[Disastrous conditions: Forensic Psychiatry in Eastern Germany - The 'Haus 213' in Berlin-Buch]

This article analyzes the little-examined forensic psychiatry in the GDR after the enactment of the Criminal Code of 1968. Using files from the Berlin State Archive, the Federal Archive and the Stasi Records Archive, it traces the historical development of the forensic psychiatric clinic in Berlin-Buch, "Haus 213".

Like other closed psychiatric clinics, House 213 suffered from overcrowding, inadequate security measures and increasingly catastrophic structural conditions until the end of the GDR. After the 1968 reform and the abolition of the GDR's "Maßregelvollzug", it took years before the prescribed diagnostic criteria for the admission of patients were fundamentally implemented. Leading doctors at the clinic constantly criticized the therapeutic possibilities. The Police (Deutsche Volkspolizei) and State Security ('Stasi') criticized the high number of patient escapes. Extensive plans to renovate the clinic were not implemented. There were no consistent concepts and the patients lived in disastrous conditions. Those responsible were aware that both the state and the SED were failing to provide psychiatric care for offenders. The Stasi used the Berlin-Buch clinic for forensic psychiatric assessments and maintained close working relationships with House 213. Senior doctors worked as Stasi informers.

It is clear that the political, economic and institutional framework conditions had a considerable influence on the possibilities of forensic psychiatry in the GDR. The deficiencies in structural equipment and staffing, as well as the interference of the State Security, raise fundamental questions about the role and responsibility of the state in the care of mentally ill offenders. Future research should focus more on the analysis of forensic psychiatric clinics and their specific treatment concepts or options. This would also appear useful in order to provide differentiated answers to questions about the possible misuse of psychiatry or forensic psychiatric assessment in the context of political criminal proceedings.