Karl Hausofer was an advisor to Adolf Hitler, born August 27, 1869 in Munich, Germany. He originally served Imperial Germany during World War I and had a "successful" military career. Hausofer became disillusioned after Germany lost the War and had severe sanctions placed upon the state. Hausofer, like other prominent Germans, believed this was due to the betrayal of communists and Jews.

Hausofer toured the "Far East" learning of east Asian philisophies and political ideology. These countries included, but were not limited to: India, Tibet, and Japan. Of particular interest to him was a long extinct North Indian/Hindu/Iranian tribe: the Aryans. Hausofer also struck interest among other Nazi leaders, such as Heinrich Himmler, in Japanese ideologies. Heinrich Himmler would eventually come to consider the SS as the German version of the Japanese Samurai. Karl Hausofer may have developed racial ideas of superiority from the old Hindu caste systems from his time in the region.

Hausofer, after his visitation in the South Asian regions, started serving as a professor of geography in Munich University in 1921. He is also believed to be the principal "innovator" in developing the concept of a superior Aryan race and perpetuating the racist concept of "the evils of Jewry". It is widely known that Adolf Hitler and Rudolph Hess relied on his international contacts to legitamize Nazi ideologies and philisophies. He also had a son, Albrecht, considered one of the most brilliant of the Nazis, and, at least initially, realized the evils of Nazism. Hausofer remained one of Hiter's closest advisers for foreign affairs until the end. In 1946, Hausofer and his wife committed suicide by drinking poison as WWII came to a close.

Sources:

• http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/H/Haushofe.asp
• http://www.bartleby.com/65/ha/Haushofe.html
• "The Last Secrets of the Axis" on the History Channel
• http://www.bookrags.com/biography/karl-haushofer/