Raynors HCA 2014-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/6/2014
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955) as a German-born theoretical physicist and philosopher of science.He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). He is best known in popular culture for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation"). He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory. Autograph Letter Signed “Einstein” in German, signed one page both sides, 2pp. quarto, September 19, 1932. Letter to Wander Johannes de Haas (1878-1960), a German physicist who had married Hendrik Lorentz's daughter, and a friend of Einstein for many years. In full (translated): “I thank you greatly for the letters from both of you. The happier I am to be able to pass the time so cheerfully and closely with your wife, the more it makes me sorry that you had just gone away. Ehrenfest makes me very sorry that he is so depressed through his feeling of insufficiency with regard to his post, which is objectively unjustified. I actually believe that there are few people who will be as well orientated as he will in our ‘law of the jungle’ department. Still, for everybody there is a limit where ability to learn comes to an end. I find that a special teaching post for atomic mechanics would be necessary in our universities; much more necessary than a teaching post for physical chemistry. Meanwhile, I also suppose that, for the present, the shortage of funds is making the creation of a new post, even for a limited duration, extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible. I even took the trouble to try what I could, so that these objective and psychological difficulties might be removed. It is impossible for me personally to jump into this gap. First, being an old boy, I already have enough on my back, and secondly I am much too little receptively skilled to be able to be serviceable to others at this time by the transmission of bits of knowledge. I would not be able to transplant the thick Partner. Here, it is yet more difficult than with you, and I also have no kind of influence with the new ‘Governors.’ It is even doubtful whether I do not altogether end my connections here. In any case, I have made myself quite independent, so that I may face anything that may come here with all composure. I regret the things that have happened to me from general human standpoints; what will there be as results, if the military economy starts again here! We feel our helplessness more than ever. Still, there are still good friends and fine people, so that we can feel at home on this earth. Hearty greetings to you both.” Fine condition. Einstein contemplates leaving Germany in this letter to his friend and colleague, Johannes de Haas. After the 1932 elections, the Nazis became the largest party in the Reichstag, and Einstein confides his feeling of “helplessness” under “the new ‘Governors.’” That year also saw the Geneva Disarmament Conference, when Einstein saw his years of campaigning for peace threatened by the largely toothless League of Nations. “If the implications weren’t so tragic, the Conference’s methods could only be called absurd,” Einstein said of the ineffective summit. At the time, he was serving as the Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics and was a professor at the University of Berlin, and naturally would advocate for a “special teaching post for atomic mechanics.” In 1933, Einstein would end his academic career in Germany when he emigrated to the United States after Hitler’s rise to power. Shortly thereafter the German government banned Jews from holding official positions, including teaching at universities, and Einstein’s books were targeted at Nazi book burnings. A host of other German scientists also fled to America and Einstein found himself working among them. "In my whole life I have never felt so Jewish as now," he wrote. An exceptional personal and lengthy letter in which the famed physicist considers his fateful eventual departure from his homeland.
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