232
DOCS.
319,
320
DECEMBER
1911
319. To
Marcel Grossmann
Prague,
10
December
[1911][1]
Dear
Marcel,
I must
now
write
to
you
once
again
in
the
matter
of
my
Zurich
appointment.[2]
I told
you
in
my
last
letter[3]
that
the
thing
is
not
urgent
because I
intend
to
ask
that
my
employment
not
start
until
next
fall and
because
I had
written
to
Utrecht
declining
their
offer.
I
regarded
that
matter
as completely
settled. But
today
I received
a
laconic
letter
from H. A.
Lorentz
in
Leiden,
the
greatest
man
in
our
field,
who
is
also
a
personal
friend, in which he asks
me
how
far
my
negotiations
with
the
Polytechnic
in
Zurich
have,
in
fact,
progressed.[4]
He
also asked for
a
fast
reply.
This
is
all
the
more
surprising
because
only
yesterday
I received
a long
letter
from
him[5]
from which it
emerged
that
he
had
completely
reconciled
himself
to
my
refusal of the
offer from
Utrecht.
There
is
hardly
any
doubt that
H. A.
Lorentz
is
trying
to
induce
me
to
go
to
Utrecht
all the
same.
If
I
am
not
at
all
committed
officially
in
Zurich,
then
as
you
can
imagine,
I will have
a
hard
time
refusing
him. I
beg you
therefore
to
see
to
it
prestissimo
that the
negotiations
be
initiated.[6]
Please
do
forgive me
for
my
badgering
you
in this
way.
But I
am
in such
a
delicate
position
that
I
do
not
know
what
else
to
do.
With
best
regards,
your
old
friend
Einstein
320. To
Hendrik
A.
Lorentz
Prague,
12
December
1911
Highly
esteemed
Prof.
Lorentz:
Thank
you very
much
for
your
letter,
from which
I note
with
great
joy
that
your
friendly
attitude toward
me
has
remained
unchanged.[1] My
mathematical
error
is
due
to
the fact
that
I
no longer
remembered
how much
money you
had lent
to
me
in
Brussels.[2]
The
state
of
affairs
regarding
my
call
to
Zurich
is
as
follows:[3]
About
14
days ago
I
received
an
inquiry
from two
professors
of
the
Zurich
Polytechnic,
who asked
me
whether
I
would be
willing
to
accept
a
position at
the
Polytechnic
in
Zurich.[4] I agreed
in
principle,[5]
and
since then
I
received
a
letter
from the
chairman
of
the
Swiss School
Council,
in which he
announces a
visit
to
me.[6]
What
obliges me
most
of
all
to
accept
an
offer from Zurich
is
the
circumstance that, with
my
full
knowledge,
a
Zurich
friend
and
colleague
of
mine
worked
very
hard
to
arrange
for
an
offer,[7] acting
in the firm
belief,
based
on
my
earlier
statements,
that
I would
accept an
offer.
He
recently
wrote
to
me
that
he committed himself
to this
matter
so
much,
it would be
extremely