ABSTRACT
Based in eastern Germany, Positive Relief was the post-1989 continuation of a more or less informal HIV/AIDS self-help group. It was part of official GDR AIDS prevention structures. The East German state response to HIV/AIDS2 rested strongly on the public sector and the medical system, specifically testing for HIV antibodies and, institutionally, a web of so-called consultation centers in larger cities. Adam was perhaps the most pivotal actor in Positive Relief as its co-founder after 1989, its executive director and lead social worker, and as advocating the organization's dissolution. Overall, he straddled an activist orientation and professionalism. Much like at the beginning, he felt that the west had destroyed eastern organizing, but now he ended up in resignation rather than trying to angrily reassert Positive Relief. Adam's understanding of the medicalization of AIDS work and its effect on Positive Relief are pivotal as this sets the stage for his experience of the dissolution.
