Uni-Tübingen

Sub-Project B05: AIDS as a Threat to the Professional Code for Physicians and the Political Order: Physicians and AIDS in the FRG and the GDR (1981-1989)

Abstract

Sub-Project B05 examines the reactions of the medical profession in the FRG and the GDR to the threat of AIDS that had unleashed a real “epidemic of fear” in the 1980s. On the one hand, the project analyses the role of physicians as threat communicators. It questions how medical professionals communicated AIDS as a threat to both the professional code for physicians and the existing political order (in the FRG, the liberal-democratic order; in the GDR, the socialist order) given the high risk of AIDS infection that was initially assumed. On the other hand, the project looks at the medical community’s strategies for dealing with the threat. With its comparative perspective, the project sheds new light on unanswered questions related to comparative aspects and transfer processes between the (differently organized) medical professions in the FRG and the GDR.

Project Team

Project Leader:
Prof. Dr. Dr. Urban Wiesing

Post-doc:

Dr. Henning Tümmers

Academic Disciplines and Orientation

History of Medicine

Project Description

In the 1980s, AIDS triggered a “collective hysteria”. First reported by American epidemiologists in the summer of 1981, the mysterious immunodeficiency disease initially seemed to affect only homosexuals. By the time the first heterosexual victims were known, however, AIDS had become “the ultimate disaster” and “threat number 1” in the collective consciousness of the West German public. But AIDS not only incited fear within the FRG. In the GDR, anxiety about this epidemic and its implications prompted the government to implement measures for civil protection as far back as the early 1980s.

This project analyses the threat discourse surrounding AIDS kindled by medical professionals and, correspondingly, the measures undertaken by doctors to deal with this threat. It concentrates on the 1980s because the formative communicative patterns within the AIDS discourse emerged during this time and path-breaking decisions about how to fight the epidemic were also made. The main focus lies on the medical professions in the FRG and the GDR, which were highly regarded among governments and citizens alike thanks to their adherence to ethical principles and professional expertise. This made it possible for physicians to influence the AIDS debate in both political and public circles. From the beginning of the 1980s onward, doctors not only communicated the fatal implications of the immunodeficiency disease for human health, but also how the professional code for physicians and the political order (in the FRG, the liberal-democratic order; in the GDR, the socialist order) were endangered. As the experts in charge of addressing epidemics, medical professionals were expected to make suggestions for combatting the threat and to act responsibly in order to stabilize the political and medical systems threatened by AIDS.

The sub-project deals with three major themes:

a) AIDS as a threat to the professional code for physicians: the intra-professional perspective

On one level, the project looks at these issues from the perspective of the history of the profession. It analyses the discussions among doctors in the (differently organised) medical professions in the FRG and the GDR to determine how doctors perceived AIDS as a threat to their professional code of conduct in the 1980s, what ethical dilemmas they saw themselves confronted with, and which principles of medical practice became the subject of controversial debate.

b) AIDS as a threat to the political order: the societal perspective

The medical discourse on AIDS was not limited to the medical profession and topics pertaining to the profession itself. Rather, it also influenced political and public debates. The medical profession emphatically made the point that the uninhibited spread of this new infectious disease also threatened the political order in both German states. Therefore, on the one hand, the project aims to examine the course, dynamics and consequences of the threat discourse generated by the medical community in the FRG and in the GDR more closely. On the other hand, it aims to describe the underlying diagnoses and prognoses behind this debate and to elucidate how the medical community defined the threat of AIDS. The project seeks to identify communicative patterns and show how they were transferred from the intra-professional AIDS discourse into the public threat discourse as well as how the public AIDS debate influenced doctors' perceptions of the threat.

It also pursues another set of questions related to how medical professionals dealt with this threat: the project analyses to what extent physicians not only endeavoured to ratify their professional code of conduct, but also the existing political order with the measures they suggested or whether they also sought to use the AIDS threat to point out deficits and shortcomings of the respective society and thereby incite political change. Furthermore, it questions whether the AIDS debate led to a change in the social position of doctors and whether the medical profession was able to influence political decision-making.

c) AIDS as threat in the East and the West: a comparative perspective

Lastly, the project wants to make use of the “ideal experimental set-up” (Hockerts) for historical research provided by the division of Germany. This makes it possible to contrast reactions to the same threat source in two states with constellations of political order that were fundamentally different in terms of the organization of society, the public sphere, and the medical profession; but that were also interwoven with one another due to their shared history and spatial proximity. The project examines to what extent AIDS brought the two German states and their societies closer together despite the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain. The focus therefore lies on the observations made by the respective international ideological opponents, which were typical for the Cold War, and the international encounters between experts on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The comparison of the two German states not only makes it possible to outline the respective communication and transformation processes more clearly, but also it allows for the inclusion of transnational developments such as rapprochement processes between the two medical communities.

