Digitisation of GDR Textbooks

As a state-controlled mass medium in the GDR, school textbooks played a fundamental role in enforcing the Marxist-Leninist worldview and encouraging identification with the state. ‘Their significance’, clarifies Dr Anke Hertling, the head of the research library, ‘therefore extended way beyond the classroom and into society at large’. This unique digital corpus of approximately 120,000 pages will provide a valuable resource for researchers. Using digital methods where appropriate, researchers will be able to investigate continuities and disruptions in the development of textbooks and educational content. Researchers at the GEI will focus intensively on aspects such as the topics that shaped school education in the GDR and how the presentation of certain content changed over time.

‘Digitisation not only serves scientific analysis, but also the long-term preservation of highly vulnerable physical holdings’, says Dr Anke Hertling. As with other archive and library materials from the GDR, the GEI's comprehensive collection of GDR textbooks for the humanities and social sciences is affected by paper degradation. Due to its poor quality and high acidity, the paper is extremely brittle and the books are heavily discoloured. This means that urgent action must be taken to preserve the GDR textbooks and similar collections, especially from the post-war period. Digitisation will preserve the contents of the textbooks as a research source and as items of cultural heritage for future generations while complying with current copyright laws (UrhG).

Among the factors that influenced the project's funding was the GEI's plan to use the digitised sources to develop new teaching concepts. To this end, the GEI will provide trainee teachers in history and politics studying at the TU Braunschweig with the skills to critically engage with digital sources and examine textbook and educational content from the GDR. Prospective teachers will therefore develop critical media and data literacy skills that are essential when teaching students how to deal with current disinformation practices.

The project is funded by the 'Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany' (Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur).