Establishing genetic counselling in the GDR in the area of conflict between science, politics and public

• Applicant: Dr. Susanne Doetz
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: from 2013 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 239941624

Against the background of the national socialist past and Lysenko´s doctrine, human genetics research in the GDR was practiced on a limited scale until the late 1960s. The doctrine of Lysenko which had been transferred from the Soviet Union proclaimed the inheritance of acquired characteristics as reality and denounced genetics as pseudoscience.Under the scope of the so-called Biologieprognose (biology prognosis) in 1966, GDR scientists maintained the need for investigation into human genetics. In the process, they stressed the progressive international development in that field. Five years later (1971) the project human genetics started. Its previous goal was the establishment of a genetic counselling family service. In the midst of the 1980s, genetic counselling helpdesks were available in each district (Bezirk) of the GDR Therefore genetic counselling served as a means of transmitting and applying modern molecular genetic knowledge.The research project aims to investigate the establishment of genetic counselling in the interaction between politics, science and the public. Which elder medical structures have been integrated in this period? Which traditions were continued and which were consciously neglected? How was genetic counselling shaped in the areas of conflict between health policy demands of the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany), international competition, lack of resources and the interests of human geneticists? And what role did the public or at least certain segments of the public, to whom after all genetic counselling was addressed, play in the process?These questions will be explored by examining documents of different participating institutions, contemporary publications and interviews with contemporary witnesses.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants