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Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
January 12, 1906
Dear Sir
That I find my name repeatedly mentioned in the Fackel1 is presumably caused by the fact that your aims and opinions partially
coincide with mine. On the basis of this impersonal relationship, I am taking the liberty of drawing your attention to an incident whose further developments will probably create a considerable stir among the contributors to your journal.
Dr. Fliess of Berlin has induced R. Pfenning to publish a pamphlet2 attacking O. Weininger3 and H. Swoboda4 in which both young authors are accused of the most flagrant plagiarism and abused in the cruelest fashion. The cogency of this fabrication may be judged by the fact that I myself, a friend of Fliess for many years, am accused of being the one who imparted to Weininger and Swoboda the information (gained from my contact with Fliess) which has served as a basis for their unauthorized publications.
I trust it is not necessary for me to defend myself in detail against such absurd slander. Dr. Swoboda, who is alive, will see to his own defense, which he will find easy. As for the deceased Weininger, I assume that his friends will intercede on his behalf and that you, sir, as on former occasions, will place your journal at their disposal for this purpose. Now it should be mentioned here that I personally do not share the high esteem for Weininger as expressed in the Fackel. But in this case I feel obliged to side with Weininger's friends and to warn them of the danger suggested by the very repulsiveness of the indictment's character. For the assertion divulged in this pamphlet and substantiated by the unauthorized publication of my private letters5—that Weininger did not discover the idea of bisexuality on his own but in a roundabout way, leading back to Fliess via Swoboda and myself-is actually based on truth. The undoubtedly brilliant young man cannot be spared the reproach of having failed to divulge the source of this idea and, instead, of passing it off a