D O C U M E N T 1 2 8 S E P T E M B E R 1 9 2 0 2 5 5
for a moment that you were surely provoked in a particularly obscene
way,[4]
nor
do we forget how abnormal the whole moral environment over there is in which
you are living—but even so—there are totally un-Einsteinian persnickety points in
this
reply[5]
—we could underscore each and every one of them in red. If you really
did set it down in your own hand, then it means that these damned pigs succeeded
in touching your soul, which is so very valuable to us.
You must understand me correctly: I might commit sins 100 times more seri-
ous—but it is not about me but about you—and this “My Response” simply doesn’t
suit you; it rather reechoes the filthy attacks on you.
— • —
What do I intend with my letter?
1. To tell you what my wife and I have on our minds.
2. To help prevent this poisonous filth from actually penetrating you.
3. At all events, to beg you very, very earnestly not to throw a single word more
to that voracious beast, the “public.”
— • —
And now—please—don’t be cross with me. Whatever may happen, never forget
how devotedly we all are attached to you here, from Pavlik to
Lorentz![6]
Yours,
Ehrenfest.
Today Onnes wrote me from Switzerland that Weiss will also be coming over while
Langevin is
here.[7]
—I really do think that, if we all can come together for a week
to discuss !!!systematically!!! first paramagn. of gases, then solid (nonconductive)
crystals (Curie and anti-Curie behavior at low temperatures), liquid O2, and finally,
ferromagnetism, then something will have to come out of
it.[8]
I received a letter by
Joffe from
Petersburg[9]
—they conducted brilliant physical exper.—among others,
also a very clever one on the Einst[ein]–de Haas
effect.[10]
I am hoping to hear more
in a couple of days; then I’ll tell you about it. Apart from instruments, there is noth-
ing they need more urgently than offprints. Despite repeated requests I cannot get
any offprints from Franck or from
Hertz[11]
—I would like two copies: for me and
in order to send one to the Russ[ian] physicists.
128. From Ludwig Hopf[1]
Munich, 22 Georgen Str. II, [2 September 1920]
Dear Mr. Einstein,
The wind blew onto my table the issue of the Berliner Tageblatt with your re-
sponse to the “Co.
Ltd.”[2]
Because I never had heard anything about the whole
matter and the local papers took no notice of the whole uproar, I can only gather