Freud family

The Freud family is the extended family of Sigmund Freud, the Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis, and of his parents, siblings, descendants, and related branches. It originated in the Jewish communities of Galicia and Moravia within the Habsburg world. Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Freiberg in Mähren, now Příbor in the Czech Republic, to Jacob Freud, a wool merchant from Galicia, and Amalia Nathansohn. The household later moved to Vienna, where Sigmund developed his medical and intellectual career and where the family became closely associated with the emergence of psychoanalysis. The family structure was extensive. Jacob Freud had children from an earlier marriage, including Emanuel and Philipp, whose branches later became connected with Manchester. With Amalia, he had eight children: Sigmund, Anna, Rosa, Mitzi, Dolfi, Pauli, Alexander, and Julius, who died in infancy. Their marriages and descendants created links with the Bernays, Graf, Winternitz, and other families. Anna Freud, Sigmund's sister, married Eli Bernays; their son Edward Bernays later became a major figure in modern public relations and married the feminist activist Doris E. Fleischman. Other relatives pursued careers in acting, writing, illustration, law, journalism, science, architecture, and business. The family's history was profoundly shaped by antisemitism, National Socialism, and the Holocaust. Sigmund Freud's sons Oliver and Ernst Ludwig left Germany after Hitler's rise to power. Several relatives moved through France, Britain, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States. In 1938, after the German annexation of Austria, Sigmund Freud, his wife Martha, daughter Anna, and several close associates escaped Vienna for Britain with assistance from Ernest Jones and Princess Marie Bonaparte. The Freud household was re-established in Hampstead, London, at 20 Maresfield Gardens, which became Sigmund Freud's final home and is now associated with his legacy. Four of Sigmund Freud's five sisters were victims of Nazi persecution. Mitzi, Pauli, and Dolfi were deported from Vienna to Theresienstadt; Mitzi and Pauli were subsequently murdered at Maly Trostinets, while Dolfi died at Theresienstadt under conditions of starvation and illness. Rosa was deported to Treblinka and murdered. Other relatives survived through emigration, concealment, military service, or displacement. The family's wartime experience therefore illustrates both the destruction of European Jewish family networks and the international dispersal of survivors. After Sigmund Freud's death in 1939, Martha Freud and Anna Freud helped make the London household a refuge for relatives and people fleeing occupied Europe. During and after the Second World War, Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham developed therapeutic work for children affected by wartime disruption. Their Hampstead War Nursery contributed to the later creation of the Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic, subsequently known as the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families. Later generations continued to work in diverse fields. Ernest Freud became a psychoanalyst, Lucian Freud became a major painter, and other descendants became writers, editors, architects, publishers, scientists, actors, and public figures. The Freud family is therefore best understood not as a commercial brand or operating company, but as a historically significant kinship network whose public importance derives from its members, its role in the history of psychoanalysis, and its experience of migration, persecution, and cultural transmission.

