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Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
May 10, 1926
My dear Princess
… The days of celebration1 are already over, only letters still keep trickling in. It was fairly exhausting, but I suffered from it only on the first day (May 5). All that happened later I stood very well. There was no false note; I got all kinds of flattering things to hear and to read. It was concluded by a celebration of the Jewish Lodge to which I have belonged for twenty-nine years. My doctor, Prof. Ludwig Braun, made a speech there of a kind which cast a spell over the whole audience, including my family. I had asked to be excused from attending. It would have been embarrassing and in poor taste. As a rule when I am attacked I can defend myself; but when I am praised, I am helpless. All the Viennese papers, and many German ones, printed articles on feuilletons, most of them very appreciative, some rather artificial and forced. The Jewish societies in Vienna and the University in Jerusalem (of which I am a trustee), in short the Jews altogether, have celebrated me like a national hero, although my service to the Jewish cause is confined to the single point that I have never denied my Jewishness. The official world-the University, Academy, Medical Association-completely ignored the occasion. Rightly, I think; it was only honest. I could not have looked upon their congratulations and honors as sincere. Only the (social-democratically ruled) City of Vienna sent me the diploma of the Freedom of the City which was bestowed on me two years ago; the Lord Mayor2 brought it to me himself. My closest friends in London, Berlin, and Budapest were here all the time; on the seventh we had 7 1/2 hours of discussions and conferences. Four-fifths of the 30,000 marks given to me I have turned over to the Verlag, one-fifth to the Vienna Clinic. I now have to thank the donors. One of them I am thanking in this letter.
Among the written congratulations those that pleased me most came from Einstein, Brandes, Romain Rolland and Yvette