Since the 1970s the history of educational development has become the object of scholarly research once more. Within the context of recent educational history, the post-war period has aroused particular interest in educational historiographers. This period of educational development was the central topic of a recent conference of Historical Commission of the German Society for Educational Sciences. That symposium sought to find points of reference or precursors in the post-war era of the reforms in the 1970s. In contrast, the development during the 1950s and 1960s has not yet been investigated in detail, a gap which is explained by its close proximity to the present.