More than a decade before the seizure of power by the National Socialists, Albert Einstein was on the run and was already anxious about the future of his country, according to a recently published handwritten letter.
His longtime friend and fellow Jew, German Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, had just been assassinated by right-wing extremists, and the police had warned the well-known physicist that his life might be in danger too.
So Einstein fled from Berlin and hid in northern Germany. During this break, he wrote a handwritten letter to his beloved younger sister Maya, in which he was faced with the dangers of growing nationalism and anti-Semitism, before the Nazis finally came to power and forced Einstein to leave his native Germany for good.
"Out here, nobody knows where I am, and it is believed that I'm missing," he wrote in August 1922. "Here dark and economically dark times brew, so I'm glad I can get away from it all." # 39;
A copy of a 1922 letter written by Albert Einstein to his beloved younger sister. Maja will be auctioned next week in Jerusalem with an opening price of $ 12,000
Einstein wrote the letter to his younger sister Maja after fleeing from Berlin and warned of the dangers of growing nationalism and anti-Semitism years before the Nazis came to power in Germany.
The previously unknown letter, written by an anonymous collector, will be auctioned next week in Jerusalem with an opening price of $ 12,000.
Einstein's life and writings were thoroughly explored as the most influential scientist of the 20th century. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, founded by Einstein, houses the world's largest collection of Einstein material. She runs the Einstein Papers Project with the California Institute of Technology. Individual auctions of his personal letters have brought in significant amounts in recent years.
The letter of 1922 shows that he was concerned about the future of Germany a year before the Nazi coup attempt – the failed Munich Bierhall coup that had seized power in Bavaria.
"This letter reveals to us the thoughts that Einstein had gone through in a very preparatory stage of Nazi fright," said Meron Eren, co-owner of the auction house Kedem in Jerusalem, who received the letter and offered The Associated Press a look before the public sale , "The relationship between Albert and Maja was very specific and close, giving the man Einstein another dimension and giving his writings more authenticity."
It is believed that the letter, which contains no sender address, was written when he was in the port city of Kiel, before he went on an extended language trip through Asia.
The letter was written to Einstein's younger sister Maja (picture)
"I am doing quite well, despite all the anti-Semites among the German colleagues, I am very withdrawn here, without noise and without unpleasant feelings and earn my money mainly independent of the state, so I'm really a free man," he wrote. You see, I'm about to become a kind of walking preacher, which is both pleasant and secondly necessary. "
Einstein comments on his sister's concerns and writes: "Do not worry about me, I'm not worried even if it's not kosher, people are very upset. In Italy, it seems at least as bad. "
Later in 1922, Einstein received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Ze? Ev Rosenkrantz, deputy director of the Caltech Einstein Papers project, said the letter was not the first time that Einstein had warned against German anti-Semitism, but he tied his condition to this important interface after Rathenau's murder and murder the & # 39; inner exile, "he sat up shortly afterwards.
"Einstein's first reaction was a panic and the desire to leave Germany for good. Within a week he had changed his mind, "he said. "The letter reveals an attitude typical of Einstein, in which he claims to be insensitive to external influences. One reason could be to dispel the concerns of his sister. Another reason is that he did not like to admit that he was stressed by external factors. "
When the Nazis came to power and issued laws against Jews, they also wanted to clean up Jewish scientists. The Nazis dismissed Einstein's seminal work, including his law of relativity, as "Jewish Physics."
Einstein renounced German citizenship in 1933 after Hitler became chancellor. The physicist settled in the United States, where he would remain until his death in 1955.
Einstein refused an invitation as the first president of the newly formed state of Israel, but left his estate and personal papers to the Hebrew University.