944 DOCUMENT 651 NOVEMBER 1918
[6]See
Doc.
222,
in
particular,
notes 14
and
15,
for
more
details
on
the proof of this result.
[7]Presumably,
dQo/dwo
should be
1/gdgQo/dwo
(see
note 5).
651.
To
Pauline Einstein
[Berlin,]
11.
XI.
[1918]
Liebe Mutter!
Sorge
Dich nicht. Bisher
ging
alles
glatt,
ja
imposant.
Die
jetzige
Leitung
scheint
ihrer
Aufgabe
wirklich
gewachsen
zu
sein.[1]
Ich bin sehr
glücklich
über
die
Entwicklung
der Sache. Jetzt wird
es
mir
erst
recht
wohl hier. Die Pleite hat Wun-
der
gethan.
Uns
geht es
allen
gut.
Wir sind
gesund
und die Haberlandstr.
lugt[2]
halb
neugie-
rig,
halb
ängstlich
in die Welt hinein. Ich
schreibe
Dir
jetzt
öfter,
damit Du nicht in
Sorge
bist.
Unter
den Akademikern
bin
ich
so
eine Art Obersozi.[3]
Herzliche Grüsse
von
Euerm
Albert.
AKS.
[29 352].
The
verso
is
addressed "Frau Pauline Einstein Palast-Hotel
Lugano (Schweiz),"
with
return address "Abs.
A. Einstein
Haberlandstr. 5
Berlin.,"
and
postmarked
"Berlin
Wilmersdorf
1
11.11.18.
12-1
N[achmittags]."
[1]A
day
after
the abdication
of
the German
emperor,
on
10 November,
a
Council
of
People’s Dep-
uties
(Rat
der
Volksbeauftragten), consisting
of
three
Majority
Socialists
(SPD)
and
three
Indepen-
dent Socialists
(USPD)
was
convened
to serve
as a provisional
executive
authority. Among
its first
acts
were
appeals to
end the
general
strike,
improve
the food
supply,
and maintain the
operation
of
essential industries.
Political
transition had been smoothed
in
part by a pact
between the
army
and
SPD
on
9
November,
in which the
Army
offered its
support
to
the
new
government.
While the
collapse
of
the
monarchy on
9
November
had
been
anticipated,
it occurred
so
precipi-
tously
that the
emerging sharp
differences between
SPD, USPD,
and
a
multitude
of
workers’ and
soldiers’ councils
on
whether
to
choose
a parliamentary or revolutionary course
for
the
republic were
initially
not
apparent nor sufficiently
well
crystallized
(see
Grundmann
1973,
pp.
154-156,
and
Groh
1968,
pp.
10-11).
[2]Swiss German for "blickt."
[3]On
9
November, Einstein,
together
with Max Born and Max
Wertheimer,
made
an
attempt
to
free several
professors
and the
Rector of
the
University
of
Berlin,
who had been
placed
under arrest
by revolutionary
students.
Einstein
delivered
a speech
to the Students’ Council in
the
Reichstag
build-
ing
and
was
then
granted a
brief
audience with Friedrich Ebert
(1871-1925), leader
of
the SPD
and
of
the
new government.
Ebert,
who had
just
received
the terms
of
the armistice from
Versailles,
was
not
very helpful (see
the
account
in
Born,
M.
1978,
pp.
184-186).
Einstein
later
recalled the
day:
"Do
you
still remember the occasion somewhat less than
twenty-
five
years ago
when
we
took
a
tram to
the
Reichstag building,
convinced that
we
could
effectively
help
in
turning
those fellows there into
honest
democrats? How naïve
we were,
for all
our forty years.
I
have
to
laugh
when
I
think of
it."
("Erinnerst Du Dich noch
daran,
dass wir
vor
etwas unter
25 Jahren
zusammen
in einem Tram nach dem
Reichstagsgebäude
fuhren,
überzeugt,
dass
wir
wirksam helfen
könnten,
aus
den Kerlen dort ehrliche Demokraten
zu
machen? Wie naiv wir doch
gewesen
sind als
Männer
von
40 Jahren. Ich kann
nur
lachen,
wenn
ich daran denke." See Einstein
to
Max
Born, 7
September 1944).