Margaret Schonberger Mahler | 玛格丽特·马勒
Just nine months and 6 days after Gustav Schonberger and Eugenia
Weiner-Schonberger were wed, they bore a daughter on May 10, in 1897. Margaret
Mahler was born in the small western Hungarian town of Sopron close to Vienna.
The Mahlers lived an apartment house called Gyoery Palota (Palais of the
Railroad Co.) which once habituated the executives of the railroad and is now
nonexistent.
Her father Gustav was born in a town near Sopron, Ferto-Szent Nikos and growing
up accepted Hungarian as his language over German. Gustav graduated from Vienna
University School of Medicine and was a general practioner. He had a very active
social life being the Chief Public Health Official of their district and the
President of the Sopron Jewish Community. Eugenia married Gustav at the age of
19 and so began her misery. She felt she was too young to marry and be a mother.
So for the most part of her life she was a miserable German speaking housewife
from Lakenbach, Hungary who prided in her cooking and house chores. Eugenia
dominated the household and was very unhappy with having a child at such a young
age. Gustav became the primary care giver to Margaret. Margaret grew to be his
favorite and have little of a relationship with her mother.
Four years after Margaret an expected child was born, Margaret had a younger
sister named Suzanne that was adored by Eugenia. Margaret once overheard her
mother say to Suzanne "I have brought you into this world, I suckle you, I love
you, I adore you, I live only for you, you are my whole life." Margaret's heart
being shattered, replied, "And I, I was born to my father." Margaret later
believed that the way her mother treated her was the reason she grew such an
interest in pediatrics and psychoanalysis. One of the happiest moments of
Margaret's childhood was when Suzanne was two and put her cheek to a hot iron.
Their mother was mortified and hysterical. She couldn't believe her "pretty
daughter" ruined her face.