This is the background, as Freud recounted it in his dream book, of his pathological ambition of becoming a professor. As so often, when Freud had an uncomfortable confession to make, he split it in parts so that the reader wouldn't be able to easily see the whole plot.

Freud's confession in instalments

Part 1:

In 1897 Freud learned that he was proposed, for the title of Professor Extraordinarius (assistant professor). Freud was pleased but didn't expect to be granted the title, claiming he was indifferent about the nomination. (1)
This is how Freud explained his thinking (he was lying, of course): I am not, so far as I know, ambitious, and I was following my profession with gratifying success even without the recommendation of a professorial title. As Freud believed, also in his case, the "considerations of religious denomination were ... responsible for the postponement of his appointment. (2) As it soon will become apparent, this is yet another lie. His race had nothing to do with his case.

Part 2: 

Elsewhere, Freud wasn't denying that he desperately yearned for the professor's title, explaining that, If the desire to be addressed by another title [of a professor] were really so intense it would be proof of a morbid ambition, which I do not think I cherish, and which I believe I was far from entertaining. It is yet another lie, Freud's ambition was without a doubt pathological.
This is how Freud clarified his thoughts: I do not know how others who think they know me would judge me; perhaps I really was ambitious; but if I was, my ambition has long since been transferred to objects other than the rank and title of Professor extraordinarius. (3) This is the third lie.
reud was pathologically ambitious, ready to sacrifice anything, and anyone, standing in his way to achieving professional success.
(1) Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams, (1913, p. 46).
(2) Freud, (1913, p. 46).
(2) Freud, (1913, p. 94).

But if Freud couldn’t find the merits needed to apply and receive the professor’s position, he found an alternative method. He contacted one of his patients, Elise Gomperz (1848-1929). Thus, in the letter to Elise on December 8, 1901, about his application for the position of Professor, Freud asked her to intercede on his behalf.
Remarkably, in the letter, Freud conveyed a thinly veiled threat that, should the minister in charge of his promotion be unwilling to grant it, there would be lethal repercussions. (See Freud’s survivors page)
Luckily for the minister’s survival, as one of Freud’s earliest followers, Isidor Sadger recounted in his reminiscences of Freud, It was decided to confer upon Freud …. the title of a regular Austrian University Professor. But note well, only the title, of course. (5)
Apparently, Freud’s scientific credentials weren’t such that he would have been granted the title of the full professor. It is apparent that when writing his reminiscences of Freud in 1929, Sadger wasn’t aware of what kind of machinations were behind Freud’s professorship. Unbeknown to him, Freud’s professorship, like most if not all of his pseudo-scientific achievements, was fake.
(5) Sadger, Isidor, Recollecting Freud, (2005, p. 67),

This is how yet another of Freud’s early disciples, Hanns Sachs, in his reminiscences of Freud titled, Freud: Master and Friend, of 1945, published only six years after Freud’s death, recounted Freud’s winding path to the professorship:
he and his science were rejected by the official academic circles but …. he had been given the title of a professor extraordinary in recognition of his earlier work in neurology. (6)
Sachs was either misinformed or lying about the nature of Freud's professorship. Freud became a professor in 1902, long after he stopped to have anything to do with neurology.
Remarkably, as Sachs pointed out, Freud is much more often designated as “professor” than … for instance. Professor Einstein. This has faintly amused me, because Professor is just what Freud never was and never could become. (7)
Further, Sachs related what he was told by Freud himself about how he was made a professor,
The Minister of Education … paid a visit to the house of a wealthy Viennese family and was conducted through their picture gallery by the lady of the house … a patient of Freud’s. His Excellency admired a picture by the Swiss painter, Arnold Boecklin, who was then at the peak of his fame.
Luckily for Freud's prospect of elevation to the professorship, The minister wanted a picture for one of the public galleries … and urged its donation. The lady said, half in joke, that he could have it if he conferred on the Privat Dozent Freud the title of Professor Extraordinarius. The bargain was kept on both sides. (8)
As it is apparent, in this version of events, Freud was made a professor as a result of a joke. Very fitting, taking into account that, at the time, he was considered a joke in the Viennese medical circles.
Thus, Freud became a professor, and the minister avoided being the victim of Freud’s lethal rage.
However, as Sachs pointed out, the new title made no change in Freud’s academic status. He had neither the rights nor the duties of a member of the faculty.
In other words, the title was no more genuine than Freud himself, and his pseudo-science.
Much later, as Sachs recounted, after the war (WWI), when Freud was a world celebrity, the title of “Professor ordinarius” was shamefacedly conferred on him, but without giving him a seat on the faculty.
Again, even though Freud received the title, he wasn’t recognised as a member of academia. So “the Professor”, the teacher of a new science to all the world, was never really made a professor, a regular academic teacher. (9)
(6) Sachs, Freud: Master and Friend, (1945, p. 39).
(7) Sachs, (1945, p. 75).
(8) Sachs, (1945, p. 78),
(9) Sachs, (1945, p. 76-77).

