The members of the Communist Party were a little shy today!
For many years we have wondered what it was we were doing wrong. The profiles of the characters in which our students personify were in line with our objective (Students will understand the appeal of the National Socialists at the end of the Weimar Republic).
We had gallery walks, including a running loop of "Alles Schwindel,"
and pictures of young children playing with stacks and stacks of useless currency.
Yet, I had never managed to have a class that aligned to the German Federal Election of July 1932.
In today's class, after much deliberation, presentation, and deep political grilling... a "success," if you will. By not revealing the abbreviated name of the party, and with strong character roll-playing with a phenomenal bunch of students, the results are in...Communists 0, Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands 3, and much to the chagrin (after the big reveal), The National Socialist German Worker's Party won by a landslide of four votes! While they were quite surprised to find out that the abbreviation for the victorious political party was NAZI. After putting themselves in the places of their characters, they at least understood how such a group rose to power. I'm very proud of these students and I am thinking very deeply regarding their approach to our next unit on the Holocaust.
I encourage any current of former student to comment on their experiences during the political rally.
