568 DOCS.
547,
548
MAY
1918
standpoints
as
from
the
German
one,
and
permit
ourselves
accordingly
to invite
you
to meet with Dr. Braude
on
Tuesday,
28
May,
at
8
o’clock sharp
in
the
evening
in
the
conference
room
at
our offices,
8
Sächsische St.
We
would be
very
grateful
if
you
would
pass
on
this invitation
to
your
close
acquaintance,
among
whom
you
could
hope
to
find
sympathy
for
this
important
cultural
cause.
In utmost
respect,
Zionist Association of
Germany
Hantke,
O.
Warburg.[3]
548. To
David Hilbert
[Berlin,]
24
May 1918
Esteemed
Colleague,
I
thank
you belatedly
for
the
extremely warm response you gave
to
my
last
letter
with the
circular.[1] I
have since become
persuaded
that the
psychical
basis
for
my
envisioned endeavor
is
lacking,
in
that
just
those
persons
on
whom
I
would
have
depended
do not
harbor
predominantly
international sentiments
either.[2]
The
whole endeavor
was
not
supposed
to
satisfy any political purpose.
Those
persons
of whom I
would have
expected
to
place
the
common
cultural
assets well
above the
current
division
were
supposed
to
join
hands. It would
thus
have
been,
to
a
certain
extent,
the antithesis
to
the
notorious Manifesto of
the
93.[3]
This
states:
I
am
foremost
a
German and
only
in
the
second
place
a
person
of
culture;
we, on
the
other
hand,
are
supposed
to
say:
I
am
foremost
a person
of
culture,
and
only
in
the
second
place
a
German
or a
Frenchman
(insofar
as
it
can
be
made
compatible
with
the
former!).
But
I
gave
up
the
scheme
after
receiving
the
responses.[4]
If
you
do
something
in
this
sense
later
on, you can
count
on
my
participation,
of
course.
I
very
much
appreciated
your
cordial invitation.
However,
in
my
current
state,
I
cannot
come
to visit. The
slightest
dietary
slip-up
or
the
most innocuous of
exertions
can
produce
another
relapse.[5]
That
is
why
I
had to
sacrifice
going
to
Planck’s talks, which
would
naturally
have
interested
me
very much, especially
considering
that
a long-standing
difference of
opinion
exists between
us
in
this
area.[6]
Yesterday
I
received
a
very
interesting
paper by
Ms.
Noether
about the
gen-
eration
of invariants.[7]
It
impresses
me
that
these
things can
be
surveyed
from
such
a general
point
of
view.
It
would not have
harmed the
Göttingen
old
guard