The Sigmund Freud Museum is the place where Sigmund Freud, one of the pioneers of the theory of psychoanalysis, moved to Vienna and used it as both home and office until the Nazis raided it, where he conducted his therapies.
Who is Sigmund Freud? Sigmund Freud was a neurologist born in what is now the Czech Republic, formerly part of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. He recognized the connection between the unconscious elements of patients’ mental distress and tried to find a solution by keeping the external elements in the foreground in his psychotherapy methods. With this discovery, Freud went down in history as the founder of psychoanalysis.
Freud and his family, who were born to parents with an age difference of twenty years, had to settle in Vienna due to various financial difficulties. Freud, who was guided by Darwin, the author of the theory of evolution, wanted to become a research scientist. But he had a certain number reserved for Jews. He reluctantly studied medicine and after university he went to Paris for an internship. Moving to Berlin, Freud became interested in pediatric neuropathology, and with all this knowledge, he returned to Vienna, where he started to work as a private physician. He worked here for many years, but when the Nazis entered Vienna, he had to leave Austria and settle in London, where he continued his life. After Hitler came to power, we saw his attitude towards the Jews up close at the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam.
When you enter the museum, you are given an audio guide and you can learn everything with it. The guide is not in Turkish, but there is English content. When you enter the museum, you feel a bit more at home than a museum. Not completely, because for a while most of the things here had to be moved to Freud’s house in London, as we mentioned in his life. As a matter of principle, Freud did not leave any memoirs about himself, he burned them all before his death. In the museum, information about Freud’s life has been uncovered by the people around him and his correspondents.
There are also various archaeological artifacts in the showcases, obviously Freud was inspired by ancient civilizations. So much so that we can call Freud, who was interested in the subconscious, an archaeologist of the mind. The splendor of Greece and Rome managed to impress Freud. The museum exhibits earthenware pots and small figures from the Egyptian period that Freud somehow found. In this place, which Freud used as his practice and office and where he lived with his family, you can see documents related to Freud’s books and research, photographs of his relatives, old photographs of Freud’s places of residence. His daughter Anna Freud’s work on child psychology is also on display. We had hoped to see Freud’s famous therapy couch, but it was taken with him when he moved to London and is now on display at the Sigmund Freud Museum in London, which is also the Anne Freud Museum.
In the center of the room where the photographs and documents are kept, you can also see a chest containing the belongings they took with them when they left Vienna after the Nazi invasion. There is a sign on the chest saying that it is going to London. The trunk was donated to the museum in the 1970s by Anna Freud, the daughter of Sigmund Freud and Martha Freud, who had a child under the couple.
What are the entrance fee and visiting hours of Sigmund Freud Museum?
The entrance fee to the museum is €12 for adults, and if you have a Vienna Pass Card, you can enter for free. The Freud Museum can be visited every day of the week between 10:00 – 18:00.
Where is the Sigmund Freud Museum and how to get there?
The Freud Museum is located on Berggasse. Bus 40A and trams 1, D and E4 pass close to the museum. You can also take the U2 subway and get off at Schottentor Satation, but you have to walk 550 meters. You enter the building with a big Freud sign on the street. When you enter the museum, as you climb the stairs, you can see a timeline of important moments in Freud’s life on the wall along the steps.
