Bachelor Thesis Natuur- en Sterrenkunde

Einstein and Spinoza in Weimar Germany

by

Nicolaas J. Geijer

October 2019

Studentnumber 11000058 Supervisor Prof. Dr. Jeroen van Dongen Table of Contents

Table of Contents ...... 1

Introduction ...... 2

Jewish Emancipation ...... 4

Spinoza ...... 5

Einstein ...... 7

Einstein and the Jewish Renaissance ...... 11

World War I ...... 12

Ostjuden ...... 14

Spinoza the Authentic Jew ...... 16

The Heidelberg Affair ...... 18

Anti-Semitism and Zionism ...... 19

Assimilationists ...... 21

Integrationists ...... 22

Einstein and Zionism ...... 23

Tolerance ...... 26

Science and Spinoza ...... 29

Pre-Weimar Empiricism ...... 29

Towards Spinozism ...... 32

Concluding Remarks ...... 36

Bibliography ...... 38

1 Introduction

Weimar Jews lived in a tense time. After years of unprecedented progress during the Jewish Emancipation all seemed to come to a sudden halt. A rise in anti-Semitism following World War I jeopardized years of economic and social advances. Just as Jews were able to move freely through society, becoming ministers and professors, a rise in anti-Semitism demanded a response to pressing questions. Is Judaism still a guide of conduct now that we have left the Ghettos? Can Jews and Germans understand one another? Is it possible to be both Jew and German and what is the future of German Jewry? Interestingly, this is also a time at which Jews in Weimar Germany (1918-1933) became increasingly drawn to the philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677). His philosophy and the stories concerning his life circulated widely in Weimar Germany while he was passionately honoured on his 300th birthday and on the day marking 250 years since his death.

Among the German public, Spinoza was heralded as a liberal, he was seen as authentic and to have had major influence on intellectuals in the country. He was also a Jew who had not associated himself with Jewish institutions. He was described as atheist but also as ‘a man drunk with God’1. He was known to have lived in solitude but also to have written at length about politics and the necessity of freedom for all people. Public discourse concerning Spinoza was often riddled with contradictory claims about his life. However, the contradictions did not blemish his reputation and he was not seen as ingenuous. In fact, despite public awareness of the conflicting claims that were made about his life, Weimar Jews who held different views on matters admired Spinoza simultaneously. As we shall see, in many discussions between communities of Weimar Jews who held opposing political standpoints, both sides used Spinoza to justify their arguments. Spinoza was grand and ambiguous enough for Jews of almost every political stream to appreciate and use him to express their points of view.

1 Wertheim, David J. Salvation through Spinoza: a Study of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany. Brill, 2011, p.45.

2 In the face of the growing adversity to Weimar Jewry, disagreeing Jewish communities developed different responses yet almost all used Spinoza in their defence. Integrationists, for example, promoted a universalism that stood above Jewry and German nationality. They highlighted how Jews and Germans had influenced one another and as evidence, pointed out that Spinoza’s philosophy had been a source of inspiration to German Romanticism. Zionists on the other hand, branded attempts at integration naïve. They wanted to see a greater self-determination among Jews and saw in Spinoza a man who had taken matters into his own hands, by leaving the intellectual oppression of 17th century Amsterdam. Both these and other Jewish communities saw in Spinoza a banner man for their cause.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955), famous for his contributions to science, was a Jew who lived in Germany during the Weimar years. Like many Weimar Jews he also admired Spinoza. While he appreciated Spinoza throughout his adult life, the literature suggests that Einstein’s fondness of Spinoza strongly increased throughout the Weimar years. In this paper I will explore how Albert Einstein related to Spinoza within the context of Weimar Germany. For instance, in what ways might his experience of the Weimar years have amplified his attraction to Spinoza?

Research has already been done regarding Einstein’s relationship to Spinoza, and, separately, into the reception of Spinoza by Weimar Jewish communities. In this paper we can use both to come to conclusions about Albert Einstein. One way to do so is to compare Einstein to Weimar Jewish communities in his reception of Spinoza. Specifically, by looking at the ways through which the Weimar Jews appreciated Spinoza and seeing if they also apply to Einstein. Studying Einstein against the backdrop of Weimar Jewry’s relationship to Spinoza will help provide us with a specific formulation of his relationship to Spinoza.

