Karl Haushofer (27.8.1869 Munich – 10.3.1946 Pähl/Ammersee)

Karl Haushofer was born in 1869 as the son of the Munich professor of political economy Max Haushofer. After finishing secondary school, he joined the Bavarian Army in 1887 and studied at the War Academy from 1895 to 1898. In 1904, Haushofer became an instructor at the Military Academy for Contemporary Military History. From 1908 to 1910, official trips took him to India, Southeast Asia, and China. In 1913, he was awarded a doctorate in geography by the University of Munich based on his dissertation "Dai Nihon". Observations of Greater Japan's Military Power, World Position, and Future". He ultimately participated in World War I as a brigade commander.

After his departure from the army, Haushofer qualified as a professor at the LMU in Munich and was Professor of Political Geography there from 1921 to 1939. He had a fatherly bond with his pupil Rudolf Heß starting in 1919-20. Heß arranged for him to meet Adolf Hitler. Haushofer was politically active in the German People's Party (DVP) at the time and was elected to the state executive committee in 1922. He met with Hitler several times in the following years; Hitler took up his ‘Lebensraum’ theory and reinterpreted it in expansionist terms. From 1934 to 1937, Haushofer was President of the German Academy and from 1938 to 1941 Chairman of the 'Association for German cultural relations abroad'.

Thanks to the protection of Rudolf Heß, Haushofer's German-Jewish wife Martha was shielded from persecution. As a result of the failed coup attempt on July 20, 1944, in which Haushofer's son Albrecht was involved, Karl Haushofer was arrested by the Gestapo on July 28, 1944 and imprisoned the next day for four weeks in Dachau Concentration Camp. After his discharge, Haushofer lived reclusively on the family property Hartschimmelhof on Lake Ammersee.

After the end of the war, American officers interrogated Karl Haushofer about his relationship to National Socialism and took him into Allied internment in May/June and August/September 1945. Karl Haushofer's authorization to teach was withdrawn on November 21, 1945. After press reports regarding his co-responsibility for the National Socialist expansion policy, Karl Haushofer committed suicide along with his wife Martha on March 10, 1946.