Weimar - The struggle for democracy.
Game-based learning as a full-day workshop at Wall 40

On 4 November 2024, a simulation workshop was held in the new premises of the Science and Democracy Foundation as part of the Interdisciplinary Weeks at Kiel University of Applied Sciences. A group of motivated students practised preserving democracy using the "Weimar" simulation and learnt about the challenges facing this historically fragile form of government. What looked to the outside observer like a group getting together for a nice board game turned out, on closer inspection, to be a highly complex scenario that depicted the 14 turbulent years of the Weimar Republic from its inception in 1918 to Hitler's appointment as Reich Chancellor in January 1933. Four groups of students each took control of one of the parties of the time: SPD, Centre, KPD and DNVP. The task of the two mainstream parties was to preserve democracy, while the two fringe parties wanted to expand their power. The task was to make the right decisions at several political levels, in cities and in parliament, as well as in international relations, and to react appropriately to the events of the time.

Games were played on the Foundation's premises well into the evening hours and the event once again showed how important and effective game-based learning is for communicating and understanding political issues in a "playful" way. Wall 40 and SW&D provided the perfect setting for the students to approach this exciting topic in a practice-orientated way.