3 3 0 D O C . 3 9 4 A P R I L 1 9 2 0 394. From Paul Oppenheim Frankfurt a[m] M[ain], 46 Guiollett St., 24 April 1920 My dear Professor, Today a Frenchman was here by the name of Fabre[1] to thank me for brochures on relativity theory, which I had procured for him at the request of a German family of my acquaintance. He is, to my knowledge, an engineer but is also active as a writer. As my conversation with him also confirmed, he has a special and deep in- terest in the theory of relativity. I write you this introduction for various reasons: 1. He informed me that the two papers you see in the enclosed appeared during the war,[1] which he believes might be of interest to you, and to be spec[ific], par- ticularly because they take a critical stance toward your theory [2] for they explain, as far as I have understood, certain phenomena that were incomprehensible in rel- ativity theory, purportedly, without overturning certain conventional concepts to the same degree that the theory of relativity demands. Mr. Fabre prompted me to ask whether or not you knew about these articles. In the former case it would inter- est him to know if you had commented on them, or where if you have not given your position on it publicly, he would be interested in your view in case you should write me about it for him, please just tell me whether Mr. Fabre should treat your view confidentially, since otherwise it could happen that use would be made of your statements that you do not wish. If, however, you do not know these two arti- cles, then Mr. Fabre is very willing to procure them for you with me as the interme- diary, and I would be delighted if in this way I could contribute literature references of importance. 2. Mr. Fabre mentioned conversationally that he intended to publish a popular essay on relativity theory in one of the leading French magazines.[3] Would it be in your interest to read the essay prior to its appearance so that nothing contradictory to your views would be published in it and thereby marr your name? If you would like to read through the essay unofficially, in your own interest, then I think Mr. Fabre would be very thankful for it. 3. Would this perhaps be an opportunity to have your publication from the Vieweg collection translated into French?[4] The man in question told me that, with very few exceptions, the theory of relativity is still completely unknown in France. This bad state of affairs could possibly be remedied in this way. This idea occurs to me because Mr. Fabre is going to have someone translate Weyl’s book into French[5] so that he can study it better. It really is a shame when such efforts, if they are being made anyway, are held back from the French public.– I was in somewhat of a dilemma whether I should write this letter to you, as I do not want, by any means, to be burdensome but as you see, I did write it after all,
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