The above is possible because Einstein is, as we shall see, in some respects a typical representative of Weimar Jewry. Hence, commonalities between Einstein and Weimar Jewry allow us to investigate to what extent Einstein’s relationship to Spinoza can be understood as an expression of his participation in Weimar Jewish culture. For example, the popularity of Spinoza among the Weimar Jews rose, in part, due to an

3 increasing anti-Semitism. As Weimar Jews sought to develop a new culture in the face of these changing circumstances they looked to Spinoza for inspiration. Einstein was confronted with the same rising anti-Semitism and we will see how Einstein, as is typical of Weimar Jewry, used Spinoza to formulate a response to the situation in Weimar Germany.

However, there are also ways in which Einstein’s relationship to Spinoza is unique, making Einstein an atypical representative of the Weimar Jews. Einstein and Spinoza were both intellectuals. Einstein was impressed by Spinoza’s philosophy and at various times read Spinoza’s masterpiece the Ethics. He also repeatedly said he believed in ‘Spinoza’s God’. Many of Einstein’s ideas of the universe, especially after the Weimar years, resembled Spinoza’s ideas of the universe. Although in his youth Einstein had read Kant, and was later influenced by the philosophies of Hume and Mach, by 1920, Spinoza stood out as Einstein’s “favourite philosopher” 2 . Furthermore, due to his background as a scientist he was prone to consider the philosophical propositions that Spinoza had written about. Einstein’s intellectualism distinguished him among Jews in Weimar Germany in his relationship to Spinoza.

Hence in studying Einstein’s relation to Spinoza in the context of Weimar Germany, we cannot treat him as only a representative of Weimar Jewry, nor is his relation to Spinoza strictly unique. We will see that Einstein is at times a typical and an atypical representative of the Weimar Jews. By making make use of a combination of ideas applicable to the Weimar Jews’ relationship with Spinoza and ideas applicable only to the Einstein-Spinoza relationship I hope to explore Einstein’s relationship to Spinoza in the context of Weimar Germany.

Jewish Emancipation

In this chapter we will look at the historical context that underlies the relationship between Einstein and Spinoza. Their relationship cannot be adequately understood without considering the Jewish Emancipation, which led to the secularization of Jewish culture that made Einstein’s admiration of Spinoza possible. Firstly, because

2 Jammer, Max. Einstein and Religion Physics and Theology. Princeton University Press, 2002, p.43.

4 Einstein grew up in a secular milieu as a result of the emancipation of the Jews and secondly, because the secularization brought about a reconsideration of Spinoza’s teachings. Before the Jewish emancipation, Spinoza was still branded a heretic.

Beginning in the 18th century, Jews in Germany experienced more and more social mobility. In 1921, Einstein described Jewish communities before the start of the emancipation: “our ancestors, with few exceptions, lived in the ghetto. They were poor, politically disenfranchised, separated from non-Jews by a wall of religious traditions, daily lifestyle, and legal restraints.”3 The emancipation of the Jews was supported by the general popularity of liberal, Enlightenment, values. A significant milestone was reached in 1871, when Jews across Germany were granted equal rights under the constitution4.

Emancipation and the increasing social mobility raised questions concerning the relationship between Jewish communities and the state they lived under. Is Judaism still that which uniquely binds Jewish communities together? How much of the traditions should Jews leave behind in leaving the Ghettos? Is full acceptance by Germany realistic? Questions of this nature became increasingly relevant during the Weimar years when their urgency was greatly amplified by the rise in anti-Semitism. The differing responses to such questions divided Jewish communities. The Jewish Emancipation is often characterized as a path to developing a secular Jewish culture. One way that the emancipation manifested itself was the increasing interest in 17th century philosopher Spinoza (1632-1677).

Spinoza

Spinoza was born as Benedictus de Spinoza and grew up in the Jewish neighbourhood of Amsterdam. Around his early 20s Spinoza was excommunicated from the Jewish community by way of the harshest cherem ever issued by the Amsterdam Jews. The document survives to this day and mentions “the abominable heresies which he practiced and taught”5. While there was considerable religious freedom in Amsterdam

3 Einstein, Albert. 1921b. On a Jewish Palestine. (Rowe and Schulmann, p.154). 4 Brenner, Michael. The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany. New Haven: Yale University Pr., 1996, p.3. 5 Nadler, Steven M. Spinoza: a Life. Cambridge University Press, 1999, p.128.

