HANS KELSEN (1881-1973)

              Hans Kelsen was an eminent jurist, and international lawyer and professor of jurisprudence.  His Jewish family moved to Vienna from Prague when he was three years old.  His father knew Freud through their meetings at the Bnai Brith, and Hans Kelsen was part of an intellectual group drawn to Freud’s lectures and writings.  A scholar of the humanities and natural science, Kelsen was interested in the cultural applications of psychoanalysis.  He knew many of the pioneers of psychoanalysis, was a close friend of Hans Sachs, and was a cousin of Paul Federn. 

              Repeatedly exposed to anti-Semitism despite having converted to Catholicism, he fled the Nazis and emigrated to the USA about 1938.  He is particularly remembered in Austria for having drafted the principles of the Austrian Constitution, and in the USA for his exposition of the United Nations Charter.

Harold P. Blum, M.D.

Executive Director, Sigmund Freud Archives