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Vienna, May 28, 1924
IX., Berggasse 191
Dear friend,
First, about the vacation. We are thinking of going away at the end of the first week of July, and are in negotiations with Waldhaus Flims in Graubünden, but haven't concluded a deal yet. This time I am taking along an American patient, who is supposed to pay the costs of the very expensive stay. As you can imagine, this year didn't result in any surplus over what was used. I will be in Vienna for Whitsun, will set Monday aside, and if you only won't forget that I am no longer so accessible and capable of achievement as before, I will be very pleased to discuss all kinds of things with you.
The matter of your moving to Vienna for the sake of the polyclinic here has my complete sympathy and my highest interest. If I were omnipotent, I would move you without further ado by means of a sudden ukase. What Bernfeld told you about Hitschmann is thoroughly correct; the opposition to him is general, and there is no prospect that the institute will ever accomplish anything under his direction. The Society would accept you unanimously as head of the polyclinic, and another result would be connected to that. I think, if you are here, they will elect you, instead of Rank, as my successor, and that would have the two great advantages that you are a physician, and that you have at your disposal a personal authority and a capability of accomplishment that he doesn't.
But now, the difficulties over which I have no power. It is very uncertain as to whether you can get a place to live in Vienna. According to report, a Frau Kraus, the wife of a bank director who has retired with his plunder, has the firm intention to build a house for the polyclinic, and this would have to contain an apartment for the head. But I don't know how this matter, which is, unfortunately, going through Hitschmann's hands, stands. There also is something unpleasant about it, if the polyclinic gets a house at his instigation and he is then chased away himself. I a