[The health policy of the "Council of the People's Representatives": the German revolution 1918/1919 in medical historical perspective II: health policy as a factor of continuity and stability].

Most important for the events at the turn of 1918/19 was the coincidence of the revolution and the end of the war. This meant that in a very short time the troops had to be withdrawn from the front, the size of the army had to be reduced, and the wartime economy had to be transformed into a peace economy. Apart from the resulting economical and social problems, military demobilisation was closely linked with medical and health political difficulties. The revolutionary government saw itself as a provisional arrangement to ensure the unity of the state and the functioning of the German Reich. The maintenance of medical care and provision of a minimum of foodstuffs made health policy important during the months of revolution. Despite a positive balance of payments and a "health policy of continuity", the revolutionary government was unable to win the medical profession for its aims, because it failed to dispel suspicions that the medical profession was going to be socialised.