Socialist Health Internationalism at Home: East Germany’s Tropical Medicine between Anticolonialism, Medical Racism, and Shortages

Abstract Socialist health internationalism is increasingly examined as an anticolonial alternative for transnational medical cooperation. This paper investigates the domestic foundations of socialist health internationalism by analyzing the history of East Germany’s specialism in tropical medicine. Tropical medicine prepared East German workers and medical experts for going abroad, and examined and trained workers and medical students from the so-called ‘warm countries.’ The focus on the domestic foundations of socialist internationalism allows, firstly, for an exploration of the domestic drivers behind East Germany’s efforts to build a transnational network of tropical medicine specialists—partly responding to shortages in infectious disease expertise and pharmaceuticals. Secondly, the domestic lens uncovers long-term trajectories in medical knowledge production, tracing racialized medical thought and practices from colonial-era Germany into socialist tropical medicine. Thirdly, this focus indicates the central role of prevention for socialist health internationalism—focusing especially on maintaining the health of East Germans going abroad.