INTRODUCTION TO
VOLUME
8
xli
Michele
Besso,
that
women are helpless
creatures,
who
simply collapse
unless
men
give
them
a sense
of direction
(Doc. 238).
While
we
certainly
do
not
wish
to
exculpate
Einstein
of
holding
this
jaundiced view,
it is
necessary
to
keep
in mind
the
specific
context in which this
generalization
is
couched.
Physically
and
psycho-
logically
exhausted
by a
month
of
work
on general relativity
of
unparalleled
inten-
sity
in November 1915 and convinced that Mileva is
simulating
a
grave
illness in
order
to cheat
him
of
a
divorce,
Einstein lashes out
in
an unguarded
moment.
The
correspondence
that
deals with these most
private aspects
of
Einstein’s life
(including
interminable and
bitter
wrangling over
financial
matters)
is
conducted
with the
principals already
mentioned-Mileva,
Elsa,
and his older
son
Hans
Albert-and
with
Besso;
Besso’s
wife, Anna;
Heinrich
Zangger,
Einstein’s
other
confidant in
Zurich; and, to
a
lesser
degree,
with his sister
Maja
and
mother
Pauline. The
tone
of
these letters is
frequently
bitter
and
self-serving.
Besides
Mileva,
it is Einstein’s
two
sons
who
bear the
brunt of
his callousness. But the
depth
of
despair
out
of
which
a
number
of
letters
are
written should not be under-
estimated
and
can
be
gauged by
the fact that
in
early
1918,
Einstein
goes so
far
as
to
accuse
his best
friends,
who have in
many cases
sacrificed their
own
privacy
and
interests
out
of
affection for
him,
of
being
without conscience in their
dealings
with
him
(Doc. 442).
The
emotional
price
that
Einstein
must
pay
for creative isolation
is indeed
high.
In the
end,
Einstein
prevails
in the contest with his
wife,
and
as
the
volume draws to
a
close,
the divorce
proceedings
have reached
their
final
phase.
The divorce decree is
handed
down in
February
1919.
IV
The conventional view
of
Einstein’s
political
commitment
before
coming
to Berlin
has been discredited
for
some
time
now.
Thus,
the
solidarity
that he had declared
with the Serbs in late
1912,[7]
for
example, can readily
be
interpreted as stemming
from
an
instinctive identification
on
his
part
with the
underdog
in
a
confrontation
with the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Other claims
for
Einstein’s involvement with
the
revolutionary
left in
Zurich
and the
development
of
an affinity
for Zionism
while in
Prague
have foundered
on a
lack
of
evidence. This
volume, however,
calls
into
question a
more
persistently
and
widely
held
view,
advanced
by
Otto Nathan
and Heinz Norden. In
their
edition
of
Einstein
on
Peace
(1960),
the authors
present
an
Einstein who takes his
place
on
the Berlin
stage,
fully girded
to
do
battle
on
political
issues. This view is
complemented by
the
implication
that Einstein main-
tains
an unwavering political
commitment
throughout
the
war
years.
It is
signifi-
cant in this
regard
therefore to learn of
a contemporary
assessment
of
Einstein from
a police report
to the Berlin
regional
Army High
Command
in
early
1916.
After