Abstract
Nicole Kramer: Blühender Wohlfahrtsmarkt. Die Transformation der Pflegepolitik in der Wiedervereinigungsgesellschaft, in: Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung 2024. Berlin: Metropol Verlag, pp. 133–146.
When the Long-Term Care Insurance Act finally came into force in 1995, after much wrangling and heated debate about the form, nature and level of benefits, it applied to the whole of the recently reunified Germany. Is this just a coincidence of time, or is there a connection between the reunification of East and West Germany and the new arrangements for long-term care insurance? What insights can be gained by looking at this important stage in the development of long-term care policy through the lens of German-German relations and the history of transformation? The article examines the political work in government and parliament and sheds light on the ways in which the care policy of the GDR and the situation of those in need of care in East Germany played a role in the legislative process. In addition, the focus is extended to include the perceptions and behaviour of East German citizens who were (potentially) affected by the reform of care policy. Only from this perspective of social and everyday history does it become clear that reunification is an important factor in explaining the development of care for the elderly, especially the expansion of the care market. For the community nurses of the GDR, opening a private nursing service and becoming self-employed was a strategy for coping with the transformation of their professional biographies.
Über die Autorin
Prof. Dr. Nicole Kramer, geb. 1978. Studium der Neueren und Neuesten Geschichte, Mittelalterlichen Geschichte und Politischen Wissenschaft an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; 2004 Magister Artium; 2009 Promotion zum Dr. phil. Seit 2020 Juniorprofessorin für europäische Zeitgeschichte seit 1945 an der Universität zu Köln. Veröffentlichungen u. a.: Gesundheitspolitik als Verhandlungssache: Ideen, Institutionen und Praktiken vom 19. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart (= Jahrbuch des italienisch-deutschen historischen Instituts in Trient, 48/1), Bologna 2022 (hrsg. mit Anna Grillini); »Prekäre Geschäfte. Privatisierung und Vermarktlichung der Altenpflege im deutsch-englischen Vergleich«, in: Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History, Online-Ausgabe 17 (2020), H. 2, Druckausgabe S. 234–260. In Vorbereitung: Der Wert der Pflege. Sorgearbeit, Alter und Wohlfahrtsstaatlichkeit im europäischen Vergleich, 1945–2000.
