Plan for Destruction

This just ran on Turner Movie Classics. Although I've seen a LOT of documentaries etc. on WWII and am familiar with Hitler's rise to power, I did not know about the Geopolitical influence on him, and the key elements of that theory. If all US citizens could view this movie, and even see it as part of students' school studies in Civics, we could have a better understanding of how people's need for power and control can become destructive plans for millions. It is important to remember that NOW a Dictator no longer needs to be a leader of a country to finance and organize an army to go out and spread terror to undermine the power of other countries. Don't you see this going on now? Osama Bin Laden is an example. Everyone wake up! The world has changed. We are no longer fighting the government of other countries in formally declared war - we are fighting an insidious plan to undermine the unity and confidence of US citizens to weaken us, making us more vulnerable for takeover. Also, look at the propaganda machines working to get other countries to "hate" Americans and protest against our country. Enemies know that our borders are impenetrable from the strength of our military. They've devised other ways to infiltrate, break down and dismantle our great country, America. Don't be naive and think that America is here forever, and nothing can change that.

A MGM Short Subject.

At the end of World War One, a Munich general turned professor begins to develop Germany's PLAN FOR DESTRUCTION for the next global conflict.

This fascinating little film will serve as a primer to the Nazi theory of geopolitics, by which they hoped to control all the lands around them & bring about their eventual domination of the entire world. A very interesting sidelight shows how the Nazis went about gathering massive amounts of information about their potential enemies.

MGM's fatherly Lewis Stone is the Host/Narrator; Frank Reicher does a fine job playing Professor Karl Haushofer.

After Pearl Harbor, Hollywood went to war totally against the Axis. Not only did many of the stars join up or do home front service, but the output of the Studios was largely turned to the war effort. The newsreels, of course, brought the latest war news into the neighborhood theater every week. The features showcased battle stories or war related themes. Even the short subjects & cartoons were used as a quick means of spreading Allied propaganda, the boosting of morale or information dissemination. Together, Uncle Sam, the American People & Hollywood proved to be an unbeatable combination.

I didn't love Lewis Stone's narration here, not least because he kept referring to Britain/British and England/English which always strikes me as lazy writing. That said, though, it's still quite an interesting assessment of the forward-planning skills of former Imperial general Karl Haushofer (Frank Reicher). Following his defeat in the Great War he took up an academic position that not only facilitated his planning for the future domination of the world by a revitalised Germany but that also provided him with lots of fertile young and impressionable minds to indoctrinate. His former assistant Rudolph Hess (George Lynn) suggests to him that he meet a prisoner with a small moustache and the rest is history. It mixes some dramatic elements with some news actuality to deliver to American audiences an idea of just how meticulously the Nazis had planned their "Politik" agenda and at how this could all too readily impact on the USA, however geographically detached the maps might suggest it is. There is a positive message for the audience here suggesting that by uniting against the Axis powers, there are some sunlit uplands ahead - but there is more work to be done.

This short subject from MGM that came out in 1943 was at the time a reminder we still had a long way to go for total victory. That was the message that Lewis Stone conveyed as narrator. It was a collective feeling in the German body politic that they were sold out by the ruling classes and made to bear the brunt of the onus of starting World War I. There was enough guilt on that to go all around.

A name that few Americans knew about a retired German general and university professor Karl Haushofer is identified as the intellectual father of the Nazi movement. This was wartime and not a time for subtleties. The real Haushofer was the professor of Rudolf Hess who introduced him to a rightwing activist named Adolf Hitler whom he felt would be in sympathy with Haushofer's ideas on an expansive and expanding and dynamic Germany. In German they called that Lebensraum.

The story of the real Haushofer was far more fascinating than what you see here and in the one dimensional portrayal that Frank Reicher gives him. He never joined the party, he had too many differences with them. Chiefly on their anti-Semitism and that would be natural since he married a woman whose father was Jewish. She had to be given the status of honorary Aryan due to whatever strings Rudolf Hess could pull.

Haushofer's son was picked up and executed in the Von Stauffenberg conspiracy. There's a lot more, but you get the idea this is not a short subject that has stood the test of time.

This is well-produced, but not based on historical fact. The amount of influence Haushofer had on Hitler's viewpoint is very debatable, although there is no argument that he did have some influence. And there never was am 'Institute of Geopolitics' - that was dreamed up by the scriptwriter. Haushofer had a half-Jewish wife, was never a member of the party, and spent some time in a concentration camp. He is on record as a supporter of Hitler. To what end, no one knows. One of his sons died in the July 20th plot against Hitler. Haushofer and his wife committed suicide in 1946. The idea of Lebensraum that he professed was psychological rather than physical - Hitler's vision was different from that of Professor Haushofer. This film is propaganda, and works well in that genre. This film is propaganda, and works well in that genre.