3 4 D O C U M E N T 2 1 A P R I L 1 9 1 9
She was also a member of the Deutscher Bund für Mutterschutz, Internationale Vereinigung für Mut-
terschutz und Sexualreform, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
(Internationale Frauenliga für Frieden und Freiheit). Together with Adolf Grabowski, she was a mem-
ber of the presidium of the German League for the League of Nations (Deutsche Liga für Völker-
bund), which had been founded in December 1918 (see Liga 1919, p. 4, and Wickert 1991).
[2]The enclosed appeal, also dated 9 April, cites the danger of violent class conflict resulting from
the uprisings of January and March and makes eleven demands of the government. Included are calls
for the government’s resignation, for exclusion of the military from politics, for expediting the trials
of Karl Liebknecht’s and Rosa Luxemburg’s murderers, for the creation of an impartial investigative
commission to assess war guilt, and for replacement of the compromised members of the German
peace delegation.
[3]Along with other political instability in Berlin and throughout Germany, the Soviet Republic in
Munich, declared on 7 April, was a threat to Germany’s government (see Radbruch 1995, p. 549).
[4]Grabowsky (1880–1969) was co-founder of the journal Zeitschrift für Politik and, together with
Stöcker, a member of the Präsidium of the Deutsche Liga für Völkerbund (see Liga 1919, p. 3).
Hochdorf (1880–1948) was a theater critic for the Social Democratic newspaper Vorwärts, who
also published several books in the Weimar period on socialist politics, pacifism, and the theater.
Radbruch (1878–1949) was Professor of Law at the University of Kiel. In January 1919, Radbruch
took part in a conference in Grabowsky’s house, presumably the birthplace of the appeal, together
with Georg Arco, Minna Cauer (of the BNV), Georg Friedrich Nicolai, and Stöcker, in which the top-
ic of the dangers of Bolshevism was discussed (see Radbruch 1995, pp. 12–13).
Koch (1889–1968) was a historian and pacifist. He wrote an article criticizing the new enthusiasm
for war in the journal Das neue Deutschland in 1915 (see Koch 1915). After World War I, he collab-
orated with Elisabeth Rotten in the educational department of the Deutsche Liga für Völkerbund, and
in this function sent out a circular letter of the Liga in April 1919 (see Lütgemeier-Davin 1982, pp.
29 and 332). Some of his other writings in 1919 pertained to education and the League of Nations (see
Kaul 1969, p. 73). He was active in the Free German Youth Movement (Freideutsche Jugendbewe-
gung). For a work he co-edited on this topic, see Grabowsky and Koch 1920.
21. From Georg Count von Arco[1]
Berlin Tempelhof Albrechstrasse 49/50. d. 12. 4. 19.
Sehr verehrter Herr Professor!
Obgleich unmittelbar nach dem Telefongespräch Boten nach dem Vortragssaale
eilten, war es doch schon zu spät. Wenn Einstein spricht, dann ist der Saal längst
vorher
überausverkauft.[2]
Sie waren aber so leichsinnig, mir zuzusagen, dass Sie bereit waren, uns ein Pri-
vatissimum zu geben, Daran möchte ich festhalten und Sie bitten, dass „uns“
gleichzusetzen dem
„D.M.B.“.[3]
Sie werden also sehr bald von Dr. Janke in dieser
Richtung drangsaliert
werden.[4]
Mit herzlichem Gruss und Dank im voraus stets Ihr
Arco.
TLS. [31 005]. A draft poem at the bottom of the letter, composed by Einstein in reply, in Ilse Ein-
stein’s hand, is omitted. Einstein quoted this poem in a letter to his mother one month later (see
Doc. 39).
[1]Arco (1869–1940) was chief engineer of the Telefunken-Gesellschaft in Berlin and member of
the central committee of the Society of Friends of the New Russia. He and Einstein had known each
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