Pedagogical science and secret service in the GDR

The investigation into the relationship between pedagogy and the secret service in the GDR, which was completed in 2008 with the publication of a book, did not take into account the relationship between pedagogical science and the secret service. Nevertheless, the editor has continually collected and researched archival documents and personal data throughout the past decade, and further research has been carried out by staff at the Federal Commissioner’s Office (BSTU) for records of the state security office of the former GDR, thus roughly 600 former members of the APW (GDR Academy for Pedagogical Science) were investigated regarding a possible activity as inofficial secret service collaborators. This project continues the work of the DFG-funded project on the history of the APW in a specific way. We intend to publish our results in a monographic illustration of the inofficial and official relationships between the secret service in the GDR and pedagogical science, taking the example of the APW. A focal interest lies in the influence of the secret service on the production of knowledge in the APW, and, in so far as this can be reconstructed, the the reception of this (mostly pedagogical-psychological) knowledge by the secret service.