I N T R O D U C T I O N T O V O L U M E 1 2 x l i i i
(Doc. 106). Nevertheless, he requested that the editor in chief of the Berliner Tage-
blatt, Theodor Wolff, allow him the final word on the NRC interview, and clarified
that some of his semi-jocular remarks about amusing side-effects of the “American
intellectual upturn” had not been intended for the public. He was displeased that
the Berliner Tageblatt, in its rendition of the Dutch interview, had accorded them
too much centrality (Doc. 182).
I V
At the beginning of the year, Einstein received a letter inquiring whether he had
supported a declaration, published on 2 January 1921 in Le Matin, a French news-
paper, that had criticized the German authorities’ “obfuscating” tactics in the
matter of disarmament and that called on France to be on guard and, if necessary,
to intervene (Doc.
10).[46]
Written by Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt, a leading member
of the pacifist organization Bund “Neues Vaterland” to which Einstein also
belonged, the article occasioned prompt accusations that, with this declaration,
Einstein and other pacifists had committed treason.
The first printed call for Einstein’s murder appeared shortly thereafter (see
Doc. 32). Although he was in danger of being a target of right-wing extremists at
home (Doc. 10), Einstein confirmed his membership in the BNV and, while deny-
ing knowledge of Lehmann-Russbüldt’s article in Le Matin, he too voiced concern
with the number of weapons in postwar Germany (Doc. 23).
During 1921, Einstein continuously clarifies his relationship to Germany’s
domestic and foreign policies, internationalism, pacifist organizations, and left-
wing organizations and initiatives. Given the heavy demands placed by the Ver-
sailles Treaty on Germany, Einstein commiserated with the hardships endured by
Germany’s population (Doc. 37) and defended Berlin against criticism (see, e.g.,
Doc. 97 and Appendix G). Although he had personally confronted growing nation-
alism, such as that displayed in January by university students during his lecture in
Dresden (Doc. 24), he compared current events to the erstwhile imperial nationalist
craze (“Nationalfimmel wie einst unterm Willem,” Doc. 97), and decried the pre-
carious situation of scholars in the defeated countries (Doc. 111). As he had done
even prior to his visit to England, Einstein consistently lauded English scholars,
especially the Quakers and pacifists among them, and repeatedly highlighted the
English scientists’ enthusiastic reception of relativity, and compared it favorably to
that of his German colleagues (Docs. 88 and 104).
Under these often tense conditions, Einstein’s exchanges with Arnold Sommer-
feld during 1921 illustrate the apparent lack of understanding of Einstein’s views