Details
Albert Einstein (1879-1955).

Autograph correspondence card signed ('Albert') to his sister, Maja Winteler-Einstein, [Berlin], 2 September 1922.

One page, 140 x 90mm; Elsa Einstein has added a message on the blank half of the address page.



Provenance
Maja Winteler-Einstein (1881-1951) – her husband Paul Winteler (1882-1952) – Besso family.
Literature
Unpublished: not in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein (Princeton University Press, 2012).
Special notice
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Lot Essay

The end of a lovely summer with his children, miserable conditions in Berlin, and a coded message about his finances.

Einstein's sons have departed after their summer holiday with him: Hans Albert 'has become a real athlete, but somewhat dry and taciturn, but Tete [Eduard] is a lovely brat ['eine reizender Bengel'], kind-hearted and amazingly gifted. It was a lovely time that we spent together in our country house by the water'. Einstein is setting off on his great journey (to the Far East) on 3 October: Elsa, who is back in good health, is coming with him. 'Here there is great misery, so that they are thinking of rationing, as during the War'.

The postcard opens with a coded message (in order to avoid German rules on foreign income) about the withdrawal of their uncle Jakob from their shared investment [in the Schweizerische Auer-Aktien Gesellschaft]: 'Of the 10 cases of plums which you intended for me, one cannot send any here, as they would go off. Paul should send six of them to Mileva .... and four to Albert Karr'.

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