5 at the time, it was nonetheless forbidden to openly debate the nature of God. That Spinoza openly discussed his ideas of God enraged the leaders of the Amsterdam Jews. In his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (TTP), Spinoza expounded his opinions concerning freedom of expression and argued for a society free from religious or intellectual suppression.

After his excommunication he moved to a small house in Rijnsburg, near The Hague, which Einstein visited in 19206. There, Spinoza wrote his masterpiece the Ethics, in which he extended his criticism of religious dogma as he refuted the idea of a personal God. Spinoza argued that God is the infinite substance and that while there is no God who cares for the ambitions of people, God was “the totality of nature itself”7. In his own words: Deus sive Natura, God that is to say Nature8. Objects, us humans included, are what he called ‘modes’ of God – manifestations of the infinite substance. In this way, Spinoza conceived of a God that does not require institutions and dogma to be marvelled at and revered. God, he said, is reflected in the immutable laws of the universe. Hence, God’s will is nothing but the certainty with which events occur, as produced by those immutable laws.

Spinoza’s religiosity stemmed from a profound sense of wonder at the universe; happiness, he proposed, lay in trying to unravel its mysteries by the power of mind. In one of his most famous sayings, Spinoza described the confluence of intellectual struggle and reverence for God as “Amor Dei Intellectualis” – the intellectual love towards God. The joy we feel when we attain knowledge is the intellectual love of God. Spinoza thus erased the divide between religiosity and science – one of the reasons that Einstein felt so strong an attraction to him.

In Einstein’s words: “Spinoza was the first to apply with true consistency to human thought, feeling and action, the idea of the deterministic constraint of all that occurs”9. This determinism, as we shall see later, allowed Einstein to use Spinozism in his

6 Dongen, Jeroen Van. “The Epistemic Virtues of the Virtuous Theorist: On Albert Einstein and His Autobiography.” Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science Epistemic Virtues in the Sciences and the Humanities, 2017, 63–77. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48893-6_5, p.9. 7 Armstrong, Karen. The Case for God: What Religion Really Means. London: Vintage, 2010, p.195. 8 Spinoza, Benedictus de. Ethics. London: Penguin Classics, 1996, p.118. 9 Paty, Michel. “Einstein and Spinoza.” Spinoza and the Sciences, edited by Marjorie Grene and Debra Nails, D. Reidel Pub. Co., 1986, pp. 267–302, p.272.

6 formation of societal ideals. Spinoza argued that because of determinism, a person should not be persecuted for their thoughts or the things they say – the perpetrator and the executioner are both manifestations of the same God. Believing that God is pantheistic and deterministic served as the foundation for Spinoza’s principles of intellectual freedom and tolerance.

Spinoza was branded an atheist during his life and for more than a century after his death. In fact, his name became synonymous with heresy 10 . As the Jewish Emancipation was underway, however, Spinoza and his philosophy experienced a radical turnaround in interpretation. On his deathbed, early enlightenment poet and writer Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781), had supposedly confided to philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819) that he “knew no philosophy in the true sense of that word, save Spinozism”11. No other witnesses were present at the time, allowing a different friend of Lessing, the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1726-1786) to passionately deny that this could be true. The debate that followed between Jacobi and Mendelssohn about whether Lessing was a Spinozist, reintroduced Spinoza to public discussions. The debate is now referred to as the Pantheismusstreit (1785- 1789) – ‘battle over pantheism’. Afterwards, there was a majority among the public who believed that Lessing was a Spinozist but that Spinoza’s teaching was not at all immoral. There was a growing sense that he had been misunderstood as atheist, and that he was in fact deeply religious. This radical shift in reception of Spinoza and his teachings is a testimony to the malleability with which his work could be interpreted and a precursor to a second Spinoza revival during the Weimar years.

