Born in Vienna into one of Europe's richest families, Ludwig Wittgenstein inherited a fortune from his father in 1913. Before World War I, he "made a very generous financial bequest to a group of poets and artists chosen by Ludwig von Ficker, the editor of Der Brenner, from artists in need. These included Trakl as well as Rainer Maria Rilke and the architect Adolf Loos." Later, in a period of severe personal depression after World War I, he gave away his remaining fortune to his brothers and sisters. Three of his four older brothers died by separate acts of suicide. Wittgenstein left academia several times: serving as an officer on the front line during World War I, where he was decorated a number of times for his courage; teaching in schools in remote Austrian villages, where he encountered controversy for using sometimes violent corporal punishment on girls and a boy (the Haidbauer incident) especially during mathematics classes; working during World War II as a hospital porter in London, notably telling patients not to take the drugs they were prescribed; and working as a hospital laboratory technician at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne. He later expressed remorse for these incidents, and spent the remainder of his life lecturing and attempting to prepare a second manuscript for publication, which was published posthumously as the hugely influential Philosophical Investigations.
Do you think depression ran in Wittgenstein's family?
Depression is a mental health issue which can sometimes lead to suicide. It is known to run in families. Ludwig Wittgenstein personally experienced at least one period of severe depression and three of his four older brothers died by separate acts of suicide. Based on the fact that so many of Wittgenstein's immediate family members experienced depression or died by suicide, I think it is fair to say depression ran in Wittgenstein's family.