342
DOCUMENT
264
OCTOBER
1916
Wenn
aber
Bismark-Treitschke den
Erfolg
nicht
haben,
so
verlieren die Men-
schen den Glauben
an
das öde Machtideal und werden die
Grundsätze
des Rechtes
willig
und ehrlich
auf
die Staaten ausdehnen. Dann wird sich
unser
heiss ersehntes
Ziel einer
Kriege
ausschliessenden
Organisation
der Staaten
(wenigstens Europas
und
Amerikas)
in
kurzer Zeit
durchsetzen.[4]
Diese
Überzeugung
vertrete ich
offen,[5]
trotzdem ich
mir
wohl bewusst
bin,
dass durch
persönliches
Einstehen für diese
Überzeugung
auf
die
Massen
(auch
der
Professoren!)
nur
schwach
gewirkt
werden
kann.[6]
Der äussere
Erfolg
oder
Miss-
erfolg
entscheidet,
so
betrübend
dies
auch
ist;
wollen wir
uns
darüber
nicht täu-
schen! Nehmen Sie mich also
auf
Ihre
Liste,
dass mir der Trost bleibt: dixi et sal-
vavi animam
meam.[7]
Mit besten Grüssen
Ihr
ergebener
A. Einstein.
ALS
(SzBU,
Nachlass
Weisbach, A.III.b.14). [76 155].
The
photocopy
of
a
draft is available
[45
143],
on
the basis
of
which
significant
variations
are
noted.
[1]Weisbach
(1873-1953)
was
Privatdozent in
Art
History
at the
University
of
Berlin.
[2]In
mid-June
1916,
Weisbach had convened
a meeting
of
the
Vereinigung Gleichgesinnter
(As-
sociation
of
the
Like-Minded)
in his home in Berlin.
Guiding principles
of
this discussion
group
were
a
commitment to ethical
concerns
above
power
politics
and
an emphasis on
the
community
of
interest
among European
states.
Among
the individuals
assembled
was
Wilhelm
Foerster
(see
minutes
of
the
meeting,
14
June
1916,
Gy-Ar,
Nachlaß Hans
Wehberg,
Vol.
16,
pp.
1-21, and minutes
of
the
meet-
ing,
30
May
1917,
Gy-Ar,
Nachlaß Hans
Wehberg,
Vol.
16, pp.
30-36). For
a participant’s
account
of
the
group, see
Weisbach
1956,
pp.
152-157;
for
historical
context, see
Holl
1972.
Einstein
was
nominated
for
membership
at the
June
meeting by
the electrical
engineer Georg
Count
von
Arco (1869-1940),
Director of
the
Telefunken-Gesellschaft
in Berlin and Einstein’s
fellow committee
member in the Bund “Neues Vaterland”
(BNV)
to draft
an “Appeal
of
the Intellec-
tuals”
(see
Weisbach 1956,
p.
162,
and minutes
of
the BNV
meeting,
28 June
1915,
Gy-Ar,
Nachlaß
Hans
Wehberg,
Vol.
14, p. 119).
No invitation
was
issued, however
(see
Friedrich Curtius to
Werner
Weisbach,
14 August
1916, SzBU,
Nachlass
Weisbach, A.III.b.3).
[3]Otto
Prince
von
Bismarck
(1815-1898),
German
Chancellor,
had
forged
the second German
Empire
after
humbling
France in the Franco-Prussian
War;
Heinrich
von
Treitschke (1834-1896) had
been Professor
of
History
at the
University
of
Berlin and
a polemical
defender of
the Prussian
state,
whose
great-power aspirations are
enshrined in Treitschke’s monumental
history
of
Germany
in the
nineteenth
century
(see
Treitschke 1879-1895).
[4]In
the
draft,
the
paragraph
that follows this
sentence
is deleted; “Dies ist meine
Überzeugung.
Und doch
zögere
ich,
dieser
neuen
Gesellschaft beizutreten.
Der
Grund
ist
dieser.
Einer
Gesellschaft
beitreten heisst
Zeit
opfern.
Man
muss
sich also
fragen,
ob diese Zeit
gut
angewendet
sein wird.”
[5]In
the
draft,
the
word “überall” that
precedes
“offen” is deleted.
[6]Greater
interest
in Einstein’s
political activity was
shown
by
the
German
authorities.
Learning
of
his election in autumn 1915
to
the Great Council
of
the Central
Organization
for
a
Durable Peace
(see
Doc.
155,
note
2),
the
regional
German
high
command
in December 1915
requested a
character-
ization
by
the
police
of
Einstein’s
political activity.
The Berlin
police
report
stated that Einstein
was
indeed
a
member of
the BNV and
a
subscriber to the
Berliner
Tageblatt,
but that he had not
as yet
attracted attention in
the
pacifist
movement “as
an agitator” (“agitatorisch”; see
Gülzow 1969,
p.
234,
which cites the
report
(Ermittlungsbericht)
of
5 January
1916,
in fn. 323
on p. 473).
The note sent
to
the
high
command the
following day
claimed
that Einstein
“had
not yet
made his mark
politically”