500 DOCUMENT 414 AUGUST 1912 in dem Umstand, daß mein Nachfolger der Wiener Privatdozenten Dr. Frank, allerdings einer der tüchtigsten unter den jungen Oesterreichern, werden soll.[11] PD {Neue Freie Presse, no. 17223 [5 August 1912], p. 8). [81 513]. The title of the article is "Professor Einsteins Abgang von Prag." An excerpted version appeared the same day in the Prager Tagblatt 37, no. 214 (5 August 1912), p. [1]. [1]The dateline of the article. [2]The Einstein statement was solicited by the Zurich correspondent of the Neue Freie Presse of Vienna, who visited Einstein in his new working quarters in the physics institute of the ETH, informed him of "widespread rumors in Austria" ("in Oesterreich verbreiteten Gerüchten") concerning his departure, and requested a statement of his motives in leaving (see the introductory paragraph of the article). The rumors were contained in an article entitled "A. Einstein," which appeared five days earlier in the Viennese weekly Montags-Revue 43, no. 31 (29 July 1912), pp. 1-2, and which takes government policymakers and professors to task for their resentment toward Jews and foreigners, while comparing financial support for university research unfavorably with that in the German Empire. [3]An article announcing Einstein's departure from Prague appeared, e.g., in late May and insinuated that bureaucratic pettiness in the matter of declaring one's religion may have influ- enced Einstein's decision to leave (see Prager Tagblatt 36, no. 144 [26 May 1912], p. 2). Ein- stein had petitioned for withdrawal from his position at the German University of Prague the day after accepting a call to the ETH in Zurich on 2 February 1912 (see Doc. 351, note 2). [4]Einstein's initial annual salary of 4500 francs as Extraordinary Professor at the Univer- sity of Zurich was raised to 5500 francs in mid-July 1910 (see Doc. 210, note 1). This com- pared with the offer of 8672 crowns, equivalent to 9100 Swiss francs, made by the Austrian authorities two months later (see Doc. 225). [5]The terms of Einstein's appointment as the successor to Ferdinand Lippich involved a re- definition of the latter's position as a chair in theoretical physics (see Doc. 225, note 2). [6]For example, a request for library acquisitions in summer semester 1911 (see Doc. 271, note 5). [7]Einstein was particularly pleased with the library of the Institute of Theoretical Physics, of which he was the Director (see, e.g., Docs. 271 and 304). [8]In contrast to the position in Prague, Einstein's appointment in Zurich did not confer on him the directorship of a separate institute. At the ETH, he obtained working quarters in the Physics Institute, of which the experimentalist Pierre Weiss was the Director. This arrange- ment is discussed in Doc. 291. The institute had been established by H. F. Weber in 1890 (see Oechsli 1905, p. 346) at Gloriastrasse 35. [9]The promise was stated somewhat differently to W. H. Julius a year earlier (see Doc. 288). [10]The terms of Einstein's appointment in Zurich are mentioned in Doc. 341, note 1. [11]Frank was appointed Extraordinary Professor of Theoretical Physics by an imperial de- cree of 7 September (see Geschäfts-Protokollbuch 1911/12, CzPCU, 20 September 1912, no. 1970). The fact that Philipp Frank was Jewish is used here by Einstein to counter the charge, leveled in the Montags-Revue article, of religious prejudice on the part of the Austrian authorities. Anton Lampa-with Einstein a member of the faculty commission which recommended Frank's appointment (see Doc. 400)-was dismayed at Einstein's statement in the Neue Freie Presse. In a letter to Paul Ehrenfest, Lampa chided Einstein for having "babbled into the blue like a small child" ("ins Blaue geschwätzt wie ein kleines Kind") and revealing the identity of his successor before the Ministry of Education announced its decision (see Anton Lampa to Paul Ehrenfest, 11 August 1912, NeLR, Ehrenfest Archive, Scientific Correspondence, ESC:7, 34). This accusation is all the more strange as the information had already appeared in the Prager Tagblatt 37, no. 208 (30 July 1912), p. 2.