Marsilius lecture summer semester 2026  Between Ethos and Power: Politicized Medicine in the DDR

Institutionalized medicine repeatedly runs the risk of abandoning its ethos, which is oriented toward the well-being of the individual, in favor of political goals. Particularly disturbing examples come from totalitarian regimes, such as the Nazi era and the DDR. The lecture addresses the relationship between medicine and power using an example from the DDR: closed venereal disease wards, into which young women were admitted against their will. Even a mere suspicion of a sexually transmitted disease or a denunciation could be sufficient. Although most were demonstrably not ill, those affected were subjected to degrading medical procedures and sexualized violence by doctors and nursing staff. These medical facilities no longer served the purpose of individual-oriented medical care, but rather a politically motivated system of discipline. The role of the medical staff was by no means limited to merely implementing state directives: doctors and nurses often actively participated in shaping and further developing these practices. Medicine thus became part of a state apparatus of discipline. A politicized form of medicine emerged that subordinated the well-being of the individual to political objectives.