DOCS.
533,
534 MAY
1918 555
to
give
us
permission
for
the
transfer.
That
already
entails
a significant
improve-
ment of
your
situation.
As
soon as
I receive
permission,[5] you’ll
receive word.
Ask Mr.
Zürcher[6]
to
draft
with
you
the
necessary
changes
to
our
contract
soon.
So
once
again.
A
liquidation
of
the certificates would be
senseless;
for
they
are
the
safest
thing
to be
had,
exactly
as
safe
as
currency.
Besides,
you
are
receiving
a
considerable
portion
in
money.-
Talk to Michele.
He’ll
certainly
confirm
to
you
the
correctness of
what
I’m
writing
you
here.
It
must be
stated
in
the
contract
that
during my
lifetime
you
are
not allowed
to wield
authority
over
the
principal
capital
or over
its investment
without
my
consent.
It
is
your property, though,
and
you
receive
the
interest.
It
is
all
that
I
own,
a large
part of
it consists
of
two
large
scientific
prizes
that
I received
last
year
recently.[7]
With
best
regards, yours,
Albert.
534. From
Paul Ehrenfest
[Leyden,] 8 May
1918
Dear
Einstein,
I
have been
lying
in bed with
jaundice
for
10
days-now
things
are slowly
looking
up again.-
Received
your
postcard today
with
many
thanks.-[1]
I
did not
“blow off
steam”
at
Hilbert-I
wrote
to
him in
a
way
that
merely expressed
how
I
felt,
in
loyal
attachment
to the
atmosphere
pervading
my
Göttingen
student
days.[2]-I
am
firmly
convinced
that
you
would have
approved
of
the letter-
besides,
I did
what
I
had
to
do.
[Neither
was
there
any big
show
about
it!][3]
Of almost all
your
last
papers
I
have
no
reprints.
Particularly not
of
your
quantum
whatnots
in
the
German
Phys. Society
Berichte.[4]
From
the
Academy
I
only
have
the
“Cosmolog. Consider.,”[5] nothing
else
after
that.
When
am
I
going
to
see
you
again?!- Now I
am
miles
away
from all
physics,
sitting
over
problems
of
politico-economic theory (with
Papa
Lorentz’s
shoulder-
shrugging
blessing).[6]
When
am
I
going
to return
to
physics again
with
qualms
of
conscience and remorse? At
the
moment it
is
unspeakably
odious
to
me.