D O C U M E N T 9 8 M A R C H 1 9 2 1 7 9
I was right to complain about the people in Zurich, after all. Now they are letting
Epstein, who had unraveled the Stark effect, go to
Holland.[8]
In Holland they cre-
ated an emergency position just for him. I’m sorry about the uproar in Russia; those
fellows over there had honest, earnest intentions, even though they went wrongly
about
it.[9]
98. From Arnold Sommerfeld
Munich, 14 March 1921
Dear Einstein,
Not you rather I am the guilty
one![1]
I delayed the response to your letter
because it still depended on this and that. It should state and finally does state: If
you cannot come in November because of America, you are welcome here in
June,[2]
highly welcome. November would be in many respects more pleasant, not
just owing to the lodgings at
Anschütz’s.[3]
In June you will have to put up with a
very modest little room at my home, which you are not allowed to decline because
of its modesty. I can only make use of your permission to set the closer date for June
a little later. There are two things here that have to be properly spaced from your
visit: (1) A trip by me to Göttingen in order to meet
Bohr[4]
(his new conceptions
on the interior of the atom are very exciting for me, especially considering the cir-
cumstance that I have to write a new edition of my
book!).[5]
(2) Two talks on rel.
th. by me and my philosopher-colleague
Geiger[6]
for university purposes, similar
to the talks you arranged in Berlin through the Academy. Your talk is supposed to
take place after this one, before an invited audience (without entry fees, your hon-
orarium is being paid from grants), i.e., invitations are being issued to the
Physic[al] Society, the university’s teaching staff (at the Senate’s wish), the Engi-
neers Association, the Bav[arian] Association of Mathematics Teachers, the Asso-
ciation of Medical Doctors; among the students, only the truly interested ones, who
are chosen through the intermediary of professors. I do not need to tell you that we
are all looking forward to seeing you!
That you are assimilating Weyl (and hence also Mie) in altered form is
nice.[7]
I
have meanwhile sent to press the art[icle] by [Pauli] for the encyclopedia; simply
masterful, especially for a student in his 5th
semester.[8]
Your latest paper will not
be able to be incorporated into it, even if we had known about it, because the
art[icle] stops at the end of 1920.
On the Herzfeld case: Experiments are busily underway; today we are getting a
new high-frequency amplifier. The objection in your earlier letter does not seem
tenable to us. It assumes that the radiation of the elementary magnets was coherent.