The Freud family's documented origins lie in the Jewish communities of Galicia and Moravia. Sigmund Freud's father, Jacob, was born in Tysmenitz in Galicia, while his mother, Amalia Nathansohn, came from a family connected with Brody and later Vienna. Jacob worked as a wool merchant and had children from an earlier marriage before marrying Amalia. Their son Sigmund was born in 1856, and the family moved to Vienna during his childhood. Sigmund's siblings included Anna, Rosa, Mitzi, Dolfi, Pauli, and Alexander, while another child, Julius, died in infancy. The extended family developed several important branches. Sigmund's sister Anna married Eli Bernays, linking the family to the Bernays relatives in the United States. Their son Edward Bernays became influential in the development of modern public relations, while Doris E. Fleischman, his wife, was associated with feminist activism. Other branches included the Graf, Winternitz, and Freud families. Sigmund's half-brothers Emanuel and Philipp moved to Manchester before the rest of the immediate family relocated to Vienna. Their descendants formed a separate Anglo-Manchester branch, although that line largely ended during the twentieth century. Sigmund Freud's professional prominence made the family internationally visible, but family life remained closely connected with the political upheavals of Central Europe. Freud visited relatives in England in 1875 and 1908 and maintained correspondence with members of the Manchester branch. His sons Oliver and Ernst Ludwig worked in Germany until the rise of Hitler forced them and their families to leave. Other relatives moved through France, Switzerland, Canada, Britain, and the United States. The decisive rupture came after the Anschluss of March 1938. With help from Ernest Jones, then associated with the International Psychoanalytic Association, and with support from Princess Marie Bonaparte, Sigmund Freud and his immediate household obtained permission to leave Vienna. Sigmund, Martha, Anna, their housekeeper Paula Fichtl, and medical support traveled through Paris to London in June 1938. The family settled at 20 Maresfield Gardens in Hampstead, where Sigmund Freud's study and library were arranged to preserve elements of his Viennese environment. Several relatives and associates also escaped, although others remained trapped in Nazi-controlled territory. The Holocaust destroyed much of the Austrian branch. Rosa Graf was deported from Vienna to Treblinka in 1943 and murdered. Mitzi Freud and Pauli Winternitz were sent to Theresienstadt and then to Maly Trostinets, where they were murdered in 1942. Dolfi Freud was deported to Theresienstadt and died there in September 1942. Other family members survived by emigrating or finding refuge abroad. Alexander Freud escaped with his family and eventually settled in Canada. His son Harry later served with the United States Army in post-war investigations concerning the seizure of Freud family property and the deportation of relatives. The Second World War also shaped the family's public legacy. Martin and Walter Freud were interned in Britain as enemy aliens before serving in wartime roles. Walter Freud later joined the British war effort, returned to Austria in 1945, and participated in post-war investigations. Ernst Freud and his sons avoided internment through intervention that helped secure British naturalization documents. After the war, family members pursued careers in architecture, publishing, retail, science, psychoanalysis, painting, writing, and other professions. Anna Freud's work became one of the most enduring institutional legacies of the family. During the war, she and Dorothy Burlingham helped establish the Hampstead War Nursery for children affected by separation and violence. The work developed into the Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic in 1952 and later the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families. Through this and related institutions, the family's influence extended beyond Sigmund Freud's original theories into child psychoanalysis and clinical education. The Freud family has consequently remained a subject of historical, biographical, artistic, and psychoanalytic interest. Its significance rests on the combined achievements of multiple relatives and on the family's documented experience of Jewish life in the Habsburg lands, forced migration, Nazi persecution, wartime service, and post-war cultural reconstruction. It does not represent a conventional commercial enterprise with products, management, or a unified ownership structure.

• 1957

  Martin Freud publishes a family memoir

  [1]Freud familyen.wikipedia.org

  Martin Freud published a memoir presenting his recollections of family life with Sigmund Freud in Vienna.

• 1952

  Hampstead child-therapy institution is established

  [1]Freud familyen.wikipedia.org

  Work begun by Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham during the war developed into the Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic.

• 1943

  Rosa Graf is deported to Treblinka

  [1]Freud familyen.wikipedia.org

  Rosa Graf, one of Sigmund Freud's sisters, was deported from Vienna to Treblinka and murdered.

• 1942

  Members of the family are murdered during the Holocaust

  [1]Freud familyen.wikipedia.org

  Mitzi Freud and Pauli Winternitz were deported through Theresienstadt to Maly Trostinets, while Dolfi Freud died in Theresienstadt.

• 1939

  Sigmund Freud dies in London

  [1]Freud familyen.wikipedia.org

  Sigmund Freud died in London after the family's flight from Nazi-occupied Austria.

• 1938

  Sigmund Freud leaves Vienna for Britain

  [1]Freud familyen.wikipedia.org

  Following the Anschluss, Sigmund Freud, Martha, Anna, and accompanying associates escaped Vienna and settled in London.

• 1933

  Family members begin leaving Germany

  [1]Freud familyen.wikipedia.org

  Sigmund Freud's sons Oliver and Ernst Ludwig left Germany after the Nazi rise to power, beginning a wider period of family displacement.

• 1892

  The Bernays branch moves to the United States

  [1]Freud familyen.wikipedia.org

  Sigmund Freud's sister Anna and her family moved to the United States, where their son Edward Bernays later became prominent in public relations.

• 1860

  The family moves to Vienna

  [1]Freud familyen.wikipedia.org

  The immediate Freud family relocated to Vienna, which became the setting for Sigmund Freud's education, medical career, and early psychoanalytic work.

• 1856

  Birth of Sigmund Freud

  [1]Freud familyen.wikipedia.org

  Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg in Mähren, in the Austrian Empire, to Jacob Freud and Amalia Nathansohn.

A historically significant family network associated with psychoanalysis, modern intellectual history, the arts, literature, public relations, and the history of Jewish displacement in Europe.

1. 1Freud familyen.wikipedia.org