930 DOCUMENT 640 OCTOBER 1918
Lassen
Sie
es
Sich recht
gut ergehen, empfehlen
Sie mich
bitte den
verehrten Ih-
ren,
und seien Sie selbst bestens
gegrüßt von
Ihrem
ganz ergebenen
H. Mühsam.
ALS.
[38 321].
There
are
perforations
for
a
loose-leaf
binder
at
the left
margin
of
the document.
[1]Muhsam (1876-1957) held
an appointment as
staff
physician
at
the Jewish
Hospital
in Berlin.
[2]At
the
beginning
of
October,
Mühsam had
been
stationed
near
Couvin in southwestern
Belgium.
After the loss
of
the
Argonne
Forest and the
town
of
Laon in northeastern France in
mid-October,
the
Germans had withdrawn their field
hospitals
to
the
Belgian city
of
Liège or
Luik in
eastern
Belgium.
[3]On
4
October,
the German
chancellor,
Prince Max
von
Baden (1867-1929),
requested
an
armi-
stice based
on
President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points. The American
responses,
the last
of
which
was
transmitted
on
23
October,
demanded
suspension
of
submarine
warfare,
withdrawal from
occupied
territories,
and
democratically
elected
peace negotiators, a thinly
veiled
request
for
the
abdication
of
the German
emperor.
[4]The
establishment
of
the
League
of
Nations
was
the last
of
the Fourteen Points.
[5]An ulcer
had
kept
Einstein confined
to
his residence
("Stubenarrest")
for
more
than three months
at
the
beginning
of
1918
(see
Doc.
503).
[6]Ismar Boas,
whom Einstein had consulted in
early
1917 in the first
stages
of
his
gastric
distress
(see
Doc.
309).
[7]The
ulceration
was
"at the end
of
the stomach
or
the
duodenum"
(see
Doc.
428, note
2).
[8]The
equation gives
the
viscosity
of
a suspension
in
terms
of
the
viscosity
of
the solvent
q,
the
total volume
v' of
the
suspended particles,
and the total volume
v
of
the
system
(the
square
brackets
are
in the
original).
The
expression
here
is
the corrected form
of
one
derived in Einstein
1905j (Vol.
2,
Doc.
15).
The mistake
was
corrected in
1911 (see
Einstein
to
Jean
Perrin, 12
January
1911
[Vol.
5,
Doc.
244])
and
was published as
Einstein 1911e
(Vol.
3,
Doc.
14).
[9]Alfred Werner
(1866-1919)
was
Professor of
Organic Chemistry
at
the
University
of
Zurich. On
the
position
of
crystal water
molecules in salts,
see, e.g.,
Werner 1893.
[10]K
denotes the numerical
constant
in Einstein’s
formula
for the
viscosity.
[11]The
square
brackets
are
in the
original.
[12]Couvin,
in the
Belgian province
of
Namur.
640. From Max Planck
Grunewald,
26. Okt. 1918.
Lieber
Kollege!
Nach
Empfang
Ihres freundlichen Briefes heute
Morgen
habe
ich,
mit herzli-
chem
Dank
dafür,
daß Sie
an
mich
gedacht
haben,
lange
und
reiflich
überlegt,
ob
ich mich
der
von
Ihnen
beigelegten
öffentlichen
Erklärung
anschließen soll.[1]
Daß
ich mit ihrem
Inhalt,
wenigstens
der
Hauptsache
nach,
völlig
einverstanden
bin,
wissen Sie. Aber darum
handelt
es
sich
ja nicht,
sondern
darum,
ob die Veröffent-
lichung
so
wirken
wird,
wie
es
sich die
Unterzeichner
wünschen
und
denken. Und
diese
Frage
kann ich
keineswegs
mit der Entschiedenheit
bejahen,
die
notwendig
wäre, um
mich
zu
einer
Umstoßung
meines im Herbst 1914
gefaßten
Entschlusses
der
künftigen
absoluten
Zurückhaltung
in der öffentlichen
Erörterung
dieses Krie-
ges zu
veranlassen.[2] Ich könnte
mir
z.
B. sehr wohl
denken,
daß
eine solche
Ver–
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