Case Study #1: The Nazi Seizure of Power, 1919-1933

Case Study: World War I

Due at the Beginning of Class on November 13th

Read the case below carefully. Before you begin, please review your textbook reading and All Quiet on the Western Front. You may work on this case study by yourself or with a group of up to two other students who are in your section (if you choose to work as a group your entire group will be given one grade). If you wish to work by yourself simply read the case, make yourself comfortable with the historical background, choose one of the roles set out below, and then craft your response to the questions listed.

If you are working with your fellow students, please meet with the students in your group. After you have read the case, choose one of the roles set out below. No two students in the same group should duplicate roles. Address the corresponding questions as a group. Then draft one written response.

Whether you submit your work individually or as a group, your response should be no more than 5 typed pages and no less than two typed pages. Please use one-inch margins and double space your work. Make sure you include your name and that of your TA. Please also make sure to cite your work and to check for any spelling or grammatical errors. You may wish to review the materials concerning plagiarism that can be found at oaa.osu.edu/coam/home.html.

The (fictional) Case

It is some unknown date during World War I. Paul Bäumer has returned to the front after his leave and his course at the “camp on the moors.” One night, over a game of skat (cards), Paul, Stanislaus Kaczinsky, and Albert Kropp revisit a conversation topic that they discuss often, namely how the war has “ruined for us everything.”[i] After much debate, they decide to pen a statement setting out their position on the war, how it has affected them, and whom they find culpable. They will not give this letter to anyone, but will bury it with some other small tokens. They hope that one day, when the war is over, they will successfully locate the buried capsule and unearth it. Perhaps they will share the capsule’s contents with their children or grandchildren; perhaps they will decide to keep it among themselves.

The Participants

Paul Bäumer

Albert Kropp

Stanislaus Kaczinsky

Your Task

Assuming the identity of one of the participants above (or in the case of group-work, the participants above). Draft a statement that answers the following questions. On the bottom of the statement, please identify the date and place where you are writing (and keep in mind that Remarque is intentionally unclear about these issues, so you have a significant amount of room to answer that question).

(1) How did you come to enlist? Now that you have served for a long period of time, what is your position on the war?

(2) Whose fault was it that you enlisted when you did?

(3) On whom do you blame the war?

(4) What did Albert mean when he argued that, “The War has ruined us for everything.” Do you think this is true? What do you think you will return to after the war is over?

(5) Do you think Germany will win the war? Why or Why not?

(6) What do you think you will do when the war is over? Do you think you will survive the war?

Make sure that your assumed identity is clear. In other words, it is not sufficient to merely sign one of the names from above. Instead, you must think through how Paul Bäumer, Albert Kropp, or Stanislaus Kaczinsky would have responded to these questions.