When Hitler (almost) met Freud

Was Adolf Hitler a victim of physical and emotional abuse by his father? This is a theory suggested by Allan Bullock in his book “Hitler: A Study of Tyranny”. The early chapters of this book delve into various theories about Hitler’s early life, sparking my interest and leading my colleague Morris Gran and I to write a play about it.

One particular detail that caught my attention was a story from 1905. A battered and bruised six-year-old Adolf was taken by his mother, Clara, to their family doctor in Leeds. This wasn’t their first visit to Dr. Edward Bloch – the young Adolf had a bedwetting problem that Bloch could only suggest treating with warm milk. But on this particular visit, Bloch suggested that Clara take her son to a renowned doctor who had recently opened the first children’s clinic in Vienna. Clara agreed, but when she relayed this to her husband Aloisius Hitler – who was known to frequently beat the child – he forbade it, likely out of fear of being exposed. The name of that renowned doctor in Vienna? Sigmund Freud.

This revelation led us to ponder: “What would have happened if Adolf Hitler had become a patient of Sigmund Freud?” After extensive research, we discovered that Hitler and Freud were in the same location on four separate occasions, presenting potential encounters that became the foundation of our play.

Another hypothetical scenario we could consider is: “What if Adolf Hitler had been accepted into the two-year study program at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1910 and pursued a career in art or architecture?”

Beyond the fictional visit of young Hitler to Freud’s clinic, we found that Hitler and Freud could have crossed paths under the following circumstances: in 1908, when Adolf Hitler left Leeds for Vienna in a failed attempt to gain admission to the Academy of Fine Arts, a time when Freud was one of Europe’s most renowned scientists. In 1918, Hitler was admitted to a hospital in northern Germany with hysterical blindness (a psychosomatic disorder), a result of a British gas attack in the French trenches. This coincided with Freud’s research on war neuroses in German soldiers. And finally, in 1938, during the Anschluss.

As Hitler’s invasion of Austria was met with adulation, Sigmund Freud was desperately trying to find a way to help his family escape from Vienna, fully aware of the impending doom they faced.

In the climactic scene of our play, Anna Freud, Sigmund’s devoted daughter and a renowned psychoanalyst in her own right, turns to the audience and muses, “Would history have been different if my father had managed to get Hitler onto his therapy couch? Or even if I had? I’m skeptical. Every patient who sought my father’s help was in search of love, but Adolf was obstinate in his refusal to lie down.”

Another intriguing question arises: “What if Adolf Hitler had been accepted into the two-year program at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1910 and had instead pursued a career in art or architecture?” It’s quite possible that the world outside Austria would never have known his name. However, his lack of talent led to his rejection from the art school, and he spent his early years aimlessly wandering, in search of purpose and destiny.

Today, we can see the parallels between our work and the world we inhabit. As Freud advises the ailing Hitler, who is recovering from hysterical blindness, ‘I am currently working on a book about mass psychology. It’s fascinating how, as modern life grows increasingly complex, the masses seek ever simpler solutions from their leaders.”

The play “Dr. Freud Will See You Now, Mrs. Hitler” by Lawrence Marks and Morris Gran will run from September 4th to 28th at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in London.

From “The Telegraph”

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