D O C U M E N T 4 7 7 F E B R U A R Y 1 9 2 7 7 4 7 TLS (GyHanNLA, Niedersäschsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Hannover, Hann. 171a Hildesheim Acc. 105/80 Nr. 11). Excerpt published in Pietsch 2006, p. 41. [95 881]. The letter is addressed “An den Herrn Präsidenten des Preussischen Staatsministeriums. Berlin. [1]Braun (1872–1955), member of the Social Democratic Party, was serving his third term as prime minister of the Free State of Prussia. [2]The letter was signed by Einstein and nineteen other prominent representatives of academia and the arts, among them Otto Dix, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Liebermann, Max Pechstein, and Artur Schnabel. [3]On 19 August 1926, the musician Otto Schlesinger (1905–1943?) and the electrician Willi Weber (1904?–1965) derailed the Berlin-Cologne night train in the vicinity of the town of Leiferde in Lower Saxony, with the alleged intention of robbing the train’s mail car. The derailment caused twenty-one fatalities and several injuries. The incident became known as “the Leiferde train massa- cre.” The perpetrators were arrested on 6 September 1926 in Berlin and sentenced to death on 4 November 1926 by a jury court in Hildesheim. For details, see Berliner Tageblatt, 19 August 1926, EE 20 August, ME and EE, Vossische Zeitung, 7 September 1926, ME, and 4 November 1926, EE. Just two weeks earlier, Einstein had contributed Doc. 462 to the public discussion on capital punish- ment, which had been partly instigated by the Leiferde massacre. [4]Schlesinger was actually a choir accompanist at the Landestheater in Altenburg in Thuringia. He had studied there to become a bandmaster, yet had to abandon his studies because of the death of his father. He was subsequently appointed as the first bandmaster at the theater of Neuhaldensleben in Saxony-Anhalt (see Vossische Zeitung, 3 November 1926, EE). [5]The person in question may have been a young woman who was rumored to be Schlesinger’s girlfriend in Neuhaldensleben. When the local police investigated her, she confirmed that she knew Schlesinger but denied that she had been his girlfriend (see Pietsch 2006, p. 36). [6]The death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by the Preussisches Staatsministerium on 27 May 1927 (see Vossische Zeitung, 28 May 1927, ME). 477. To Manasseh Meyer[1] Berlin. 8. II. 1927. Sehr geehrter Herr Menasse Meyer, Der Besuch des Herrn Dr. Goldstein bei Ihnen ist mir ein freudiger Anlass, um mich an die harmonischen Stunden zu erinnern, die ich vor einigen Jahren in Ihrem Hause zugebracht habe.[2] Auf jener Reise habe ich mit Freude wahrgenommen, dass es auf der ganzen Erde stolze Juden gibt, die ihrem Volke treu geblieben sind und auch Macht genug besitzen, um der Sache Ihres Volkes zu dienen. Sie sind einer von denen, für die dies in schönster Weise zutrifft. Mit Freude habe ich vernommen[,] dass Sie dem Kulturwerke des jüdischen Volkes schon mehrmals beigestanden sind. Leihen Sie auch diesmal Herrn Dr. Goldstein, dem Abgesandten des Keren Hajessod ein freundliches Ohr. Es grüsst Sie herzlich Ihr ergebener (gez.) A. Einstein.