ABSTRACT
After revealing the continuity of medical personnel in the postwar era in Chapter 1, this chapter analyses the accompanied persistence of mentalities, views, and concepts regarding sexually transmitted diseases [STDs]—a fact, which is nothing unique for the GDR. The starting point of the analysis is the illustration of views towards sex and sexual health in the postwar era in East Germany, after which the chapter turns to the medical and social treatment of patients convalescing in the health clinics for STDs. Furthermore, it explores nightly raids, educational campaigns, and intentionally induced deterrence and fear cultivated by health authorities, as well as the general stigmatisation of women in Dresden and Leipzig. This chapter asserts that the medical memories of authorities and doctors shaped peoples’ medical experiences in their present, and even the perceptions of their future—their career and personal life. For many people, a sexual infection was followed by alienation and profound medical and state interventions.
