In the GDR, extracurricular activities were seen as a special feature of education and schooling (Law on the Unified Socialist Education System, Gesetz über das einheitliche, sozialistische Bildungssystem, 1965, Section 6 (2)). They were instruments for meaningful leisure activities as well as for promoting talent and personality development according to the lawful principle of the unity of education and upbringing (Law on the Participation of the Youth of the German Democratic Republic in the Struggle for the Comprehensive Construction of Socialism and the Comprehensive Promotion of their Initiative in Leading the National economy and the State, in the Workplace, Schools, in Culture and Sports, Gesetz über die Teilnahme der Jugend der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik am Kampf um den umfassenden Aufbau des Sozialismus und die allseitige Förderung ihrer Initiative bei der Leitung der Volkswirtschaft und des Staates, in Beruf, Schule, bei Kultur und Sport, 1964, Section 11 (1)).

Fields of activity in which pupils and apprentices could pursue their inclinations, abilities, gifts and talents were essential areas of science, technology, sport and culture that were important to the state. The fields of activity in which pupils and apprentices could pursue their interests, abilities, gifts and talents were areas of science or natural sciences, technology, sport, and culture that were also deemed to be politically significant. Numerous extracurricular organisations, such as the so-called Pioneer Houses, as well as sports clubs, larger companies and various state-run companies, served a wide range of students interests. As early as the 1950s, and even more so since the 1960s, many after school groups (Arbeitsgemeinschaften, AGs) were created. Including the school day-care centre, they were suitable for supplementing and deepening regular lessons and for integrating children within the realm of GDR schooling as much as possible.

At the beginning of the 1970/71 school year, 22 after-school groups were created for grades 9 and 10 of the polytechnical secondary schools in accordance with a so-called framework programme (Arbeitsgemeinschaften nach Rahmenprogramm, AGR). Offered as a two-hour long, optional, non-graded course per week over two school years, they went beyond the wide-ranging system of other after school activities but remained far removed from radical differentiation in the sense of course teaching in favour of the unity principle (Einheitsprinzip, see also unified schooling). Despite considerable differences between individual schools, these courses were frequented by just over a third of children, mainly those who wanted to move on to extended secondary schools (Erweiterte Oberschulen, EOS) after grade 10. In comparison to the otherwise strictly systematised schooling at polytechnical secondary schools (Polytechnische Oberschulen, POS), extracurricular activities could be experienced as a certain freedom in terms of both content and method, without the overarching state educational and training goals losing any of their claims for influence.