There is a generation for whom there will always be a "hood" and "druben give. Dr. Karl-heinz dathe belongs to this generation. And when he reports on his life in his practice, a piece of contemporary history passes by.
As dathe on 18. May 1940 is born in leipzig, there is war in germany. It is one germany, and its borders are bigger than they used to be. When the young man sits in the lecture hall, there are two german states. Their division is sealed in 1961 with the building of the wall. Next to medical lectures there are subjects like "marxism and leninism on the curriculum. "It annoyed us, but of course we couldn't say it out loud", tells dathe. Even the student protests that swept through the federal republic of germany in 1968 passed him by. "We have only seen this on television", tells the internist.
Advantages for functionaries
After his studies in leipzig (1958 to 1964) dathe goes to thuringia. On 1. September 1964 he begins his practical year in a polyclinic in the suhl area. 1966 he moves to the internal medicine department in meiningen, where he completes his residency until 1970 – and sticks around. Dathe becomes a ward physician, later a senior physician. "We were a great team. We still meet today", he tells.
But the political pressure is rough. He does not even stop at the hospitals. "It was preferred, in all cases", tells dathe. The station had to keep one or two rooms available in case one of the functionaries became ill. "Then all of a sudden there were the drugs that we otherwise couldn't get hold of so easily," he says, reports dathe. The personal limitation weighed even more heavily. "This feeling of being locked up and not being able to get out", karl-heinz dathe calls it.
Note in the stasi file
Karl-heinz dathe is an internist with body and soul. His hobby is infectious and tropical medicine. "I liked working abroad once," he says, he tells. In "friendly states like mozambique or nicaragua, this would also have been possible, but dathe did not get permission to do so. Years later he reads in his stasi file that he was also under surveillance.
When political change is announced, dathe just wants to get away. There are also monday demonstrations in meiningen. "That was great", he remembers "there was a very rough power track." But this power is not enough to keep him in his home country. With the fall of the wall on 9. November 1989 a move to the FRG is a done deal for dathe. He leaves meiningen as early as december. The family arrives in the spring of 1990.
He applies and finds work in bad bruckenau. "The medical possibilities in the FRG completely overwhelmed me," he says, he tells. "It took me a long time to come to terms with this tragedy." His wife ingrid, who has a psychotherapeutic practice in bad bruckenau, felt the same way. The first time at the "kupsch wanted to go shopping in ernst-putz-stra be, she fell in love, he pays dathe.
The relocation to rhon was a new professional start for dathe. In the first year he works in the practice of dr. We ber and in the old hospital. 1991 he joins the group practice of dr. Wildenauer a. In 2001, he set up his own practice as a general practitioner in the medical center at bahnhofstrabe 2. "There were already enough internists in bad bruckenau", he says, explaining the decision, which was not easy for him. "I was very happy to do it."
Zahe search for a successor
When he is 70 years old, dathe has decided, he wants to stop working. Now he is 74, and there is still no successor in sight who could take over the practice. Among other things, he commissioned a medical practice to look for a successor. "Now and then there are interested parties", he says, "but it's very difficult."
He is not alone in this problem. "How to find young people to come to the country as doctors – for example to bad bruckenau?", wonders prof. Emanuel fritschka, chairman of the arz teverein bad bruckenau. The topic is explosive, so explosive that it was included as a central concern in the integrated rural development concept (ilek) of the bruckenau rhonallianz.
"The status of the doctor has changed over time", says dathe and this time he doesn't mean the differences between east and west. The desk work increased, as did the amount of bureaucracy – for example, justifying one's own work to the association of panel doctors. "I think that many young colleagues are afraid to take on this responsibility", so there the. And yet he himself, as an established doctor, is very happy in his own practice. And when he gets in over his head, he takes to the skies. Karl-heinz dathe is not only a doctor, but also an enthusiastic motor glider pilot.