Current dissertations

Institute of History, Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine

Doctoral candidate

Louisa Gröpper

Working title of the dissertation

The Dental Association of Lower Saxony in the post-war period and early Federal Republic of Germany - Biographies of the members of the first board of directors

Abstract

The Lower Saxony Dental Association (ZKN) is responsible for representing the professional, health policy and social interests of dentists in Lower Saxony. Every dentist in Germany belongs to a chamber. The aim of the Dental Association is to promote the health of the population in the field of dentistry, oral and maxillofacial medicine. As a corporation under public law, it is committed to a free healthcare system and supports the self-determination of patients and the free practice of the profession by dentists. The most important task of the Lower Saxony Dental Association is to ensure qualified training and further education for dentists and dental assistants.

As early as 1947, a provisional Lower Saxony Chamber of Dentists was established on the initiative of the dentist Dr. Karl Dreyer. In 1948, the first elections of chamber assembly members took place, as well as the election of the board of the Lower Saxony Chamber of Dentists.

The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Dentists is distinct from the Chamber of Dentists. It regulates contractual dental matters with the aim of providing the population of Lower Saxony with needs-based and comprehensive dental care.

This paper examines the professional policy objectives of the first board of the ZKN and its political orientation. A decisive aspect is how and where these dentists behaved during the past years of National Socialism and which professional political and ideological ideas they were guided by in the post-war period and in the first decade of the Federal Republic of Germany. As the previous review of the sources has shown, these were initially only male dentists. Only in later legislative periods were women also members of the chamber assembly. In order to gain an overview of the network structure, research will be carried out into their professional biographies before and after 1947, their main areas of activity and the effects that National Socialist professional politics and possible participation in the war had on their commitment.

The aim of this dissertation is to pay tribute to the first members of the Chamber. Nevertheless, I will also adopt a critical perspective in the dissertation.