“More Einsteinian than Einstein”

“When Albert Einstein left for Paris in March 1922, he knew that he would be skating on thin ice,”
wrote one biographer.1 Einstein’s visit was highly symbolic for the two countries.2 This was a period
of extreme tension between France and Germany, which were still recoiling from the Great War
(1914–1918) and under the spell of lingering resentments and violent accusations. A German
ultranationalist opponent of the physicist who commented on the visit complained how this was
simply “not the proper time” for Einstein to go:

Einstein had protested the Great War; Bergson had patriotically defended the actions of his country.
Einstein had turned forty-three the previous month; Bergson was sixty-two.

After intense coverage of Einstein’s work in newspapers and learned circles, here was the first
opportunity to discuss relativity “in the presence of the monster himself.”6 Many hoped that in an
intimate question-and-answer forum Einstein would reveal “more than through his written work, his
intimate principles and true driving ideas.”7 They hoped they could obtain “clarifications from the
mouth of the author himself” on the most controversial aspects of his theory.8 That Einstein would
meet Bergson only made his visit even more exciting, leading to “a debate that, in its eternal
interest, infinitely surpasses the mediocre political imbecility [politico-nigologiques] and the lowly
pecuniary controversies of the common fare in which we are accustomed to partake.”9

After receiving three invitations, Einstein declined all of them.10 He had, however, second thoughts
about the last one, coming from a friend of his at the Collège de France. These doubts intensified
after a conversation with the foreign minister, Walther Rathenau, who worked to improve relations
between these two countries before he was brutally murdered. Rathenau urged him to attend.
Shortly thereafter Einstein withdrew his previous declination, notified the Prussian Academy of
Sciences, and started preparing his trip.11

Einstein was invited to France with the express purpose that his visit would “serve to restore
relations between German and French scholars.” In his travel notification to the Prussian Academy of
Sciences, he quoted the letter of invitation from Paul Langevin: “The interests of science demand
that relations between German scientists and us be reestablished.” Langevin, future host, close
colleague, and old friend, firmly believed that Einstein “will contribute to this better than anyone
else.”12