The Cardiovascular Society in the GDR (German Democratic Republic)

The "Society of Cardiology and Angiology of the German Democratic Republic (GDR)" was the substitute for the "German Cardiac Society" between 1965 and 1992 in Eastern Germany, when the closed borders (since 1961) pevented free private and official communications. The society experienced 12 elections for the board, it had 792 members in 1989, several working groups and organized 14 cardiovascular congresses and hundreds of meetings. The society was very active in education of physicians and assistance personnel and developed an educational program for specialists in cardiology and angiology in 1977. The society supported the foundation of heart centers and the centralized long-term care of patients with heart failure, arrhythmias, congenital defects, pacemakers or peripheral arterial disease. Scientific results as transvasal closure of the ductus arteriosus Botalli, investigations of the energy metabolism of myocardial fibers, endomyocardial biopsy and several drugs, as ajmaline, talinolol, trapidil, PAMBA and hirudin are used up to these days. The tasks of the society ended with the collapse of the GDR in 1989 and therefore the society was liquidated in 1992, when its functions were taken over again by the German Cardiac Society.