Letter from Freud to Fliess, September 16, 1899

B., September 16, 1899

Dear Wilhelm,

I have not heard from you in a long time, but it is hardly your fault. You too probably expected news from me, especially a decision on whether I would come. Well, you know what happened. We once again were completely cut off from the world for several days; now we can at least communicate by telegram, but have not seen a newspaper since Wednesday morning, and trains are still running rather infrequently and not without risk.

I can disclose my intention to you, now that it has become impossible to carry it out. In my last letter I made my coming seem more uncertain than I really felt about it. Actually I had planned to leave here for Munich on Friday morning (Thursday was our wedding anniversary) and to go from Munich to Berlin on Saturday and pay you a surprise visit on Sunday. At the same time Minna was to go to her mother in Hamburg. In Munich we still would have been together. Then came the five days of rain, the news that all connections between here and Salzburg, here and Reichenhall, Reichenhall and Munich, and so on, and so on, were disrupted in several places, and thus the nice plan had to be dropped. It is the second time that floods have interfered with our getting together. I must take into account that I can get to Vienna only by a long detour and want to try doing so on Tuesday morning. We have already been informed of the first accident since the resumption of train service, by a special edition of the Berchtesgaden Anzeiger.

So this lovely summer has had a nasty aftermath. Naturally, nothing has happened to us (“naturally” refers to the location of our house); nor has much happened in Berchtesgaden. But the roads are thoroughly ruined. Yesterday I went on foot (four hours; impassable by carriage) to Salzburg, parts of which are flooded.

I have actually not yet overcome my ill humor (which this time was enormous after completing the manuscript — [and] which certainly