Sigmund Freud, Berggasse 19

Freud, a 20th-Century Icon

«Whatever makes for cultural development is working also against war.» (Sigmund Freud in a letter to Albert Einstein, 1932)

For half a century, Sigmund Freud lived and worked at Vienna’s Berggasse 19, before being forced to flee the Nazis into exile in London in 1938. It was here that he ran his world-famous practice, founding the new science of psychoanalysis and authoring his groundbreaking works.

The relevance of his books, that were burned in public by the Nazis, lives on unabated. Freud’s insights into the human psyche have profoundly changed the way we think and continue to stand for open-minded life together in society. That is why it is important to safeguard Berggasse 19 being the place that keeps Freud’s achievements and insights alive, as a voice of openness and tolerance.

Safeguarding a Landmark for the Future

Thanks to Freud’s importance as a twentieth-century pioneer, what began as a little commemorative site became a place of international fame: Since 1971, this historical building – Berggasse 19 – has been home to the Sigmund Freud Museum, that attracts more than 100,000 visitors from all over the world every year. Along with an extensive archive, the Museum also runs Europe’s biggest specialist library on psychoanalysis.

We Need Your Support!

Now urgent action is required in order to preserve the Sigmund Freud Museum. The building is in need of extensive renovation, the Museum and Library are not barrier-free, the service facilities for visitors are inadequate, and the exhibition areas no longer meet today’s needs – a landmark of Vienna must not be presented to the world in this form!

After years of negotiations, with the aid of the City of Vienna and the Ministry of Culture we now have the golden opportunity to save this unique cultural heritage and adapt it to meet international museum standards. To achieve this goal, we still need to raise 900,000 euros out of a total of just under 4 million euros. We hope to raise part of this sum – at least 80,000 euros – with your help in order to be able to carry out the necessary measures by 2020.

Our plans:

• Renovation and installation of modern facilities at Berggasse 19, the Sigmund Freud Museum and its Library including barrier-free access

• New rooms for visitor service and education as well as a Museum café as a meeting place for our numerous guests

• Enlarged exhibition areas to include private rooms of the Freud family hitherto closed to the public, for special exhibitions and for presenting our art collection

• A newly conceived permanent exhibition presenting the life and work of Sigmund Freud in a modern way, putting it into context with the latest findings