Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna
After 18 months of renovation and reconstruction (including a delay due to COVID-19), Sigmund Freud Museum reopened to visitors again at the end of August. The “birthplace of psychoanalysis”, where the famous physician, psychoanalyst and thinker Sigmund Freud lived and worked for nearly half a century, offers a modernized and enlarged museum infrastructure, including a new foyer, shop and cafe, all made wheelchair accessible. Europe’s largest library of psychoanalysis has been newly renovated and serves as a platform for research and communication.
Three new permanent exhibitions, a presentation of contemporary art at the Showroom Berggasse 19 and a new special exhibition all inform on Freud’smulti-faceted cultural heritage. They provide a wide range of information on Freud’s life and work, on the historical development of psychoanalysis and offer critical perspectives on its current issues, including its importance for society and the arts.
In the former living quarters and office of Sigmund Freud in the house at Berggasse 19 in Vienna’s ninth district, the Sigmund Freud Museum presents an exhibition documenting the life and work of the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud lived and worked in this house from 1891 until 1938, when on 4 June he was forced by the National Socialists to flee with his family into exile in England.
The interior decoration of the museum was carried out in 1971 with the help of Anna Freud, Sigmund Freud’s youngest daughter. Original furnishings, including the waiting room, a selection from Freud’s collection of antiquities, signed copies and first editions of his works provide a glimpse into Freud’s biography, his cultural environment and the development of psychoanalysis. Unique film material, showing the Freud family in the 1930’s, is shown in a video room with a commentary by Anna Freud.
It is also possible to follow in the great footsteps by joining a guided tour of Freud’s Vienna with Claudia Muchitsch. She takes you to those places and sites that played a key role in the life and daily routine of Sigmund Freud in the birthplace of psychoanalysis. Optionally, the tour can be combined with a visit to one of Freud’s favourite coffee houses – why not try the delicious Topfenstrudel while you’re there?
www.freud-museum.at/en
