Friendship Pioneer Leader
The friendship pioneer leader (FPL) was a full-time functionary of the Free German Youth (FDJ) in all polytechnic high schools (POS) in the GDR , to whose central council (or the respective FDJ district leadership) he was subordinate. The pioneering friendship , of which he was the director, meant the entirety of all young and Thälmann pioneers in a school.
Area of responsibility
His main task was to raise the children and young people to become "socialist personalities" or to underpin this education through his ideological involvement. This happened, for example, as part of the agitation and guidance of the friendship council of the pioneer organization (grades 4 to 7) or the basic organization management of the FDJ (GOL) in grades 8 to 10. The FPL accompanied the young officials working here at all their (political) activities - such as the design and implementation of an event in honor of the communist politician Ernst Thälmann or a flag roll call for Republic Day on October 7th. Particularly important highlights were the foundation day of the FDJ on March 7th and the foundation day of the pioneer organization on December 13th.
Training the FPL
The friendship pioneer leaders were trained at various locations in the GDR. Those who were expected to be particularly loyal to the line were primarily trained at the Central Institute of the Pioneer Organization (ZIPO) in Droyßig or - in exceptional cases - at the FDJ University at Bogensee .
The priority here was the intensive political training of the prospective FPL. In addition to their qualification as pioneer leaders, technical and methodological knowledge was also imparted, so that the pioneer leaders received a teaching qualification for certain subjects in the lower or upper grades. The majority of the FPL was trained at the various institutes for teacher training in the GDR.
Voluntary pioneer leaders
For the individual pioneer groups there were voluntary group pioneer leaders who organized pioneer afternoons together with the pioneers . These were often the class teachers, but could also be FDJ members of the upper classes.
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans Döbert: The education system of the GDR in key words. Content and administrative issues and their legal basis , Luchterhand 1996. ISBN 3-472-02259-0
- ↑ René Börrnert: Ernst Thälmann as a leading figure in communist education in the GDR , dissertation , p. 106