Sigmund Freud-Museum | Newsletter - Sigmund Freud Museum Wien

The papers and collections of Eva and Valentin Rosenfeld, acquired by the Sigmund Freud Museum in
2001, have been fully processed and cataloged in a project financed by the Oesterreichische
Nationalbank. The material consists of 239 bundles of autographs and typescripts, whereby the letters
from Anna Freud to Eva Rosenfeld and the correspondence between Peter Heller and Victor Ross
concerning the publication of these letters make up the principal part. Anna Freud’s letters to Eva
Rosenfeld are not only a valuable testament to the two women’s friendship; they also reflect the reform
pedagogical ambitions that both of them pursued in their cooperation in leading the Hietzinger Schule.
Additionally, the letters provide glimpses into the private lives of Anna and Sigmund Freud.
From Sigmund Freud himself the collection includes letters to Eva Rosenfeld and several photographs
with dedications as well as letters to Yvette Guilbert.
Another important source of biographical information on Eva Rosenfeld is formed by her
correspondence with the orientalist Julian Obermann, which stretches from 1917 to 1956. In addition
to detailing the various stations of their life histories, the letters also depict the intensive, passionate
and complex friendship between the two.
Photo albums assembled by Eva Rosenfeld provide impressions from the daily lives of the Rosenfeld
family and their friends, from the school in Wattmanngasse and from the summers spent on Grundl
Lake. An interesting large-format album entitled “Unserem Evchen” (quasi “To Our Wee Eva”),
which Eva Rosenfeld was given by her family on the occasion of her marriage to her cousin Valentin,
presents scenes in staged tableaux from the haute bourgeois daily life of the Rosenfeld family in
Berlin. The photos are reminiscent of film stills and provide both glimpses into private family history
and sociologically significant insights into bourgeois lifestyles around the turn of the century.
The collection also contains a number of other photographs and a portfolio with etchings by the painter
Maurycy Gottlieb, who was engaged to Eva’s aunt Laura but committed suicide at an early age. Also
of interest is a valuable lithograph by Oskar Kokoschka depicting the Descent of Christ from the
Cross.
189 books, most of them first editions and signed copies, show the Rosenfeld’s widespread
connections in the literary and theater worlds. Their authors include Gerhart Hauptmann, Noël
Coward, Arthur Schnitzler and Heimito von Doderer. Some of the books carry the traces of history in
their very substance: the bookplate of owner Valentin Rosenfeld is flanked by a stamp of ownership
from the National Library, which added the confiscated volume to its collection in 1938. On the last
page a stamp documents that the book was officially removed from the library and rightfully returned
to its former owner.
The writings of Eva Rosenfeld herself include several offprints and the typescript of her essay “Some
Comments on Klein and Freud,” a document from her London years in which she attempted to achieve
a synthesis of the contrasting theoretical positions of Melanie Klein and Anna Freud.
neuzugänge der bibliothek / new accessions to the library
A|
Adler, Alfred
Über den nervösen Charakter. Grundzüge einer vergleichenden Individualpsychologie und
Psychotherapie.
J. F. Bergmann, Wiesbaden 1912
Agamben, Giorgio
Homo sacer.
Die souveräne Macht und das nackte Leben.
Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002
Andersen, Wayne
Freud, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Vulture’s Tail. A Refreshing Look at Leonardo’s Sexuality.
Other Press, New York 2001 (Geschenk)