Introduction to the New Schreber Texts

The most important chapter of Schreber's Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, dealing with "miraculous events" in his own family, was never printed with the original text because it was considered "unfit for publication," and has subsequently been lost. (See Fig. 5) In 1976, when writing a paper on Schreber, I decided to visit Leipzig in an attempt to recover this lost chapter. I did not, of course, find it, but I did come upon something else of great importance. What I found were descendants of the Schreber family, living in and around Leipzig, who gave me completely unknown texts by Schreber — texts which are printed here for the first time in English. What follows is a brief account of this significant discovery.

As is commonly known, Schreber's father wrote a number of books on medicine, orthopedics, gymnastics, and education. "Victory Gardens" in Germany were and still are called Schreber gardens in his memory. Occasionally articles are written about these gardens, which explain why they are called Schreber gardens and just who Dr. Schreber was. In one of these articles, written in 1960 and published in East Germany, the author expressed in a footnote his gratitude to a descendant of Dr. Schreber who gave him access to the family papers. When I was in Leipzig in 1976, I visited the author of that article, I asked him if this descendant was still alive, and, if so, whether he had her address. He was unable to answer these questions, as nearly twenty years had passed since he last spoke to her, and even then she had been quite elderly. He was, however, able to tell me that she had been a teacher at the Leipzig conservatory. Upon visiting the conservatory, I learned that the woman had died nearly ten years ago, but that they still had her last address. I visited the apartment, and the people who were currently occupying it gave me the name of someone who had something to do with the woman's estate when she died. This in turn led me to a woman who proved to be Dr. Schreber's great-great granddaughter, and who was able to direct me to older living members of the family. These people provided me with a number of Schreber's writings (some poems for family occasions, and a speech for a Christening) which formed part of the basis for my doctoral thesis.

Not all of the new Schreber texts, however, came from these East German descendants of Moritz Schreber. One text was published in a journal about Schreber gardens in 1907. The poem dated 1907 comes from a psychiatrist's estate, who originally acquired it from Schreber's adopted daughter. And I came upon Schreber's last writings while checking through his psychiatrie file at the mental hospital at Leipzig-Dosen.

The basic historical context of these writings cannot, of course, be presented here, since that would require an extensive biographical account of Schreber's childhood and family life in general, I will, however, try to supplement the texts themselves by adding a few edifying notes — mostly ones containing details regarding names and dates. The information for these notes is derived largely from three extremely accurate family trees drawn up by G. Friedrich, a grandson of Schreber's sister Anna. The three genealogies consist of: (I) The Schreber family itself. (2) The Haase and Wenck families (Schreber's mother was bom Haase, and her mother, Wenck). (3) The Jung family (Schreber's sister Anna married Carl Jung).

A. Poem for the Silver Wedding Anniversary of His Sister Anna (1889)

The first text is a poem that Schreber wrote in 1889 to commemorate the silver wedding anniversary of his sister Anna. This is not the earliest of Schreber's writings, for we have a ruling written by him in 1864 about the different kinds of membership of a student society, which is quoted in a text about that society. (This is also discussed in my thesis). There were also several letters about him, written in 1864 and 1865, and found in a personnel file which the Saxony ministry of justice opened on Schreber, and which were discovered by Devreese.

Schreber writes in his Memoirs: "I was by no means what one would call a poet, although I have occasionally attempted a few verses on family occasions.'" The present poem, to the best of my knowledge, is the only one written prior to the Memoirs, that is, before 1903. The title of the poem refers to the date on which his eldest sister Anna and her husband, Carl Jung, celebrated their silver wedding anniversary (see Fig. 6).