1 7 6 D O C U M E N T 1 7 6 D E C E M B E R 1 9 2 3
176. To Elsa Einstein
[Leyden,] 11 December 1923
Dear Else,
I hope all is in order over there despite the silence from all of you. My trip home-
ward is being delayed a little more, now, because I still have to deliver a talk in
Eindhoven on the 21st at the incandescent lamp
factory.[1]
I did this because I want
to enter into closer relations with those people. A few days ago I sent the main re-
sult of my stay here to Planck in the form of a paper for the
Academy.[2]
The day
after tomorrow is the business in
Amsterdam.[3]
Prior to that I am going to get ac-
quainted with your friend
Deutz.[4]
I am leading a very comfortable and pleasant
life; I have also come into closer contact with the research students now, through
courses and working together. It is quite nice here in Holland; and I could arrange
it quite well, if things can’t go on in Berlin. Without strong reasons, however, I
wouldn’t leave Berlin. I promised as much to Planck. It is high time that I came
home, if only (apart from home sickness) for the sake of the laundry and Dr. Mark,
who hasn’t given a single sign of
life.[5]
I am reading together with de Ridder and
Mrs. Ehrenfest an albeit unkind but very interesting book about Japan, which is
called Kimono and is forbidden in
Japan.[6]
You must make an effort to procure it
for yourself, too; but it probably doesn’t exist in German translation; the original is
in English. Ehrenfest has already written so enormously much during the
voyage[7]
that I am now acutely aware of my total pitifulness as a husband; but I do feel quite
comfortable as is. The salaries here got into the newspapers; nebbish compared to
German civil servants. Thus no great leaps are to be made. The Reich chancellor
doesn’t get nearly as much as I did, earlier, quite disregarding the problematic na-
ture of the gold
mark.[8]
Warm greetings now to all, from your
Albert.
I am therefore probably coming home on the 22nd.