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Scientific topics remained an important aspect of their exchanges in the follow-
ing years, with Einstein reporting on progress in his work (e.g., Docs. 8, 41a, 144a,
and 370d), and Zangger inviting Einstein to a conference he was organizing on the
concept of probability (Doc. 8, 533a). In several letters, Einstein and Zangger
shared their mutual dismay at the ravages of World War I (see, e.g., Docs. 8, 34a,
159a, and 261a). The letters also address Einstein’s interventions on behalf of his
friend Friedrich Adler, who was awaiting sentence in Vienna for the assassination
of the Austro-Hungarian prime minister, Count Karl Stürgkh (Docs. 8, 326a and
330b). In August 1917, Einstein presented his vision for a postwar pacifist organi-
zation of nations (Doc. 8, 372a).
About twenty letters, mostly written by Einstein, address tentative plans for re-
solving the recurring crises in Einstein’s Zurich family (e.g., Docs. 8, 276a, 332a,
and 471a). The letters often touch upon the health problems of Einstein-Maric; (e.g.,
Docs. 8, 242a, 250a, and 269a), of Einstein himself (Docs. 8, 287b, 299a, and
326a), of their son Eduard (Docs. 8, 352a, 361e, and 367b), or of all three of them
(Docs. 8, 308a and 391a). This is true especially during the most difficult period in
early 1917 when Einstein doubled up his lectures in Berlin and moved ahead his
planned visit to Zurich. With Hans Albert, he planned to visit Eduard, who had
been moved to the sanatorium Höchwald in Arosa (Doc. 8, 344a). In June 1917,
Hans Albert, recounting his difficulties with Latin and calling himself a
“Sauerkrautlateiner,” reported that he had read his father’s recently published pop-
ular work on the theory of relativity, and that he was looking forward to having the
second, more difficult half of the book explained to him by his father when they
meet (Doc. 8, 346a).
During this trip to Switzerland and southern Germany, begun at the end of June
1917, Einstein sent Elsa Einstein a series of twenty-eight postcards and one letter
over a period of two months. While stopping over in Heilbronn to visit his mother,
Einstein reported to Elsa that he was keeping to the prescribed dietary regime after
his prolonged bout with gastric ailments. He repeatedly asked that Elsa join him on
a vacation in southern Germany on his way back to Berlin, so that she might have
some “freedom” from her roles as daughter and mother (Doc. 8,
370e).[9]
He re-
layed the pleasures of his stay in Lucerne with Hans Albert in the home of his sister,
Maja, and her husband, Paul Winteler, whose lifestyle he praised and found “unut-
terably comfortable”—telling Elsa that they too should try to live in such a way, a
recurring theme in his desire to leave Berlin and pursue a calmer existence (Doc. 8,
361a). After a meeting with Marcel Grossmann a year later, he wrote to Elsa that
he was considering leaving Berlin and taking up a position at the University of Zu-
rich. This announcement apparently upset Elsa, since soon thereafter Einstein re-
assured her that he was only contemplating such a possibility, and that they would
remain in Berlin (Docs. 9, 72e, 74d, 77a, and 79a). But even in 1920, following the