690
DOCS.
648,
649 NOVEMBER
1918
648.
From
Heinrich
Zangger
[Davos, ca.
10
November
1918][1]
Dear friend
Einstein,
It
was
with
a
kind of
joy, a
kind of
astonishment,
perhaps
a
kind of almost
jealous
admiration that
I
thought
so
often of the
passage
in
the
postcard
addressed
to
Davos where
you
noted in all thankfulness
that the
essentials in
life
are
coming
out
extremely
fortunately
for you-because all
things your easily
satisfied nature
can
scarcely hope
for
are
being
realized
at
your
hands with
the
same
force
as
in
the
creative
world
of
the
development
of
knowledge.
The
likes of
us
try
to
liberate what
we
have in ourselves
during
a
few
weeks of
vacation. I read
Weyl’s
Kontinuum[2];
saw
him.
Now
multiple
death
has
burst
in
on
the student
and
doctor
communities; yesterday
we
buried
the 4th
member of
the
university hospitals
since
my
becoming dean,[3]
others
are
seriously
ill.
The
telephone
is constantly
ringing every
day,
from
morning
to
evening.
All
cars
have
been
requisitioned
for
transportation of
the
sick,
the
military
barracks
that
we
have
requisitioned
do
not suffice
at all.
As
dean,
the
great responsibility
falls to
me;
should I
call
for
having
the
clinics
closed
as
in
the
summer, against
the
rector’s
office’s
wishes,
and dismiss
the students
as
practical
help?[4]
If it
goes on
like
this,
we
shall have
a
death
rate
of 10
%
of
the
population
in
a
single
year.-[5]
Meanwhile,
I
myself
had
the
flu,
pneumonia pleuritis,
and
was
sent to Davos
(Davos
Place-Villa
Regina,
English quarter).
Besso
came
along;
I
still
feel
miserably
sick and weak.
Regarding Teddy,
at
the
sanatorium,
a
healthy
diet
is
guaranteed right now,[6]
otherwise
it
is
very
difficult because
many guesthouses, etc.,
are
closed.
Thanks
for
the
postcard.
649.
From
Michele
Besso
[Davos,]
10 November 1918
Our
friend
Zangger
is
urging me
to
write
more. My
trip
was
delayed
re-
peatedly[1]
and
now
I
have
followed
my
old
wish
of,
for
once, spending
some
days
with
our
dear
friend[2]-not without
worries,
since
I
left
Anna
still unwell
and
still
a
bit
feverish
and
with
shooting
pain
in her
legs
at
every
attempt
to
get
up.
Also,
circumstances
are
critical
even
in
Zurich,
these
days.
We will
probably
have
to
count
on a
frenetic
state of
shock
everywhere.[3]
The economic
leadership
had
counted much too much
on a
continuity
in
the
state of affairs