Lebensraum

See also: lebensraum

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from German Lebensraum (literally “living room”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: lāʹbənzroum, IPA^(key): /ˈleːbənsˌɹaʊm/

Proper noun

Lebensraum

1. (in German history from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth Centuries) Territories considered appropriate for German habitation, regarded as vital for the natural flourishing of the German race:
   1. (in early usage) an empire in the form of overseas colonies, in imitation of contemporary powers such as Britain and France.
   2. (in later usage, Nazism) a Großdeutschland obtained through Endoeuropean expansion, usually with a focus upon Drang nach Osten, and varying in its scope from the comparatively modest annexation of the Polish Border Strip to overlordship of the European continent by the conquest of Russian lands as far as the Urals.
      • 2021 March 15, Guermantes Lailari, “The Lebensraum Factor in Xi Jinping’s Strategy for Hong Kong and Taiwan”, in Jewish Policy Center‎^[1], archived from the original on 5 April 2021:

        The title of this article evokes memories of the beginning of World War II and reveals one method dictators use to increase their power. In China’s case, Xi Jinping’s Anschluss of Hong Kong in June 2020 fits nicely with the way Hitler began his initial European expansion strategy, called Lebensraum (living space). In Zweites Buch, Hitler said that to dominate the world, Germany must expand its borders and areas it controls. The first way to start achieving Lebensraum would be through Anschluss — the unification of Austria and Germany. Further, he envisioned an expansion that would include Poland, Czechoslovakia, the rest of Europe and Russia.

Derived terms

• lebensraum

Related terms

• Lebenswelt

Further reading

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “Lebensraum”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
• Lebensraum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• mensurable, seralbumen

German

Etymology

Leben (“life”) +‎ -s- +‎ Raum (“space”), attributed to Friedrich Ratzel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈleːbm̩sˌʁaʊ̯m/, /ˈleːbənsˌʁaʊ̯m/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Lebensraum m (strong, genitive Lebensraumes or Lebensraums, plural Lebensräume)

1. living space
2. (biology) habitat
3. (historical) lebensraum

Declension

Declension of Lebensraum [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Lebensraum	die	Lebensräume
genitive	eines	des	Lebensraumes, Lebensraums	der	Lebensräume
dative	einem	dem	Lebensraum, Lebensraume1	den	Lebensräumen
accusative	einen	den	Lebensraum	die	Lebensräume

¹Now rare, see notes.

Descendants

• → English: Lebensraum
• → Portuguese: Lebensraum

Further reading

• “Lebensraum” in Duden online
• “Lebensraum” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Portuguese

Proper noun

Lebensraum m

1. (historical) Lebensraum (territories regarded as vital for the flourishing of the German race)