BIB_ID
193835
Accession number
MA 4610 (5)
Creator
Planck, Max, 1858-1947.
Display Date
1939 Nov. 10.
Credit line
Purchased for The Dannie and Hettie Heineman Collection as the gift of the Heineman Foundation, 1988.
Description
1 item (4 p.) ; 21 cm
Notes
Formerly listed erroneously as MA 4608.
The letter reads, in part: "Finally a word about the Theory of Relativity. It is not, as stated in the cited passage, 'a sort of bottom line or end result of the older physics,' but it introduced into physics an entirely new, heretofore unheard of concept, namely the thought that an indication of time only makes sense if one knows the state of motion of the relevant system for which it is valid...This theory has perfected and, at the same time, simplified the structure of theoretical physics so immensely that it cannot do without it anymore. That it originated from the Jewish side, may seem regrettable, but cannot be changed. At any rate, the attempt to minimize its importance with regard to this circumstance is wrong and ridiculous. Besides, you yourself have stressed with delightful clarity that it does not make sense to link technical questions with racial-biological view-points."
The letter reads, in part: "Finally a word about the Theory of Relativity. It is not, as stated in the cited passage, 'a sort of bottom line or end result of the older physics,' but it introduced into physics an entirely new, heretofore unheard of concept, namely the thought that an indication of time only makes sense if one knows the state of motion of the relevant system for which it is valid...This theory has perfected and, at the same time, simplified the structure of theoretical physics so immensely that it cannot do without it anymore. That it originated from the Jewish side, may seem regrettable, but cannot be changed. At any rate, the attempt to minimize its importance with regard to this circumstance is wrong and ridiculous. Besides, you yourself have stressed with delightful clarity that it does not make sense to link technical questions with racial-biological view-points."
Summary
Pointing out minor errors in the recipient's book Das Weltbind der Physik and stressing the folly of linking technical questions with racial and biological viewpoints such as whether the theory of relativity is valid because Einstein is Jewish.
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