German colonial geography as a racial-Völkish reordering project beyond the East: National Socialism and the colonial writings of geographer Oskar Schmieder

Abstract

There is very little research on German colonial geography in general, and the boom in this subdiscipline during the National Socialist period has not received any scholarly attention so far. Against that backdrop, this paper aims to contribute: a) to a finer-grained picture of colonial, racial-Völkish thinking – and its application – in German geography during the National Socialist period and b) to our understanding of the continuities and ruptures in German geographical scholarship after WWII. To that end, I focus on the biography of Oskar Schmieder (1891–1980). Two interrelated aspects of Schmieder's writings will guide the analysis: first, his conceptualization of race, Volk, and soil regarding (Germans in) South America and, secondly, the political colonial project that he pursued for Nazi Germany. Studying Oskar Schmieder shows that German geographers not only stood up for the re-establishment of a German colonial empire during the National Socialist period, but also fought for its Fascist orientation – which, at least for Schmieder, was to differ from the German colonial pre-1914 empire. Being primarily known as a representative of Länderkunde, Schmieder's institutionally and conceptually influential career after 1945 can be seen as a prime example of the continuities within the discipline in Germany.