Lebensraum is often attributed to Hitler and the Nazis as a component of Germany's imperial and racist visions towards the east, and contributed to the Holocaust as killing the Jews would open up space for Germans. I knew that lebensraum was included in Mein Kampf, so believed it was created by Hitler's fervent imagination and then taken up by Nazi Germany.
My first inking that it proceeded Hitler: in this article about Poland during World War I, the author is protesting the Germany's treatment of Poles in German-occupied Poland. [Background: Poland was governed by Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary when the war started, and Poland regained statehood after the war by the Treaty of Versailles.]
In fact, Friedrich Ratzel discussed this as early as 1897 and coined the phrase in 1901.
So is this one less thing we can blame Hitler for? Or is Hitler responsible for almost making it come to fruition? I think most consider him responsible for the Holocaust in Poland the killing of 6 million Jews. But similar to anti-semitism, lebensraum predates his rise to power....so confusing.
