Experience of planning humanitarian research in the GDR (1951-1989)

The experience of failures, mistakes, delusions, ideally, should be inspiring for subsequent effective problem solving. This could include the history of the totally centralized planning of humanitarian research in the German Democratic Republic, which led in 1986 to the creation of the “Central Research Plan for Marxist-Leninist Social Sciences of the GDR for 1986-1990”. Completely ideologized, this plan was aimed at preserving socialism “on German soil” in the long term, the dominance of Marxist-Leninist ideology, and the postulates of historical and dialectical materialism. Its authors, among whom were the leaders of the Academy of Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the Socialist Party of Germany, did not foresee the imminent fundamental changes in the country’s foreign and domestic policies that led to a peaceful revolution - the unification of the country in 1989-1990 and the collapse of the GDR regime.