D O C . 6 9 S C I E N C E A N D PA C I F I S M 4 9 1
Published in Die Friedensbewegung. Ein Handbuch der Weltfriedensströmungen der Gegenwart.
Berlin: Schwetschke, 1922, pp. 78–79. A slightly modified French version appeared 18 January 1922
as “La science et le pacifisme,” Clarté 1 (1921–1922): 118.
[1]Initially solicited by a publishing house, which requested a finished manuscript by 15 October
(see C. A. Schwetschke & Sohn to Einstein, 22 September 1921), the document is dated by the refer-
ence to its completion in Einstein to Henri Barbusse, 9 December 1921. The preface to the published
volume is dated March 1922. The list of other contributors includes seven of Einstein’s wartime
colleagues in the Bund “Neues Vaterland,” as well as Henri Barbusse (see undated list [45 037]
appended to Schwetschke & Sohn to Einstein, 22 September 1921).
[2]See Vol. 8, Introduction, sec. IV, for an evaluation of Einstein’s ambivalent commitment to pac-
ifism and to politics in general during the war. On his unequivocal wartime support for solidarity
among English, French, and German colleagues, however, see Einstein to Hendrik A. Lorentz, 21 July
1915 (Vol. 8, Doc. 98).
[3]Einstein had come to this conclusion six years earlier when characterizing the upshot of a war-
time debate in the Prussian Academy of Sciences on whether or not to expel French corresponding
members. All but three scientists attending a plenary meeting in the Academy on 22 July 1915 voted
for a compromise resolution offered by Max Planck, whereas sixteen of twenty-eight humanists
present were against it. Einstein observed that while the natural scientists and mathematicians were
strongly inclined to internationalism, the humanists “are for the most part chauvinistic hotheads”
(“sind grösstenteils chauvinistische Hitzköpfe”; Einstein to Hendrik A. Lorentz, 2 August 1915 [Vol.
8, Doc. 103]). He reiterated his conviction in conversation with Romain Rolland in mid-September.
On visiting the latter in Switzerland, Einstein praised the tolerance of scientists while condemning
historians as “delirious in their national passion” (“délirent de passions nationales”; Einstein to
Romain Rolland, 15 September 1915 [Vol. 8, Doc. 118], note 10).
[4]Striking a more somber note, Einstein had observed in spring 1921 that Europe was doomed if
the development of its political organization lagged behind advances in technology (see Einstein to
Emmanuel Carvallo, 21 March 1921, private collection of J. W. Schulein, New York).