Translated and annotated by Bertram Schwarzschild
Einstein writes to his friend Zangger (1874-1957), professor of physiology at the University of Zürich, the day after he submits the final version of the general theory of relativity to the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences. While Einstein speaks of the theory’s “incomparable beauty,” his judgments of people are dark. He complains bitterly of his separated wife’s malign influence on their children and of what he takes to be David Hilbert’s plagiarism.
Berlin, 26 November 1915
Dear friend Zangger,
I’m sorry to hear that you’re laid up and in pain. But I didn’t understand the Latin name of the cause. Please tell it to me in German, or—still better—tell me that you’re fully recovered.
… The general theory of relativity is finally completed. It wonderfully explains the rotation of Mercury’s perihelion. From observation, astronomers have found that the planet’s orbit rotates 45 ± 5 arcseconds per century. And from the theory, I get 43 arcseconds. Added to the line shifts of stellar spectra, 2 that’s a rather good confirmation of the theory. For the bending of light by stars, the theory now predicts twice the deviation I previously derived [see Physics Today, September 2005, page 14]. When we see each other, I’ll tell you where that comes from.
The theory is of incomparable beauty. But only one colleague has really understood it, and he is trying, rather skillfully, to “nostrify” [nostrifizieren] it. 3 That’s [Max] Abraham’s coinage [from the Latin for “to make ours”]. In my personal experience, I’ve hardly come to know the wretchedness [Jämmerlichkeit] of humanity better than in connection with this theory.
My son [11-year-old Hans Albert] still hasn’t answered my inquiry about meeting in Krummenau [in the Swiss Alps]. That’s surely the influence of the woman [Einstein’s wife Mileva]. You’ll see, more and more, on which side goodwill and honesty are to be found. There are reasons that I couldn’t abide staying with that woman, despite the tender love that binds me to my children. When we first separated, the thought of my children stabbed me like a dagger every morning when I woke up. Nonetheless, I never regret having taken the step. …
Affectionate greetings from your
Einstein
A week before this letter was written, Hilbert had presented a paper incorporating Einstein’s theory into an attempt at a unified theory of gravity and electro-magnetism. 3 Aside from complaining about Hilbert’s improper appropriation of his work, in a 1916 letter to Hermann Weyl, Einstein criticized the physical assumptions Hilbert had added to the theory as being “childish, in the sense of a child that doesn’t know the tricks of the outside world.” 4
