Rudolf Kjellén

Johan Rudolf Kjellén

Johan Rudolf Kjellén (June 13, 1864 - November 14, 1922), was a Swedish political scientist and politician who first coined the term "geopolitics." Along with Alexander von Humboldt, Carl Ritter, and Friedrich Ratzel, Kjellén would lay the foundations for the German geopolitik, which would later be espoused prominently by Karl Haushofer. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party adopted policies in line with Kjellén’s ideas.

Life

Johan Rudolf Kjellén was born on June 13, 1864 in Torsö, Sweden, into the family of a minister. He completed gymnasium in Skara in 1880 and matriculated at Uppsala University the same year. He received his Ph.D. in Uppsala in 1891 and was a docent there from 1890-1893.

Kjellén taught at the Gothenburg University from 1891 and was professor of political sciences and statistics there from 1901 until he received the prestigious Skyttean professorship of Eloquence and Government in Uppsala in 1916.

A conservative politician, Kjellén served several terms as a member of the Second Chamber of the Swedish parliament (from 1905 to 1908) and of its First Chamber (from 1911 to 1917).

He died on November 14, 1922 in Uppsala, Sweden.

Work

Kjellén was a student of Friedrich Ratzel. He further elaborated on Ratzel’s organic state theory, coining the term “geopolitics”. The basics of his ideas were presented in his book Der Staat als Lebensform (The State as a Living Form, 1916), which is generally regarded as his most important book in relation to geopolitics. It outlines five key concepts that would shape German geopolitik:

1. Reich was a territorial concept that was comprised of Raum (Lebensraum), and strategic military shape;
2. Volk was a racial conception of the state;
3. Haushalt was a call for autarky based on land, formulated in reaction to the vicissitudes of international markets;
4. Gesellschaft was the social aspect of a nation’s organization and cultural appeal, Kjellén anthropomorphizing inter-state relations more than Ratzel had; and,
5. Regierung was the form of government whose bureaucracy and army would contribute to the people’s pacification and coordination.

Kjellén disputed the solely legalistic characterization of states, arguing that state and society are not opposites, but rather a synthesis of the two elements. The state did have a responsibility for law and order, but also for social welfare/progress, and economic welfare/progress.

Autarky, or a self-sufficient economy that limits trade with the outside world, was a solution to political problems, claimed Kjellén. Dependence on imports would mean that a country would never be independent. Thus country, if wanted to become independent, must possess territories rich in resources. For Germany, Central and South-eastern Europe were key, along with the Middle East and Africa.

The three characteristics of a state, according to Kjellén , were Topopolitik , Physiopolitik and Morphopolitik. The first two correspond to Lage and Raum which respectively mean position and territory, whereas Morphopolitik is connected with the shape and the form of a state.

Legacy

Kjellén’s influence was particularly strong in Germany. His Der Staat als Lebensform (1917) became the base for the concept of German geopolitik, although ideological quite different from Kjellén’s social scientific concept.

General Karl Haushofer, a German geopolitician, adopted many of Kjellén's ideas. He advocated autarky, claiming that a nation constantly in struggle would demand self-sufficiency.

It is clear that Adolf Hitler adopted policies in line with Kjellén’s five key concepts, whether or not his writing was directly transmitted to Hitler or not. The Nazi party would echo Kjellén’s concept of state integration into every aspect of life, especially concerning the provision of social and economic welfare. The Nazis would also target the same territories that Kjellén emphasized - they pursued economic domination throughout the former Austro-Hungarian states and the Balkans, monopolizing their output to the point where they could dictate the countries' production, while dumping German industrial goods into their markets.

Publications

• Kjellén, Rudolf. 1914. Die Grossmaechte der Gegenwart. Berlin: Verlag und Druck von B.G. Teubner.
• Kjellén, Rudolf. [1916] 1917. Der Staat als Lebensform. Leipzig: S. Hirzel.
• Kjellén, Rudolf. 1917. Sverige. Stockholm: H. Geber.
• Kjellén, Rudolf, & Alexander von Normann. 1921. Dreibund und dreiverband; die diplomatische Vorgeschichte des Weltkriegs. München: Duncker & Humblot.
• Kjellén, Rudolf, & Carl Koch. 1916. Die Ideen von 1914: Eine weltgeschichtliche Perspektive. Leipzig: Hirzel.
• Kjellén, Rudolf, & Friedrich Stieve. 1916. Die politischen probleme des weltkrieges. Leipzig und Berlin: B.G. Teubner.
• Kjellén, Rudolf, & Friedrich Stieve. 1918. Studien zur weltkrise, von dr. Rudolf Kjellén. München: H. Bruckmann.
• Kjellén, Rudolf, & Karl Haushofer. 1933. Die Grossmächte vor und nach dem Weltkriege: Mit 1 statist. Anh. [Macht und Erde] ; [Bd. 1]. Leipzig: Teubner.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Dorpalen, Andreas. 1942. The World of General Haushofer. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc.
• Encyclopedia Britannica. Johan Rudolf Kjellen. Retrieved on April 13, 2007.
• Hennig, Richard. 1931. Geopolitik. Die Lehre vom Staat als Lebewesen. Leipzig: B.G. Teubner.
• Mattern, Johannes. 1978. Geopolitik: Doctrine of National Self-Sufficiency and Empire. AMS Press. ISBN 0404612938
• O'Tuathail, Gearoid. 1998. The Geopolitics Reader. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415162718

External links

• Engines of Autarky – On the definition of the term “Autarky” and related topics. Retrieved April 25, 2007.
• Personen Rudolf Kjellén & Kjelléns politiska filosofi - Articles on Kjellen (in Swedish) Retrieved April 25, 2007.

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