# Is "Man's Search for Meaning (orig. Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager)" by Viktor E. Frankl a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Man's Search for Meaning (orig. Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager) by Viktor E. Frankl (Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 1946) is identified by: CENSUS CORRECTION — the title in the census entry is wrong. German-original precedence, and the publisher and year in the census entry (Verlag für Jugend und Volk, Vienna, 1946) are right — but the title is wrong, and the error is the standard trap for this book.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- CENSUS CORRECTION — the title in the census entry is wrong
- Vienna: Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 1946
- The German original of Man's Search for Meaning is "Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager" ("A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp"), NOT "...trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen." Note the first-edition spelling "Psycholog," not the later standard "Psychologe" — that spelling is itself a useful tell
- It was issued as volume 1 of the series "Österreichische Dokumente zur Zeitgeschichte," edited by Anton Tesarek
- Octavo, 130 pp., in the publisher's illustrated printed white wrappers — a softcover series volume, not a cloth trade book
- There is no printing statement and no number line: the 1946 Vienna imprint, the series line "Österreichische Dokumente zur Zeitgeschichte, Bd
- Publisher imprint reads Verlag für Jugend und Volk

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Viktor E. Frankl |
| Publisher | Verlag für Jugend und Volk |
| Year | 1946 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | CENSUS CORRECTION — the title in the census entry is wrong |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
CENSUS CORRECTION — the title in the census entry is wrong. Vienna: Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 1946. The German original of Man's Search for Meaning is "Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager" ("A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp"), NOT "...trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen." Note the first-edition spelling "Psycholog," not the later standard "Psychologe" — that spelling is itself a useful tell. It was issued as volume 1 of the series "Österreichische Dokumente zur Zeitgeschichte," edited by Anton Tesarek. Octavo, 130 pp., in the publisher's illustrated printed white wrappers — a softcover series volume, not a cloth trade book. There is no printing statement and no number line: the 1946 Vienna imprint, the series line "Österreichische Dokumente zur Zeitgeschichte, Bd. 1," the 130-pp. collation and the printed wrappers are what carry the identification. Frankl originally intended to publish the report anonymously; the sources consulted describe the 1946 edition as published under his name, but the point is not firmly settled here and should not be used as a discriminator.

## Is this the true first?
German-original precedence, and the publisher and year in the census entry (Verlag für Jugend und Volk, Vienna, 1946) are right — but the title is wrong, and the error is the standard trap for this book. "…trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen. Drei Vorträge" is an entirely DIFFERENT 1946 Frankl book — three lectures delivered at the Volkshochschule Ottakring — published in Vienna by Franz Deuticke. The two are routinely conflated because modern German editions married the titles: the standard German text is now issued as "…trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager." A copy of the Deuticke lectures is not the first edition of Man's Search for Meaning. First English: Boston, Beacon Press, 1959, titled "From Death-Camp to Existentialism: A Psychiatrist's Path to a New Therapy," translated by Ilse Lasch with a preface by Gordon W. Allport — first edition in English, xiv, 111 pp., in publisher's burgundy/crimson cloth lettered in white (a variant with a blind-stamped front board is recorded), in a very elusive priced jacket (price present at the flap); the first-state jacket carries Gordon Allport's name on the front panel.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The 1946 Vienna original is a wrappered series volume; any cloth-bound copy is a later binding or a different edition. The title "Man's Search for Meaning" was not used at all until 1962, when Beacon Press reissued the English text as "Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy," described on its own title page as a newly revised and enlarged edition of From Death-Camp to Existentialism. Every book bearing the title Man's Search for Meaning is therefore later than the 1959 first English, and the ubiquitous paperbacks are "first thus" issues of a text that has been revised and expanded across later editions — not reprints of the 1959 book. No dedicated book-club issue of the 1946 Vienna or 1959 Beacon first is documented in the sources consulted.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Man's Search for Meaning (orig. Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager)* by Viktor E. Frankl a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/mans-search-for-meaning-orig-ein-psycholog-erlebt-das-konzen
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.