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27 December 1929
171B
Dear Professor Freud,
As always at the end of a year, I take the opportunity of telling you how very much you have been in my thoughts this year again, and to wish you a very happy New Year. Wherein that happiness lies for you is easily stated. Those who are wise need little more than good health and the health of their dear ones. May the coming year grant you this happiness.
I hope you had a good summer in Berchtesgaden. I learned from the relatives of a patient with whom both of us are concerned that you made a trip to Berlin.1 The fact that you agreed to go for a consultation struck me as a good omen.
The loss of my eldest son has spurred me on to greater productivity and greater diligence. Since he is no longer there to carry on my practical and scientific work, my feeling is that I have to work for him now as well and in that way best continue his existence. My wife has most admirably concentrated all her energy on the upbringing and well-being of our other children and in this way has remained busy and well.
With kindest regards to you, your dear wife, your daughter, your sister-in-law and your sons,
[Yours, L. Binswanger]
After the holiday in Berchtesgaden Freud went for a consultation with Prof. Hermann Schröder in Tegel, a suburb of Berlin (cf. Simon, 1972), where he stayed from 19 September until 20 October at least, as is apparent from the letters Freud wrote from Tegel to Stefan Zweig (19 September; 1987c); Abel de Castro (26 September; 1977i); Smith Ely Jelliffe (12 October, 1983a) and Theodor Reik (20 October; 19561). Cf. Schultz and Hermanns , where the duration of the visit is given as 15 September to 20 October 1929.