We were invi­ted by The People’s Forum in New York City to discuss the history of the German Demo­cra­tic Repu­blic (GDR) and its endu­ring rele­vance for progres­sive move­ments today. In the two-session semi­nar, we covered the histo­ri­cal context in which the GDR was foun­ded, the charac­ter of its plan­ned economy, the func­tio­ning of its socia­list demo­cracy, and the signi­fi­cance of prole­ta­rian internationalism.

What charac­te­ri­zes the socia­list approach to health? We will explore expe­ri­en­ces from the German Demo­cra­tic Repu­blic, the Geor­gian Soviet Repu­blic, and modern-day Belgium to under­stand how socia­list systems of the past and present have defied econo­mic cons­traints and trans­for­med health care to serve the needs of the people rather than profit.

Toge­ther with the social physi­cian Dr. Hein­rich Niemann and the former head of a poly­cli­nic in Berlin Marzahn, Dr. Wolf­gang Dübel, as well as the doctor Dr. Anita Rausch, who is active in medi­cal trai­ning and further educa­tion, we discus­sed the health care system of the GDR and what signi­fi­cance the expe­ri­en­ces made here can play for current poli­ti­cal deba­tes. We looked at the health policy orien­ta­ti­ons of the GDR and how they were reali­sed in prac­tice, along­side the contra­dic­tions and deba­tes that arose in the process.

Toge­ther with the Marx Memo­rial Library in London and our part­ner Tricon­ti­nen­tal: Insti­tute for Social Rese­arch, we invi­ted to a discus­sion evening on the first edition of “Studies on the DDR”.