Special class (GDR)

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The special classes for mathematics and physics or chemistry were institutions in the GDR for the promotion of highly talented students. They were special schools that had been set up at universities and colleges according to an instruction from the State Secretariat for Higher and Technical Education in 1964 and accepted 10th grade graduates. Unlike the Extended Oberschulen (EOS), they were not subordinate to the Ministry of Education, but to the State Secretariat and later the Ministry of Higher and Technical Education.

In 1964 the special classes for mathematics and natural sciences (founded as special class mathematics / physics) at the Humboldt University in Berlin (at that time still single), the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and the Technical University of Karl-Marx-Stadt as well as the special classes were created for chemistry at the Technical University Leuna-Merseburg . They were followed by special classes with a mathematical and physical orientation at the University of Rostock, the Technical University of Dresden and the Technical University of Magdeburg .

The special classes taught the material of the 11th and 12th grade up to the Abitur . In the subjects that did not correspond to their specialization, they worked according to the general curriculum of the EOS, but taught far more extensive material in the specialization subjects. They prepared the students directly for a corresponding university course and were thus able to lead to special study structures.

Lessons were mainly given in the specialization subjects, but also in mathematics and foreign languages, largely by university teachers. With an average of 15 students, the class size was significantly lower than in the usual high school graduation classes.

Working groups for students

At various colleges and universities in the GDR there were also working groups for the gifted, such as the Mathematics Working Group at the Technical University of Dresden (now TU) or the district club of young mathematicians at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and the district correspondence circles for mathematics and chemistry of the TU Karl-Marx-Stadt (now TU Chemnitz). These were not organizationally linked to the special classes, but information about the possibility of special class training was distributed to the members of the working groups and correspondence circles.

Individual evidence

  1. Instruction No. 9/1964 of the State Secretariat for Higher Education and Technical Education for the establishment of special classes at the mathematical and natural science faculties of universities and colleges. In: Communications from the State Secretariat for Higher and Technical Education 1/1964
  2. a b H. Frank, W. Ziemann: Information on special classes at sections for mathematics and natural sciences at universities and colleges, version from January 1979, Humboldt University of Berlin, sheet 1 , sheet 2
  3. Magnificence opened a special class . Humboldt University of Berlin. November 23, 1964.
  4. A. Koch: The special classes for mathematics and physics at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg . February 29, 2000.
  5. special class . Faculty of Mathematics, TU Chemnitz. 2004.
  6. A life for the next generation of maths . In: Freie Presse , January 22, 2014. 
  7. ^ Society of Friends of the Technical University of Chemnitz e. V .: The slightly different anniversary book , May 2011, p. 39.

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