4 5 8 D O C U M E N T S 4 5 6 , 4 5 7 M A R C H 1 9 2 5
456. To Elsa Einstein
Hotel [Hamburg, 5 March 1925]
Dear Else,
Trip suitably magnificent. Blue sky and fine food, esp. figs. Mrs.
Rob[inow][1]
at
train station with son-in-law. Evening, small social circle. Melchior there
too,[2]
genuine Hamburger. Saw something of the city. Now it’s time to board
ship,[3]
which casts off in an hour. Letter from Mühsam with
cash.[4]
Not yet opened.
Best regards esp. also to heroic
Margot,[5]
from your
Albert.
P. S. In my gray coat I forgot an envelope that contains a memorandum about
Argentina.[6]
Send it immediately out after me, because I need it in Buenos A[ires].
457. To Elsa Einstein
[on board “Cap Polonio,”] 7 March 1925
My Dears,
Everything went very nicely up to now. After dispatch of my ticket from the ho-
tel in Hamburg, I boarded the ship, accompanied by Mrs.
Rob[inow]’s[1]
son-in-
law, where I was installed in my lordly bachelor’s quarters, whereupon the voyage
commenced immediately. At first it was cold and it rained incessantly.—But I must
report something else from Hamburg that was very funny. When I arrived at my ho-
tel on Wednesday around 12 o’clock, a small package was handed to me. In it was
a black necktie and a visiting card: “ordered by telephone by Gov. Councillor
Bärwald[2]
in Berlin.”—
Since yesterday it has been much warmer; and now we’ve got fine weather. Yes-
terday we docked in the outer harbor of Boulogne where I dispatched a letter to
Prof.
Lewin;[3]
I didn’t have one to dispatch to you yet. I often think how nice it
would have been for Margot; but it was not meant to
be.[4]
I sit next to a German
professor of philosophy who teaches at the university in Buenos
Aires.[5]
Other-
wise I don’t intend to make any acquaintances, and even this one, who is a very fine
man, I just see at mealtimes. I very much like the booklet that
Rudi[6]
had me take
along. Besides, I am busying myself a bit with science. It turns out that I can’t bear
it otherwise, Lewin notwithstanding. When I try to stop, life becomes too empty.
No reading matter can substitute for it, not even scientific reading.
Now I’m outside a lot because the air along the French coast, that is, in the Bay
of Biscay, is already very much milder than where we are. Definitely do immedi-
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