Janáček’s and Freud’s Vienna: the Fight for Recognition of Two Great Contemporaries
Janáček’s and Freud’s Vienna: the Fight for Recognition of Two Great Contemporaries

Summary/Abstract: The common denominator in the careers of two contemporaries and great men, citizens of Austria-Hungary – Leoš Janáček and Sigmund Freud – was that, in spite of their status as outsiders, they managed to achieve well-deserved recognition. Both non-Germans, they had to surmount a number of obstacles in order to attain their professional goals. The Slavophile Janáček dreamed for a long time of success in Prague, which came at last in 1916, two years before a triumph in Vienna. Freud had serious difficulties in his academic career because of the strengthening of racial prejudices and national hatred which were especially marked at the end of the 19th century. After the dissolution of the Empire things changed for the better for the composer, whose works got an excellent reception in Austria and Germany, whereas the psychiatrist had to leave Vienna after the Anschluss.

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