On the past, present, and future of Freud editions in German

Freud defined the canon of his own ceuvre and we have a reliable edition of it in the form of an Ausgabe letzter Hand. The Standard Edition in English attained a new level of completeness in the presentation of the texts. As of 1970 both its achievements and its deficits have been reproduced in German. Among those deficits are the failure to take due account of manuscript versions, the gaps in the text variants, and the one-sided selection of "preanalytic" writings. This essay draws upon examples to indicate the (limited) scope of these failings. In conclusion, the author indicates what can realistically be expected of a future historical-critical Freud edition now that such a thing has become possible through copyright termination in 2010. A "posdude" examines two major new edition projects.