Rainer Grajek studied history and art. First he worked as a teacher and consultant and then moved to the field of teacher training. He wrote numerous scientific and methodological articles for the specialized press and historical articles in newspapers.
From 1981 to 1986 I worked as a consultant at the Ministry of Education in Maputo (Mozambique) and helped to develop the foundations of the new education system for the area of “history teacher training”. I also wrote curricula, textbooks and textbooks. The Ministry was headed by Graça Machel, wife of the then President of the Republic and later wife of Nelson Mandela. As a teacher, I also taught history teacher trainers. I reflected on this time in my book “Berichte aus dem Morgengrauen”. As a development aid worker in the GDR in Mozambique”. Among others, French historian and journalist Dr. René Pélissier wrote about my book in the context of the Portuguese magazine “Análise Socíal” (number 179, volume XLI, 2nd quarter 2006), a publication of the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon.
In 1989 and 1990 I became a professor at the University of Education of Lubango (Angola), part of the University of Luanda, and trained as a professor of History.
When I returned to Germany, I dedicated myself to teacher training and taught history at the then largest Saxon grammar school in Großenhain.
In the meantime, I was represented with articles in a professional journal for History teachers, mainly with contents for the didactic-methodological organization of History teaching. Numerous treatises on regional history appeared in daily newspapers. Together with my wife, I travel to a large number of African countries and have been studying the development of the Black Continent for many years.
In recent years, I have mainly developed my scientific work as a historian.
In 2012 the “Handbuch der Religionen der Welt” edited by Markus Porsche-Ludwig and Jürgen Bellers was published, and in 2013 the “Handbuch Sozialpolitiken der Welt” and “Sozialpolitik in Entwicklungsländern”, in which I am represented with chapters on Mozambique and Angola respectively.
In May 2014 my new book “Kreuz und quer durch Afrika” was published in two volumes. The review was again written by historian and journalist Dr. René Pélissier and can be read in the issue of the magazine “Géopolitique Africaine” (issue 52-2014).
In 2020, Mitteldeutscher Verlag Halle published a book by the editors Birgit Neumann-Becker and Hans-Joachim Döring entitled “For Respect and Recognition. The Mozambican contract workers and the difficult legacy from the GDR” to which I contributed the chapter “What traces did we leave behind”.
In 2022, LIT-Verlag published the English-language “Handbook Near and Middle East States” edited by Markus Porsche-Ludwig and Ying-Yu Chen. Geography – History – Culture – Politics – Economy” with my chapter “Mauritania / Al Jumhouriya al-Islamiya al-Muritaniya / République Islamique de Mauritanie”.