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(a) German Edition:
1941 Ansprache an die Mitglieder des vereins B'Nai B'Rith G.W., 17, 51-3.
(b) English Translation:
‘Address to the Society of B'nai B'rith.’
The present translation by James Strachey appears to be the first into English. A few sentences of it were given in a footnote on p. 312 of The Origins of Psycho-Analysis (1954), the English translation of Freud, 1950a
This address was read on Freud's behalf at a meeting of the B'nai B'rith held on May 6, 1926, in honour of his seventieth birthday. It had been preceded by a laudatory speech made by his physician, Professor Ludwig Braun.
The B'nai B'rith (Sons of the Covenant) is an order which represents Jewish interests, cultural, intellectual and charitable. Originally founded in the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century, it has branch lodges in many parts of the world. As will be seen below, Freud joined the Vienna group in 1895, and he used for many years to be a regular attendant at its meetings on alternate Tuesdays. From time to time he himself gave lectures there, the subjects of some of which have been recorded: two lectures on dreams in December, 1897 (Freud, 1950a, Letter 78); another, unspecified, in March, 1900 (Standard Ed., Letter 130); on Zola's La fécondité1 on April 27, 1900 (Jones, 1953, 363); on Anatole France's La révolte des anges (Sachs, 1945, 103); and the second half of his ‘Thoughts for the Times on War and Death’ in 1915 (Jones, 1955, 415).
This was one of the ‘ten good books’ selected by Freud in his ‘Contribution to a Questionnaire on Reading’ , Standard Ed., 9, 246.
Most honourable Grand President, honourable Presidents, dear Brethren,—
I thank you for the honours you have paid me to-day. You know why it is that you cannot hear the sound of my own voice. You have heard one of my friends and pupils speak of my scientific work; but a judgement on such things is hard to form and for a long while yet it may not be reached with any certa