The paper is centred on three hitherto unknown grants, two of them donated by different Jewish Foundations to the medical student Freud shortly before the end of his studies. It furthermore turned out that Freud's salary as a demonstrator in Brücke's Laboratory had been a grant too, donated by the University of Vienna. Aspects of the contemporary background by means of the private foundations and their donors as well as of the aspiring tendencies at the University of Vienna are described. Documentary evidence demonstrates that Brücke promoted Sigmund Freud continuously, more than hitherto known in the biography. The significance of Brücke and Charcot as identification-figures, on the one hand, and for Freud's development as a scientist, on the other, is elaborated. Contemporary quotations shed light on Freud's poverty in his youth as well as the arising anti-Semitism at the University of Vienna.