A Hitherto Unnoticed Letter by Sigmund Freud

In 1931 there appeared, under the imprint of the well-known Munich publisher Albert Langen, a book entitled Wir Zuchthäusler(4). This may be conveniently translated 'We Convicts', since a Zuchthaus is a house of correction, a penitentiary, but the translation must stop with the mere name, since the typical penal institution of the English-speaking world provided no equivalent for the German type. The author of the book was one Georg Fuchs (15 June, 1868–16 June, 1949), who had spent almost five years in such a prison in Ebrach, Bavaria.

Fuchs, 1 who also wrote under the pen name of Ps. Anselmus, was the author of various stage plays and books. He translated Shakespeare's The Tempest and plays by Calderón into German. He was the editor of important literary and art magazines and of Munich's foremost daily newspaper, the Münchener Neueste Nachrichten. He was a cofounder and later manager of the Munich Künstlertheater, which became so famous far outside Munich. He collaborated with Max Reinhardt when the latter staged his much-heralded performances of classical Greek tragedies in Munich. At times he also acted on the stage. His achievements were officially acknowledged when the king of Bavaria appointed him professor. His outstanding career was abruptly interrupted, however, when he was arrested in February, 1923, and convicted of participating in a monarchist plot to wrest Bavaria from the German Republic. He was sentenced to twelve years in the Zuchthaus, but was granted an amnesty in 1927 on the occasion of Hindenburg's eightieth birthday. After his release from prison he resumed his previous professional activities, but with the advent of the Nazis to power the unfortunate man was once again sent for almost two years to the Zuchthaus and most of his books were destroyed. He died, at the age of eighty-one, in Ramersdorf, a municipal asylum for the aged in Munich, fourteen years after he had entered it in what apparently was complete destitution.

While he w