Sigmund Freud MuseumAlsergrund
Documents of Injustice. The Case of Freud
The Freud family's last months in Nazi Vienna: the dispossession of Sigmund and Alexander Freud and the murder of their four sisters, told through newly acquired documents.
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Someone went through Berggasse 19 room by room and typed a 14-page list of everything in it, down to "1 Ottomane", the couch. Freud was allowed to ship it all to London in 1938, antiquities included, which made his exit look privileged. The papers beside it show the Nazis taking almost all his money through his publishing house.
The core is newly acquired files from the estate of that firm's Nazi-appointed administrator, with hundreds of letters and asset lists. A second thread follows his richer brother Alexander, who gave up everything to get out, and their four sisters, deported in 1942 and murdered. Their messages and relatives' letters answer the old claim that they were abandoned. You leave past Krausz's 1936 portrait of Freud, missing since 1940.
This is a show for reading, almost all paper. It is included in the €16 museum ticket, with public tours, and has been extended to 5 April 2027.
Editor's pick
Newly acquired documents trace the Freud family's last months in Nazi Vienna: the dispossession of Sigmund and Alexander Freud and the murder of their four sisters.
Look for
The 14-page inventory of Berggasse 19
Look for the room-by-room list of the whole apartment's furnishings, where Freud's famous couch is entered simply as "1 Ottomane".
The four sisters at Bad Ischl, 1932
A photograph of Rosa, Maria, Adolfine and Pauline together on 4 July 1932, ten years before all four were deported.
Sigmund and Alexander in Grinzing, 1937
The two brothers photographed together the year before the Anschluss, when Alexander was the wealthier of the two.
Krausz's 1936 portrait of Freud
At the end of the show hangs the painting lost since 1940, which resurfaced at a Vienna auction in 2006 and was identified as the original during research for this exhibition.
Good for
- Going Solo
- Nerding Out
Skip if
You want art rather than archives: this show is files, letters, lists and a few photographs.
Also at Sigmund Freud Museum
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Image credits
8
- A Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew - Eran ShakineCourtesy of Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)
- The Special Case of Steffy Goldner: The New York Philharmonic's First WomanCourtesy of Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)
- No Way Home: Viennese Jews in ExileCourtesy of Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)
- Sigmund Freud MuseumC.Stadler/Bwag, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)Sonja Bachmayer / Jewish Museum Vienna, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dom Museum WienBauer Alfons / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- State Hall of the Austrian National Library (Prunksaal)Mirej / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT
- Theatermuseum (Palais Lobkowitz)Gryffindor / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5