Karl Haushofer re-examined: geopolitics as a factor of Japanese–German rapprochement in the inter-war years?

While rather a lot of research has been done on Karl Haushofer’s involvement in the formation of Nazi Lebensraum ideology – some of it easily accessible in English (Herwig 1999; Polelle 1999) – his role in Japanese-German relations has been largely overlooked. He was born less than two years before the foundation of the German Empire (1871). About one year after the surrender of the ‘Third Reich’ (1945), he committed suicide together with his wife. Within this period of roughly 75 years, German diplomacy and warfare undoubtedly influenced the course of world history. This chapter broaches the question as to whether Haushofer also did.