Lesson Plan 1

“The fragility of democracy” –

Overall Key Questions:

What were the social, political and economic conditions in Germany after World War One?

What were the choices confronting citizens during the Weimar Republic?

How can we protect a democracy?

Resource : Sources A to G

Lesson 1

Economy in Weimar Germany

Step 1

Begin the lesson by giving a brief reminder of the economic situation in Weimar Germany between 1919 and the early 1930s (hyper-inflation of 1923, economic recovery during the mid-1920s and 1929 Great Depression).[This is included in the overview note from the previous section]

Step 2

Divide the class into groups.
Hand out the sources
Each group needs to receive some sources to work through. They can be given all the sources or some of them (once they have completed them they can swop with other groups until they have worked through all the sources).

Step 3

In order to focus the learners as they work through the sources, they should fill in the table that has been included in the resources for this lesson. This can be done in groups but each learner should have their own table to fill in.

Step 4

Step 5

Using the information in their tables as well as the content in the overview note supplied in the previous lesson, each learner writes a few short paragraphs answering the question below (using the writing frame included with the resources for this section).

“How would the economic conditions in Germany between 1919 and the early 1930s have affected the German people?”

The purpose of the writing frame is to guide the learners in the structure of their writing.
Learners can either complete the paragraphs on the writing frame or they can re-write the leading sentences and with their own information, produce a complete piece of writing.
Allow them to rewrite/change the leading sentences if they would like to make their paragraphs more original.

Step 6

Invite some learners to read their paragraphs aloud to the class.
Some of the learners’ answers (or a completed answer written by the educator) could be photocopied onto a transparency and shown to the class. This could be an effective tool to use with learners to teach them writing skills.

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