Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives

Albert Einstein

THE HUMAN SIDE

Presented to

on the occasion of

THE EINSTEIN CENTENNIAL SYMPOSIUM

March 4–9, 1979

THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY

Harry Woolf, Director

THE HUMAN SIDE

GLIMPSES FROM HIS ARCHIVES

Selected and Edited by

Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffmann

With a new foreword by Ze’ev Rosenkranz

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON AND OXFORD

Copyright © 1979 by the Estate of Albert Einstein

Foreword © 2013 by Princeton University Press

Princeton University Press,

41 William Street,

Princeton, New Jersey 08540

In the United Kingdom:

Princeton University Press,

6 Oxford Street,

Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW

press.princeton.edu

All Rights Reserved

First printing, 1979

First paperback printing, 1981

Paperback reissue, 2013

Library of Congress Control Number 2013938901

ISBN 978-0-691-16023-8

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

Printed on acid-free paper. ∞

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Foreword to the 2013 Paperback Edition

THIS little gem of a book, edited by Einstein’s longtime secretary Helen Dukas and his erstwhile collaborator Banesh Hoffmann, was originally published in mid-March 1979 to coincide with the celebration of that year’s centenary of the birth of Albert Einstein. Presenting over 140 excerpts from the great physicist’s writings and correspondence, the editors provide explanatory introductions to each individual passage. As described in their preface, the editors’ goal for the publication was to offer a seemingly rambling sightseeing journey whose cumulative effect, we hope, will be a deeper and richer understanding of Einstein the man (p. 4).

Undoubtedly, the editors succeeded in their enterprise. This book is a true labor of love. The excerpts from Einstein’s papers were selected with utmost care and consideration. Helen Dukas, who, like Einstein, hailed from Swabia in southern Germany, began working as his secretary in 1928 and continued to serve in that capacity until his death in April 1955. During her tenure, she was eventually adopted as a member of the Einstein household, fiercely defending the world-renowned celebrity from intrusive journalists and curious Princeton sightseers. After his passing, Dukas was the natural person to become the first archivist of Einstein’s personal papers and she also served as co-trustee of the Einstein Estate. The British-born mathematician and physicist Banesh Hoffmann joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1935, and in 1938, Hoffmann collaborated with Einstein and Polish-born physicist Leopold Infeld on a classic paper on the problem of motion in general relativity. Dukas and Hoffmann had collaborated in the early 1970s on a highly successful biography of Einstein—Albert Einstein, Creator and Rebel—so they were ideally suited to produce the unique publication before us.

This book’s genesis is a story worth telling. One year prior to the 1979 Einstein centenary, former director of Princeton University Press, Herbert S. Bailey, contacted Banesh Hoffmann and asked him whether he was interested in working on a small centennial volume containing excerpts from and translations of Einstein letters and the like of a humanistic nature.¹ Thus, the intention to focus on Einstein’s human side, his humanity, and his humanism was apparent from the very inception of the project. In regard to the structure of the book, Hoffmann informed Bailey that he preferred a seemingly loose structure that would be somewhat analogous to that of a movement of a symphony, with an interplay of various themes that recur and expand in different keys.² Subsequently, Helen Dukas was called upon to co-edit the book with Hoffmann. There followed an intense exchange between the two in which they discussed issues of selection, placement, and translation.

The loose structure that Hoffmann had envisaged was clearly implemented by the editors. Rereading the book after several years, I was struck by how it resembled a jazz symphony in numerous suites. Major themes like Nazism, morality, philosophy, the nature of science, art, and religion, and the essence of being human weave their way through the volume, emerging, disappearing, and resurfacing again at different junctures. In their preface, the editors call the sections in the book sequences. There are actually twelve such sequences. Some of them are clearly dedicated to Einstein’s correspondence with specific individuals such as Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians or his long-time friend Otto Juliusberger. Others illuminate a defined topic such as psychoanalysis or music. What combines them is Einstein’s humanity which shines through many of the selected passages.

Hoffmann surmised there was no way of knowing whether a book would turn out to be popular but I think we are well aware that this one might catch the public fancy.³ And catch the public fancy it did. The first edition of 10,000 copies almost sold out completely in bookstores after merely two weeks at the end of March 1979. The book has never been out of print since it was originally published which clearly reflects its great popularity and continued success.

