The Pedagogical Readings as a unique historical source for research on the pedagogical work with disabled pupils in the GDR educational system.

German Democratic Republic (GDR) pedagogy is still a topic that is as fascinating as it is controversial – in particular, when it comes to school and teaching. This article is dedicated to a source that has so far remained internationally unnoticed, the Pedagogical Readings as a written recording of experiences and providing innovative proposals implemented by GDR pedagogues. A total of about 9500 have been preserved to date in the Library for Education History Research, a source unique in the history of education that has hardly been appreciated until now. The article describes the contours of the corpus itself, and reports on research undertaken so far. Using the part of the corpus that refers to the pedagogical work with cognitively impaired pupils, it shows, through examples, that a closer analysis of this highly original source material has the potential to give new impulses to social narratives concerning GDR pedagogy as well as to the related academic discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]