The day after the death of Silberer, on January 13, 1923, other Vienna newspapers, Die Neue Zeitung, Kleine Volks Zeitung, and Neuigkeits-Welt-Blatt, printed versions of the same article that appeared, the day before, in the Neue Freie Presse, and the Neues Wiener Tagblatt.
Several other newspapers printed shortened versions of the article. Apparently, on the occasion of Silberere’s death, the freelance author sent it to most, if not all, other Viennese newspapers. (Without a doubt, the author - who was it? - was paid for his valuable contribution.)

When analyzing the course of events of that fateful night, timing is important. According to the articles, Silberer came home after curfew, thus after 10 pm, but can we determine more specifically what time? Since he talked to his wife, before wishing her good night, under normal circumstances, since she wasn’t asleep, this would mean that he came home before midnight. The claim that he went to his room is interesting. So, on this night, Silberer wasn’t going to sleep in the marital bed. Notably, the article talks about two bedrooms, his wife's, and his.
So, even though they were married - this was Silberer's second marriage – If we are to believe the article - the newly married (for two years) couple had separate bedrooms, which is very unlikely.
The author claimed that Silberer was suffering recently from mental problems. Moreover, it was alleged that this very night, he was very upset and pacing back and forth in his room.
Further, he claimed that the wife noticed that it became quiet in the husband’s room. This is, once again, an odd claim. So, the wife didn’t go to sleep but rather was listening to what was happening in her husband’s bedroom, which appears odd.
If the husband was pacing, not allowing the wife to fall asleep, wouldn’t she get up to ask what was going on rather than remaining in bed?
As the author alleges, the wife became anxious when she heard no sound coming from the husband's bedroom. Once again, this is a strange claim. Rather than becoming anxious, wouldn’t she rather assume that the husband fell asleep, and went to sleep herself?
There are more strange claims. Thus, the author claimed that she rushed into the husband’s room, because she heard no noise in the husband’s bedroom, only to find it empty, and the bed untouched.
Why would she rush into the bedroom? After all, the silence - which is normal during the night - was no reason to get upset. Next, she allegedly tried to open the door to the anteroom leading to her husband's bedroom, but it was locked.
Then, looking through the keyhole into the locked anteroom door, the wife, saw her husband hanging on the cross window cross. This is a strange claim. It is unusual to have locks on the doors in one’s apartment. But, since she could look through it, there was no key in the lock.
But, for the wife to see the window, it would have to have been placed opposite the bedroom door leading to the anteroom, which is odd. After all, an anteroom leads straight into the main room. Thus, if there were any windows at all in the anteroom, they would be placed on the side wall.
Moreover, since the keyhole is placed about waist height - even if there was a window facing the door to the bedroom - there’s a question of whether the wife could see the window, and her husband's body, through the keyhole.
Again, allegedly, when the wife saw the husband hanging from the cross window, assisted by her maid, she broke the door with a pickaxe (or a hoe). This poses yet another question. Would there be a pickaxe (or a hoe) in the apartment? This doesn’t sound right. A tool of this kind belongs in a garden shed rather than in a city apartment.
There was no suicide note explaining Silberer’s death, but not all suicides are explained in a suicide note.
The whole story about Silberer's suicide sounds more like a work of fiction than a recount of an actual event. How, for example, would the author know all the details leading to Silberer's death, unless he was there? There's no mention of him interviewing the wife or the maid. (Would the wife be giving this kind of interview, right after her husband's death, to a stranger?)
There are other odd claims in the article. Allegedly, Silberer was upset and pacing in his room, was he expecting a visitor? Moreover, hanging oneself in a cross window is an unusual way to die. Also, the choice of an antechamber for hanging is inexplicable. After all, Silberer had the choice of all rooms in the apartment. And the most mystifying thing of all. Silberer was found hanged on a cross window, just like Freud’s other talented, and likewise unruly, follower, Tausk, only four years earlier. Notably, while Tausk, who was Jewish, was a convert to Christianity, Silberer was a Christian. Was Silberer's yet another symbolic death on the cross?
Notably, around that time, Freud introduced the notion of repetition compulsion. Was Silberer’s death on the cross a result of Freud's compulsion to repeat the same murdering procedure?
Another question - since, no doubt, there was a concierge opening the front door - is whether and how the murderer - assuming Silberer was murdered - could have come into the house at nighttime at all.
There are three possibilities. He could have come before the curfew and hid somewhere in the building. He could have paid the doorman to let him in claiming to visit someone else. Or he could have stayed in the maid’s room, or someone else's, apartment.
Silberer had no apparent reason to commit suicide, rather, he had all the reasons to live. Newly married, having recently completed his doctorate, having given a lecture in front of a distinguished audience, without financial problems (his rich father owned the house he lived in), and having success as a writer, he should have been looking forward to a bright future rather than ending his life.
Remarkably, only one article, the one in the Kleine Volks Zeitung, mentioned Silberer's involvement with psychoanalysis, although only relating his work as an editor for an American magazine. Oddly, Silberer's over ten years long association with Freud, and his followers, was again totally ignored by the author.
There are many strange, and not believable, claims in the article. The whole article appears to be a fictional story; its only 100% true part, the fact that Silberer was found dead.
A case in point: Freud was a keen writer of stories about those who died by his hand, like Ignaz Schönberg, Nathan Weiss, and Viktor Tausk, to name a couple of the victims. Now, also Silberer belonged to this tragic circle.