Bern, Wednesday [6? April 1904]
Dear Marcel,
Quitel belately, let me congratulate you with all my heart on your son, and thank you for having sent me your most recent paper, which I will certaily study as soon as I can get some time to devote to non-Euclidean geometry. Your solutions look very simple and elegant.
There s a remarkable similarity between us. Next month we are also going to have a baby. And you will also receive a paper from me, one that I sent to Wiedemann's Annalen a week ago. You treat geometry without the parallel axiom, and I treat the atomistic theory of heat without the kinetic hypothesis.
Do you know that Ehrat has a job in a private school near Göttingen? He likes it very much there. I am ery glad that he has found a pleasant position and does not have to play the "satellite" any longer.
Please give my love to your wife and your son although we don't know eac other.
Cordially yours,
Albert and his student
Prague, 27 April 1911
Dear Marcel,
I cannot say no to you. So I'll come to the lectures.--After a difficult journey we arrived here in good contidion & have found a beautiful apartment. (Trebizekeho uliza 1215). I have a magnificient institute here in which I work very comfortably. Otherwise it is less homey (Czech language, bedbugs, awful water, etc.). By the way, the Czechs are much more harmless than one usually thinks. I hardly know any of the colleagues so far. Administration very bureaucratic. Never0ending paperwork for the most petty trifles. Request to the High Viceroyalty to allocate monies for the cleaning the institude rooms etc., etc.
With best wishes from me and my family to you and your family,
your
Albert Einstein
Could I ask you to buy a slice rune & send it to Prof Zangger, Inst. for Forensic Medicine at the University, and let me know the price? If the answer is yed, then thank you in advance.
Prague, 10 December [1911]
Dear Marcel,
I must now write to you once again in the matter of my Zürich appointment. I told you in my last letter that the thing is not urgent because I intend to ask that my employment not start until next fall and because I had written to Utrecht declining their offer. I regarded that matter as completely settled. But today I received a laconic letter from H. A. Lorentz in Leiden, the greatest man in our field, who is also a personal friend, in which he asks me how far my negotiations with the Polytechnic in Zürich have, in fact, progressed. He also asked for a fast reply. This is all the more surprising because only yesterday I receibed a long letter from him from which it emerged that eh had completely reconciled himself to my refusal of the offer from Utrecht.
There is hardly any doubt that H. A. Lorentz is trying to induce me to go to Utrecht all the same. If I am not at all comitted officially to Zürich, then as you can imagine, I will have a hard time refusing him. I beg you therefore to see to it prestissimo that the negotiations be initiated.
Please forgive me for badgering you in this way. But I am in such a delicate position that I do not know what else to do.
With best regards, your old friend
Einstein
[Zürich, 18 March 1920]
Dear Albert,
Many thanks for your information, which I shall pass on. I like the essay by M. Schlick very much. But from what I know, Medicus is staying here. Epstein seems to have prospects primarily in Zürich. Nicolai was here to see me yesterday. We were working towards keeping him in Switzerland.--We heard about the suffering & death of your mother and share your feelings. Do come here sometime soon. Lämmel is holding freq. public talks here, roughly along the lines of "Einstein in your waistcoat pocket."
Best regards between households,
yours,
M. Grossmann
Zürich, 9 September 1920
Dear Albert,
In the same post I am sending you a paper by Mr. Charles Willingens from the Archives des sciences physiques at naturelles. As you see, a cult is forming around Guillaume that thinks it must be correct essential points of your concepts. Although this matter is unlikely to be of interest to you, I think it would be in the interest of relativity theory if you had a brief joust with Guillaume someday, such as a short article for the Archives, for which I would gladly provide the translation, or simply in a letter to me, the scientific gist of which I could pass on, which would please our sympathetic colleague Guye very much.
There is a danger that from the unchallenged appearence by Guillaume and his disciples--also in the dailies--dessimination of the foundamental ideas of the theory of realtivity would suffer harm in the French-seaking region, which is always ready to claim French superiority on this issue as well. All the more so since the depraved campaign against you Germany is also echoed here. Thus I think I may ask you yo let me know in brief outline for what reasons you reject Guillaume's ideas!
I very much hope all is well with your and yours. Both our boys, who are in the same class at the Gymnasium, are already calculating with logarithms. We also are doing well, after my dear wife withstood a nasty sepsis just a year ago that brought her to the brink of death. But not she is up and about again and more cheerful then ever. Are you still not ripe for Zürich yet?
With best wishes to you and your wife,
I am your friend,
M. Grossmann
Cord. greetings from my wife.
[Berlin,] 12 September 1920
Dear Grossmann,
This world is a strange madhouse. Currently, every coachman and every waiter is debating weather relativity theory is correct. Belief in this matter depends on political party affiliation. Most amusing, though, is the Guillaume contest [Guillaumiade]. For in it, someone using scientific jargon has been serving the most pitiful nonsense to the illustrious experts in the field for years on end, and this with impunity, without being reprimanded. Thus one sees quite clearly how the judgements and values prevailing among the flock of scholarly sheep rest on the narrow foundation fo a few descerning minds. Refutation is not an easy matter, though, when one is not even in the positon to understand the other's assertions. I took every trouble: I thought about it, corresponded with Guillaume for a long time, but met with nothing but mathematical symbols devoid of any sense. A factual sparring is absolutely unthinkable; rather, one can only state an opinion. I enclose one for the Archives with this letter.
You ask me in your moody way: "Are you still not rip for Zürich yet?" This is how matters stand: on a personal level, it's wonderful for me here. My most immediate colleagues are genuinely welcoming and friendly. The Ministry attends to my needs. There is no lack of truly selfless friends, either. But it is exceedingly hard for me to support my family in Zürich; it would have been impossible if unusual circumstances, which may not last particularly long, had not come to my aid. I do not consider transplanting my children to Germany right. So it could be that for these external reasons I must think of leaving my present postion. I dread it, though, because desparate efforts will be made to keep me here, not so much because they want me personally as well as my brain, but more because I have become an idol due to the clamor in the press. The role I play is similar to that of a saint's relics that a cathedral absolutely has to have. My departure would be perceived as a lost battle. It will be damnably difficult for me to summon he requisite hardness of heart, even when it does become necessary. I also think that, in an emergency, they will always drum up the necessary money. The tragedy of my situation is that I cannot muster even the tiniest fraction of self-esteem to play my role, which was alloted to me through no fault of my own, with "dignity".
I am deeply pleased that your wife is completely healthy and happy again and that, generally, everything is going according to your wishes. It pleases me just as much that our boys are classmates, like we were. Let's hope we can soon see each other again. This year I am having my boys come (in October) to Germany, because a trip to Switzerland is too costly for me.
Cordial regards,
yours,
Einstein
For the Archives.
In the past few years Mr. E. Guillaume has repeatedly stated his position about the theory of relativity in this journal and, specifically, attempted to introduce a new concept (universal time) into this theory. At the repeated prompting of the author himself as well as of other colleagues in the field, I consider it necessary to declare the following:
Despite taking the [greatest] trouble, I have not been able to attach any kind of sense to the Guillaume's explications. Even by a lengthy exchange of correspondence conduct with utmost patience, I could come no closer to any goal. In particular, it has remained completely unclear to me what the author means by "universal time." My ability to understand does not even go far enough to be capable of a substantive rebuttal. I can only state my conviction that no clear chain of reasoning unterlies Guillaume's explications.
Dear Grossmann, please ask the Archives to sent the proofs to Guillaume. The statement is hard, but I can find no other way; this nonsense has gone too far.