Система африканских исследований в ГДР

The article examines the process of studying the history of Africa in the German Democratic Republic using the example of two scientific schools - Humboldt University of Berlin and University of Leipzig. In the first decades of the GDR, their development was complicated by the lack of the necessary number of specialists. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was possible to create research teams due to state support, expanded opportunities for presenting and publishing research results, and the emergence of authoritative specialists trained in the GDR. The subject of African studies was updated due to political interaction with African countries and focused on the colonial period and the anti-colonial struggle. The institutional development of African studies in the GDR was ahead of the scientific one; the main structures were formed by the 1970s, while the culmination of research activity was the late 1970s and 1980s.