History · Year 11

Active learning ideas

The Concordat and Catholic Church

Active learning strengthens comprehension of this topic by letting students wrestle with power dynamics and conflicting motives. The Concordat’s contradictions unfold clearly when students role-play negotiations or analyze violations side-by-side, making abstract political maneuvering tangible.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• GCSE: History - Weimar and Nazi Germany

• 35–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Document Mystery
• 45 min · Pairs

Role-Play: Concordat Negotiations

Assign pairs one as Nazi negotiators and one as Vatican representatives. Each prepares key demands and concessions using provided sources, then role-plays a 10-minute negotiation. Debrief as a class on compromises reached and real historical outcomes.

Explain why Hitler signed the Concordat with the Catholic Church in 1933.

Facilitation Tip

In the Role-Play: Concordat Negotiations activity, assign students distinct roles with hidden agendas to force them to experience the bargaining pressures between the Vatican and Nazi regime.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Was the 1933 Concordat a pragmatic political move by Hitler or a genuine attempt at peaceful coexistence?' Ask students to support their arguments with specific evidence from the period, considering both the Nazi and Vatican perspectives.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

Activity 02

• Document Mystery
• 50 min · Small Groups

Source Stations: Undermining the Concordat

Set up four stations with documents like clergy arrest reports, school closure notices, Mit brennender Sorge excerpts, and Nazi propaganda. Small groups spend 8 minutes per station analyzing violations and noting evidence. Groups share findings in a whole-class gallery walk.

Analyze how the Nazis subsequently undermined the Concordat and persecuted Catholic clergy.

Facilitation Tip

During Source Stations: Undermining the Concordat, circulate with a clipboard to listen for students’ realizations about early violations, redirecting misinterpretations in real time.

What to look for

Provide students with a timeline of key events related to the Concordat (e.g., signing, specific violations, encyclical release). Ask them to sequence these events and write one sentence for each explaining its significance in the relationship between the Nazis and the Catholic Church.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

Activity 03

• Formal Debate
• 40 min · Whole Class

Formal Debate: Catholic Resistance Levels

Divide class into teams to argue for high, moderate, or low resistance using evidence cards on events like von Galen's sermons and Centre Party dissolution. Each side presents for 5 minutes, followed by moderated rebuttals and vote.

Evaluate the extent of Catholic resistance to the Nazi regime.

Facilitation Tip

For the Debate: Catholic Resistance Levels, require each side to use at least two primary sources as evidence, ensuring arguments stay grounded in historical detail.

What to look for

On an index card, ask students to identify one promise made in the Concordat and one specific action taken by the Nazis that violated it. They should also briefly state whether they believe Catholic resistance was effective and why.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

Activity 04

• Document Mystery
• 35 min · Small Groups

Timeline Build: From Pact to Persecution

In small groups, students sequence 12 event cards from 1933 Concordat to 1945, adding causal links and evidence. Groups present timelines, comparing how Nazis escalated control.

Explain why Hitler signed the Concordat with the Catholic Church in 1933.

Facilitation Tip

When building the Timeline, have students physically rearrange cards in small groups to reinforce how close in time violations followed the Concordat’s signing.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Was the 1933 Concordat a pragmatic political move by Hitler or a genuine attempt at peaceful coexistence?' Ask students to support their arguments with specific evidence from the period, considering both the Nazi and Vatican perspectives.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teach this topic by emphasizing evidence over narrative, using primary sources to disrupt assumptions about Catholic resistance or Nazi sincerity. Avoid framing the Concordat as a straightforward deal; instead, highlight its fragility and the Nazis’ incremental undermining of terms. Research on historical empathy suggests students grasp power imbalances better when they role-play constrained choices rather than abstract ideas.

Successful learning looks like students recognizing how the Concordat functioned as a temporary truce rather than a lasting alliance, citing specific evidence from multiple perspectives. They should also explain why Catholic resistance varied and escalated over time.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Role-Play: Concordat Negotiations, students often assume the Vatican achieved its goals.

  Pause the role-play midway to have negotiators share their actual concessions, then ask observers to identify which Catholic rights were already weakened in the draft terms.

• During Source Stations: Undermining the Concordat, students may overlook how quickly violations began.

  Direct students to sort sources by date and note the 1933-1934 cluster of arrests, then ask them to explain why these early actions contradicted the Concordat’s spirit.

• During Debate: Catholic Resistance Levels, students claim all Catholics resisted in similar ways.

  Hand out evidence cards with different Catholic responses and require debaters to categorize actions as accommodation, passive resistance, or active opposition before arguing their validity.

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Methods used in this brief

• Document Mystery
• Formal Debate