D O C U M E N T S 2 0 9 , 2 1 0 F E B R U A R Y 1 9 2 4 2 0 7
209. Note on Prussian Citizenship
[Berlin,] 7 February 1924
The question has been raised at the Academy of whether in addition to my Swiss
citizenship I also have Prussian
citizenship.[1]
At the Academy’s prompting I had a
discussion with Dr. von Rottenburg at the Ministry of Culture about
this.[2]
He res-
olutely held the view that my employment at the Academy was connected with the
acquisition of Prussian citizenship, as no grounds for a contrary interpretation can
be drawn from the files. I raise no objection to this interpretation.
A. Einstein.
210. To Reta Anschütz-Stöve
[Berlin,] 9 February 1924
Dear Mrs. Anschütz,
You are a good woman and I am an honest fellow. Therefore I won’t keep it to
myself but will speak frankly to you. The way you spoke to my
wife[1]
on the tele-
phone was not very nice of you, saying that you would not come to our apartment,
and asking for me without saying a word of greeting to her. It was as if you had
telephoned just in order to show her your antipathy.
I can understand how you might feel this way. You see in her the woman who
took me away from my
boys,[2]
and see the need to let her feel this; you do this out
of fondness for my boys. But you cannot judge these things correctly. The divorce
from my first wife had been a necessity for me for years, which I could not have
ignored even if my current wife had never
existed.[3]
My current wife has, further-
more, conducted herself impeccably in every respect toward the former one and the
children, irrespective of how difficult it has been made for her. She voluntarily
stepped into the background at every occasion in order not to disturb my family’s
rights. Not many would have managed all this. She has always been a self-sacrific-
ing, good wife to me, against whom not the slightest reproach is due.
Consequently, it is a self-evident dictate of justice that I defend her against de-
liberate insult. Is it right of me to come into your hospitable home, if you explicitly
reject entering my own? It cannot possibly be your intention to put me in such a
skewed and unworthy position on the grounds of the cordial feelings I have for your
husband[4]
and you.