V O L U M E 8 , D O C U M E N T 5 3 2 a 9 7
contract to cover all eventualities, nor do we have any way of knowing what shape
all of our lives will take. It may well be possible that our circumstances would be
such that I could not send the children to you that distance away without financial
loss. If in such a case you wanted to insist on your right, I could fall on hard times.
I just want to remind you with what resolve and persistence you demanded that Tete
be taken away from Arosa last
year,[5]
and yet now you know how necessary this
stay was for him. I absolutely do not believe that you did this out of a lack of kind-
ness toward the child but rather because you didn’t really know his condition and
also didn’t know what was necessary for him. Naturally, it is not even possible for
you to know from there every detail about what is happening here, and this provi-
sion in the contract should be a precautionary measure, so that no difficulties arise
from which the children could possibly suffer. For the time being, a visit by the
children in Germany is out of the question anyway as long as the war is going on.
Later we shall surely be able to agree on each individual case. It is merely the
thought of the children having to visit you in Berlin itself that I would find disagree-
able; but I hope that you’ll not demand that of me at all, and will respect my
feelings about this one thing, at least. I make this request of you and hope that
you’ll not reject it.– With these explanations, the last point of our agreement will
not seem so hard, and I ask you please to leave it as it stands.
Dr. Zürcher tells me that he or H. Zangger wrote you about whether the matter
should be carried out here or in
B[erlin].[6]
Mr. Zürcher considers it very unlikely
that the affair would be settled there so quickly; he also thinks that the matter would
work here without
complications.[7]
With amic. regards,
Mileva.
Vol. 8, 532a. From Mileva Einstein-Maric;
[Zurich, before 8 May
1918][1]
Dear Albert,
Your last letter with the new proposals for the
contract[2]
arrived with some de-
lay; also, Dr.
Zürcher[3]
was away for 3 days; that is why I can only answer you
today. He points out to us that securities nowadays are a very unreliable
thing.[4]
Since I believe I can assume that you really do have the good intention of assuring
us the annual sum of 3,000 marks (I believe that is how much it is) in the case of
your
death,[5]
I beg you to consider properly what the situation is with securities. I
cannot and do not wish to demand more, but this amount should be genuinely se-
cure. Wouldn’t it be more sensible to sell off these securities available to you and