Martha Bernays facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Martha Bernays
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Martha Bernays (1882)
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| Born | 26 July 1861 Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
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| Died | 2 November 1951 (aged 90) London, England
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| Spouse(s) | Sigmund Freud (m.1886–1939; his death) |
| Children | 6, including Ernst and Anna |
| Relatives | Isaac Bernays (grandfather) Michael Bernays (uncle) Edward Bernays (nephew) |
Martha Bernays (/bɜːrˈneɪz/ BUR-nayz, German: [bɛʁˈnaɪs]; 26 July 1861 – 2 November 1951) was the wife of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
Bernays was the second daughter of Emmeline and Berman Bernays. Her paternal grandfather Isaac Bernays was a Chief Rabbi of Hamburg.
Background
Martha Bernays was raised in an observant Orthodox Jewish family, the daughter of Berman Bernays (1826–1879) and Emmeline Philipp (1830–1910). Her grandfather, Isaac Bernays, was the chief rabbi of Hamburg and a distant relative of the German Romantic poet Heinrich Heine and whom Heine frequently mentioned in letters. Isaac's son, Michael Bernays (1834–1897), Martha's uncle, converted to Christianity at an early age and was professor of German at the University of Munich. Although the Bernays and Freud families were well-acquainted - her elder brother Eli married Freud's younger sister, for example - the latter were more liberal Jews, and Freud in particular had no time for ritual observances. Martha told a cousin that "not being allowed to light the Sabbath lights on the first Friday night after her marriage was one of the more upsetting experiences of her life". She was also the aunt of Edward Bernays, Austrian-born American publicist and "father of public relations",. Her maternal cousins were brothers Julius Philipp and Oscar Philipp, founders of Philipp Brothers, which became the largest metal trading company in the world.
Courtship and marriage
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Sigmund Freud and Martha met in April 1882 and after a four-year engagement (1882–1886) they were married on 14 September 1886 in Hamburg.
Freud and Bernays's love letters sent during the engagement years, according to Freud's official biographer Ernest Jones, who read all the letters, "would be a not unworthy contribution to the great love literature of the world." Freud sent over 900 (lengthy) letters to his fiancée, which chart the ups and downs of a tempestuous relationship, marred by outbreaks of jealousy on his part as well as affirmations that "I love you with a kind of passionate enchantment".
Their eventual marriage was a much more harmonious affair: Martha consoling herself after his death with the thought that "in the 53 years of our marriage there was not a single angry word between us". The couple had six children: Mathilde (born 1887), Jean-Martin (born 1889), Oliver (born 1891), Ernst (born 1892), Sophie (born 1893), and Anna (born 1895).
Martha Freud died in 1951. She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and her ashes placed in the Freud Corner, into the same ancient Greek funeral urn that holds her husband's ashes.
Character
The young Martha Bernays was a slim and attractive woman who was also a charmer, intelligent, well-educated and fond of reading (as she remained throughout her life). As a married woman, she ran her household efficiently, and was indeed almost obsessive about punctuality and dirt. Firm but loving with her children, she spread an atmosphere of peaceful joie de vivre through the household (at least according to the French analyst René Laforgue). However, Martha was not able to establish a strong connection with her youngest daughter, Anna.
See also
In Spanish: Martha Bernays para niños
- Family nexus
- Freud family
- Love triangle
