Pedagogical Lectures

Pedagogical lectures are teachers' essays from the GDR, originating from practical school work and teaching, often field reports. They were assessed and honored once a year. The BBF collection comprises more than 9,000 titles, which means nearly all centrally awarded peddagogical lectures of the GDR.

This collection comprises the centrally awarded pedagogical lectures dating from 1961 to 1989. Pedagogical lectures were written by teachers for teachers. They were meant to trigger an exchange of experience as well as offering an opportunity for the integration of practitioners into educational research. The preparation and dissemination of pedagogical lectures was meant to promote the improvement of socialist education. Progressive and generalizable ‘good instructional practices’ were thus disclosed to a large number of colleagues. The pedagogical lectures were frequently used in further training courses.

Each year, at the "Tag der Pädagogischen Lesungen" (=pedagogical lectures' day), the best pedagogical lectures were publically read and defended.

The lectures were centrally collected by the Central Pedagogical Library, predecessor of the BBF. Individual lectures were also printed and published as manuscripts by the district councils for teacher training (Bezirkskabinette für Weiterbildung der Lehrer und Erzieher).

Browsing and Using the Collection

The entire collection has been indexed in library catalog. To find relevant titles, you can enter the shelfmark "PL".

The lectures can only be used on our premises. Individual titles are also available for interlibrary loan for inspection in the reading room of the ordering library. Awarded lectures were copied using an Ormig technique which is highly sensitive to light. Owing to the poor condition of the original documents, users are asked to consult the library team if they wish to make a copy, but normally requests for chargeable scanned copies are no problem.

Particularly for reasons of preservation and to facilitate use, the pedagogical lectures are currently being digitized and entered into the text archive Scripta Paedagogica; however, for copyright reasons, the digital copies can only be viewed on the premises of the BBF. As part of this project, the pedagogical readings are also being indexed and keyworded.

Research Projects on the Collection

Complementary Archival Material

In addition to the library holdings, the BBF-Archive holds records on the genesis, review and evaluation of the pedagogical lectures, on the organization of pedacogical lectures' days and on the Gewerkschaft "Unterricht und Erziehung", the pedacogical trade union of the GDR, which was involved in the organization of the pedagogical lectures' day. All these records can be found in Archive of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences in the GDR.