442 DOCUMENT
331
APRIL 1917
gesunde Umgebung
in
Zürich! Ich
habe
gestern
eine kleine Sache
zur
Sommerfeld-
Epstein’schen Formulierung
der
Quantentheorie vorgetragen
vor
den
gelichteten
Reihen
unserer phys.
Gesellschaft. Ich will
es
nächster
Tage
zusammenschrei-
ben.[8]
L. Civita schrieb eine kritische
Arbeit
zur
allg.
Rel.[9]
Ich
finde
aber,
dass
er
irrt. Ich erzähle
Dir
dann im Sommer davon. Wann soll ich wohl
zu
Euch kommen?
Ob Albert
mit mir
gehen
will,
ist noch
unsicher;
er
drückt sich
in
seinem
Brief
her-
über
sehr
drollig
und
vorsichtig
aus
Wie
wärs,
wenn
wir alte
Kumpane
eine kleine
Tour
zusammen
machten? Was ist denn
mit
Zangger?
Er scheint
so
deprimiert.
Sei herzlich
gegrüsst
von
Deinem
Albert.
ALS
(SzGB).
Einstein/Besso
1972, 31
(E. 25). [7
299].
Obscured.
[1]This
letter is
dated
on
the
assumption
that it
was
written the
Sunday
before
Besso
responded
to
Einstein’s
reference
to Mach
(see
Doc.
334).
[2]Informed
of
Friedrich Adler’s
plight, among
others
by
Kathia
Adler
in
February (see
Doc.
301),
Einstein
suggested
in mid-March that
an
initiative
in his
name
that
might serve as a
character refer-
ence
for Adler be
launched
by
the
Physikalische
Gesellschaft
of
Zurich
(see
Doc.
310).
In
mid-April,
he
suggested
that
he be called
as a
witness
to Vienna,
Adler’s native
city
(see
Doc.
324).
[3]As
Privatdozent in
physics
at the
University
of
Zurich
from 1907 until 1911.
[4]In an
interview
given
a
month
later,
Einstein
praised
Adler’s
objectivity
and selflessness
(see
“Friedrich Adler als
Physiker,”
Vossische
Zeitung
(23
May
1917),
no.
259,
pp.
2-3).
[5]Heinrich
Ernst
(1847-1934),
a
member of
the Swiss Social Democratic
Party
and thus
a political
ally
of
Adler’s,
had
been
Director
of
Education,
Canton
of
Zurich,
in 1909 when Einstein and
Adler
were competing
for
a position
at the
University
of
Zurich. In
an
interview with
Ernst,
Adler
praised
Einstein
so
highly
that
Ernst in
exasperation
exclaimed “but
you
have
only praiseworthy things
to
say
about the
man,
and he
is,
after
all,
your
rival”
(“aber
Sie wissen
über
den Mann
nur
lauter Rüh-
menswertes
zu
erzählen,
und
er
ist doch
eigentlich
Ihr
Nebenbühler.” See
Friedrich
Adler to Victor
Adler, 19
March
1909, AVVGdA, Adler-Archiv,
Mappe 77).
[6]Presumably
the
copy
that Adler
mentioned
in Doc. 329
as having
been
sent to
Einstein
on
23
April.
[7]Emil
Beck
(1881-1965)
was
Professor of Mathematics
at
the
Gymnasium
of
the Zurich Kan-
tonsschule
and
a
member of
the
Physikalische
Gesellschaft
of
Zurich
(see
PGZ
Mitteilungen
1916,
p. 10).
Theodor
Erismann
(1883-1961)
was
Privatdozent in
philosophy
at
the
University
of
Stras-
bourg
and
son
of
a
former
Zurich
city
councillor.
The content
of
his communication with
Einstein
may
be
gleaned
from
the
report
of
a
conversation he had with Besso ten
days earlier,
in which Eris-
mann
stated his
intention of
informing
Einstein that
certain members
of
the
Physikalische
Gesell-
schaft-perhaps including
Beck-had
made Einstein’s
“appeal
for
pardon” (“Begnadigungsgesuch”)
their
own,
and
that
should the entire
society
reject
Einstein’s declaration
on
Adler’s
behalf,
Erismann
would
himself
be
prepared
to submit it
for
use
in Adler’s defense
(see
Michele
Besso to Heinrich
Zangger,
20?
April
1917, SzZZa).
For Einstein’s
earlier
offer to make such
an appeal
for
pardon, see
Doc. 310.
[8]Einstein
lectured
on an elementary
derivation
of
the Hamilton-Jacobi
equation
on
27
April
(see
Deutsche
Physikalische Gesellschaft. Verhandlungen
19 (1917): 77).
The derivation
was
to be
a sec-
tion
of
his
paper on
the
quantum
theorem
of
Sommerfeld and
Epstein, on
which he lectured
two
weeks
later,
on 11 May
(see
Deutsche
Physikalische Gesellschaft. Verhandlungen
19(1917): 79).
The
resulting
publication
was
Einstein 1917d
(Vol.
6,
Doc.
45);
see
also Einstein’s
paper
on
the derivation
of
Jacobi’s
theorem,
Einstein
1917f (Vol. 6,
Doc.
47).
[9]See
Levi-Civita
1917b,
which
criticized
Einstein’s
expression
for
energy-momentum
of
the
gravitational
field. See Docs. 368 and 375
for
Einstein’s
objections
and Levi-Civita’s
response; see
also Einstein 1918a
(Vol. 7,
Doc.
1),
sec.
6,
for
Einstein’s
published
reaction
and
Cattani and
De
Maria
1993
for
a
historical
discussion.