DOCS. 654-656 NOVEMBER
1918 695
to
such
entirely
new
circumstances here
now
already;
it
is
the
most
surprising
experience
of all
the
surprises.[2]
In
heartily returning
your greetings,
I
am
yours truly,
A.
Einstein.
655. To
Ludwig
Quidde
[Berlin,
15
November
1918,
10:36
a.m.][1]
New
Fatherland
League
strives toward realization
of
Socialism
through
Democ-
racy.
Wants to
propagate[2]
this idea
among
all
population
groups.
Next
goal
is
convocation of
a
constitutional
National
Assembly.[3]
Request
consent
by
tele-
graph
to
nominating
you
for
representative
Executive Committee.[4]
New
Fatherland
League,
Berlin,
53
Unter den
Linden, by proxy
Count
[von]
Arco,
Professor
Albert
Einstein,
Prof.
August Gaul,
Wilhelm
Herzog,
René
Schickele.[5]
656. From
Ludwig Quidde
Munich,
16
November
1918
To
the
“New
Fatherland”
League
[Bund
“Neues
Vaterland”]
Berlin.
I
did not wire
a
response
to
your
amic.
telegram
of
yesterday[1]
because I
could not
so
concisely express my reservations,
which
quite precluded my simply
consenting.
“The realization
of
Socialism
through
Democracy”
is
much
too
ambiguous
a
formulation for
me
to be able
to agitate
for
an
association whose entire
agenda
is
summarized in these words.
I
do not want
the
uninhibited
installation
of Social-
ism in
the
sense
of
the
program
of Social
Democracy;
and
to
the
extent
that
I
do
want
the materialization
of Socialist
ideas,
the
safeguarding
of
personal freedom,
that
is,
the
preservation
of
individualistic
needs,
is to
me
of
equal
importance
beside
it.[2]
In
the
meantime,
this
morning
I
had occasion to read
the
newly
founded
Democratic
Party’s platform,
whose
appeal
for
support is
signed among
others
also
by
Professor
Albert
Einstein,
and
by
Helmuth
von
Gerlach
besides.[3]
If
“the realization
of Socialism
through Democracy”
must be
understood
in
the
sense
of this
appeal,
then
I
do not
understand
what business
the
“New
Father-
land”
League
still has outside
of
this
party. Then, programmatical
reservations
I