2 3 2 T H E J E W I S H QU E S T IO N
and natural in earlier
times.”[49]
In explaining his motives to Haber, Einstein also justified
his Zionist-inspired solution to the Jewish Question. The priority was solidarity with his
“kinsmen,” particularly in their efforts in building the dream of an international university
that would become a bulwark of their intellectual pride. Going to America with the inter-
national Zionist leadership, as Einstein put it, was an “act of loyalty,” not, as his friend
would have it, a symbol of the “disloyalty of the Jews” to their national
allegiances.[50]
Aside from the lengthy conversations with Kurt Blumenfeld, it is unclear how Einstein
appropriated his view of Zionism. What is clear is that one source of this view lay in the
volkish-tinged traditions of German Zionism with its emphasis on the cultural origins of
nationalism.[51]
Conceiving of “kinsmen” as members of the same community, bound not
only by common language but also by blood ties, German Zionists veered uncomfortably
close to a racialist view of the volkish group. They also placed a significant “emphasis on
the soil and landscape as the unchanging sources of Volkish inspiration” and on manual
labor as a counterweight to the alienation of the Jewish middle
class.[52]
Einstein’s frequent
references to “Stammesgenossen” (“kinsmen” or more literally “tribal comrades”) have a
playful, sometimes mocking tone, but they indicate that his formulation of a Zionist world-
view was steeped in this
influence.[53]
This is not to underestimate another, more benign, influence on Einstein. Prevailing sen-
timent in the German Zionist movement stressed Zionism’s spiritual character and played
down the material component. Thus, the semiofficial Program of Zionism—adopted by the
Zionist Association of Germany in 1911 and reissued in 1913—stated that “spiritual reper-
cussions of the Jewish settlement” must take precedence, a position that was reiterated in a
1920 pamphlet distributed by the same organization. “Palestine and the Diaspora will stand
in a constant reciprocal spiritual relationship,” argued the author. “Just as the Diaspora will
[49]“Vorkommnisse des letzten Jahres . . . die einen Juden von Selbstgefühl dazu treiben müssen,
die jüdische Solidarität ernster zu nehmen, als es in früheren Zeiten angezeigt und natürlich erschie-
nen wäre”; Einstein to Fritz Haber, 9 March 1921. Aside from the mention of two ultranationalist col-
leagues in the Prussian Academy, Einstein singled out the “infamous Nauheim brigade” (“famose
Nauheimer Garde”) as noteworthy examples of the changing mood in Germany. For a discussion of
the disruptive events at Bad Nauheim, see the editorial note, “Einstein’s Encounters with German
Anti-Relativists,” pp. 108–111.
[50]“Akt der Treue”; Einstein to Fritz Haber, 9 March 1921. “Treulosigkeit der Juden”; Fritz Haber
to Einstein, 9 March 1921. For a discussion of Einstein’s and Haber’s conflicting views on the Jewish
Question and of their divergent attitudes toward German politics, see Stern 1990, pp. 522–532.
[51]George L. Mosse and Stephen Poppel have written authoritatively on the volkish sources of
German Zionism (see Mosse 1970, pp. 77–115, and Poppel 1977, pp. 127–135).
[52]Mosse 1970, pp. 9–15. It is interesting to note that German wartime labor needs had a positive
effect on the differentiation of Jewish occupations, reinforcing Jewish romantic nostalgia for working
the soil and contributing to the redefinition among Zionists of the importance of manual labor in the
colonization of Palestine (see Preuß 1921).
[53]See, for example, Einstein’s usage of “vivid consciousness of the tribe” (“lebendiges Stammes-
bewußtsein”) in Einstein 1921h (Doc. 57), as well as his references to the uniqueness of Jewish
physiological and intellectual characteristics in Doc. 35.