Gödniz

*For reasons of brevity, I will not explaining the significance of my inquest. Karl Menger dedicates the last chapter of his memoirs to Kurt Gödel, where he recounts being questioned about matters that I too would like to learn more on. "Meanwhile, Gödel was more and more preoccupied with Leibniz. He was now completely convinced that important writings of this philosopher had not only failed to be published, but were destroyed in manuscript. Once I said to him teasingly, "You have a vicarious persecution complex on Leibniz' behalf." Soon afterwards he said, "There is something I have wanted to ask you for quite a while. When was the Viennese (now Austrian) Academy of Sciences founded?" I immediately suspected what Gödel was after. It is a historical fact that Leibniz negotiated for a time with the Emperor and his government about the founding of an Academy in Vienna, but that the negotiations came to nothing. My answer to Gödel's question was, "In the year 1846, under the predecessor of Emperor Franz Josef." Gödel was visibly disappointed and replied: "You are saying what everyone else says." "What kind of answer did you expect from me?" I asked. "At the time of Leibniz, of course'" he said. "In the Proceedings of the Viennese Academy, there appeared important writings of Leibniz which, however, were destroyed. "I reminded him of the stranded negotiations and asked him: "How could the founding of the Academy be kept secret for centuries? How could its Proceedings disappear without a trace? Who had an interest in destroying Leibniz' writings?" "Naturally those people who do not want man to become more intelligent," he replied. Since it was unclear to me whom he suspected, I asked after groping for a response. "Don't you think that they would sooner have destroyed Voltaire's writings?" Gödel's astonishing answer was: "Who ever became more intelligent by reading the writings of Voltaire?" Unfortunately at that moment someone stepped into the room and the conversation was never concluded." pgs. 222-223; Reminiscences of the Vienna Circle and Mathematical Colloquium, 1994 (English) Understood as stated, the above exchange does not make sense. What could Gödel possibly have to gain from asking Menger about the fate of these documents if he was already convinced of their scrubbed from the record? Its clear from this passage, that Menger dismissed Gödel as parnoid, even delussional--a conspiracy theorist, in todays parlance. Not only had Gödel nothing to gain from this, but he also stood to lose much in the way of his credibility and Menger's trust, etc. If however, I am correct and Gödel was never convinced that important Leibnizian manuscripts were destroyed by a clandestine Viennese Academy, then his question was quite sensible, as Menger, better than most, was in the rare position of likely knowing their whereabouts or someone else who might. I would be ever so grateful for more information—thanks in advance for your help!