Einstein

Records show that Albert Einstein’s maternal and paternal ancestors had been living in Germany since at least 175012. It is thus plausible that Einstein’s family went through a secularization and liberalization in line with German Jewish communities as a whole. Einstein gave us an account of how this process took place: “they [our ancestors] appropriated the external forms of life of the non-Jewish world, and

10 Nadler (1999), p.249. 11 Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, German philosopher (1743-1819). Accessed September 5, 2019. https://www.1902encyclopedia.com/J/JAC/friedrich-heinrich-jacobi.html. 12 Jammer, p.15.

7 increasingly turned a blind eye to their religious and social traditions, and adopted non-Jewish habits, customs, and ways of thinking. It seemed as if they would be absorbed into the numerically larger, politically and culturally better organized host nations, so that after a few generations no visible trace would remain.”13 That Einstein, contrary to Jewish tradition, was not named after his grandfather is evidence that such secularization happened. His father, Hermann Einstein (1847-1902), referred to Jewish rituals as “ancient superstitions”14. Einstein went to a liberal Catholic school and apart from a year long fanatic religious spell in his youth, never again committed himself to religious traditions.

Einstein experienced a liberal and secular upbringing made possible by the Jewish Emancipation. As a young teenager, Einstein was introduced to the philosophy of Kant and when he was sixteen he boarded with the Wintelers in Aarau. They were an open-minded and progressive family and father Jost Winteler (1846-1929) agreed with Einstein on ideas such as pacifism, internationalism and individual liberty15. Whereas it is probable that Einstein’s ancestors would have thought Spinoza blasphemous, there is little reason to argue that Einstein would ever have judged him in line with pre-emancipation Jewish culture. Einstein grew up in a milieu typical of post-emancipation communities. The Einstein’s were a family deeply rooted in liberal, Bildung principles to which they owed their emancipation. The traditions of the Jewish Ghetto seemed a world away.

Thus Einstein’s liberal background and Spinoza’s presence in the sphere of public debate are both products of the Jewish Emancipation. Yet Spinoza’s popularity and Einstein’s liberal background were about to be amplified and challenged respectively. To the generation of Einstein’s father, the road to further emancipation seemed straightforward. The parents assumed that Albert’s generation would take the baton and continue further on the road to economic and social equality. This did not happen.

The Weimar period saw a backlash against Jewish emancipation. A rise in anti- Semitism amplified the urgency to answer the question that had first been raised when

13 Einstein (1921b). (Rowe and Schulmann, p.154). 14 Isaacson, Walter. Einstein: His Life and Universe. Pocket Books, 2008, p.15. 15 Ibid, p.27.

8 Jews left the Ghettos, how is one supposed to combine their Jewish heritage with their German nationality? An older generation of intellectuals, among them George Mosse (1918-1999), explained the rift between Germany and Jewish communities by the rise in anti-Semitism and Jewish communities defensively clinging to liberal values. Mosse argued that while the culture of the majority of Germany was shifting to nationalism, German Jews clung to the liberal Bildung values that were universal in nature16. Jews in Germany had embraced the ideal of Bildung as it had been developed by Wilhelm von Humboldt, Goethe and Herder. It contained many Enlightenment ideas and was focused on education and self-cultivation. Most importantly, the ideal of Bildung transcended nationality and religion as everyone, regardless of their background, could develop their character. The universalism associated with the ideal of Bildung appealed deeply to Jews in Germany. Mosse argued that while Jews acknowledged the diminishing appreciation of Bildung values in Weimar Germany, they stubbornly stuck to the ideal because they were rooted in the Humboldt version of Bildung to which they owed many of their gained freedoms. For example, the level of education German Jewry enjoyed was a consequence of the popularity of the Bildung principle before it was imbued with nationalism.

A younger generation of intellectuals have opposed Mosse in his description of the break between Jews and German culture. This group of intellectuals is much less concerned with why Jews in Germany seemed blind to the changing nature of Germany’s Bildung principles but focus instead on what they see was a renaissance of Jewish culture that came to typify Weimar Jewry17. Unlike Mosse, intellectuals like Michael Brenner claim that Jewish culture in Germany did not cling to forgotten values of Bildung liberalism but instead underwent what they called a Jewish Renaissance. Brenner, among others, argues that through a renaissance, Weimar Jewish culture came to embody a new sense of Jewish self-awareness.

