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I am not really qualified to talk at this occasion—I am the opposite of a psychoanalyst—a physicist. I wonder whether this juxtaposition played a role in the choice of vocation of her son, Martin, who is also a physicist. A warm friendship existed between my family and Helene. She was always glad to see us, our children and, in particular, she loved the visits of our grandchildren.
There was a common bond between us. We were born and lived in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. When this remarkable political edifice broke down in the year 1918, she was 34 years old and I only 10. But the cultural heritage of the monarchy lived on after 1918, in spite of the change in the political atmosphere, and lasted until the Nazi collapse in the 1940's. Our formative years took place in that unique cultural environment that had a pervasive influence on all who grew up in it.
The Austro-Hungarian monarchy was the only large international unit at a time when nationalism was rife. It was a strange political conglomeration of Germanic, Slavic, Hungarian, and Mediterranian people under a German-speaking political leadership which emphasized the cultural and political superiority of the German tradition. In some ways, this “Western” influence had a fruitful effect on the non-Germans: It raised the standards of living of the regions under their domination. Even today, a traveller in Eastern Europe notices a definite difference in the mode of living, in the architecture and in the technical development, when he crosses the old borders of the monarchy towards the east.
Nonetheless, it was an authoritarian regime that suppressed national liberation movements with military force and sometimes with ruthless cruelty. On the other hand, the capital, Vienna, became a multinational entity as, in the