Albert Einstein. 26 November 1932

Albert Einstein (1879-1955).

Typed letter signed ('A. Einstein') to Paul Epstein, [Caputh bei] Potsdam, 26 November 1932.

In German. One page, 280 x 221mm (torn down vertical centrefold with loss to first eight lines of text, adhesive repairs on recto and verso, left margin frayed). Provenance: by descent from Paul S. Epstein.

'Nothing much seems to have changed': Einstein's reaction to the November 1932 elections in the USA and Germany. 'The elections are over and nothing much seems to have changed. Over here we can at least record as progress that it seems as though no real fascism will prevail. It is curious that socialist thought has such little purchase in America...'. He is surprised that the books of Upton Sinclair (a friend of Einstein's since his first visit to Pasadena in 1931) do not have a greater effect in opening the eyes of the public to the abuses of capitalism: 'But I believe the masses read no books at all. Besides which there also exists the mighty dumbing-down machine that operates by means of the printing press'. A postscript passes on a beseeching request from the editor Arnold Berliner for an overdue article: 'He says that since your marriage it has become fearfully difficult to get any news from you. Have pity on an old, nearly blind man'.

Given that the almost simultaneous November 1932 elections in the USA and Germany brought to power respectively F.D. Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler, Einstein's observation that 'nothing much seems to have changed' shows a remarkable lack of political astuteness. The letter dates from the last weeks of Einstein's life in Germany: he left his beloved summer house in Caputh for the last time on 6 December. Arnold Berliner, referred to in the postscript, was editor of the scientific magazine Naturwissenschaften.

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