The Weimar Republic

About This Lesson

In the previous lesson, students explored the ways that war can intensify people’s loyalty to their country and the impact of the armistice and the Treaty of Versailles on Germany and its citizens. In this two-day lesson, students will continue this unit’s historical case study by learning about the 14 years of the Weimar Republic, the democratic government that replaced monarchy in Germany after the war. While exploring the politics, culture, economics, and social trends of Germany during this era, students will also reflect on the idea of democracy itself, as well as the choices made by citizens and leaders that can strengthen or weaken it.

Essential Questions

Unit Essential Question: How can learning about the choices people made during past episodes of injustice, mass violence, or genocide help guide our choices today?

Guiding Questions

Which aspects of German government and society during the years of the Weimar Republic helped to strengthen democracy, and which aspects weakened it?

Learning Objectives

• Students will construct a working definition of democracy and then use it to analyze the politics, economics, and culture of Germany during the period of the Weimar Republic.
• Students will use a graphic organizer to represent the tensions and conflicts that existed for individuals and groups during that period.

Day 1 Activities

Activity 1: Discuss the Meaning of Democracy

Ask students to briefly reflect in their journals on the meaning of the term democracy, using the following questions to spark their thinking: 
What is democracy? How would you define it? What words or phrases do you associate with it? If you live in a democracy, what might you be able to do that you might not under other forms of government?

Ask students to share ideas, words, and phrases from their journal entries and record them on the board or a piece of chart paper for later reference. Make sure that by the end of the discussion, the map includes the following topics: free and fair elections, the rule of law, equality before the law, free expression, free press, and freedom of religion.

Activity 2: Introduce the Weimar Republic

Tell students that to better understand the concept of democracy, they are going to spend the next two days learning about the Weimar Republic, the democratic government created in Germany after World War I. 

Present a brief mini-lecture to introduce Weimar Germany using the information on the handout Introduction to the Weimar Republic. Pass out the handout before you begin the mini-lecture, and as you walk students through the information on the handout, have them annotate it by writing a D next to information about the Weimar Republic that represents an important characteristic of democracy and an X next to information that describes a problem or challenge for democracy.

Activity 3: Explore Free Expression in the Weimar Republic

Remind students that one of the hallmarks of democratic societies is that the government protects the free expression of ideas by its citizens. In the Weimar Republic, this protection allowed creativity to flourish in Germany and spawned artistic movements that challenged traditional forms of art. In this activity, students will examine examples of modern art from the Weimar Republic.

Divide the class into groups of four or five, and assign one of the five Weimar Republic Images handouts to each group.

Walk the class as a whole through the following steps to analyze their assigned images:

• Step 1: Ask students to look deeply at the picture for two or three minutes. Have them observe shapes, colors, textures, and the position of people and objects. Have them write down simple observations, not interpretations.
• Step 2: Ask students to brainstorm together questions they have about the image. In order to understand it, what questions might they want to ask the artist or the subject of the image?
• Step 3: Ask students to discuss possible interpretations of the image. What is the artist trying to communicate? What does this image or work of art suggest about life and culture in the Weimar Republic?

Briefly have each group share their assigned image and their ideas about what it suggests about life in the Weimar Republic.

To end the activity, share the titles and captions for each of the images with students. You could give students the key at the end of the Weimar Republic Images handout, project the information, or simply read it to students. If time permits, you might ask students to comment on how the titles and captions either support or change their interpretations of each image. 

Activity 4:  Record Impressions of the Weimar Republic

Either as a final activity or as a homework assignment, ask students to write a short paragraph about their impressions of the Weimar Republic so far. What has surprised them? What has interested them? How has what they learned so far supported or challenged their ideas about democracy?

Day 2 Activities

Activity 1: Explore Life in the Weimar Republic

Begin the class by asking students to review the short paragraphs they wrote at the end of the previous day. Ask a few students to share: What are their thoughts and impressions about democracy in the Weimar Republic so far?

Tell students that in this activity, they will explore several additional aspects of life in the Weimar Republic, including education, women’s rights, antisemitism, and economics.  

Set up the classroom for a Stations activity with four stations, one for each of the handouts below. (Depending on class size, you might create multiple copies of each station.)

• Education in the Weimar Republic
• Voices in the Dark
• Hyperinflation and the Great Depression
• Women in the Weimar Republic

Divide the class into groups so that they are evenly distributed between the stations at all times. Then begin the activity by assigning each group a station at which to begin. Give groups ten minutes to read and answer the questions that accompany each reading on a separate sheet of paper before having them rotate to the next station.  

Once the groups have finished visiting all of the stations, have the students discuss in their groups the following questions:

• What was most surprising about what you learned about the Weimar Republic in this activity? What was most interesting? What was most difficult?
• Which aspects of Weimar society explored in this activity were good for democracy? Which created challenges for democracy?

Activity 2 Introduce the “Bubbling Cauldron” Metaphor

To close this lesson, ask students to consider the metaphor of the “bubbling cauldron” that artist George Grosz used to describe life in the Weimar Republic.  

• Pass out The Bubbling Cauldron handout. Read the quotation by Grosz with students, and then ask them to fill out the cauldron-shaped graphic organizer to represent life in the Weimar Republic. They should label the “ingredients” being heated in the cauldron, the fuel for the fire, and the names of the individuals and groups lighting the fire. The handout includes a bank of words and phrases that students can use to label the graphic, but they will not be able to use all of the words in the bank and they may determine that some are not relevant. While part of the value of this activity is in thinking through the metaphorical relationship between ingredients, fuel, and those feeding the fire, some students may need assistance from the teacher in getting started filling in the graphic.
• It is important to note for students that in this lesson, one key part of this history of the Weimar Republic has intentionally been left out: the rise of the Nazi Party. Students will examine the Nazi Party in a subsequent lesson, and they will revisit this handout to incorporate Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party into the metaphor.