This latter view of Weimar Jewish culture is often described by making use of the analogy “the revolt of the son against the father”18. There was a fundamental break in attitudes between the generations of Hermann and Albert Einstein. Whereas the

16 Wertheim, p.9. 17 Ibid, p.10. 18 Brenner, p.3.

9 generation of Hermann had grown up with liberal values they thought they would one day pass on to their kin, the generation of Albert Einstein grew up in a world no longer as suited to liberalism. The liberal Bildung values of their fathers; universalism and secularism, were by now insufficient as they did not provide answers to the growing anti-Semitism. Despite years of emancipation and seeming acceptance into German culture, anti-Semitism was on the rise. The younger generation thought its parents had paid the price of integration with an erosion of their Jewish heritage only to be confronted with the reality that integration had obviously failed.

In search of a new secular culture, Albert’s generation returned to their Jewish heritage that had been diluted over the course of the Jewish Emancipation. After years of emancipation, there was little Jewish culture left among the generation of Albert. Franz Kafka (1883-1924) in his Letter to His Father, wrote that the Jewish culture their parents had left them was “too little to be handed on to the child; it all dribbled away while you were passing it on.”19 Among the younger generations of Weimar Jewry there was a growing sense that assimilation had failed and that the answer to the questions of integration lay in incorporating certain elements of Jewry into a new secular culture.

The Jewish Renaissance was characterized by a surge in Jewish self-awareness. Weimar Jewish communities did not necessarily want to revisit the orthodox traditions of the Ghettos but wanted to develop a different Jewish secular culture that included awareness of one’s Jewish heritage. In this process, Spinoza became an inspiration for secularized Jewry and an important part of the appreciated Jewish heritage. His philosophy and life had already seen a remarkable rise in popularity during the Pantheismusstreit but the popularity of Spinoza grew even more during the Weimar years. He was front-page news as he was celebrated in 1927 and 1932 for the anniversaries of his death and birth20. Lectures were given, books were published and in Berlin and elsewhere events were organized in celebration21. He was celebrated by the entire spectrum of Jewish communities except the orthodox who maintained the authority of his cherem. All the while anti-Semitism was growing with Hitler gaining

19 Brenner, p.3. 20 Wertheim, p.4. 21 Ibid, p.5.

10 substantial support. Where different communities took opposing stances with respect to the urgent developments, Spinoza served to mediate the differences because all could appreciate him for their own reasons.

Similarly to Weimar Jewish communities, Einstein experienced increased awareness of his own Jewish identity. Anti-Semitism made Einstein identify with his Jewish roots more strongly22. He began to express his political standpoints and advocate his ideas concerning anti-Semitism and pacifism. In the following chapter we will discuss how the Jewish Renaissance was expressed by Jewish communities as well as by Einstein and we will analyse the relationship of both to Spinoza. Even though Spinoza played a significant role in the Jewish Renaissance for most Jewish communities, to Einstein, he was even more important. In 1920, Einstein composed a poem in Spinoza’s honour calling it ‘Zu Spinoza’s Ethik’23:

How much do I love that noble man More than I could tell with words I fear though he’ll remain alone With a holy halo of his own.

We will start the following chapter by looking at the two main causes of the Jewish Renaissance and how they relate to Einstein and the Jewish communities at large. We will see that Einstein’s relationship to Spinoza deepened as a result of his own personal ‘Jewish Renaissance’.

Einstein and the Jewish Renaissance

The Jewish Renaissance concerned secular Jewish communities who sought to rediscover their Jewish heritage in an effort to formulate a response to growing anti- Semitism. It had two main causes: the deception of acceptance into German culture in the aftermath of World War I and the influx of refugee Eastern European Jews into Germany. The rise of anti-Semitism was the initial impetus for the movement as it

22 Isaacson, p.281. 23 Jammer, p.43.

11 produced a profound disillusion at hopes of acculturating in Germany. Thereafter, the influx of Eastern European Jews, ‘Ostjuden’, as they were called, provided inspiration for a new secular Jewish culture.

In his relation to the Jewish Renaissance, Albert Einstein is in some ways typical of Weimar Jewish communities. He, too, experienced the rise of anti-Semitism personally and was very disturbed by it. Also, the disapproval of Eastern European Jews by both Jews and non-Jews intensified his urge to reconnect with his Jewish heritage and furthermore motivated him to his first public act in the political arena: he wrote an article in defence of the Ostjuden24.

