ABSTRACT
The final chapter draws together the themes established and the concept of medical memories and experiences discussed throughout the book. It examines the agency of the personnel alongside the women denounced as ‘promiscuous’ and ‘delinquent’ children who existed in the microcosm of the multifunctional institution and workhouse in Leuben, a suburb of Dresden. Most important is the analysis of the superintendent and his vision of the future of Leuben, which he projected to establish himself as a socialist reformer. His ideas, however, illustrate that he could not dissociate himself from the past of this institution and thus his ‘reforms’ were neither new nor unique to East Germany. Therefore, with the help of the analytical tool of medical memories and experiences, the chapter tests the state narrative, the institutional memory, the interests of different mnemonic communities, and the individual memories of staff and inmates of the institution in Leuben.
