The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein
Volume 10, The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 10: The Berlin Years: Correspondence, May-December 1920, and Supplementary Correspondence, 1909-1920
Edited by Diana Kormos Buchwald, Tilman Sauer, Ze'ev Rosenkranz, József Illy, Virginia Iris Holmes.
Jeroen van Dongen, Daniel J. Kennefick, and A. J. Kox, Associate Editors.
Rudy Hirschmann, Osik Moses, Jennifer Nollar, Editorial Assistants.
776 pages, 38 halftones.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006
ISBN: 0-691-12825-1

For a detailed description of Volume 10, released 10 July 2006, see the Introduction.

The volume contains 465 items of correspondence. Of these, 148 items for the years 1915-1920, most of them written by Einstein, originate in the just released material from the Margot Einstein bequest at the Albert Einstein Archives in Jerusalem that has been closed for 20 years after her death.

Among these are 82 letters and postcards written by Einstein to Elsa Einstein, an almost daily travel diary from his sojourns in Switzerland to visit his sons, his mother, and sister, and to lecture on relativity in Zurich; from Holland, Norway, and Denmark. There are 30 letters written to Einstein by his sons Hans Albert and Eduard over this period, often jointly. The volume contains 16 letters written to Einstein by Mileva Einstein Maric, most of them during 1918, the final year of their marriage, and four years after their separation; three letters from Elsa Einstein during 1920, and 15 letters from Einstein's sister Maja and her husband Paul Winteler.

In this latest volume, Einstein is embroiled in public attacks on his recently confirmed theory of general relativity. He considers leaving Berlin, thus depriving Germany of its most famous scientist. Colleagues, friends, and unknown admirers offer support, while Einstein worries about the care of his two sons and ex-wife in Switzerland, and his new family in Berlin. This volume also contains a substantial body of previously unavailable material from the 1909-1920 period.

The intensity of this period, during which anti-Semitism and nationalistic sentiment seeped into scientific debate, is reflected in numerous letters. Einstein continues research and promotes general relativity. He travels to Leyden as a visiting professor and is deeply involved with issues at the forefront of physics. He visits Oslo and Copenhagen--where he meets with Niels Bohr--and receives invitations to America. Correspondence with Moritz Schlick, Hans Reichenbach, and others attests to Einstein's central role in the lively intellectual atmosphere of the Weimar Republic.

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