Berlin, 21 July 1916

Einstein's fears about the impact of his failed marriage on his closest friendships: 'each of us would end up in Hell, if the Good Lord ... wanted to deal with us in strict judgement'.

Einstein's estranged wife Mileva has been ill, and he defends himself against an accusation that he thought the illness 'a pretence' – rather, he thought it psychosomatic. Nevertheless, he writes bitterly of Mileva, and indeed of the female sex in general: 'We men are pitiful, dependent creatures, that I will gladly admit to anyone. But compared with these women each of us is a king...'. Einstein claims Mileva's position, after their separation and her return to Zurich, is enviable ('She has a worry-free life, has her two splendid boys with her, lives in a lovely area...'), and expresses distress at the disapproval he has met with from Besso and his other close friend Heinrich Zangger: 'That each of us would end up in Hell, if the Good Lord (in denial of his absolute responsibility) wanted to deal with us in strict judgement, I gladly recognise'; but Einstein wishes only to defend himself in the eyes of Besso and Zangger – he leaves all others to form their own opinion; yet it seems he cannot change the minds even of these two closest friends. The letter ends with a curious apology and reproach to Besso, for having apparently addressed him with cold formality using 'Sie' rather than 'Du' in the postscript to his letter: 'I hereby take back everything that might have aroused your wrath ... Dear Michele! For 20 years we have understood each other so well. And now I see an anger developing in you towards me, because of a woman...'. The correspondence card, sent the same day, clears up the misunderstanding, somewhat to Einstein's embarrassment, in that the formal postscript in question was written by Besso's wife, Anna: 'So I was wrong in having the sensation of seeing you punish me with the address "Sie". Now you will be able to understand the tone of my letter. That this should happen to a scientist!'.