D O C U M E N T 7 9 N O V E M B E R 1 9 2 7 1 4 5 Abends. Geh bitte nicht zur Bahn, weil die Stunde meiner Ankunft ganz unbe- stimmt ist. Ich komme direkt in die Wohnung und freue mich sehr, meinen Lieblingsonkel nach so langer Zeit wiederzusehen.[3] Die Adresse habe ich ja. Herzliche Grüsse an Dich und die Deinen Dein Albert. ALSX. [47 270]. On letterhead “Grand Hôtel Britannique Bruxelles.” “Enveloppe datée de Bruxelles- 28-10-1927” is written at the bottom of the document in an unknown hand. [1] Koch (1854–1941) was Einstein’s maternal uncle. He resided in Liège. [2] General discussion sessions took place on Friday afternoon and evening. The official activities at the Fifth Solvay Congress ended on Saturday 29 October with a general discussion session, includ- ing an homage to Ernest Solvay’s widow lunch with the king and queen of Belgium and a dinner offered by Armand Solvay (1875–1930), the son of Ernest Solvay (see Bacciagaluppi and Valentini 2009, p. 18). [3] Einstein had last visited Koch and his wife, Mathilde, in early October 1924 (see Einstein to Elsa Einstein, 9 October 1924 [Vol. 14, Doc. 333]). 79. From Arnold Sommerfeld München, 1. XI. 27 Lieber Einstein! Die beiliegende Note interessirt Sie vielleicht,[1] weil Sie ähnliches in der Berl. Acad. gelegentlich Ihrer Statistik geäussert haben. Eigentlich sollte ich Sie aber bit- ten, nicht diese Note, sondern die vollständige Arbeit in der Z. f. Phys. zu lesen, die ich gerade abschliesse.[2] Darin wird alles [be]sser u. vollständiger gesagt als in dieser Note. Es tut mir schon manchmal leid, dass ich nicht nach Berlin gekommen bin [3] meine lieben Münchener Collegen haben mich inzwischen schon reichlich geärgert.[4] Viele Grüsse von Ihrem A. Sommerfeld ALS. [21 358]. There are perforations for a loose-leaf binder at the left margin of the document. [1] Sommerfeld 1927, published in Die Naturwissenschaften, on the application of Fermi-Dirac statistics to the electron gas in metals. [2] See Sommerfeld 1928. [3] Sommerfeld had recently declined an offer to succeed Max Planck in Berlin (see Doc. 3, note 2). [4] Perhaps a reference to Sommerfeld’s heavily contested and ultimately failed candidacy for the position of rector at his university (see Eckert 2013, pp. 299–300).

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1 4 6 D O C U M E N T S 8 0 , 8 1 N O V E M B E R 1 9 2 7 80. To Presse-Verlag Dr. Dammert[1] [Berlin,] den 3. 11. 27. Ich ersuche Sie, meine damalige Aesserung über die Todesstrafe im B.T. nicht wiedergeben zu wollen.[2] Ich habe mich seitdem zu der Ueberzeugung durchgear- beitet, dass die Abschaffung der Todesstrafe wünschenswert ist. Begründung: 1/Irreparabilität im Falle eines Justizirrtums 2/Nachteiliger moralischer Einfluss der Hinrichtungsprozedur auf diejenigen, welche mit der Exekution direkt oder indirekt zu tun haben.[3] In vorzüglicher Hochachtung! TLC. [46 009]. Addressed “An den Presse-Verlag Dr. Dammert S.W.48.” [1] The Presse-Verlag was established by the German publisher and journalist Rudolf Dammert in 1921 and became the largest press service of its time (see Toepser-Ziegert 1987, pp. 41–42). [2] For the publisher’s solicitation, see Abs. 229. See “Correct Understanding of Punishment,” 22 January 1927 [Vol. 15, Doc. 462] for his statement in the Berliner Tageblatt against abolishing the death penalty. There was heightened public interest in the issue of capital punishment at this time due to the deliberations of the Reichstag’s committee for penal reform, which had begun on 26 October (see Vossische Zeitung, 26 October 1927, EE). [3] One factor that may have led to Einstein’s change of mind was the execution of Italian-born American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti on 23 August 1927, against which he had appealed in April 1927 (see Vossische Zeitung, 23 August 1927, EE, and “Appeal to President Calvin Coolidge in Behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti, 10 April 1927 [Vol. 15, Doc. 511]). Another factor may have been the extensive campaign of the Deutsche Liga für Menschenrechte to abolish the death pen- alty (see, e.g., Vossische Zeitung, 23 September 1927, EE). Among opponents of capital punishment, the risk of “judicial murder” (“Justizmord”) was seen as one of the strongest arguments in favor of its abolition (see, e.g., Vossische Zeitung, 27 October 1927, ME, and Evans 1991, p. 153). 81. To Heinrich Zangger [Berlin, 3. 11. 1927] Lieber Zangger! Vom Solvay-Kongress in Brüssel eben zurückgekehrt beeile ich mich, Ihre Fra- gen zu beantworten.[1] Dirac ist der hoffnungsvollste junge Theoretiker Englands.[2] Er spricht nicht deutsch. Er ist genial, aber Ihr werdet ihn keinesfalls kriegen. Pauli ist ebenfalls ein genialer Theoretiker.[3] Wenn ihn Edgar Meyer ablehnt, so kann er es nicht verantworten.[4] Er ist einer der bedeutendsten Köpfe unter den Jungen, was Erfindung und was Können anlangt, gleichwertig mit allen seinen Vor- gängern.

