It is worth mentioning an article in October 2010 issue called 'Mussolini Frustrated'. It is about the recent release of the first part of the diary of Mussolini's main lover Claretta Petacci. Admittedly the first part of the article focuses on Mussolini's love life, affairs, ect., but the middle bit looks at his interactions with Hitler and his own prejudices that had a hand in the creation of WW2. There is also a handy timeline entitled 'Rise and Fall of a duce'. This sort of information interconnects other activity in Europe, and activity in Germany, thus emphasising that it was not a localised issue.

Chapter 7 - The Decline of Weimar and the Rise of Nazism 1929-32

Chapter 6 - The Early Years of the Nazis 1919-29

I had an email from HA saying that it was lanching new podcast resources...

Throughout the Autumn the following podcasts will appear:

Women's Political History from 1800 to the present day.
British Social History and Reform 1800-2000
German History from WWI to the end of WWII

I admit I'm not really au fait with podcasting, but it looks like a useful tool

Chapter 5 - Weimar: The Years of Stability 1924-9

1920s Expressionism

I know Wikipedia isn't the greatest place in the world to source, but sometimes it's difficult to find a better definition, and its page on 1920s expressionism is concise and (seems at least to me to be) fairly accurate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism

Seeing how good this was led me also to look at expressionists, and alas Wiki came up trumps again...

Bertolt Brecht -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht

Kurt Weill - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Weill

Hanns Eisler - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Eisler

Here are a few more cartoons...

Ruth suggested that I look at a David Lowe cartoon, which I am hoping is the one pictured above (that features on the 'BBC bitesize' website).

They suggests that...

The cartoon shows:
Hitler and Stalin pretending to like each other.
Really they hate each other.
A figure (representing Poland) lying dead on the floor between Stalin and Hitler.
Both wear guns and military uniforms, and Germany's weapons (on the left) are in the background.
Dark clouds all around.

I will post further cartoons soon, followed by some expressionist work

Hot Seating

This is particularly fun sounding. The teacher sits at the front of the room and plays the role of a historical figure. The students can be given a few minutes to prepare questions. Then they ask 'the character' questions, e.g. why did you do that? what were your motives? was this the right thing to do? The teacher stays in role and answers questions (possibly wearing a distinctive item like a hat to clarify when in character and when as teacher for discipline reasons).

This could be used to Kaiser Wilhelm, Hitler, a member of Hitler's Youth, a victim of the inflation crisis. It could be done at various suitable intervals through the year when an important character needs introducing.

Dominoes

Make cards with a line in the middle like a domino, with a question on one side and an answer that doesn't match on the other. Hand them out, and get someone to start by reading their question. Ask who thinks they have the answer, and if more than one answer is offered, get the class to decide which is right. Then get them to read their question, and continue until the chain is complete.

This could be questions regarding political parties so that each answer is a part name, or any other topic with definite answers.

Delegation

Set up 'resource stations', on each groups table. Let them work through it. It could be a variety of primary and/or secondary sources. Each group can then present their findings to the rest of the class. This could be either a short summary by each group to end the lesson, or a longer one involving a PowerPoint.

This promotes a number of skills - both literacy in the presentation of the summary, and historical analysis of primary evidence.

This could be documents to do with the Treaty of Versailles, the Weimar Constitution, Weimar Culture (cartoons, art, poetry), ect.

Conversion

This is the concept of giving the students an idea in one format, and getting them to convert it to another format e.g. into a mind map, flow diagram, storyboard, chart, ect.

For example, this could be used to help to create links between topics or events. For example, a general example might be, how the factors that the Weimar Republic had to deal with -> Downfall of republic & rise of Nazis -> WW2

Calling Cards

Provide the students with 3 different coloured cards, preferably red, orange & green. This is an activity to check understanding. It could be used either to ask questions and each colour can correspond to a response, or at the end of a topic section, it could be broken down further and the class could be asked how they feel about each sub-section. The show of cards will help to more easily identify areas where students are lacking understanding or confidence.

Bodily functions

This is based on a concept for science, but it could be utilised in a history lesson. Get pupils to stand holding cards - half with dates on, and half with events on. Get the pupils holding date cards to line up first, then get the events to line up behind the corresponding date, allowing the date and event pupils to discuss and agree that they match up.

This would link well to the topic of the early years of the Nazis, to consider what actions occurred that lead to their rise, or to look at the threats to the Weimar Republic, listing the uprisings that occurred.

Bingo

Write a list of words on the board that are topic specific. Get the students to draw a 9-square grid and pick 9 words from the list, putting one in each box. Then read a prepared dialogue and get the student to cross out their words when they hear them. The winner is the first to get a 'full house'.

This is a good way to either start/finish a lesson (warm up/down), or to revise a topic. This would work well with either the treaty of Versailles or looking at inflation. Both of which have some good key terms, and aren't to based on just stats, ect.

Lesson Ideas

Having gone through many ideas on this topic, I thought I would use the rest of my time to suggest some lesson ideas that I could use (from Ginnis' The Teacher's Toolkit)...

Beat the Teacher

The idea of this is for the teacher to make deliberate mistakes, and the students to spot them.

I thought this might be a good follow up to some intensive work on German political parties. Either the teacher could read out short descriptions of a party and wait for students to indicate that a mistake has been made, or a slip with a party on could be given to pairs and 5 mins to pick out the mistake in the text. This would be a warm up activity.

German or Nazi Antisemitism?

This is 15 page article looks at the idea of Antisemitism in the Nazi Party in the time of the Weimar Republic. It is a subject that I hadn't looked at in great depth until I recently saw some (very upsetting) programmes on TV. This is a teaching must for bringing the realities of these policies to life, a topic that can bring a very genuine sense of both reality and emotion into this era.