Open Collections

Description

Georg Breuer’s grandfather Josef Breuer, Freud’s patron and mentor, hosted “doctor’s evenings” where discussions focused on the latest scientific and philosophical developments. His grandmother Jenny Mautner’s salon was frequented by Schnitzler, Strauss, and von Hofmannsthal. Jeremy Bryant (Georg’s grandson) will conduct a historical analysis of the legacy of these diverse social networks on his family, from: Georg’s adolescent struggle with his Jewish identity, through a letter from Breuer; the Anschluss, when Georg aided Jewish refugees escape from Nazi persecution; behind the enemy lines of World War II; to post-war family letters between members of the Viennese diaspora. Bryant will propose the generational distance from the Holocaust allows for a more nuanced view on the secular Jewish project in Vienna, away from mere self-preservation and towards rationalism and liberalism.