In contributions to the history of education in the GDR, the German Central Pedagogical Institute (Deutsches Pädagogisches Zentralinstitut, DPZI) and subsequently the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the GDR (Akademie der Pädagogischen Wissenschaften, APW) are often referred to as leading pedagogical institutions (Pädagogische Leitinstitutionen, cf. Eichler & Uhlig, 1993, p. 118; Malycha, 2009, p. 171) or leading institutions (cf. Zabel, 2009, p. 88; Tenorth, 2017, p. 207). These terms refer to the centralised state orientation and the functional claim of both institutions, which were directly subordinate to the Ministry of Education (Ministerium für Volksbildung, MfV) and operated according to decisions of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Zentralkomittee der Sozialistischen Einheitspartei Deutschland). From these state bodies, the leading pedagogical institutions were assigned tasks for research and planning, conception of teaching materials, teacher training and cadre training. In the work of both institutions, demands for a recognised scientific institution played just as important a role as the need for comprehensive ideological control by the SED-led government.

Plans to establish the DPZI date back to 1945. On the instruction of the administrative bodies of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (Sowjetische Militäradministration in Deutschland, SMAD), an non-university pedagogical institute was created in 1949, which was granted the independent right to award doctorates in 1954. The main fields of work were research into subject teaching methods (see also subject teaching methodologies), and their application in curriculum work and teacher training. To support this, departments were set up to produce theoretical analyses e.g. on Soviet pedagogy or psychology (cf. Zabel, 2009, p. 402; see also pedagogical psychology). The results of this substantive work were incorporated into the development of basic policy guidelines and laws, e.g. in the Law on the Unified Socialist Education System (Gesetz über das einheitliche sozialistische Bildungssystem, 1965). The DPZI was restructured several times during its existence, and at the end of the 1950s saw radical political disciplinary measures and new appointments to leadership positions (Wiegmann 1993, p. 79f.).

Towards the end of the 1960s, the APW was founded, based on the Soviet model of the same name, and previous organisational units of the DPZI were integrated into it. Structured into institutes, work centres, and departments, from 1970 onwards, the academy was given extensive powers for the coordination of pedagogical and subject-methodological research in the higher education sector and expert functions for teaching materials and specialist publications in school and teacher training. It was to carry out centralised and purposeful large-scale research and to implement this in reforms and evaluations of curricula and materials in general school education at the national level. Research and surveys were also conducted in the field of ideological education, sociology of education, and pedagogical psychology. Towards the end of the 1980s, the resulting conflicts caused internal disputes between APW and MfV leadership officials and ministerial devaluation of key research results (Döbert & Geißler, 1999, p.11f.).

At the beginning of the German transformation period in 1989/90, the work of the APW was heavily criticised by researchers from East and West Germany, particularly with regard to its political and ideological function. The academy was dissolved at the end of 1990 by the Federal Ministry of Education and Science (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Malycha, 2008, pp. 160–163). Surviving files and legacies of both institutions are archived and accessible via the archive of the Research Library for the History of Education at DIPF (Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung des DIPF).