Until the early 1970s, communist education referred to a transition to communism that would go beyond the developed socialist society of the GDR. Communism was characterised as a system with truly human conditions of existence, as the result of a leap of humanity from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom (Engels 1962, p. 264), which would lead to a materially affluent society in which fully (Marx 1962, p. 508) developed individuals could shape their lives according to their own abilities and needs. In the previous stage of development – the socialism that was to be built up to a later actualised socialism – there was initially no need for communist education, but rather a socialist or Marxist-Leninist pedagogy. In view of the pioneering role that the Soviet Union (USSR) was given in human history and regardless of the prevailing social reality and the development of institutionalised education, communist education was initially considered a privilege of the USSR. In 1972, however, Margot Honecker, reigning Minister of Education caused irritation when, by virtue of her office, she unceremoniously declared communist education to be the main task for the coming years. What was referred to as communist education in the GDR had previously been unclear. For Margot Honecker, it was mainly education in communist morality. Against the background of the administrative mandate to decipher the essence of communist education, lively research in education studies developed. However, it remained inconclusive and culminated in a largely domestic conflict between increasingly self-confident researchers in education studies and higher-level public education administration officials.