The Nazis' Secret Plans for Eastern Europe: Geography and Regional Planning in the Third Reich

Abstract

This paper examines the practice of geography as a discipline in the Third Reich, the role of geographers as researchers within the national socialism and their professional practice in the development of a definite geographical concepts that had a great ideological impact, specially the concept of lebensraum, wich was adopted by political leaders for the expansionist policies in the East. Secondly, the paper focuses on the same geographers when they were hired by american agencies to draw the maps of the divided Germany and to be involved in the creation of a post-war Europe.