Why Did the Nazis Grow in Popularity After 1929? GCSE Weimar Germany Lesson

Why did Nazi support rise so rapidly after 1929? Was it simply the result of economic desperation — or did Hitler and the Nazis actively exploit fear, anger and instability through clever political strategy?

This fully resourced, enquiry-led GCSE lesson guides students through a structured investigation of the causes of growing Nazi popularity after the Wall Street Crash. Rather than relying on narrative explanation, students build their understanding through inference, interpretation and judgement-based activities that reveal how crisis created both widespread suffering and political opportunity.

The lesson includes:

A low-stakes register task using visual inference to introduce economic panic and uncertainty

A character match-up exploring how different groups experienced the impact of the Wall Street Crash

Judgement tasks focusing on anger, shock and opportunity to deepen causal understanding

A targeted appeal activity analysing how Hitler tailored messages to specific groups while excluding others

A headline-based plenary requiring students to weigh up competing interpretations and reach a supported judgement

The resource includes all worksheets, cut-out cards and full slide-by-slide teacher notes written in a consistent, classroom-tested format. Activities are designed to support structured discussion, historical reasoning and exam-ready explanation.

Aligned with Edexcel GCSE History: Weimar & Nazi Germany, and easily adaptable for AQA, OCR and Eduqas, this lesson develops key disciplinary skills including inference, causation, interpretation and evaluative judgement while helping students understand why Nazi support grew after 1929.