Die Welle (The Wave) Discussion Questions: A Free Guide for Teachers and Film Clubs

World Cinema with Anna | Film Club Resources

What happens when a group of ordinary students decides it is stronger together, and a charismatic teacher decides to lead them? That question sits at the heart of Die Welle (The Wave), the 2008 German film that has become a favourite for classrooms, film clubs and anyone curious about how groups can go wrong.

To help you talk about it, we have created a free discussion guide: 100 questions on conformity, leadership and responsibility, plus a one-page printable version with 10 questions for classrooms. Both work especially well around Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January, and they connect with our November film club pick, The Counterfeiters.

Why Die Welle still matters

The film asks an uncomfortable question: could it happen here? Director Dennis Gansel has said that younger German audiences had grown weary of how the Nazi era is usually taught, and that he wanted to make a film that would reach them emotionally. The result is a story that feels close to home for any audience, because it unfolds not in a distant dictatorship but in an ordinary school.

What is Die Welle about? (spoiler-free)

During a project week on autocracy, high school teacher Rainer Wenger sets up a classroom experiment to show his students how a dictatorship works. What begins as a game about discipline and community quickly takes on a life of its own.

The film is a fictional drama inspired by a real classroom experiment led by teacher Ron Jones at a California high school in the late 1960s. In real life the experiment ended peacefully. The film pushes the idea much further, which is why it sparks such strong discussion.

What is inside the guide

The full guide, Teaching Die Welle: 100 Discussion Questions on Conformity, Leadership and Responsibility, is organised in five parts:

• Part 1: first reactions and context (10 questions)
• Part 2: conformity (25 questions)
• Part 3: leadership (25 questions)
• Part 4: responsibility (25 questions)
• Part 5: connecting with The Counterfeiters (15 questions)

The printable worksheet, Die Welle (The Wave): 10 Discussion Questions, picks three questions each for conformity, leadership and responsibility and adds one cross-film question. It includes space for notes and a teacher page you can remove before printing.

Three ways to use it

• Film club: choose five to eight questions, give everyone a few minutes to jot down answers, then discuss as a group.
• Classroom: use the printable worksheet for a think, pair, share activity over about 30 to 40 minutes.
• Remembrance: screen Die Welle and The Counterfeiters on separate occasions and use Part 5 to compare how each film approaches power, choice and responsibility.

Connecting with The Counterfeiters

The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher, 2007) is an Austrian-German drama based on Adolf Burger’s memoir about Operation Bernhard, a Nazi scheme that forced concentration camp prisoners to forge British pounds and American dollars. Where the students in Die Welle choose to join their group, the prisoners in The Counterfeiters face real persecution with almost no freedom of choice.

Part 5 of the guide invites you to explore both what the films share and how profoundly they differ. A classroom experiment is not the same as genocide, and the questions are designed to keep that distinction clear.

A few questions to get you started

• Karo refuses to join the group and eventually leaves the class. What does her decision cost her, and what does that say about the price of dissent?
• When does Rainer move from being a teacher to being the leader of a movement? Can you name the moment?
• Who is responsible for what happens in the film: Rainer, the students, the school, or everyone?
• What does it mean to learn from history, and what actions might follow?

A note on sensitivity

Die Welle is rated 15 in the UK and contains themes of authoritarianism, bullying, violence and a tragic ending. The Counterfeiters depicts Nazi persecution and a concentration camp. Please check that each film is suitable for your group before screening it, and watch both before using the questions. The guide discusses the full plots, including the endings, so it is designed for use after viewing.

Download the guide

• Teaching Die Welle: 100 Discussion Questions on Conformity, Leadership and Responsibility (full guide)
• Die Welle (The Wave): 10 Discussion Questions (printable classroom worksheet)