l v i I N T R O D U C T I O N T O V O L U M E 1 5 from depression as well (Doc. 312). By May 1926, Einstein feared that Hans Albert had “fallen into a kind of servility to the girl” and entertained slim hopes that “the disaster” could be staved off (Doc. 286). By June 1926, the increasingly stressful situation manifested itself in physical symptoms, and Einstein informed Mileva that he needed to convalesce in the mountains (Doc. 309). But in July, following intense discussions with Hans Albert while on a visit to Zurich, Einstein wrote that the liaison was “a real ‘relationship’,” thereby implying that it was intimate in nature, and expressed his approval. A deterioration in Mileva and Hans Albert’s rapport reminded Einstein again of his own past (Docs. 325 and 328), and by the fall he was again pessimistic and asked Eugen Bleuler, the prom- inent Zurich psychiatrist, to intervene (Doc. 366). Bleuler concluded that there was “a presence of parallel genetic predispositions in the two families.” He advised against the marriage (Doc. 382) but failed to dissuade Hans Albert. Einstein con- cluded that “nothing more can be done” (Doc. 397). In January 1927, Hans Albert, who had recently completed his engineering stud- ies at the ETH, wished to visit Einstein in Berlin and seemed to be open to accept- ing his father’s assistance in finding employment (Doc. 449). Eventually, he obtained an appointment at a steel fabrication company in Dortmund without his father’s help (Doc. 466). A visit with Einstein prior to taking up this new position (see Illustration 14) led to an amelioration of their discord (Doc. 467). Einstein softened his stance and declared that if Hans Albert resolved not to have any chil- dren with Frieda, he would resign himself to their marriage, and yet he vehemently objected to Hans Albert’s imminent plan to move in with Knecht in Dortmund (Docs. 469 and 474). The correspondence with Hans Albert in this volume ends on a sour note: Ein- stein demanded that his son never bring Frieda to Berlin, because he “could not bear it,” and issued a dire prediction that the day would come when Hans Albert would want to separate from her: “It all results from the fact that she was the first to grab hold of you and you now view her as the embodiment of all femininity. We all know how quixotic people succumb to fate” (Doc. 484). Intriguingly, there is no mention in the correspondence of the actual marriage ceremony, which took place in Zurich on 17 May 1927.[21] At the beginning of this volume, Einstein’s younger son Eduard was almost fif- teen. Over the next two years, his intellectual development, as reflected in the cor- respondence with his father, is truly remarkable (see Illustration 13). Their exchanges reveal Eduard’s increasingly probing mind and, at times, agonized self- analysis, and Einstein’s obvious delight at his son’s intellectual growth and deep concern for the boy’s emotional resilience.[22] After Eduard’s visit in Berlin in July 1925, Einstein expressed great pleasure