Letter from Oskar Pfister to Sigmund Freud, January 18, 1931

Berghaldenstrasse 34,
Zürich VII,
12.12.1939

Last Saturday the Swiss Psycho-Analytic Society held a memorial meeting in honour of your great husband in the cantonal mental hospital of Königsfelden, canton of Aargau. Our president, Dr Sarasin, in a warm and deeply felt speech presented us with a character portrait of the brilliant and yet so infinitely kindly Titan. It was left to me to read to the assembly extracts from the 134 letters from the brilliant scientist and paternal friend that I have preserved. I also described to them conversations and meetings with him extending over about thirty years. After me Dr Meng spoke about the significance of Sigmund Freud. The occasion was not for the purpose of doing homage to the dead man to whom we have such a tremendous amount to be grateful for, but a profession of loyalty to the living Freud, to whom we can pay off a small part of our debt of gratitude, not by expressing our admiration and veneration, but only by cultivating his work.

In examining your husband's letters it was with both grief and pleasure that I was once again reminded of how infinitely much his family meant to him. I vividly remember his introducing me to you, his three fine sons, the vital Sophie, and the little mother of the lizards on April 25, 1909. I, who grew up fatherless and suffered for a life-time under a soft, one-sided bringing up, was dazzled by the beauty of that family life, which in spite of the almost superhuman greatness of the father of the house and his deep seriousness, breathed freedom and cheerfulness, thanks to his love and sparkling humour. In your house one felt as in a sunny spring garden, heard the gay song of larks and blackbirds, saw bright flower-beds, and had a premonition of the rich blessing of summer. To the visitor it was immediately evident that a large part of that blessing was to be attributed to you, and that you, with your gentle, kindly nature, kept