World War I

Jews who had thought the spilling of their blood in World War I would strengthen the ties between Jews and Germans were disappointed. Some imagined that the twelve thousand Jewish soldiers’ lives lost on the battlefield would establish a “community of the trenches” 25 between Jews and Germans and consolidate the Jewish Emancipation. On the contrary, in October 1914 a Weimar Jewish soldier at the front wrote: “Bei Kriegsbeginn schien jedes Vorurteil verschwunden, es gab nur noch Deutsche. Nun hört man wieder die alten verhaßten Redensarten. Und plötzlich ist man einsam inmitten von Kameraden, deren Not man teilt . . . mit denen man fur̈ die gemeinsame Sache marschiert.” (With the beginning of the war, all prejudices seemed to have disappeared, there were only Germans. Now one hears again the old cursed ways of speech. Suddenly one is lonely in the middle of comrades who share your agony, and with whom you march for a common cause)26. For many, the deception of acceptance into German culture culminated in a 1916 census aimed at investigating whether enough Jews had participated in the war27.

Einstein is an atypical member of the Weimar Jews in that he never supported the war. Einstein did not harbour any hopes that Jewish soldiers dying for Germany

24 Rowe, David E., and Robert Schulmann. Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb. Princeton University Press, 2007, p.136. 25 Brenner, p.32. 26 Wertheim, p.10-11. 27 Ibid, p.11.

12 would consolidate the Jewish Emancipation. He was against the war from the very start, calling it “incredibly preposterous” and denouncing the human race as a “deplorable breed of brutes”28. Even from a young age, Einstein disliked Germany’s militarism. As a boy he felt that his school’s regimented style of teaching was a way to prepare students for military discipline. The strong disagreement he experienced with this mode of teaching eventually put Einstein through a nervous exhaustion and he left Germany altogether29. Spinoza believed that war is the natural state of man, as Thomas Hobbes explained in his work Leviathan 30. Einstein too believed that aggression was natural to mankind: “The psychological roots of war are—in my opinion—biologically grounded in the aggressive nature of the male.”31 Einstein was thus not disillusioned in the same way as the typical Weimar Jew who was confronted by the fact that the Great War produced the opposite effect – that it threatened, not consolidated the Jewish Emancipation.

World War I made Einstein more politically active. Einstein came to Berlin in 1914 and was recognized as an outstanding talent in the scientific world. However, he was still inexperienced in the realm of politics and activism32. He thought World War I to be “troubling, disgusting” and its severity awakened in him a responsibility to speak his mind on the issues it presented. Einstein became a member of the pacifist New Fatherland Association that was closed down by authorities in 191633. Nonetheless, having been a member of this organization left Einstein with a sense of camaraderie towards likeminded pacifists such as the Frenchman Romain Rolland34.

His newfound political activity is also evident in that, together with fellow pacifist and professor of medicine George Nicolai, he wrote the “Manifesto to Europeans”, urging internationalism and a restraint from nationalistic hostilities35. They wrote this in response to what was later called the “Manifesto of 93” – a petition defending Germany’s militarism and proclaiming nationalistic ideas. It acquired its name after

28 Isaacson, p.205. 29 Ibid, p.23. 30 Wertheim, p.94. 31 Einstein, Albert. 1916. My Opinion on the War, Late October, Early November 1915. (Rowe and Schulmann, p.74). 32 Rowe and Schulmann, p.61. 33 Ibid, p.62. 34 Ibid, p.62. 35 Isaacson, p.207.

13 the 93 intellectuals who signed it. This petition is an example of how, not just his close colleagues in Germany, but intellectuals all over Europe chose sides. Einstein on the other hand felt that intellectuals had the responsibility to think beyond the borders between nations.

Einstein did not experience disillusion due to the First World War in the same way as most Jewish communities. In contrast to many Weimar Jews, Einstein was a pacifist from the start and did not hope that World War I would be beneficial for Jews in Germany. Einstein experienced a different disillusion. As a scientist, Einstein was disappointed with the intellectual community. He thought intellectuals should know better than to support violence in the name of nationalism. World War I inspired Einstein to publicly speak out in favour of his controversial pacifism. Einstein’s relation to the second cause of the Jewish Renaissance, the influx of refugee Ostjuden, was more reflective of Weimar Jewry.

