What Happens in Maloja Stays in Maloja: Inference and Evidence in the “Minna Wars”

Who knows what goes on behind closed doors? Franz Maciejewski (2006) presented documentary evidence that on their first trip alone together, in August 1898, Sigmund Freud and his wife's sister, Minna Bernays, shared a room in the Hotel Schweizerhaus in Maloja, Switzerland. In addition, examination of the hotel log book for the dates that Freud and Minna stayed together revealed that Freud signed the registry: “Dr. Sigm. Freud u[nd] Frau/Wien” (Dr. Sigm. Freud and wife/Vienna). In view of the longstanding rumors concerning a possible sexual relationship between Freud and Minna Bernays, given impetus by John Billinsky's (1969) claim that Jung told him that, in 1907, Minna had confided to him that “Freud was in love with her and that their relationship was indeed very intimate” (42), and further fueled by the elaborate biographical reconstructions of Peter Swales (1982; 2003), Maciejewski's discovery has been regarded as corroborating the theory that Freud and Minna had a sexual relationship.

But is Freud's entry in the hotel log book the “smoking gun” that it has been alleged to be? Maciejewski argues: “By any reasonable standard of proof, Sigmund Freud and his wife's sister Minna Bernays had a liaison” (2006, 502). Although they accept that the hotel entry demonstrates that Freud misrepresented the nature of his relationship to Minna, Albrecht Hirschmüller (2007) and Zvi Lothane (2007) argue that it does not constitute prima facie evidence that, behind the closed door, they engaged in sexual relations. Perhaps Freud simply wanted to save money by not having to pay for two rooms, and registering Minna as his wife was only intended to make this possible by avoiding any semblance of impropriety that might have arisen from his