Ratzel's stone guest: The art of politics in the work of Friedrich Ratzel

In this essay I demonstrate that Friedrich Ratzel's Lebensraum essay can itself be read as a biopolitical text because it contains something more than a pure description of the Darwinian struggle for life, namely an imperative. I therefore interrogate Ratzel's ideas in the light of Michel Foucault's theory of biopower. In order to unveil the deeply biopolitical character of Ratzel's Lebensraum idea, I point first to Ratzel's specific notion of culture, which he shares with the cultural studies approach (Kulturwisenschaften) developed by the Leipzig circle. Secondly, I detect the main 'stone guest' in this text - Ratzel's idea of politics and the 'art of state politics' (Staatskunst), by folding 'politics' into German cultural imperialism. Finally, by interrogating Ratzel's notion of science, I show his construction of geography as 'power-knowledge' in ways designed to reveal to politicians the keys for an understanding of human and political life.