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Autograph letter signed ('Papa') to his son, Eduard ['Tetel'], Cromer [Norfolk], England, [c. 23 September 1933]
细节
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Autograph letter signed ('Papa') to his son, Eduard ['Tetel'], Cromer [Norfolk], England, [c. 23 September 1933]
In German. In pencil, two pages, 227 x 178mm. Provenance: Einstein Family Correspondence Trust – Christie's, 16 November 2001, lot 73 – Aristophil collection – Osenat, France, 25 October 2022, lot 232.
'There were plans for my assassination': Einstein in hiding from the Nazis on the Norfolk coast. Einstein writes to his younger son ('Tetel') from Roughton Heath near Cromer on the Norfolk coast after having been forced to flee continental Europe by the threat of the Nazi regime:
'Times have been rather turbulent since my last letter. It was actually reported in the newspapers that there were plans for my assassination. As a result my police protection in Belgium was increased so much that I did not want to bother any more. So for more than three weeks now I have been near the English coast in enviable solitude. My little house, in which I live alone, has an area of roughly 9 m2 and consists of a single room. Outside the door you have immediate access to Mother Nature. I spend most of the time doing mathematics and run around outside when I get cold'.
He will sail for America in about two weeks time, 'unfortunately', commenting with gallows humour 'It's a shame that an old fellow like me cannot have his peace and quiet. When you're dead, you don't get to enjoy it, unfortunately'. He would have loved to have visited Eduard and his eldest son Hans Albert in Zurich, but it is unthinkable under the circumstances, which Einstein bitingly calls 'a revolution of the stupid against the rational in Germany', with the emphatic addition that 'the stupid form a huge majority'. Giving Eduard his postal address in Cromer (until 3 October) Einstein adds 'Afterwards Princeton University (New Jersey)'. Einstein concludes the letter with fatherly advice to Eduard, suggesting that he take up cookery or any other mechanical activity if he is feeling tired, and adds a brief postscript addressed to his ex-wife, Mileva, about business matters.
Einstein was on a visiting professorship at CalTech when the Nazis assumed power in Germany early in 1933: he was immediately personally targeted, with several raids on his flat and country house, and on landing in Antwerp on his return to Europe on 28 March he formally renounced his German citizenship. He remained in Belgium over the summer, but the threat of violence from the Nazis became ever more imminent, particularly after the assassination of the philosopher and anti-Nazi figurehead Theodor Lessing in Czechoslovakia on 30 August – and in early September Einstein secretly escaped to England, where he was given shelter by the eccentric Conservative MP Oliver Locker-Lampson at Roughton Heath near his home in Norfolk. Although his whereabouts were intended to be secret, photographs of Einstein, guarded by locals with shotguns, were published in the newspapers, and he received a small number of visitors at Roughton, including the sculptor Jacob Epstein (to whom he sat for a bust). On 7 October 1933 Einstein boarded a ship for the United States, where he had been offered a position at the Institute for Advanced Study: he was never to set foot in Europe, or even to see his son Eduard, again. Several books have recently been written about Einstein’s stay in Norfolk. This is one of only a very small number of letters Einstein wrote while temporarily resident in England.
Autograph letter signed ('Papa') to his son, Eduard ['Tetel'], Cromer [Norfolk], England, [c. 23 September 1933]
In German. In pencil, two pages, 227 x 178mm. Provenance: Einstein Family Correspondence Trust – Christie's, 16 November 2001, lot 73 – Aristophil collection – Osenat, France, 25 October 2022, lot 232.
'There were plans for my assassination': Einstein in hiding from the Nazis on the Norfolk coast. Einstein writes to his younger son ('Tetel') from Roughton Heath near Cromer on the Norfolk coast after having been forced to flee continental Europe by the threat of the Nazi regime:
'Times have been rather turbulent since my last letter. It was actually reported in the newspapers that there were plans for my assassination. As a result my police protection in Belgium was increased so much that I did not want to bother any more. So for more than three weeks now I have been near the English coast in enviable solitude. My little house, in which I live alone, has an area of roughly 9 m2 and consists of a single room. Outside the door you have immediate access to Mother Nature. I spend most of the time doing mathematics and run around outside when I get cold'.
He will sail for America in about two weeks time, 'unfortunately', commenting with gallows humour 'It's a shame that an old fellow like me cannot have his peace and quiet. When you're dead, you don't get to enjoy it, unfortunately'. He would have loved to have visited Eduard and his eldest son Hans Albert in Zurich, but it is unthinkable under the circumstances, which Einstein bitingly calls 'a revolution of the stupid against the rational in Germany', with the emphatic addition that 'the stupid form a huge majority'. Giving Eduard his postal address in Cromer (until 3 October) Einstein adds 'Afterwards Princeton University (New Jersey)'. Einstein concludes the letter with fatherly advice to Eduard, suggesting that he take up cookery or any other mechanical activity if he is feeling tired, and adds a brief postscript addressed to his ex-wife, Mileva, about business matters.
Einstein was on a visiting professorship at CalTech when the Nazis assumed power in Germany early in 1933: he was immediately personally targeted, with several raids on his flat and country house, and on landing in Antwerp on his return to Europe on 28 March he formally renounced his German citizenship. He remained in Belgium over the summer, but the threat of violence from the Nazis became ever more imminent, particularly after the assassination of the philosopher and anti-Nazi figurehead Theodor Lessing in Czechoslovakia on 30 August – and in early September Einstein secretly escaped to England, where he was given shelter by the eccentric Conservative MP Oliver Locker-Lampson at Roughton Heath near his home in Norfolk. Although his whereabouts were intended to be secret, photographs of Einstein, guarded by locals with shotguns, were published in the newspapers, and he received a small number of visitors at Roughton, including the sculptor Jacob Epstein (to whom he sat for a bust). On 7 October 1933 Einstein boarded a ship for the United States, where he had been offered a position at the Institute for Advanced Study: he was never to set foot in Europe, or even to see his son Eduard, again. Several books have recently been written about Einstein’s stay in Norfolk. This is one of only a very small number of letters Einstein wrote while temporarily resident in England.
荣誉呈献
Sophie Meadows
Senior Specialist