The Binswanger House

A Jewish family, a betrayal and the most exclusive asylum in Europe
Delving deep into the archives to piece together the fragments of truth, Gabriel explores how the forces of hope and hatred had transformed his family's identity and religion across more than a century of European history.

The Binswanger House is an extraordinary and vital history, spanning the story of a Jewish family over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and an enquiry into a complex betrayal with enduring consequences.

When Dr Gabriel Byng was visiting the Jewish Museum in Berlin in the Summer of 2016, he stumbled across a photograph of his distant relative, Albert Binswanger, who was a Jewish soldier in the German Army in 1915. Upon this discovery he delayed his flight back to England and found a huge archive of his family's letters, diaries and account books.

He uncovered that Albert was the victim of a devastating betrayal that had divided his family for over seventy years. Once a wealthy liqueur factory owner in Munich, when the Nazis came to power, amid violence and humiliation, Albert and his relatives needed to escape. He went to his Swiss cousin Ludwig for help, but Ludwig refused his appeal.

Fascinated by this decision, Gabriel went in search of Ludwig's story and made another shocking revelation: that Ludwig Binswanger, was one of the most famous psychoanalysts in Europe, widely celebrated to this day, but this pivotal moment in his life has never been revealed before.

Delving deep into the archives to piece together the fragments of truth, Gabriel explores how the forces of hope and hatred had transformed his family's identity and religion across more than a century of European history. The Binswanger House is the culmination of eight years of Gabriel's research, leading him across Germany, Switzerland and the US, seeking out surviving relatives, visiting insane asylums, castles and long-abandoned Jewish neighbourhoods.

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