Sigmund and Martha Freud, 1886

This is the wedding photograph of Sigmund and Martha Freud. The couple were engaged for over 4 years before they finally married, as Freud worked his way through medical training to become a doctor. The love letters from their engagement show the extent of the couple's feelings, as Martha returned to her home in Hamburg while Sigmund remained in Vienna.

Just after they became engaged Sigmund wrote to Martha Bernays on June 19 1882,

"My precious, most beloved girl.
I knew it was only after you had gone that I would realise the full extent of my happiness and, alas! the degree of my loss as well. I still cannot grasp it, and if that elegant little box and that sweet picture were not lying in front of me, I would think it was all a beguiling dream and be afraid to wake up. Yet friends tell me it's true, and I myself can remember details more charming, more mysteriously enchanting than nay dream fantasy could create. Martha is mine..."