Die ‘Zeitschrift für Geopolitik’ in globalgeschichtlicher Perspektive. Alt(bekannt)e Quellen neu gelesen

Abstract

The article proposes a new approach to the “Zeitschrift für Geopolitik” . It recalls the historical context of the journal, founded in 1924 by the scholar of geopolitics Karl Haushofer and right-wing publisher Kurt Vowinckel, and in what ways it has been used as a historical source so far. In contrast, innovations of the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1199 “Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition” at the University of Leipzig open up promising Global History-based perspectives of research. The journal’s editorial work plan and a corresponding world map show how they can shed new light on an old source.

Biographical Note

Dirk Hänsgen (Leibniz-Insitut für Länderkunde, Leipzig, Germany)

After studying geography and political science, in 1991 Dirk Hänsgen received a Magister Artium for a work on Anglo-American geopolitical concepts in the 20th century. From 1992 to 1997, he was an assistant at the chair of geography and its didactics at the University of Trier and also worked temporarily at the Documentation Centre for German Regional Studies at the same university. From 1998 to 1999, he worked in the map department of the Berlin State Library. Since 2000, he has been at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) in Leipzig. First, he was a member of the editorial staff of the Nationalatlas Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Since 2011, he has worked in the research group “Historical geographies” in various projects on map history, critical map and mapping analysis, as well as geopolitical imaginations and imaginaries.