ABSTRACT
In the public libraries of former East Germany, Giftschrank, or ‘poison cupboard’, was the common name for a stockroom of classified literature. In 1961, the government tried to euphemize such terms Sperrbibliothek, or ‘locked library’, disappeared from official documents and the state secretary ordered that Giftschrank be replaced by a term meaning ‘section for special research literature’. Philosophy as a whole was given an immense status in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The centralization of the economy and social structure compelled a parallel centralization of truth. Marxism was hallowed as a singular science and individual cornerstone of the system. The East German theological or seminary schools, however, housed a subgroup of academics who typically did not submit to such strict ideological prejudice. These thinkers taught Popper with genuine scientific interest and encouraged students to consider his reasoning against Marxism.