Even though Freud became a professor thanks to a bribe, he enjoyed his position and the respect that followed the title.
As a matter of course, the fact that Freud was a fake professor wasn't public knowledge.
All people knew was that Freud was made a professor, the intricacies of his elevation unknown to the public.
It was only to his former lover, Fliess, that Freud himself revealed how it came about that he received the professorship. Thus, writing to Fliess on March 11, 1902, Freud presented a different course of events.
I chose the title [of professor] as my savior, he wrote. For four whole years I had not put in a single word about it.
True or false - since nothing happened, Freud decided to, approach my … former patient, the wife of Hofrat Gomperz.
The lady was happy to help Freud. She paid a visit to the minister, but  the minister ... avoided Gomperz, and it looked again as if nothing was going to come of it.
But Freud wasn't giving up. As he explained - no doubt following Freud's request - another of his, patients, Marie Ferstel ...  had made the minister's acquaintance at a party, ingratiated herself with him, and secured his promise ... that he would give a professorship to her doctor. (10)
But the promise itself wasn't enough; the minister had to be bribed too, with a modern painting for the gallery, he intends to establish.
The bribe worked wonders: One day she came to her session … waving an express letter from the minister", confirming Freud’s professorship. (11)
Also, Freud’s son, Martin, in his memoirs of if genius father, titled, Glory Reflected: Sigmund Freud Man and Father, of 1957,   (12) basing his story on Freud’s letters to Fliess, recounted the tale of the bribed professorship.
All well that ends well. As it is apparent the matter of Freud’s professorship was a win-win for both parties involved. Freud had been granted the title of a professor, and the minister was gifted a picture for his gallery, as a bonus, remaining alive.
(10) Freud, The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904, (1985, p. 456).
(11) Freud, (1985, p. 457).
(12) Freud, Martin, Glory Reflected: Sigmund Freud Man and Father, (1957, pp. 72-73). 

Remarkably, even though Freud was an academic fraud, and a fake professor thanks to a bribe, the fraud and fake is nowadays celebrated by the University of Vienna as one of their greatest sons ever.
Thus, on February 2, 1955, only 14 years after Freud's death the University of Vienna - in the presence of its Rector, in the arcade courtyard of the university - unveiled a memorial dedicated to Sigmund Freud. *
The memorial is a bust of Freud's; on its base is a verse from Sophocles' play "Oedipus Rex": He who solved the famous riddle and became a very powerful man. N.B. Freud didn’t solve any riddles, instead, his whole life was, and still, is a never-ending riddle constructed of lies and deception.

*https://geschichte.univie.ac.at/de/bilder/enthuellung-des-denkmales-fuer-sigmund-freud-im-arkadenhof-der-universitaet-wien

80 years after Freud's exile to England, Freud was once again celebrated, this time by the Rectorate of the Medical University of Vienna.  Thus, on June 4, 2018, an impressively sized statue of Freud - who thus became a revenant - was unveiled as a well-deserved (?) recognition of his pseudo-scientific work and fame. As it is usual on such a solemn occasion, several dignitaries witnessed the unveiling.
The rector of the university gave a eulogy to Freud decrying Freud's departure to a foreign land in 1938, while recognising his greatness. Unsurprisingly, the head of the Department of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy praised Freud's achievements, oddly - since Freud was unmusical - comparing him to Mozart, and claiming that Freud - some would say, regrettably - is the most influential scientist ever.
Considering Freud's perverted character, it is Ironic that, at the university, psychoanalytical research is conducted in the spirit of Freud.*
* https://www.meduniwien.ac.at/web/en/about-us/news/detailsite/2018/news-im-juni-2018/in-honour-of-sigmund-freud-statue-unveiled-at-meduni-vienna/, 19.11.2024.