Dr. Horton Replies

The Rothschild banking empire [was] well known, yet it was but one of several Viennese banks owned by Jews. In industry, there was Karl Wittgenstein…Austria’s largest steel magnate. By the 1880’s,…Jews made up one-third of the student body of the University of Vienna…50 percent in medicine and almost 60% in law. All the liberal daily newspapers were owned by Jews and a large proportion of the journalists were Jewish. As the turn of the century approached, the majority of the liberal, educated, intellectual elite of Vienna was Jewish…by 1900 Jewish doctors held the majority of chairs at the University of Vienna Medical School and most of the directorships of the city’s hospitals. The emperor’s personal physician, the obstetrician to the women in the imperial family, and the surgeon general of the army were all Jewish. Within the university and his chosen field, the fact that Freud came from a Jewish background, far from being a handicap in advancing his career, may well have been an advantage. (3, p. 40–41)