My professional association with Albert Einstein began twenty-five years ago when I was hired to work at the Einstein Archives in Jerusalem. As its curator, I benefitted greatly from the inspiring work Helen Dukas had carried out maintaining, organizing, and expanding Einstein’s personal papers from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s. As mentioned in the publisher’s preface, Dukas had compiled lists of special items throughout the many years she was the Archives’ loyal custodian. Reading this book and familiarizing myself with Dukas’ lists was of immense help to me in preparing exhibitions and publications for the Einstein Archives, and the lists proved particularly useful for me as curator. The passages included in this volume are the mere tip of the iceberg of the many items Dukas compiled. This book and Dukas’ lists also undoubtedly shaped my initial perception of Einstein. Most of all, I was struck by his deep humanism, his talented use of the German language, and his wry and witty sense of humor. Since then, naturally, my perception of Einstein has become far more complex. Nowadays, I am particularly fascinated by the internal contradictions in his personality, by the variegations in his points of view on many political and social issues, and by the juxtaposition between Einstein the private individual, Einstein the public figure, and Einstein the mythic icon.

Both as a private individual and as a public figure, Einstein’s humanism was expressed in its purest form by defining what it meant for him to be human. The excerpts included in this volume provide us with some of the answers to that question. Intriguingly, Einstein himself claimed there was no link between his scientific work and his pursuit of social and political ideals (p. 18). This statement is in tune with his defining the study of the laws of nature as a means to flee from the merely personal.⁴ However, as much as he wanted to evade dealing with the vicissitudes of life, he was acutely aware that he could not fully do so. Moreover, it became a concern of utmost importance to him to express his ideals for humanity and to define the guiding principles for human existence. In numerous instances throughout this volume, Einstein makes it quite clear that the most important factor in our humanity is our morality and ethical stance. To him, morality was an even more significant issue than the study of science (p. 70). This belief clearly grew stronger as he aged. Thus, he came to define being human in its noblest sense as our being moral and ethical creatures. A major part of that humanism was the belief in the universality of all human beings. And to uphold that universality, Einstein firmly believed that the individual needed to be protected by tolerance from imperilment by the state. On the lighter side, apart from his far-sweeping visions for humanity, this book also provides us with odd glimpses of how Einstein perceived himself. This volume reveals that Einstein could perceive himself both as an old gypsy (p. 32) and as quite handsome (p. 44). He also saw himself both as a Jewish saint (p. 63) and as a loner (p. 80).

If we relied solely on this book, we would form the impression that at times Einstein despaired only of certain individuals and societies (e.g., Nazi Germany), yet not of humanity in its entirety. However, that judgment would be a hasty one. Other sources reveal that Einstein often swayed between optimism and pessimism, hope and disillusionment, admiration and revulsion, in regard to the human race. Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, he confided to a close friend that he viewed humans as a sorry species for whom he experienced a mixture of pity and revulsion.⁵ A year later his distress in regard to the human race had persisted and deepened: It seems that people always require a chimera for whose sake they can hate each other; it used to be religious faith, now it is the state.⁶ The world war confirmed his disillusionment with humanity: Reason is not a means for binding earthly humans together for any lengthy period of time.⁷ And following many years of turbulence in interwar Germany, he remarked that [i]t is people who make me seasick—not the sea.⁸

The dichotomy established by Einstein between his scientific and his human side may have also motivated the editors to produce this book. One wonders why those involved in the project thought there was a need for a book which would emphasize Einstein’s human side. That motivation is not really made explicit in their correspondence. Did Dukas and Hoffmann surmise that Einstein, synonymous with 20th-century science, had become a suprahuman icon, who had transcended the realm of mere mortals? That is certainly a possibility. Were they concerned that in the few decades since his death his numerous political and social activities and interests had been consigned to oblivion by the general public? That is also possible. Both editors were intimately connected to Einstein and intensely protective of his public persona. Thus, their concept (and implementation) of revealing Einstein’s human side is presumably markedly different from how this would be handled nowadays. In our current era, the very phrase human side would be far more likely to pertain to Einstein’s private life—his relationship with his parents and with his sister Maja. It would cast light on his two marriages—to fellow student Mileva Marić and to his cousin Elsa. It would reveal his role as a father to his born-out-of-wedlock daughter Lieserl and to his two sons Hans Albert and Eduard and as a step-father to Elsa’s daughters Ilse and Margot. It would also touch on his many friendships and his numerous extra-marital affairs.

I think it is a fair statement that this volume also does not explore the limits of Einstein’s humanism. He was, to some extent, an elitist, supporting the idea to bestow power into the hands of capable and well-meaning persons (p. 88). His humanism was also curtailed by his belief that not all humans were of equal value: towards the end of World War I, he appealed to a brilliant young German scientist who was gung-ho to go off and fight for his country to stay at home and suggested that "this post of yours out there … be filled