The world as I see it - Albert Einstein (easy books to read .txt) 📗

statement of April
1, 1933. was based not merely on German but principally on
foreign, particularly French and Belgian, newspaper reports
which Herr Einstein has not contradicted; in addition, it had
before it his much-canvassed statement to the League for
combating anti-Semitism, in which he deplores Germany's
relapse into the barbarism of long-passed ages. Moreover, the
Academy has reason to know that Herr Einstein, who according
to his own statement has taken no part in atrocitymongering, has
at least done nothing to counteract unjust suspicions and
slanders, which, in the opinion of the Academy, it was his duty
as one of its senior members to do. Instead of that Herr Einstein
has made statements, and in foreign countries at that, such as,
coming from a man of world-wide reputation, were bound to be
exploited and abused by the enemies not merely of the present
German Government but of the whole German people.

For the Prussian Academy of Sciences,
(Signed) H. von Ficker,
E. Heymann,
Perpetual Secretaries.

Berlin, April 7, 1933
The Prussian Academy of Sciences.
Professor Albert Einstein, Leyden,
c/o Prof. Ehrenfest, Witte Rosenstr.

Dear Sir,

As the present Principal Secretary of the Prussian Academy I
beg to acknowledge the receipt of your communication dated
March 28 announcing your resignation of your membership of
the Academy. The Academy took cognizance of your
resignation in its plenary session of March 30, 1933.

While the Academy profoundly regrets the turn events have
taken, this regret is inspired by the thought that a man of the
highest scientific authority, whom many years of work among
Germans and many years of membership of our society must
have made familiar with the German character and German
habits of thought, should have chosen this moment to associate
himself with a body of people abroad who--partly no doubt
through ignorance of actual conditions and events--have done
much damage to our German people by disseminating erroneous
views and unfounded rumours. We had confidently expected
that one who had belonged to our Academy for so long would
have ranged himself, irrespective of his own political sympathies,
on the side of the defenders of our nation against the flood of lies
which has been let loose upon it. In these days of mud-slinging,
some of it vile, some of it ridiculous, a good word for the
German people from you in particular might have produced a
great effect, especially abroad. Instead of which your testimony
has served as a handle to the enemies not merely of the present
Government but of the German people. This has come as a
bitter and grievous disappointment to us, which would no doubt
have led inevitably to a parting of the ways even if we had not
received your resignation.

Yours faithfully,
(signed) von Ficker.

Le Coq-sur-Mer, Belgium, April 12, 1933

To the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin.

I have received your communication of the seventh instant and
deeply deplore the mental attitude displayed in it.

As regards the fact, I can only reply as follows: What you say
about my behaviour is, at bottom, merely another form of the
statement you have already published, in which you accuse me
of having taken part in atrocity-mongering against the German
nation. I have already, in my last letter, characterized this
accusation as slanderous.

You have also remarked that a "good word" on my part for "the
German people" would have produced a great effect abroad. To
this I must reply that such a testimony as you suggest would have
been equivalent to a repudiation of all those notions of justice
and liberty for which I have all my life stood. Such a testimony
would not be, as you put it, a good word for the German nation;
on the contrary, it would only have helped the cause of those
who are seeking to undermine the ideas and principles which
have won for the German nation a place of honour in the
civilized world. By giving such a testimony in the present
circumstances I should have been contributing, even if only
indirectly, to the barbarization of manners and the destruction of
all existing cultural values.

It was for this reason that I felt compelled to resign from the
Academy, and your letter only shows me how right I was to do
so.

Munich, Aril 8, 1933

>From the Bavarian Academy of Sciences to Professor Albert Einstein.

Sir,

In your letter to the Prussian Academy of Sciences you have
given the present state of affairs in Germany as the reason for
your resignation. The Bavarian Academy of Sciences, which
some years ago elected you a corresponding member, is also a
German Academy, closely allied to the Prussian and other
German Academies; hence your withdrawal from the Prussian
Acadeiny of Sciences is bound to affect your relations with our
Academy.

We must therefore ask you how you envisage your relations with
our Academy after what has passed between yourself and the
Prussian Academy.

The President of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
Le Coq-sur-Mer, April 21, 1933

To the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich.

I have given it as the reason for my resignation from the Prussian
Academy that in the present circumstances I have no wish either
to be a German citizen or to remain in a position of
quasi-dependence on the Prussian Ministry of Education.

These reasons would not, in themselves, involve the severing of
my relations with the Bavarian Academy. If I nevertheless desire
my name to be removed from the list of members, it is for a
different reason.

The primary duty of an Academy is to encourage and protect
the scientific life of a country. The learned societies of Germany
have, however--to the best of knowledge--stood by and said
nothing while a not inconsiderable proportion of German savants
and students, and also of professional men of university
education, have been deprived of all chance of getting
employment or earning their livings in Germany. I would rather
not belong to any society which behaves in such a manner, even
if it does so under external pressure.


A Reply

The following lines are Einstein's answer to an invitation to associate
himself with a French manifesto against Anti-Semitism in Germany.

I have considered this most important proposal, which has a bearing on
several things that I have nearly at heart, carefully from every angle. As a
result I have come to the conclusion that I cannot take a personal part in
this extremely important affair, for two reasons:--

In the first place I am, after all, still a German citizen, and in the
second I am a Jew. As regards the first point I must add that I have worked
in German institutions and have always been treated with full confidence in
Germany. However deeply I may regret the things that are being done there,
however strongly I am bound to condemn the terrible mistakes that are being
made with the approval of the Government; it is impossible for me to take
part personally in an enterprise set on foot by responsible members of a
foreign Government. In order that you may appreciate this fully, suppose
that a French citizen in a more or less analogous situation had got up a
protest against the French Government's action in conjunction with prominent
German statesmen. Even if you fully admitted that the protest was amply
warranted by the facts, you would still, I expect, regard the behaviour of
your fellow-citizen as an act of treachery. If Zola had felt it necessary to
leave France at the time of the Dreyfus case, he would still certainly not
have associated himself with a protest by German official personages,
however much he might have approved of their action. He would have confined
himself to--blushing for his countrymen. In the second place, a protest
against injustice and violence is incomparably more valuable if it comes
entirely from people who have been prompted to it purely by sentiments of
humanity and a love of Pew This cannot be