A Concerned Father and his Sons
During the period covered by Volume 15 of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Einstein faces dramatic challenges in his role as a father. He is deeply concerned with the wellbeing of both his sons, albeit for entirely different reasons.
In the fall of 1925, his elder son Hans Albert expresses his intention to marry Frieda Knecht, a former Zurich neighbor and nine years his senior. Einstein immediately opposes the planned wedding, citing both Knecht's age and alleged "unfavorable hereditary factors," particularly on her mother's side. He fervently hopes that Hans Albert abandon his plans as they would be a "pity for the good breed!" In his opinion, it would be "a crime" for Hans Albert to have children with Knecht — everything should be done to avert "a catastrophe." Einstein temporarily even breaks off ties with his elder son, yet a visit by Hans Albert to Berlin in early 1927 softens his father's stance. He eventually resigns himself to the planned betrothal as long as the couple refrains from having children.
The intellectual development of Einstein's younger son Eduard, as reflected in the correspondence with his father in this volume, is truly remarkable. Their exchanges reveal Eduard's increasingly probing mind and, at times, agonized self-analysis. Einstein is both obviously delighted at his son's intellectual growth, yet deeply concerned for the boy's emotional resilience and "delicate nervous system." Eventually, Eduard begins to express beliefs that may well have been intended to provoke. In his opinion, the importance of the mind was "overrated." In reaction, Einstein strongly disagrees "about the worthlessness of intellectual production." He also confides in Eduard that his letters remind him of his own adolescence, and recalls having similarly alternated between despondency and self-confidence. He tries to allay Eduard's pessimism and nihilism, rooted in his fear of worthlessness, and assures his son that he brings him "great joy" since he does not "go through life apathetically but rather as a seeing and thinking being."