DOC.
35
PREFACE TO FREUNDLICH
373
Published
in
Erwin
F.
Freundlich,
Die
Grundlagen
der Einsteinschen Gravitationstheorie.
Berlin:
Springer,
1916
(Freundlich 1916b).
Published
ca. August
1916
(see note
1
for the in-
formation
on
which the
dating
is
based).
[1]Freundlich's
64-page
book-one of the
first
books
on
general
relativity-was
first
pub-
lished
in
two
installments
in
Die
Naturwissenschaften
of
30
June and
7
July
1916 (Freundlich
1916a).
The book
version,
Freundlich
1916b,
which
was
scheduled
to
appear
a
few weeks after
the
journal
version
(see
the editorial footnote
on p.
363
of Freundlich
1916a),
shows
some
minor
changes
in
the main
text
and contains
a
number of additional
notes.
[2]Since
1911,
Freundlich had been involved
in
the
testing
of
two predictions
of
general
rel-
ativity: gravitational light
deflection and
gravitational
redshift. See the
correspondence
with
Freundlich
in Vol.
5;
see
also Hentschel
1994
for
a
historical discussion of Freundlich's efforts.
[3]Einstein's
copy
of Freundlich
1917,
the second
(revised)
edition of the
book,
contains
a
number of critical
marginalia.
When
a
third edition
was
planned,
Einstein told Freundlich that
"considerable
improvement" ("eine
ziemliche
Verbesserung")
was
needed and announced that
he would
retract
his
preface
if
no
corrections
were
made
(see
Einstein
to
Erwin
Freundlich,
19
September
1919).
At
a
meeting
between the
two (see
Erwin Freundlich
to
Einstein,
3
October
1919),
the corrections
were
discussed and the third revised and
expanded
edition
(Freundlich
1919b)
appeared
with Einstein's
preface in place.
In
a new
"Preface
to
the Third
Edition,"
dated
December
1919,
Freundlich
thanks Einstein for his
help in making
the revisions.