Sigmund Freud Museum

Freud lived and practised at Berggasse 19 from 1891 until June 1938, when he was forced to leave for London after the Anschluss; he was allowed to take his furniture and his antiquities with him, and the couch went to Maresfield Gardens, where it still is. The museum that opened here in 1971 therefore faces a problem it has chosen to make the point: the rooms are largely empty, and the emptiness stands for the expulsion rather than being papered over with reproductions. What is here is the original entrance hall and waiting room furniture, photographs by Edmund Engelman taken days before the flight, first editions, letters, and an account of the family - four of Freud's sisters were murdered in the camps. A 2020 rebuild opened more of the apartment and added a large research library.

What you actually see

• Deliberately empty rooms - the consulting rooms without the furniture taken to London.
• The original waiting room - among the few surviving furnished spaces.
• Engelman's 1938 photographs - the apartment recorded days before the family fled.
• The family's fate - including the sisters murdered in the camps.

When to go

All year. Two hours.

Honest expectations

Visitors expecting the famous couch will not find it - it is in London. The emptiness is intentional and some find it thin. The apartment is small and gets crowded.

Nearby

The Liechtenstein Garden Palace and the Servitenviertel are close.