Ostjuden

Many Jews from Eastern Europe fled to Germany in the wake of World War I. Up until the Jewish Renaissance, Ostjuden were mostly a source of embarrassment for those who had assimilated into German culture and identified themselves as ‘German Jews’. They were afraid that Ostjuden would jeopardize their status as emancipated Jews if anti-Semitism directed at Ostjuden were to turn against all Jews. The Ostjuden were very different from their Weimar Jewish counterparts. While most Jews in Germany, whose communities had experienced generations of emancipation, had a lifestyle that was more or less similar to that of Germans, ‘Ostjuden’ were recognized as traditional, and were considered visibly distinctly Jewish. As Weimar Jews started to look back at their Jewish heritage with renewed interest, admiration for Ostjuden and their distinct culture increased. Slowly, and in parallel with the rise in anti- Semitism following World War I, the Eastern European Jew became instead a source of “richtigen Rassenstolz” (genuine racial pride)36. Einstein shared this feeling: “East European Jewry contains a rich potential of the greatest human talents and productive

36 Wertheim, p.11.

14 forces”37. Einstein was typical of Weimar Jewry in that he experienced a rise in Jewish self-awareness and a reconnection with his Jewish heritage as a consequence of the influx of the Ostjuden.

At the same time, the increasing appreciation of Ostjuden was accompanied by an opposing right wing rhetoric fuelled by the influx of Ostjuden. This right wing anti- Semitism was finding more and more resonance in Weimar Germany in the aftermath of World War I. Einstein relates the accusations: “these East European Jews are alleged to be profiteers, black marketeers, Bolsheviks,”38. Even among Jews in Germany discrimination was widespread. The discrimination of Ostjuden by ‘German Jews’ in particular had a greater impact on Einstein than the discrimination by other Germans. Einstein reacted by defending the Ostjuden and condemning ‘German Jews’ for their discrimination. This activism is an expression of Einstein’s increasing Jewish self-awareness and rediscovery of his Jewish heritage. In a 1920 writing on assimilation and anti-Semitism Einstein described how ‘German Jews’ moved blame to their Eastern counterparts: “Everything evil blamed on Jews as a totality is heaped on the East European Jews”39. Einstein’s defence of the Ostjuden was one of his first acts concerning Jewish affairs and in it we can deduce a growing sense of empathy for his ethnic brethren: “Let us hope that many of them will find a true homeland as free sons of the Jewish people in the newly established Jewish Palestine.”40 His urge to speak in defence of the Ostjuden is an example of his growing sense of Jewish self- awareness. In this way Einstein is a typical member of the Weimar Jews.

We can conclude that the two main causes of the Jewish Renaissance, as applied to Weimar Jewish communities, did not apply to Einstein equally. Einstein did not harbour hopes of final acceptance of Jews into German culture because of the First World War. The war pushed Einstein to become more politically active. On the other hand, his reaction to the influx of the Ostjuden was typical of Weimar Jewry and it left him with a renewed sense of Jewish self-awareness that he carried with him for the rest of his life. In 1952 he said: “my relationship with the Jewish people became

37 Einstein, Albert. 1920. Assimilation and Anti-Semitism. (Rowe and Schulmann, p.145). 38 Einstein, Albert. 1919. Immigration from the East. (Rowe and Schulmann, p.139). 39 Einstein (1920). (Rowe and Schulmann, p.144-145). 40 Einstein (1919). (Rowe and Schulmann, p.140).

15 my strongest human tie once I achieved complete clarity about our precarious position among the nations of the world.”

The First World War, and the subsequent influx of Ostjuden started what Brenner and others now refer to as the Jewish Renaissance. One of the ways the Jewish Renaissance manifested itself was by a search for ‘authentic Jewry’, the objective of which was to find authentic Jewish qualities to incorporate in a new Weimar Jewish secular culture. The motives of the search can be understood by considering the longing of Weimar Jewry to develop a secular culture that, in contrast to the generation of Einstein’s parents, contained Jewish elements. Weimar Jews and especially Einstein used Spinoza as an example to describe authentic Jewish characteristics.

