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Auction: 15037 - Autographs, Historical Documents, Ephemera and Postal History
Lot: 133

(x) Documents
Germany
Albert Einstein
1933 black watercolour and white gouache portrait of Einstein on board, 8 x 9 inches by "Arnold" and dated. This was then sent to Einstein for his signature, and is signed "A.Einstein" at left in a greenish black ink. Photo

While Albert Einstein was visiting the United States in 1933, the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor took effect and the Jewish theoretical physicist decided he would not return to his home in Germany where he had been a professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences.

Einstein had been in the US for a visiting professorship at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena at the time.

He and his wife Elsa returned by ship to Belgium in March 1933 to find that that their cottage had been raided. Einstein turned in his passport to the German consulate and formally renounced his German citizenship. By the summer, Einstein learned that his name was on a list of assassination targets.

He resided in Belgium for some months and then moved to England for a short period.

On October 17, 1933, he returned to the US and took up a position at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey. The Princeton agreement required he stay for six months. With offers from numerous universities, including Oxford, Einstein was undecided on his future.

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Estimate
£1,800 to £2,200