Lebensraum

American  

[ley-buhns-roum, -buhnz-] / ˈleɪ bənsˌraʊm, -bənz- /

noun

(often lowercase)

1. additional territory considered by a nation, especially Nazi Germany, to be necessary for national survival or for the expansion of trade.

2. any additional space needed in order to act, function, etc.

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Lebensraum British  

/ ˈleɪbənzˌraʊm /

noun

1. territory claimed by a nation or state on the grounds that it is necessary for survival or growth

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Etymology

Origin of Lebensraum

1900–05; < German: living space

Example Sentences

In fact, the reasons that Hitler himself set out at the time overwhelmingly emphasized the quest for Lebensraum, the need to replace the raw materials and goods lost to the British blockade, and the hope of deterring the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal

Some of the men in the White Rose were drafted as medics to the Russian front and, passing through Warsaw on the way, witnessed the far-flung horrors of Germany’s hunger for “Lebensraum,” or living space, and racial exclusivism.

From New York Times

Discussions of Putin frequently led back to Hitler and Stalin; talk of Russia’s military aggression beyond its borders conjured German Lebensraum.

From Los Angeles Times

Hitler spoke of Lebensraum, the “living space” for his people to be acquired by conquest; Mussolini spoke of spazio vitale, which meant the same thing.

From Washington Post

One was the danger, as another world war soon made clear, of imagining a map of Europe that furnished for each of its language groups what the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel termed a Lebensraum, or “living space.”

From The New Yorker