D O C U M E N T 3 4 3 D E C E M B E R 1 9 2 1 2 0 9
authorities of the occupying
forces.[3]
The details can be gathered from the
enclosed letters. I herewith pass on to you the letters signed by me, soliciting your
signature and immediate mailing. In the case that for some reason you are not
inclined to comply with this request, please return it to my address.
I am, in cordial admiration, yours truly.
342. From Claude August Crommelin[1]
Leyden, 27 December 1921
[Not selected for translation.]
343. From Paul Ehrenfest
Copenhagen, 27 December 1921, 10 o’clock in the evening
Dear Einstein,
I’m in Copenhagen with Tanitchka and van Aardenne since 3 weeks (T and I
are living with the
Bohrs)[1]
—how wonderful it is. Everything!– He’s a mighty
physicist—I feel like I’m a joke gone wrong whenever I open my mouth in his pres-
ence.– A talk by him will soon be appearing in the Z[eitschrift] für P[hysik] (the
manuscript is going out tomorrow) in which he describes how he has now
deciphered the structure of all atoms. An immense thing, methodologically as well
as concerns the
results.–[2]
Oh, if only I could witness both of you together (and if
possible with Joffe
there![3]
)– I’ll write you more
about[4]
Bohr’s things, but also
about his stance on your light quanta, presumably from Norway (where little
has gone away with van Ardenne to the mountain snow) [I’m not going to Frisia].
He was enormously interested in your superconductive
snakes.[5]
Bjerrum is a fine
fellow![6]
I haven’t felt so happy as in Bohr’s house in a long time—he has such a wonder-
fully kind wife—an aura of sunny mildness and warmth surrounds her. Three very
dear little boys and a quite special
mother.[7]
Do you know his mathematician
brother Harald
Bohr?[8]
He also is quite a charmer, likewise the relationship
between the two brothers! If my poor
wife[9]
weren’t so miserably stuck in the
dumps, I’d now be in bliss and want nothing better than to be Bohr’s assistant.–
We were in the large woodland park Klampenborg and Bohr recounted how
nicely he went walking with you there (20 km outside of Copenhagen).–
Greetings to Ilse and
Margot,[10]
your wife, and you, yours,
Ehrenfest.
T