Rudolf Kjellén

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Rudolf Kjellén

Johan Rudolf Kjellén (born June 13, 1864 in Torsö , † November 14, 1922 in Uppsala ) was a Swedish political scientist and politician. He coined the term geopolitics .

General

Kjellén's father was a pastor . He graduated from high school in Mariestad and then studied at Uppsala University . In 1890 he was awarded a Dr. phil. obtained his doctorate and became a lecturer in 1891, and in 1901 professor of political science and statistics at the University of Gothenburg , the forerunner of the University of Gothenburg . In 1916 he was appointed to the respected Professor Skytteanus for political science in Uppsala , which he held until his death.

From 1905 to 1917 Kjellén was a member of the Swedish Reichstag , first as a member of the second chamber, from 1910 in the first chamber. He was one of the spokesmen of the Unghögern designated conservative flow. He had already introduced this term into the political debate in 1902.

Kjellén had been a member of the Royal Science and Literature Society in Gothenburg since 1899 and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Rostock in 1918 .

Nowadays Kjellén is best known in the geopolitical field, he is considered to be the founder of the term geopolitics . The state as a form of life is his magnum opus in political science.

Influences on ethnic-national politics

Not only Eduard Stadtler and other pioneers of National Socialism as well as representatives of the New Right today see themselves influenced by him, as by Houston Stewart Chamberlain, in their nationalist thinking and in the glorification of war and social Darwinism . For Kjellén there was a great dispute “not just between peoples, but between worldviews”, specifically between the ideas of 1789 and the ideas of 1914 , that is, between western-liberal democracy and authoritarian-governmental states like the German Empire .

During the First World War, Kjellén was one of the proponents of the ideas of 1914 . Politically, Kjellén has become topical again in Sweden in recent years. Karl A. Wittfogel called Kjellen a "fascist prophet" as early as 1929. National conservative politicians such as B. Tommy Funebo use Kjellén as an ideological basis for their political agitation.

Honors

Works in German

  • The great powers of the present . Teubner, Leipzig / Berlin 1914. 10th edition 1916.
  • The ideas of 1914. A world historical perspective . Hirzel, Leipzig 1915.
  • The political problems of the world war . Teubner, Leipzig 1916. Translation by Friedrich Stieve . ( Digitized from the holdings of the Institute for East and Southeast European Research ).
  • The state as a way of life . Hirzel, Leipzig 1917
  • Studies on the world crisis . Bruckmann, Munich 1917.
  • Ground plan for a system of politics . Hirzel, Leipzig 1920.
  • The great powers before and after the world wars . Teubner, Leipzig / Berlin 1930.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Kjellén, Studier öfver Sveriges politiska gränser. In: Ymer (Journal of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography ), 1899, pp. 283–331; According to: Rainer Sprengel, Critique of Geopolitics. A German discourse. 1914–1944 , Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1996, p. 26.
personal data
SURNAME Kjellén, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kjellén, Johan Rudolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish political scientist and politician, member of the Riksdag
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Torso
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1922
Place of death Uppsala