Between Foreign Politics and Humanitarian Neutrality: Medical Emergency Aid by the Two German States before 1970

During the armed conflicts of decolonisation in Korea, Vietnam and the Congo in the 1950s and 1960s, both German states joined the competition between East and West by sending medical teams to conduct aid work. West German numerical advantages in funds and available staff were countered by East German governmental command of human resources and productive capacities such as the pharmaceutical industry. As a result, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) preferred shorter stays and the supply of large amounts of equipment and materials whereas the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) instead commissioned teams of NGOs for several years and financed whole facilities. Ideological or even distorted interpretation of facts was more obvious in the East, opposition of health workers to the official line of their respective governments in the West. The FRG also introduced a distinction between neutral humanitarian and politically interested development aid whereas for the GDR all work was solidarity with socialist or liberated countries