Albert Einstein (1879-1955).

Autograph letter signed ('A. Einstein') to Paul Epstein, Princeton, 22 October 1936.

In German. One page, 171 x 140mm, on Institute for Advanced Study letterhead. Provenance: by descent from Paul S. Epstein.

'A rare display of character for a German!'. Einstein writes in recommendation of the young German physicist Martin Stobbe, whom Epstein has already proposed to help: Stobbe 'has spent all his time on writing a book on the quantum mechanics of the atom, but it is not yet finished. He refused to take over [Max] Born's lectures in Göttingen, a rare display of character for a German!'. Einstein is convinced that if they can help Stobbe in the short term, he could in time achieve something scientifically useful.

After his resignation from Göttingen University in protest against the expulsion of Jewish scientists, Martin Stobbe had worked briefly in Cambridge, and for two years at Princeton. The efforts by Einstein and Epstein to secure him a permanent position in America were in vain, and after a brief return to Britain he settled in Oslo, where he disappeared during the Nazi occupation.

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