D O C U M E N T 3 8 0 A P R I L 1 9 2 0 5 1 3
genügendes
Essen.[6]
Politisch herrschen nach wie vor die 〈politis〉 sinnlosen Ex-
treme vor—so scheint es wenigstens. Gefährlich ist nach wie vor das Militär, das
der Regierung Vorschriften macht und nicht daran denkt, sich zu
fügen.[7]
Es ist na-
türlich durch und durch monarchistisch. Wenn die Entente nicht wäre . . . . . . Frank-
reich benimmt sich wie der kleinere Bruder, der dem grösseren unter glücklichen
Verhältnissen ein tüchtiges Büschel Haare ausgerissen hat.
Ein kirchenruhige und freudige Zeit wünscht Ihnen Ihr
Einstein.
Wissenschaftlich habe ich keinen Fortschritt mehr gemacht. Nur
Kleinigkeiten.[8]
Debye hat eine sehr schöne Arbeit über Molekularkräfte
geschrieben.[9]
Ich sandte Ihnen einige hübsche Bücher, weil es gerade noch welche gibt. Hof-
fentlich haben Sie und Ihre Frau Freude
daran.[10]
ALS (SzZ, Nachl. H. Zangger, box 1a). [86 096].
[1]Paul Kammerer, on whose behalf Einstein had interceded with Grossmann (Doc. 330) and Zang-
ger (see Doc. 332), and who had sent some of his papers to Einstein a few days earlier (see Doc. 374).
[2]On Hermann Weyl’s illness, see Doc. 332 and its note 12.
[3]Gustav Huguenin (1840–1920) was Honorary Professor of Psychiatry at the University of
Zurich.
[4]Zangger’s eldest daughter, Gertrud, had died of pneumonia on 26 March 1918 (see Einstein to
Heinrich Zangger, 22 April 1918 [Vol. 8, Doc. 514], note 2).
[5]Already in 1917, Einstein was against keeping Eduard (“Tete”) in a “disinfection apparatus”
(“Desinfektionsapparat”), i.e., in the mountain resort Arosa, for fear of weakening his resistance to
harsher conditions (Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, 6 December 1917 [Vol. 8, Doc. 403], and Einstein
to Hans Albert Einstein, 25 January 1918 [Vol. 8, Doc. 442]). For a letter from Paul Kammerer on
heritability, and Einstein’s concerns, see Doc. 374 and its note 3. One month later, Zangger sent Ein-
stein a copy of a letter he had written which dealt with inhalation therapy for tuberculosis patients (see
Zangger to “geehrter Herr,” 11 May 1920).
[6]The dire conditions in Germany prompted Einstein’s statements in summer 1920 to the German
Foreign Relief Committee (Vol. 7, Doc. 40) and about the Quakers (Vol. 7, Doc. 41).
[7]After the failure of the military Kapp regime of 13–17 March, and upon Noske’s resignation,
Otto Gessler, member of the Democratic Party, was appointed minister of defense. Hans von Seekt,
who had hesitated to send his troops into action against Kapp a month earlier, became chief of the
Army Command (Heeresleitung). He evaded stipulations of the Treaty of Versailles and allowed the
army to become “a state within a state” (Vincent 1997, pp. 390–391). In addition, the army and the
Freikorps intervened in suppressing workers’ and socialists’ uprisings in Saxony and Thuringia, as
well as in the Ruhr, where a Red Army briefly occupied major cities. In the process, the German Army
entered the demilitarized zone on the Ruhr, prompting the French military to occupy Frankfurt am
Main, Darmstadt, and their surrounding areas.
[8]In April he submitted Einstein 1920c and completed Einstein 1920j (Vol. 7, Docs. 39 and 38,
respectively).
[9]Presumably Debye 1920, in which Debye, on the assumption that molecules behave like electric
quadrupoles, could derive an expression for the attraction constant occurring in the Van der Waals
equation of state.
[10]Mathilde Zangger-Mayenfisch.