The German annexation of Austria in 1938 compelled Sigmund Freud to leave Vienna for London, ending the life he had built in the city where he had lived since childhood. In the book’s brief chronology, the departure stands between the burning of his books in Berlin after Hitler’s seizure of power and Freud’s death in London the following year: a political upheaval made personal through exile.

Causes and Background

Freud had been brought to Vienna by his parents at the age of four and lived there until 1938. His education and medical career unfolded in the city, and the book presents Vienna as the setting of a long, formative residence rather than a temporary stop. The annexation therefore meant more than a change of address: it brought that settled period to an abrupt close.

The chronology places the event against the expansion of Nazi power. After Hitler’s seizure of power in Germany, Freud’s books were burned in Berlin in 1933. Five years later, Hitler’s annexation of Austria drove Freud from Vienna. The sequence links the public persecution of his work to the subsequent personal consequence of forced departure, without supplying further details about the circumstances of his leaving.

Departure from Vienna

In 1938, Freud left Vienna for London after Germany annexed Austria. The account states the cause and destination plainly, making the departure the central fact of the event. It does not describe the journey, the arrangements for departure, or Freud’s immediate response; the significance lies in the rupture itself, recorded as flight from a country under Nazi rule.

The move also changed the setting of the final stage of Freud’s life. Vienna had been his home from early childhood through decades of work; London became his place of exile. The transition is sharply compressed in the chronology, but its placement makes clear that the annexation transformed a lifelong residence into a forced departure.

Consequences and Aftermath

Freud remained in exile in London until his death there on 23 September 1939. The event thus precedes his death by little more than a year, and the book’s chronology makes the two London entries—arrival as an exile and death—bookends of his final period. It does not attribute his death to the annexation or provide a further account of his life in London.

As a biographical turning point, the annexation joins the political history of Nazi expansion to the personal history of displacement. Its concise treatment emphasizes a concrete before and after: Vienna, where Freud had lived since the age of four, and London, where he spent his final year in exile.