DOCS. 449-451 JANUARY
1918
457
Reply please by
registered
mail.
[5]Deleted
text in
draft:
“only,
for
the
sake of
my
liberation,
...”
[6]Draft
version:
“I
would take
care
of
&
pay
for
everything here,
so
you
would have
neither trouble
nor
any
difficulties
whatsoever,
and the
entire
proceedings
would
take
place
here.”
450. To
Roland
von
Eötvös
[Berlin,]
31 January 1918
Highly
esteemed
Colleague,
I
thank
you
from
the bottom
of
my
heart
for
the
extremely
illuminating
and
valuable
response
to
my
inquiry.[1]
I
shall do
my
utmost
to
have
it taken
to
heart.
We
all know
that
we
have
no one
here
upon
whose
judgment
we can
rely
so
much in
the
important
question
at hand
as on
yours.
Based
on
your
letter,
the
most
auspicious
solution
appears
to
me
to be:
Krüger as
director and
Schweydar alongside
him,
with
as
much
independence as
possible,
the latter
so
that
geophysics
does not
come
off
badly.[2]
I
do
not
want to let this
exchange
of
letters
pass, though,
without
expressing
to
you my
gratitude
for
the
advancement
that
our
knowledge
of
the
identity
of
gravitational
and inertial
mass
has made
through your investigations.[3]
In
the
last
few
years
I
have been
concerning myself
with
the theoretical
side of
this
problem
and would
like
to take
the
liberty
of
sending you
a
little
booklet from
which
the
principle aspects
can
be
drawn without
taking up
too
much
time.[4] The
mathematics
can
be found
in
an
Annalen
article
of
1916[5]
and in
some
papers
of
the Berliner
Sitz. Berichte.[6]
Wishing
that
you may
soon recover
fully
from
your
illness,[7]
and in
thanking
you
once
again
for
your
valuable
information,
I
am
with
great
respect, yours very
truly,
A.
Einstein.
451.
To
Hugo
A.
Kruss
[Berlin,]
31 January 1918
Highly
esteemed Prof.
Krüss,
I just
received
Mr.
Eötvös’s
reply[1]
and hasten to forward it to
you.
In
my
opinion,
the
value
of
this
report
by
a man
of such
unquestionable
objectivity
and
expertise
cannot be overestimated.