Interwar years · 1919-1934

How Hitler took power in Germany

Germany's first democracy, the Weimar Republic, survived revolts and hyperinflation. Then the Depression struck. Students follow the Nazi party from a failed putsch in Munich to power in Berlin, and ask how a democracy can be destroyed from within.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1920 to AD 1930
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Germany's first democracy, the Weimar Republic, survived revolts and hyperinflation. Then the Depression struck. Students follow the Nazi party from a failed putsch in Munich to power in Berlin, and ask how a democracy can be destroyed from within.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe the problems of the Weimar Republic, such as the hyperinflation of 1923.
  • Explain how the Depression helped the Nazi party grow between 1928 and 1932.
  • Explain how Hitler turned his appointment as chancellor into a dictatorship in 1933-1934.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1920

A new republic

Open the map in 1920 and find Germany. Zoom in on the small town of Weimar. Ask the atlas: "Why was Germany's new constitution written in Weimar?"

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1920

The Ruhr

Find the Ruhr area around Essen, in the west of Germany. French and Belgian troops occupied it in 1923. Why did that help make German money almost worthless?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1930

Munich and Berlin

Find Munich in the south and Berlin in the north. In 1923 Hitler failed to seize power by force in Munich; in 1933 he was handed power in Berlin. Which way worked, and why?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. In 1923 a loaf of bread cost billions of marks. Who suffered most from hyperinflation, and why?
  2. The Nazi vote rose from under 3 percent in 1928 to over 37 percent in July 1932. What had changed?
  3. Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933, not elected to the post. Why did conservative politicians think they could control him?
  4. How did the Reichstag fire and the Enabling Act help Hitler remove democracy in a few weeks?
  5. From April 1933 Jewish Germans lost their jobs and rights step by step. Why is it important to study how persecution began?
4

Game round

10 min

No ruler in Rule History lived in this period. Play one round as Julius Caesar, who also used a crisis to win sole power in a republic. Then compare: how did Hitler destroy the Weimar Republic, and what could have stopped him?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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