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1 4 4 D O C U M E N T 7 8 O C T O B E R 1 9 2 7 Published in Électrons et photons: Rapports et discussions Solvay 1928, pp. 253–256. The manuscript (see Doc. 76) was sent to Jules Émile Verschaffelt on 21 November 1927, with accompanying letter Abs. 277. [1] This first sentence would naturally be translated into English as: “I must excuse myself for not having delved deeply into the essentials of quantum mechanics. Nevertheless, I would like to make some general remarks.” However, the original German (see Doc. 76) would be translated as, “Despite being conscious of the fact that I have not entered deeply enough into the essence of quantum mechanics, nevertheless I want to present here some general remarks.” (“Trotzdem ich mir des Umstandes bewusst bin, dass ich in das Wesen der Quantenmechanik nicht tief genug eingedrungen bin, will ich doch hier einige allgemeine Bemerkungen vorbringen.”) See Bacciagaluppi and Valentini 2009, p. 440. [2] Louis de Broglie. Einstein is using the expressions “De Broglie waves,” “De Broglie- Schrödinger waves,” and “Schrödinger waves” interchangeably here. For a discussion of the relation between De Broglie’s and Schrödinger’s wave mechanics, see Bacciagaluppi and Valentini 2009, chap. 11.1. [3] As noted in Bacciagaluppi and Valentini 2009, p. 440, “donne la measure” (“gives the mea- sure”) is a mistranslation of “ist massgebend” (“is responsible”) see Doc. 76. [4] As noted in Bacciagaluppi and Valentini 2009, p. 441, the “I” and “II” in this sentence appear to be the wrong way around. [5] The Bothe-Geiger experiments (Bothe and Geiger 1925a and b) demonstrated that, during Compton scattering, outgoing scattered photons and outgoing recoil electrons were produced simul- taneously for individual events, thus providing strong evidence in favor of the quantum hypothesis. See Vol. 14, Introduction, sec. VIII, for some discussion. [6] For discussions of the significance of Einstein’s argument in this paragraph, in particular with regard to the tension between locality considerations and the completeness of quantum mechanics, see Norsen 2005 and Bacciagaluppi and Valentini 2009, chap. 7.1. [7] Einstein had first raised the concern that the wave function was defined on a high-dimensional configuration space rather than on four-dimensional space-time in a letter to Lorentz (Einstein to Lorentz, 1 May 1926 [Vol. 15, Doc. 272]). Einstein continued to worry about this matter, and to flesh out his concern in more detail, over the ensuing two years see Vol. 15, Introduction, sec. IX. For some further discussion of Einstein’s objection to treating configuration space as fundamental, see also Bacciagaluppi and Valentini 2009, chap 7.3. [8] Einstein is referring to the work he had done in connection with the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose (see Bose 1924 and Einstein 1924o [Vol. 14, Doc. 283]). For a discussion of the discovery and significance of Bose-Einstein statistics, see Vol. 14, Introduction, sec. X. 78. To Caesar Koch[1] [Brussels,] Freitag. [28 October 1927] Lieber Onkel! Ich danke Dir sehr für Deine herzliche Einladung. Ich habe es noch nicht früher gethan, weil ich warten wollte, bis ich Dir meine Antwort präzis angeben könnte. Aber nun ist es höchste Zeit und ich weiss immer noch nicht, wann meine Sitzun- gen fertig sind.[2] Ich komme morgen Samstag im Laufe des Nachmittags oder

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