1 0 V O L . 6 , D O C . 4 5 a N AT I O N A L S E L F - D E T E R M I N AT I O N
was presented to Einstein with a handwritten dedication of 8 January 1918 and is in his library. A fur-
ther stimulus may have been a speech by Ernst Troeltsch (1865–1923) that Einstein attended or
learned about in January 1918, when Troeltsch called for the restoration of a peacefully regulated
world economy. The occasion for the speech was a meeting of the Volksbund für Freiheit und Vater-
land, a major organizational supporter of the concept of a league of nations (see Ernst Troeltsch to
Einstein, 4 February 1918 [Vol. 8, Doc. 455], note 3, and Troeltsch 1918, pp. 75–77).
For a general discussion of support for and antagonism toward the idea of a league of nations in
Germany during the First World War, see Fortuna 1974.