ALS in German, signed “A.,” one page, 8.5 x 9.5, April 17, 1934. Handwritten letter to his first wife, Mileva, written from Princeton prior to World War II, commenting on the effects of "Hitler-insanity" and providing for the care of their son, Eduard 'Tetel' Einstein. In full (translated): "Your letter, which raises such a lovely feeling of hope, made me immensely happy. I read the articles closely, and it does not seem completely impossible that a successful result might be obtained through a chemical intervention such as this. It would simply constitute a strong stimulus to the secretory system created by a deficiency of sugar within the blood. However, we should not rush into this thing, we must wait until more experience has been gained.
I am enclosing a check for you to make it easier to pay the bank debts that have become due. I will also reimburse my sister for the expenses that accrue to her from Tetel's and the caregiver's visit. For now, I will not yet send periodical payments for the caregiver. I am strained so severely by the various acts of assistance that I have to restrict myself all around in the most extreme way. All this is the result of the Hitler-insanity, which has completely ruined the lives of all those around me." In very good to fine condition, with staining along the intersecting folds, and archival tape on the back of the bottom horizontal separation (where it appears that a portion of the letter's closing has been excised).
Einstein had emigrated to the United States in 1933, taking a professorship at Princeton and leaving behind the heightening tension in Europe. His troubled son, Eduard ‘Tetel’ Einstein, remained in Zurich with his mother, Einstein’s ex-wife, Mileva Maric; although Einstein would never see him again, they corresponded somewhat often. Eduard was an admirer of Freud and had once hoped to enter the fledgling field of psychiatry, but was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1930 at age twenty, rendering him a patient rather than a practitioner. Here, Einstein hopes that his son might find a chemical cure for what ails him, and explains the strain on his finances brought about by Hitler's rise. After fleeing Germany himself, Einstein became a tremendous advocate for Jews seeking to escape Hitler's reach and find asylum elsewhere. Joking that he ran an 'immigration office,' he would make visa applications for other German Jews, personally vouch for refugees fleeing Nazi rule, and solicit philanthropic support from other celebrities. A superb handwritten letter by Einstein on both family and world affairs.
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