Project-related Lectures and Publications

Tümmers, Henning

  • 'Vom Faltblatt direkt in die Genitalien'. Aidsprävention als Bevölkerungspolitik in der Bundesrepublik, in: Etzemüller, Thomas (Hrsg.): Vom 'Volk' zur 'Population'. Formen der interventionistischen Bevölkerungspolitik in der Nachkriegszeit (voraussichtlich 2014).
  • Aids und die Mauer. Deutsch-deutsche Reaktionen auf eine komplexe Bedrohung. In: Thießen, Malte (Hrsg.): Infiziertes Europa. Seuchen im 20. Jahrhundert (Beihefte der Historischen Zeitschrift, Nr. 64), München 2014, S. 157-185.
  • 'Gib AIDS keine Chance'. Eine Präventionsbotschaft in zwei deutschen Staaten. In: Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History 10 (2013), Heft 3, S. 491-501. Link zur Publikation
  • Sammel-Rezension 'Krisen', in: H-Soz-u-Kult (2013). Link zur Publikation
  • Rezensionen: Beate Schappach: Aids in Literatur, Theater und Film, in: Gesnerus 69 (2012), S. 364-366.
  • 'Heaven can wait': Reaktionen auf die Aids-Bedrohung in Hamburg. In: Jahresbericht der Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg (FZH) 2011, Hamburg 2012, S. 13-30. PDF-Datei der Publikation.
  • Aidspolitik: Bonn und der Umgang mit einer neuen Bedrohung. In: Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 52 (2012), S. 231-252.
  • 'Synthesekern' Aids. Forschungsperspektiven und Plädoyer für eine Zusammenführung von Zeit- und Medizingeschichte, in: Wahrmann, Carl Christian/ Buchsteiner, Martin/Strahl, Antje (Hrsg.), Seuche und Mensch. Herausforderung in den Jahrhunderten, Berlin 2012, S. 429-445. Link zur Publikation
  • 23.04.2015 - "Regieren und Vertrauen: Aidspolitik in der Bundesrepublik", Vortrag auf der Tagung "Das Gespenst der Unregierbarkeit und der Traum vom guten Regieren: Konzepte politischer Steuerung seit den 1970er-Jahren", Köln.
  • 02.12.2013 - "AIDS und die Mauer. Deutsch-deutsche Reaktionen auf eine neue Bedrohung"; Vortrag im Rahmen der Medizinhistorischen Vortragsreihe der Universität Nürnberg-Erlangen.
  • 29.09.2013 - "AIDS-Prävention im geteilten Deutschland. Zweistaatlichkeit und grenzüberschreitende Transferprozesse während des Kalten Krieges"; Vortrag im Rahmen der Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für die Geschichte der Medizin, Naturwissenschaft und Technik e.V., Jena.
  • 21.02.2013 - "'Gib AIDS keine Chance': Zeithistorische Überlegungen zu einer deutsch-deutschen Präventionsbotschaft"; Vortrag im Leibniz-Kolleg Tübingen.
  • 05.12.2012 - "Vaseline statt Vakzine: Aids, Aidspolitik und Experten im geteilten Deutschland." Vortrag im Rahmen des Studium Generale, Tübingen.
  • 09.11.2012 - "Aids als Bedrohung der ärztlichen Berufsordnung und der politischen Ordnung. Mediziner und Aids in der Bundesrepublik und der DDR (1981-1989)"; Vortrag im Rahmen des SFB-Kolloquiums.
  • 23.03.2012 - "Aids und die ärztliche Kommunikation in beiden deutschen Staaten während der 1980er Jahre"; Workshop "Infiziertes Europa. Seuchen in der Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts", Universität Oldenburg, 23. – 24.03.2012.
  • 19.11.2011 - "AIDS als Bedrohung in Deutschland während der 1980er Jahre", Robert-Bosch-Stiftung Stuttgart.
  • 24.09.2011 - "'Heaven can wait': Reaktionen auf die Aids-Bedrohung in Hamburg": Tagung "Strukturwandel und Protest. Hamburg und Norddeutschland seit den 1970er Jahren", Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg.
  • 10.09.2011 - "Synthesekern Aids"? Ärztliche Kommunikation in beiden deutschen Staaten während der 1980er Jahre und Perspektiven für die Medizingeschichte: Workshop "Aids revisited. Aktuelle Forschungsperspektiven", Universität Zürich, 10. – 11.09.2011.