DOCUMENT 426 JANUARY 1918
595
lungsvorsteher
jetzt ist,
so
wird
auf
alle Fälle eine solche Stelle
zu vergeben
sein.
Die
Stellung vergibt
das
Ministerium,
gewöhnlich
auf
Antrag
des
Direktors,
aber
bei dem Wechsel könnte das Ministerium auch selbst die Initiative
ergreifen.
Ich würde Ihnen sehr
dankbar
sein,
wenn
Sie bei
p[ass]ender
Gelegenheit
mir
darin behilflich sein würden.
Ich danke Ihnen auch
für
die freundliche
Mitteilung,
dass meine Arbeiten
ge-
schätzt werden.
Mit besten Wünschen fur Ihre Gesundheit
und herzlichem
Gruss bin ich Ihr sehr
ergebener
Schweydar
ALS.
[21
565].
There
are perforations
for
a
loose-leaf
binder at the left
margin
of
the
document.
[1]Schweydar
(1877-1959)
was
Observator
at
the Geodetic Institute in
Potsdam,
and
Privatdozent
in
geophysics
at
the
University
of
Berlin.
[2]Einstein
was
suffering
from
a
stomach
ulcer
and
had been confined to bed
since
Christmas Eve
(see
Doc.
417).
[3]The
issue
at
hand
was
to find
a new
director
for the Geodetic Institute in Potsdam. An
appoint-
ment
commission,
on
which Einstein did not
serve,
was
chosen in
summer
1917 from the
physical-
mathematical class
of
the Prussian
Academy (see
the minutes
of
the
class,
26
July 1917,
GyBAW,
II-
XIV, Vol.
14, p.
33),
and its members met twice that
autumn
to nominate candidates. Fears for the
institute’s
independence
(see
the minutes
of
the
Commissionssitzung,
25
October
1917,
GyBAW,
II-
XIV, Vol.
14, p.
34)
and "the lack
of
a really
suitable
personality"
("der
Mangel
einer
wirklich
passenden
Persönlichkeit")
as successor
(see
the minutes
of
the Zweite
Commissionssitzung,
8
November
1917,
GyBAW,
II-XIV,
Vol.
14, p.
38)
complicated
the deliberations. In
meetings
of
the
physical-mathematical
class
of
22 November and 6
December,
as
well
as
of
the entire
Academy on
13 December,
differences
seem
to
have been
papered
over
(see
the
extracts
of
the minutes
of
those
meetings, GyBAW,
II-XIV, Vol.
14, pp.
43 and
45),
and the
Academy’s
report
stressed the
unanimity
of
its
resolution in
nominating one
candidate and three alternates
(see
Gustav Roethe
et
al.
to
Minister
der
geistlichen
und
Unterrichts-Angelegenheiten
[Friedrich Schmidt(-Ott)],
20 December
1917,
GyBSa,
I. HA,
Rep.
76
Vc,
Sekt.
1,
Tit.
11,
Teil
2,
Nr.
5h, Vol. 5 (M)).
Unanimity
seems, however, to
have unraveled
shortly
thereafter.
Objections
to
the resolution
may
have arisen from
faculty
members
of
the
University
of
Berlin,
who had been excluded from the
pro-
ceedings
when the idea
of
a
joint
commission
was
floated and overruled five months earlier in the
physical-mathematical
class
(see
the minutes
of
the
class,
26
July 1917,
GyBAW,
II-XIV, Vol.
14,
p.
33).
A bureaucratic
note
of
28 December
on
the
Academy’s report
advises that
no
action be taken
until the
university
faculty
has made its recommendations.
It
is at this
time,
presumably,
that
"a
num-
ber of
colleagues" requested
that
Einstein,
a
member of
the
Academy
and
of
the faculty
but
not
of
the
commission,
intervene
(see
Doc.
429).
[4]The
following
document.
[5]Roland
von
Eötvös
(1848-1919)
was
Professor of
Physics
at
the
University
of
Budapest.
The
previous
summer,
Schweydar
had welcomed Eötvös’s
possible
involvement in the choice
of
a succes-
sor
(see
Wilhelm
Schweydar
to
Roland
von Eötvös,
24
June
1917, HBEGI).
[6]A major
bone
of contention
among
the commission members
was
whether
to
choose
"a
pure
geodete"
("ein
reiner
Geodät") or a
geophysicist
as
director of
the institute.
Who,
it
was
debated,
could best resist the influence
of
the
Royal Surveyor’s
Office
(Königliche Landesaufnahme)
and
of
the German
Army,
for
which it prepared
topographic
maps
(see
the minutes
of
the Commissions-
sitzung,
25 October
1917,
GyBAW,
II-XIV,
Vol.
14, p.
34)?
[7]Friedrich Robert
Helmert
(1873-1917), who died
on
15 June,
had been
Director of
the
Geodetic
Institute.
[8]See, e.g., Schweydar
1916, 1917b.
[9]See
Schweydar
1917a.
[10]Louis
Krüger
(1857-1923)
was Acting
Director of
the
Geodetic
Institute,
and
an acknowledged