EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955). Autograph letter signed (''A. Einstein'') to Antonia Stern, Oxford, 12 June 1933.

EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955). Autograph letter signed ("A. Einstein") to Antonia Stern, Oxford, 12 June 1933.
In German. One page, 227 x 175mm.

"No Jewish person should remain in Germany if he can possibly find a way to get out." Months after Einstein formally renounced his German citizenship, he counsels Stern to leave the country as soon as possible. He opens by offering a symbolic "kiss" in return for Stern sending expressions of her love, while confessing it was "undeserved." He then bemoans the destruction of the German "cultural class" by Hitler's regime, but cautions her that securing a "cultural career abroad is practically impossible," and advises her to seek an occupation that satisfies basic needs "(cow, goat, cabbage, kindergarten)". He observes that his sister, on her small farm near Florence, has stumbled "on the right path" and manages to eke out a simple existence. No longer able to visit Germany, Einstein feels adrift: "I am in a flittering world, apart from the things that touch on direct human relationships. However, I can provide some contacts, if you tell me with whom, because everyone (except the Germans at this point) is inclined to show me courtesies."

Pre-Lot Text
Albert Einstein letters to Antonia Stern

The following four letters are written to Antonia Stern (1891-1961) the youngest daughter of German historian Alfred Stern (1846-1936). Einstein became close with the Stern family while he was studying in Zurich between 1896 and 1900. The young Antonia was a gifted violinist who often played with Einstein when he visited the Stern household. Antonia Stern and Albert Einstein are believed to have had a brief affair in the spring of 1933 at the Belgian seaside town of De Haan/Le Coq and maintained an intermittent correspondence after he departed for the United States. Antonia, by then living in Paris, soon became romantically involved with the communist Hans Beimler who was killed in Spanish Civil War in December 1936. (She would find herself targeted by Stalin for her accusations that her former lover may have been killed by his own comrades.) Stern was interned during the German occupation of France but managed to escape deportation and survive the war. An additional letter from Einstein to Emma Darmstadt (lot 52), Antonia's older sister, is also offered here. (Neue Zuricher Zeitung, 9 April 2018; Norbert Schmitz, Alfred Stern. Ph.D. Diss., Tromsø University, 2008.)