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”.