In our era of computers and computer models, the importance of physical or graphical models for both research and education in developmental biology (embryology) is often forgotten or at least underappreciated. Still, one important aspect of embryology is the (evolutionary) developmental anatomy of both human and animal embryos. Here, we present a short history of the visualization of Ernst Haeckel’s “biogenetic law” and his “gastraea theory” in biology textbooks from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) between 1951 and 1988. Our analysis of GDR textbooks showed embryology was integrated into different disciplines and remained an educational constant within the school textbooks throughout the GDR despite various educational reforms. While the majority of these textbooks failed to reference either Ernst Haeckel or his contributions to embryology, they often did mention Haeckel in sections dedicated to the theory of evolution and the promotion of Soviet ideals such as materialism.

中文翻译：

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1951-1988年，恩斯特·海克尔（Ernst Haeckel）在德意志民主共和国的生物学教科书中的胚胎学。

在我们的计算机和计算机模型时代，物理或图形模型对发育生物学（胚胎学）的研究和教育的重要性常常被遗忘或至少未被重视。胚胎学的一个重要方面仍然是人类和动物胚胎的（进化）发育解剖。在这里，我们介绍了1951年至1988年之间德意志民主共和国（GDR）的生物学教科书中恩斯特·海克尔（Ernst Haeckel）的“生物遗传法”及其“胃纲理论”的可视化的简短历史。我们对GDR教科书的分析表明，胚胎学已整合到不同的领域尽管进行了各种教育改革，但在整个德意志民主共和国的学校教科书中，这些学科仍然是一个教育常识。尽管这些教科书中的大多数都没有提及恩斯特·海克尔（Ernst Haeckel）或他对胚胎学的贡献，