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.

History

Sigmund Freud lived and worked at Berggasse 19 until 1938, when his Jewish descent forced him to leave Austria for London. The Sigmund Freud Society opened the museum in 1971 in the presence of his daughter Anna Freud, the building was extended with rooms for exhibitions and events in 1996, and in 2003 the museum passed to the new Sigmund Freud Foundation, which has since received the whole building; the annual Sigmund Freud Lecture has been held on his birthday, 6 May, since 1970 (Wikipedia, Sigmund Freud Museum - Vienna).

What you'll find

• 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.

Good to know

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.

Key facts