D O C U M E N T 4 4 7 J A N U A R Y 1 9 2 7 4 4 1 it. I very much regret that, for lack of money and time, I can’t travel to Berlin now to ask for your verdict on it. My people here like it very much. So, dear, dear Einstein! Now, show the beginning of this letter to your wife and let her know that I entreat her to support my petition to you that you let the whole Leyden business peacefully continue, formally unchanged where it is really hon- estly clearly understood by ALL those concerned that you HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO OBLIGATIONS ANYMORE WITH REGARD TO COMING TO LEYDEN. As a sign of your approval, leave this whole letter of mine UNANSWERED! (Didn’t I slyly adapt this to your letter-writing psychology? Just imagine what kind of letters you’d have to [turn out], if you wanted to achieve any kind of change without making anyone sad!!!!) Everyone here, especially the De Haases, my mother,[11] and my children,[12] send you warm wishes! Your old P. Ehrenfest Give my regards to your wife, Ilse, and Margot.[13] 447. To Karl F. Herzfeld [Berlin, after 8 January 1927][1] Dear Mr. Herzfeld, I thank you very much for relaying the news about the envisaged appointment and for your detailed information.[2] Unfortunately, nothing can come of this busi- ness, attractive though a collaboration with you appears to me. It would be ungrate- ful of me to leave the existing work environment here after having received such solicitude in every way for 13 years and having been granted the most favorable working conditions that a crackpot can have. In addition, at my age one must avoid all stresses from changes in one’s living conditions in order to make good use of those energies that one has left. Extend to the gentlemen who kindly thought of me my cordial thanks. Your research on the asymmetry of etching properties of certain crystals, which must otherwise be regarded as ¢holonom² mirror images, aroused lively interest among us.[3] But no one could make out any clear idea of the causes. I am busy with the general theory of relativity, being of the opinion that deeper insight into the es- sence of matter must ultimately emerge from there, after all. I do now believe, after lengthy wanderings,[4] to have found the intrinsic relation between gravitation and electricity, in particular, in close connection with an idea by Kaluza, which ap- peared some years ago ([19]21) in our Academy Reports.[5] I find that Kaluza’s
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