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16 June 1934
Vienna XIX. Strassergasse 47
Dear Jones,
Am pleased about the fine success of your son (Joan, isn't it?). May he remain a good omen for the future.
Rumor has it that in the end Groddeck was committed because of mental disturbance. The announcement of his death states that he died in Zurich; what was he doing in Zurich? Was he therefore in Burghölzli?1 The times demand sacrifices. People die, perhaps more willingly than before. We learned yesterday that Mrs. Stella Zweig, Martin's invaluable assistant at the Verlag, died from an attack of poliomyelitis (Landry's form). A great predicament for the Verlag.
It is beautiful here in Grinzing, but one does not enjoy life. The foundations are rocking. Perhaps at this very moment the intriguer M. in Venice is selling us to the captain of the thieves H.2 I will be happy to see you (and your wife?) with us in the summer. But what will it look like here then?
Cordially yours,
Freud
Prior to his death Groddeck had been writing strange letters to Hitler, and had suffered a severe heart attack. He had also gone to Zurich to read a paper on 2 June 1934 before the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society. He died shortly after at Schloss Knonau in the canton of Zurich.
The German is “Räuberhauptmann H.” It is tempting to posit an allusion here to Friedrich Schiller's play Die Räuber (1781) and to the German writer Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946), which might imply that literature was also imperiled by the political dealings that were being concocted in the encounter between Mussolini and Hitler, which took place 14-15 June 1934.