Albert Einstein (1879-1955). Autograph correspondence card signed (‘Albert’) to Michele Besso, [Berlin], 6 January 1920.

In German, 1½ pages, 140 x 90mm. Address panel bearing Einstein’s autograph return address (‘Abs[ender]. A. Einstein’).

Please note this is the property of a private consignor.

Published in Pierre Speziali (ed.) Albert Einstein. Michele Besso. Correspondance 1903-1955. Paris: Hermann, 1972. No. 52

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Lot Essay

'The displacement of spectral lines is now established with near certainty.'

'The previous negative results for the sun have in fact been explained and corrected in the simplest way through a study by Grebe and Bachem, which will appear very shortly'. The letter puts off a projected trip to Switzerland – a proposed conference in Basel has been postponed for political reasons, and Einstein is kept in Berlin by numerous obligations. His mother is living with him and Elsa 'in a hopeless condition, which might last for a long time' [Pauline Einstein died of cancer on 20 February]. He hesitates to bring his family to live in Germany: he is struggling to obtain enough foreign currency to maintain them, but the advantages for them of remaining in Zurich outweigh the difficulties.

The gravitational redshift of spectral lines (otherwise known as the Einstein shift) was the third of three tests of the theory of general relativity proposed by Einstein in 1916.