ABSTRACT
In the chapter which follows the educational system of East Germany is described and to some extent evaluated. The reader, whether interested in systems of education or in more general aspects of life, is warned of the absolute necessity to separate the social and even the political aspects of the East German educational system from the common picture offered in the West of a repressive police state from which citizens aspire to escape. It may very well be axiomatic that anyone studying the educational system of a country of the communist bloc should be willing to ascribe, as generously as possible, the highest professional integrity to all engaged in the service of education. The commitment to communism, which results in a higher proportion of party membership in the profession than in the population generally, seldom if ever leads to a greater distortion of professional honesty than is to be found in different educational systems which condone and encourage other kinds of indoctrination.
