Is this story true about how Napoleon’s great -granddaughter bought Freud from the Nazis?

According to the story popular in social networks, Princess Marie Bonaparte to save the founder of psychoanalysis donated two castles. We checked the reliability of this story.

In viral posts, it is claimed that the great -grandson of Emperor Marie Bonapart saved Freud from death in a concentration camp: “She came to Goebbels and offered to buy an old doctor, he was not released from Austria. He would simply be sent to a concentration camp and killed. Like everyone. Goebbels laughed and said that he would take two castles of the princess for a decrepit Jew. She had two castles. No less! "Give me your castles, and I will give you this worthless old Jew. Or we will make a lampshade out of it as a keepsake." Maria Bonaparte gave. "Counting." And she added: "You cannot take my name from me. I am Bonaparte. And I will give everything for the teacher!" " Subsequently, she allegedly met Freud saved by her with a red carpet, on which Napoleon once walked, and a moved psychoanalyst cried for the first time in his life.

This story is popular on Facebook, where posts are gaining with it Hundreds And even thousands repostov, as well as in VKontakte (1, 2), social networks X And on entertainment sites.

Contrary to information in viral posts, Marie Bonaparte was a great -grandson not Napoleon, but his brother Lucien And, accordingly, I was the emperor of the great -minded niece. On the maternal line, she was the granddaughter of the founder of Casino Monte Carlo Francois Blana. November 21, 1907 Marie Bonaparte She got married For George, Prince of Greek and Danish.

In 1925, Marie Bonaparte It becomes Patient Sigmund Freud. Often writeThat she went to him to get rid of frigidity (which supposedly turned out to be a banal inability to achieve orgasm in a missionary position). However, as Celia Berten notes in biographies of the princess, the problem was not only this. Bonaparte experienced serious depression after the death of her father, the fear of old age and the loss of physical attractiveness (she even performed two plastic surgery), as well as fatigue from the performance of secular duties. Some time after the start of sessions with Freud, she begins to study psychoanalysis, works on the translation into the French books of the psychoanalyst "The memory of Leonardo da Vinci about early childhood", Participates in the creation of the Parisian Psychoanalytic Society, and already in 1928 he himself begins to accept the first patients.

Organization of Freud's flight from Austria after Anschlus described in detail in the three -volume The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. Its author, psychoanalyst Ernst Jones, was one of the organizers of this escape - it was he who achieved Freud's invitation to the UK. The book of Andrew Nagorsky is also devoted to this story Saving Freud. 

On May 17, 1938, Marie Bonaparte arrived in Vienna to save not only her teacher, but also most of his heritage. She stopped at the territory of the Greek embassy and, as Nagorsky writes with reference to Freud’s economy Paulu Fishtl, daily carried there the manuscripts, letters and other documents hidden under the skirt. The princess later sent them diplomatic mail to Paris. Bonaparte also took care of the gold that Freud hid from the Nazis.

The problem was in away visas. Any Jew who wanted to leave Austria at that moment had to pay a “flight tax”, the amount of which depended on his condition. Nagorsky writes in his book: “Freud’s condition, including money, furniture, works of art and book, was estimated at 125,318 Reichsmarks, which amounted to about $ 50,000 at that time; With the adjustment for inflation, this is approximately $ 950,000 by today's standards (the book was printed in 2022, so this assessment is generally correct and now. - Ed.). This meant "flight tax" in the amount of 25% - 31,329 Reichsmarks. " Jones clarifies that if it is impossible to pay the Nazis threatened to confiscate the Freud library and his collection of antiques. At the same time, all the accounts of the psychoanalyst in Austria were either confiscated or frozen. “The princess paid for everything,” Fishtl recalled later, adding that Freud insisted: he would return the money after he was free.

On June 4, 1938, Freud, his wife Marta, daughter Anna and Dog Lyun, as well as their housekeeper Fishtl and Anna's friend, Dr. Josephine Stross left by train to France. Jones writes: “At 3 in the morning of the next day, they crossed the border with France in Keel on Eastern Express. <...> In Paris, they were met by Marie Bonaparte, the Ambassador [US William] Bullit, [the nephew of psychoanalyst] Harry Freud, who lived in Paris, and [who lived in London since 1933] Ernst Freud, who came there to accompany them at the last stage of the trip. " 

Many posts with a viral history are accompanied by a photograph in which Marie Bonaparte goes by the arm with Freud. As a rule, the picture is properly so that the surrounding environment is not visible. But the full version of this photo is available on the network: it was taken just on the very day when the princess met her teacher in Paris. There is no carpet in the frame. 

Freud and his family spent 12 hours visiting Bonaparte, Jones writes, and after that they went further to London.

Regarding the castles, which, according to the virus text, allegedly demanded Goebbels in exchange for Freud: “verified” could not find information in open sources that such a deal really occurred. In total, it is known about the three largest real estate objects belonging to Bonaparte: 

• The Parisian mansion, known as the Roland Hotel and located next to Trokadero Square. He received a name by the name of the father of the princess, who built the building. In 1925, Rolan Bonaparte died, and Marie, his only heiress, sold the mansion almost immediately. At the moment, a five -star hotel is working in this building "Shangri-la";
• Blan castle In the Valley of Loire Bonaparte, she bought in 1918 for sentimental reasons - there was her childhood then her lover, French politician Aristide Brian. Despite the fact that the couple soon broke up, Bonaparte continued to own the castle until the 1950s, when she decided to sell him in order to improve her financial situation, which had somewhat shaken over the years of World War II;
• The estate in the Paris suburb of the Saint-Clue Princess inherited from her mother, repeatedly expanded, buying up plots of land with him, and owned them until his death in 1962. Soon her children sold part of the estate (including the main building) for development, and the other part was transferred to the city - now on its territory is located park Name of Marie Bonaparte, Employment Service and Cultural Center.

The author of the enclosed text in most publications is called Anna Kiryanova. The Kiryanova website says that she works in the field of philosophy of fate, philosophy of relations, philosophy of happiness, for 30 years studies negative influences, envy, mystical consciousness, and also consists in the Union of Writers of the Russian Federation. She has a rather popular (almost 700,000 subscribers) channel On YouTube, where she gives psychological advice. Active Kiryanova in other social networks, for example, on VKontakte. It was there that “verified” discovered the most early publication of the viral text - it was the first time Placed On the page of Kiryanova on June 18, 2018. 

Thus, there is no evidence that Marie Bonaparte took Freud from Austria after negotiations with Goebbels and selling his two castles to him. This story, apparently, was invented by a blogger Anna Kiryanova. However, the princess really used her connections to help Freud get permission to leave and transfer part of his property and documents from the country, and also gave him money to pay “flight tax”. However, this did not ruin Bonaparte.

Photo on the cover: Facebook screenshot

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What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

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2. Did Sigmund Freud say: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”?
3. Is it true that Kerensky fled from Petrograd in a women's dress?