5 questions with Chase Kinder '27

In the years following World War I, a defeated Germany saw a Communist regime rise ominously to the east in Russia. At home, a democracy tenuously held power. Internally, communist revolutionaries posed a serious threat. To counteract them, more than 300,000 war veterans formed paramilitary groups known as the Freikorps. Bitter about surrender, many had symptoms of what is now recognized as post-traumatic stress disorder. What could go wrong? 

1 — A few years ago, you were left tackle for Valley View High School in Germantown, Ohio. This summer, you were in the Library of Congress reading old newspapers. Can you describe how that happened?
Most of my friends played football; it was a central part of my life, but it pretty much came to an end with a senior-year injury. I’ve been interested in history since junior high; an early memory is reading Allan Eckert’s historical novel The Frontiersman. Steven Ambrose’s Band of Brothers kindled an interest in war, veterans and related topics. So, I decided to major in history.

2 — And how has that worked out?
In the Core Program my freshman year, we were studying Reconstruction. I wrote a paper called “President Grant: Ordinary Corrupt Politician or Extraordinary American President.” My mentor, historian (and professor) David Darrow suggested I submit it to Line by Line, an eCommons collection of student writing; it was accepted. I moved from being a history major to being a historian. 

3 — You’ve focused on a period in German history. Why?
To fulfill a language requirement, I wanted to take Italian. The class was filled up. So, I took German; I liked it. By the end of freshman year, I wanted to study German, not just fulfill a requirement. Last year, after a summer study abroad program I had applied for didn’t materialize, German professor Oliver Knabe suggested I apply to the Berry Summer Thesis Institute. I had just a week left to apply. I didn’t have a topic, but I was reading a book on the Weimar Republic; it had references to Freikorps veterans who felt betrayed by Germany’s surrender. I had read Erich Maria Remarque’s antiwar novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, and found it captivating and horrific. And I found a nationalistic memoir, Storm of Steel, by Ernst Jünger, who described betrayed men united by their sufferings. Knabe said, “Go research that.” I did. 

4 — How did you narrow it down to a summer research project?
I read a novel about the Freikorps. I read secondary sources. I saw what others had done; I needed to do something else. Professor Knabe suggested studying documents in an archive; the Berry Summer Thesis Institute provides research funding up to $1,500. The Library of Congress is the world’s biggest library; it would have lots of newspapers. But I didn’t know which I wanted to look at and its website is complicated. But I realized a lot had not been looked at. 

5 — And the result?
I narrowed my search to the Bavarian Freikorps; they had killed 1,000 people in Munich. The centrist ruling party needed help from the Freikorps to suppress the Communists. As I read yellowed newspapers (no digitized files or microfiche) in the Library of Congress, I traced the attitude of a newspaper, The Münchener Post, as it moved from supporting the Freikorps to opposition to it as the violence of the group spread beyond attacking Communists. When Hitler came to power in 1933, the newspaper was disbanded. 

Photos by Sylvia Stahl '18