Martha Freud

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Martha Freud 1882

Martha Freud , née Bernays, (born July 26, 1861 in Hamburg , † November 2, 1951 in London ) was the wife of Sigmund Freud .

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Martha Freud was a granddaughter of the Hamburg chief rabbi Isaak Bernays and a daughter of Berman Bernays and his wife Emmeline, née Philip. Berman Bernays traded white goods in Hamburg's old town and later sold advertisements . His office was at Fuhlentwiete 128. The apartment in which Martha Bernays and four years later her sister Minna were born was at Bei den Hütten 61 in Hamburg's Neustadt district . The family was considered respected and religious, but was not wealthy.

After her father had to file for bankruptcy due to speculation in securities and had spent a year in prison for fraudulent bankruptcy, the family left the Hanseatic city in 1869 and moved to Vienna . After his father's death in 1879, Bernay's brother Eli took care of the family. Martha Bernays received the usual upbringing for higher daughters . In mid-1882 she met Sigmund Freud, to whom she secretly became engaged. Marriage was initially not possible because Martha could not bring a dowry into the marriage and Freud did not have sufficient income.

In 1882 Martha Bernays moved back to the Hamburg area with her mother and sister, now to Hamburger Strasse 38 in Wandsbek . An uncle of Martha Bernays, Elias Philip, lived here. After a four-and-a-half year waiting period, Martha Bernays and Sigmund Freud married on September 13, 1886 in the Wandsbek town hall on Königsstraße and one day later after a religious ceremony. The wedding dinner at Hirschel's Hotel in Wexstrasse was attended by 14 guests. After their honeymoon via Lübeck and Travemünde , the couple moved to Vienna . Martha Freud gave birth to six children here by 1895, including Ernst Ludwig in 1892 and Anna in 1895 . Since Sigmund Freud's practice was gaining increasing attention and popularity, Martha Freud's sister Minna Bernays moved into the family home to be able to support them. Martha Freud was acquainted with many Freudians who visited the family home at 19 Berggasse in Vienna. She was considered loyal, balancing, reserved and jointly responsible for Sigmund Freud's successes.

After Austria's annexation in 1938, the family emigrated to London, where Sigmund Freud died in September 1939. After Minna Bernay's death in 1941, Martha Freud lived in seclusion in the English capital. Almost unnoticed by the public, except for a brief obituary in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis , she died there on November 2, 1951.

Her daughter Anna Freud found out about her mother's relationship to psychoanalysis : "My mother believed in my father, not in psychoanalysis".

Martha Freud was Edward Bernay's aunt , who was also the nephew of Sigmund Freud.

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personal data
SURNAME Freud, Martha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bernays, Martha (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of Sigmund Freud
DATE OF BIRTH July 26, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1951
Place of death London