Abstract

This essay aims to re-examine the personal and intellectual contacts between Karl Haushofer (1869-1946) and Ernesto Massi (1909-1997) from the 1930s to the Second World War. The main outcome of the relationship between the German geopolitician and the Italian geographer was the birth of the journal "Geopolitica" (1939-1942). Therefore, an underlying theme of the whole article is represented by the role played by Karl Haushofer in giving shape to the Italian version of geopolitics - a highly controversial issue. While many scholars had argued that Italian geopolitics merely shared the name of the German «Geopolitik», by focusing on archival materials this essay attempts to re-evaluate the intellectual influences of Haushofer on the Italian geopolitical movement, rejecting the thesis of a «good» and «implicitly anti-German» Italian geopolitics.