Based on a preliminary study on the existence of politically motivated adoptions of children without the consent of their biological parents (also termed "forced adoptions" − Zwangsadoptionen) during the period of communist rule in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) the article first lays out the legal framework for adoptions in the GDR and the importance of the statutory obligation of any parents to further the development of a "socialist personality" of their offspring. This clause provided the legal grounds to withdraw custody and give children into adoption against the will of their parents. Given the fragmentation and limited accessibility to the relevant sources, only a very limited number of fully documented cases exist so far, from which one is presented in more detail. A definition of "politically motivated adoptions" which will underpin future research in the matter, is given. While it can be argued that such measures did not constitute an elaborate strategy to systematically repress and weaken political opponents at large (as it has been shown for the dictatorships in Spain and Argentina) the systemic lack of legal state guarantees in the GDR provided ample opportunity to use "forced adoptions" at the expediency of state repression in individual cases, in particular against vulnerable categories of people such as young single mothers and individuals who due their non-adapted life-style were stigmatized and prosecuted as "asocials" by the communist authorities.