mankind''
The History of Mankind
by Professor Friedrich Ratzel, MacMillan and Co., Ltd., published 1896 was published in English in 1896 and contained over 1100 excellent engravings and remarkable chromolithography.
Ratzel continued his work at Leipzig until his sudden death on August 9, 1904 in Ammerland, Lake Starnberg
Lake Starnberg, or ''Starnberger See'' ) — called Lake Würm, or ''Würmsee'' , until 1962 — is Germany's second-largest body of fresh water, having great depth, and fifth-largest lake by area. It and its surroundings lie in three different Ba ...
, Germany.
Ratzel, a scholar of versatile academic interest, was a staunch German. During the outbreak of Franco-Prussian war in 1870, he joined the Prussian army and was wounded twice during the war.
Writings
Influenced by thinkers including Darwin and zoologist
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...
Ernst Heinrich Haeckel
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...
, he published several papers. Among them is the essay ''Lebensraum'' (1901) concerning biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...
, creating a foundation for the uniquely German variant of geopolitics
Geopolitics (from Greek γῆ ''gê'' "earth, land" and πολιτική ''politikḗ'' "politics") is the study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations. While geopolitics usually refers to ...
: ''Geopolitik
Geopolitik is a branch of 19th-century German statecraft, foreign policy and geostrategy.
It developed from the writings of various German philosophers, geographers and thinkers, including Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), Alexander Humboldt (1769-1 ...
''.
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 Britain. His writings served as welcome justification for imperial expansion. Influenced by the American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
geostrategist
Geostrategy, a subfield of geopolitics, is a type of foreign policy guided principally by geographical factors as they inform, constrain, or affect political and military planning. As with all strategies, geostrategy is concerned with matching ...
Alfred Thayer Mahan, Ratzel wrote of aspirations for German naval reach, agreeing that sea power
Command of the sea (also called control of the sea or sea control) is a naval military concept regarding the strength of a particular navy to a specific naval area it controls. A navy has command of the sea when it is so strong that its rivals ...
was self-sustaining, as the profit from trade
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exc ...
would pay for the merchant marine, unlike land power.
Ratzel's idea of ''Raum'' (space) would grow out of his organic state conception. His early concept of ''lebensraum'' was not political or economic but spiritual and racial nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
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 as where German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
peoples live, and other weaker states could serve to support German peoples economically, and German culture
The culture of Germany has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe, both religious and secular. Historically, Germany has been called ''Das Land der Dichter und Denker'' (the country of poets and thinkers). German cult ...
could fertilize other cultures. However, it ought to be noted that Ratzel's concept of ''raum'' was not overtly aggressive, but he theorized simply as the natural expansion of strong states into areas controlled by weaker states.
The book for which Ratzel is acknowledged all over the world is ''Anthropogeographie''. It was completed between 1872 and 1899. The main focus of this monumental work is on the effects of different physical features and locations on the style and life of the people.
Quotations
* "Der Grenzraum ist das Wirkliche, die Grenzlinie ist das Abstraktion davon" (The borderlands are the reality, the boundary line is an abstraction thereof). (Ratzel, 1895)
*"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."
* "Culture grows in places that can adequately support dense labor populations."
Selected bibliography
Here are his other notable writings:
* ''Wandertage eines Naturforschers'' (Days of wandering of a student of nature, 1873–74)
* ''Vorgeschichte des europäischen Menschen'' (Prehistory of Europeans, 1875)
* ''Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika'' (The United States of North America, 1878–80)
* ''Die Erde, in 24 Vorträgen'' (The Earth in 24 lectures, 1881)
* ''Völkerkunde'' (Ethnology, 1885,1886,1888)
* ''Politische Geographie'', (Political Geography, 1897)
* ''Die Erde und das Leben'' (The Earth and life, 1902)
See also
*Carl Ritter
Carl Ritter (August 7, 1779September 28, 1859) was a German geographer. Along with Alexander von Humboldt, he is considered one of the founders of modern geography. From 1825 until his death, he occupied the first chair in geography at the Univer ...
References
Sources
*
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.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ratzel, Friedrich
1844 births
1904 deaths
German geographers
Geopoliticians
Heidelberg University alumni
University of Jena alumni
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
Technical University of Munich faculty
Human geographers
People from Karlsruhe