DOCS.
611,
612
SEPTEMBER
1918
637
The
whether,
how,
and when
of
such
a
step
will
be
the
subject
of
the
discus-
sions,
which
are
scheduled to
begin
on
Saturday, 21 September, 4
o’clock
in
the
afternoon,
in
the
apartment of
the
undersigned
and,
if
necessary,
to continue
on
Sunday
the
22nd.
The
more
significant your
counsel
is
to
the
movement,
the
more
welcome
is
your
attendance!
You will
meet
exclusively persons
who
can
be
assumed to
agree
with the
basic
mentality,
whose
reliability
is
beyond any
doubt,
and who
are
young
in
spirit.
Should
you
be
prevented
from
appearing, you
would
be of service to
the
gathering
by explaining your position
in
writing.
With the
humble
request
for
a
prompt
response,
in utmost
respect,
Kurt
Hiller.
612. To
Michele Besso
[Berlin,]
Sunday, 8
September
[1918][1]
Dear
Michele,
My
still
not
having
been able
to
inform
you
when
I’m
coming
to
Switzerland
is
connected to
the
following
affair. Three
weeks
ago
I
received
a
call to
the
Zurich
University
and
Polytechnic
(letter
by Edgar
Meyer),
which
was
obviously
Zangger’s
enthusiastic
doing.[2]
I must
say
that
I
was
tormented
by
this
matter,
and it
was
very
hard
for
me
to
come
to
a
decision. I
don’t need
to
say
that
the
general
conditions
there
appeal
much
more
to
me.
But
if
you only
saw
what
fine
relations
have formed between
my
closest
colleagues
and
me (especially Planck)
and
how
accommodating everyone
was
and still
is to
me
here; moreover,
if
you
realize
that
my papers
gained
influence
only as a
consequence
of
the
comprehen-
sion
they
found
here,
then
surely
you’ll
understand that
I
can’t decide
to turn
my
back
on
this
place.
Added
to
this
is
that
my
major
personal
difficulties would
persist
if
I
pitched my
tent in Zurich
again, although
it does
seem
very
tempting
to be
able to be close
to
my
children
again;
past
experience
from
my
visits to
Switzerland
gives me
little
encouragement
in this.
Here, everyone
is close to
me
only
to
a
certain
limit,
so
life
goes on
almost
without
friction;
this
I
have learned
in
life.
However,
because
I
am
very
attached
to
Zurich,
and because
declining
the
offer
was
unutterably
distasteful
to
me,
I
did
something
that
I
otherwise
very
much abhor:
I
resorted to
compromise!
I
proposed
that
they permit
me
to hold
two lecture
cycles per year
in
Zurich,
each
of
which should consist of
12
lectures
(within
4-6
weeks).[3]
This
is not
supposed
to
be considered
a
position
but
an
extraprofessional
activity
for which
I
should receive
only enough
to
cover
my
expenses arising
out of
it.-