l x v i i i I N T R O D U C T I O N T O V O L U M E 1 5 entrance into the League of Nations were the second major issue in foreign policy. Following many delays, Germany officially joined the League on 10 September 1926.[32] Chancellor Hans Luther’s cabinet was plunged into a severe crisis days after the Locarno Treaties were signed owing to vehement opposition by German national- ists. The exit of the German National People’s Party from the government led to the resignation of Luther’s first cabinet his second cabinet lasted only a few months.[33] Another major issue on the domestic political scene was the struggle over the compensation of former German princes for their confiscated property. After an intensive public campaign, a referendum on the issue failed to obtain the necessary votes in June 1926.[34] The economic conditions in Germany deteriorated substantially. From mid- 1925 onward, a “severe stabilization crisis” set in, caused by the Reichsbank’s deflationary policy and a significant decrease in foreign loans, leading to bankrupt- cies and a steep rise in unemployment. By January 1926, the unemployed num- bered more than two million.[35] Einstein suffered no small amount of soul-searching in deciding what causes to support or endorse. In June 1925, the German pacifist Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt asked Einstein to contribute to a survey on a controversial matter, possibly related to the political persecution of the Heidelberg mathematician Emil J. Gumbel. He refused to participate because his ability to remain in Berlin depended on his “not standing out politically on a personal level.” Moreover, he did not think any Jew should be involved in this initiative. This refusal was an indication that the turbu- lent political atmosphere, which, in late 1923, had led to death threats against Einstein and his seeking temporary refuge in the Netherlands,[36] was still influenc- ing the extent to which he was willing to be politically engaged and also evinces his perception of the continued uncertain plight of German Jewry (Doc. 6). Six months later, he was reluctant to publicly support the German pacifist author Heinrich Wandt, who had been sentenced to six years in prison for alleged military treason, because he did not have sufficient information on the case (Doc. 124). In spite of his expressed desire to stay out of the public eye, this period actually saw an intensification of Einstein’s public involvement. The most notable indica- tion is the rise in the number of politically motivated appeals that he supported: from March 1926 to April 1927, Einstein cosigned eleven appeals. Many of the judiciary of the Weimar Republic had been judges and state prose- cutors for decades during the Wilhelmine period and remained loyal to the Reich, rather than to the new republic. They persisted in favoring right-wing offenders and