D O C U M E N T 1 0 M A R C H 1 9 1 9 1 7
(see his Lectures Notes for Courses on Special Relativity, Vol. 7, Doc. 12). At the end of the first
cycle, Edgar Meyer et al. suggested to the Philosophical Faculty II of the University of Zurich that it
propose to the Education Department that Einstein be appointed for a second cycle in the summer (see
entry of 30 January 1919 in Calendar). On 13 February the faculty agreed (see the minutes of the
meeting of the Philosophical Faculty II of that date, SzZSa, AA 10:5), and on 17 February Dean
Wolfer made this request to the Erziehungs-Direktion Zurich (see entry for this date in Calendar).
[5]Einstein offered a course on the theory of relativity, which may have been a repeat of the course
offered the previous semester (see Vol. 7, Doc. 12), during the “Zwischensemester für Kriegsteilneh-
mer und Hilfsdienstpflichtige vom 3. Februar bis 16. April 1919” (see Philosophische Fakultät 1919).
As a result of the Spartacist uprising and the ensuing strikes and turmoil in Berlin, the university was
closed down from early January 1919 onwards (see Vossische Zeitung, 15 March 1919, Evening Edi-
tion). It was reopened on 17 March, and lectures were resumed the following day (see Vossische Zei-
tung, 17 March 1919, Evening Edition). This may have forced Einstein to finish his winter semester
course early (see Vol. 7, Doc. 12, for details) and undoubtedly delayed the commencement of his
“Zwischensemester” course.
[6]A paper on the role played in general relativity by a universal pressure term related to the cos-
mological constant was submitted to the Prussian Academy on 10 April and published two weeks
later as Einstein 1919a (Vol. 7, Doc. 17).
[7]The Allied countries.
[8]In late January, in protest of the murders of the Spartacist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Lux-
emburg, Einstein signed a declaration drawn up by the League to Advance Human Rights (Liga zur
Beförderung der Humanität), a successor group to the Bund “Neues Vaterland” (see Erklärung in
Sachen Liebknecht-Luxemburg, after 23 January 1919, GyMIZ, ED 184, vol. 15). A draft was sub-
mitted to Einstein around 23 January 1919, as it was to some 1,200 other leading intellectuals (see
Georg F. Nicolai to Hans Delbrück, 23 January 1919, GyB, Nachl. Delbrück, Mappe G. Nicolai, Bl.
1–3).
[9]Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952), the head of the Zionist Organisation’s delegation to the Paris
Peace Conference, conferred with Lord Balfour and President Woodrow Wilson in mid-January 1919.
As a consequence of these discussions, Wilson announced his support for a “full and unhampered”
Jewish Palestine (“Die Aussichten des Zionismus auf der Pariser Konferenz,” and “Dr. Weizmann und
Präsident Wilson,” Jüdische Rundschau, 4 February 1919). Following his return to the U.S. from the
Peace Conference, Wilson received a delegation of the American Jewish Congress and issued a state-
ment expressing his personal support for the Balfour Declaration and “that the allied nations … are
agreed that in Palestine shall be laid the foundations of a Jewish commonwealth.” (“President Gives
Hope to Zionists,” New York Times, 3 March 1919; see also “Mr. Wilson and Zionists,” The Times
(London), 4 March 1919; and “Wilson für den Zionismus,” Jüdische Rundschau, 11 March 1919). For
an account of Einstein’s gradual embrace of the ideals of cultural Zionism, see Vol. 7, the editorial
note, “Einstein and the Jewish Question,” pp. 221–236. See also Doc. 178, note 4, for more on the
Balfour declaration.
[10]Jan A. Schouten (1883–1971) was Professor of Mathematics at the Technical University of
Delft. Schouten 1918 deals with what is now called the geodetic precession of a gyroscope orbiting a
massive body, due to the curvature of space-time caused by the latter’s gravitational field.
[11]Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853–1928) was Extraordinary Professor of Theoretical Physics at
the University of Leyden.
[12]Emil Beck; see Beck 1919; see also Doc. 5, note 7, for more on Beck’s results. Wander J. de
Haas was Professor of Physics at the Technical University of Delft.
[13]For an account of replications of the Einstein–De Haas experiment, see Vol. 6, the editorial
note, “Einstein on Ampère’s Molecular Currents,” pp. 145–149, and Galison 1987, pp. 39–48.
[14]Gunnar Nordström (1881–1923) was Professor of Mechanics at the Technical University of
Helsingfors (Helsinki).