V O L U M E 9 , D O C U M E N T 1 4 8 a 1 3 7
now?[4]
Has an answer arrived from
Switzerland?[5]
I received no sign of life from
you yet. Soon I’ll be given the nickname “the prolific”!
Heartfelt greetings to all of you, yours,
Albert.
Vol. 9, 148a. From Mileva Einstein-Maric;
Zurich, 22 October 1919
Dear Albert,
I’d like to respond to your
letter[1]
with the following: I can’t very well decide to
pick up and leave suddenly for Germany now, because my health is still far too un-
stable and I fear that the move and everything that goes with it would be too much
for me; and then, in a strange town where I don’t know a soul or my way around, I
couldn’t help myself at all if I were bedridden again for a longer
time.[2]
This ap-
proach could lead to a grim calamity for us. Also, I am stocked up with coal here
for the whole winter, which nowadays is no trifling matter, likewise with potatoes,
etc.;[3]
leaving all this behind and possibly having to freeze there would also be a
bitter thing indeed, for you always have to keep in mind that I am simply not
healthy yet by a long shot, and that I really can’t walk much and going shopping is
a very difficult thing for me.
On the other hand, I do completely understand the reasons impelling you to
make this suggestion to me, and after much consideration I thought of the following
procedure:
I’d very much like to spend this winter still in Zurich; I will restrict myself to the
utmost and cover these bare essentials with the remaining money I have left here,
which isn’t very much, but I hope to be able to make ends meet. I’d like to request
that you deposit the money you have designated for
us[4]
in my name at a German
bank so that I can withdraw it in an emergency, or if I don’t need it, it could stay
there for later. But please do let me know roughly what sum you have determined,
in order for me to know approximately what I can count on so that we don’t run
into any difficulties later. By the spring I hope to have recovered better, and then it
will be easier for me to make decisions.
I discussed these matters with Dr. and Mrs.
Zürcher,[5]
whom you also have writ-
ten, and they also think that this solution of the problem is probably the most rea-
sonable. Dr. Zürcher will be writing you himself, of course. I think you will agree
to this as well.
The children are as well as ever.
Tete[6]
started playing the piano 2 months ago