Spinoza the Authentic Jew

The Jewish Renaissance manifested itself in a search for the ‘authentic Jew’. The renaissance was not a return to the traditional orthodox values of the Ghettos but a movement to develop a secular mode of Jewry that incorporated Jewish elements. Naturally, the question arose what elements of the Jewish culture are independent of Judaism as a religion and should thus be considered as authentically Jewish. The idea that it was not the religion of Judaism that bound Jews together, but that other characteristics constitute the Jewish identity, was typical of the Jewish Renaissance. That Jewish culture was defined by more qualities, not just by religion justified the search for authentic Jewish characteristics41. Spinoza often featured in the Weimar Jewry’s discussions concerning the ‘authentic Jew’ as he was praised for being genuine and embodying truly Jewish values. To Einstein, Spinoza played an even more influential part in forming the image of the ‘authentic Jew’ than to most Weimar Jews. That during the Weimar years Spinoza became Einstein’s favourite philosopher could well be due to the influence he had on Einstein’s idea of authentic Jewry while he was reconnecting to his Jewish heritage.

41 Brenner, p.149.

16 Historical novels written by Weimar Jews often involved a Jewish hero who was for their time an outsider or a heretic. Spinoza easily fits this description and so does, Shabbetai Zevi, the 17th century false messiah who divided the Jewish communities of his time with his controversial conversion to Islam. Despite this controversy, Zevi’s values and teachings came to be seen as undoubtedly Jewish and he featured in at least five novels by Weimar Jewish authors 42 . The appeal of characters that challenged the Jewish traditions of their time is explicable by the urge of Weimar Jews to establish a new Jewish secular culture that, in contrast to that of their parents, incorporated nonreligious Jewish ideals. Characters like Shabbetai Zevi and Spinoza, who had previously stood on the fringes of Judaism, offered alternative models in a time when Jewish communities were developing an untraditional secular Jewish culture.

In 1921 Einstein went to visit philosopher Josef Popper-Lynkeus. “So much goodness and mildness!” Einstein recalled, “When he entered, I thought at once: it is Spinoza! Such a physiognomy is only to be found in Jewish people,”43. In a 1929 speech, Einstein defended the immigration of Jews to Palestine. He described, as quoted by Rowe and Schulman, what he considered Jewish and how this is exemplified by Spinoza: “Embedded in the tradition of the Jewish people there is a love of justice and reason which must continue to work for the good of all nations now and in the future. In modern times this tradition has produced Spinoza and Karl Marx.”44 As is typical of Weimar Jewry, Einstein is constructing an ideal of secular Jewry by noting what cultural characteristics are authentically Jewish.

Additionally, Spinoza was appreciated for advocating a highly individualized religiosity. In stark contradiction to the reception of his ideas 250 years prior, his breaking with religious institutions was now deeply appreciated by the Weimar Jews45. Einstein was very receptive of Spinoza’s conception of God. At first glance, the possibility of believing in someone else’s, in this case, ‘Spinoza’s God’, seems to contradict the individualistic nature of Spinoza’s idea of God. However, when Einstein spoke of Spinoza’s idea of God he was preserving the individual essence of

42 Brenner, p.149. 43 Patty, p.272. 44 Rowe and Schulmann, p.184. 45 Wertheim, p.101.

17 the relationship towards God by way of Spinoza’s Amor Dei Intellectualis: one’s relationship to God is defined by individual intellectual endeavour. Spinoza’s idea of God was considered genuine by virtue of its individual nature. The relationship between a person and ‘Spinoza’s God’ requires no intermediaries or institutions because revering of God is done by one’s personal, intellectual, endeavour to understand God. Jews in Weimar Germany considered Spinoza’s idea of the purely personal relationship between an individual and God to be an example of Spinoza’s authentic character. Even more so than the Weimar Jews, Einstein appreciated Spinoza for his authenticity due to his individualized conception of God. As we shall see later, Spinoza’s conception of God is closely related to Einstein’s ideas concerning the universe. During the Weimar years, Einstein is increasingly convinced of determinism and rationalism – ideas that are easily compatible with Spinozism.

The Heidelberg Affair

As Spinoza was becoming more and more popular during the Weimar years his famed rejection of a university position was written about and discussed46. In 1673, Spinoza was asked if he was willing to accept “a regular Professorship of Philosophy” at the university of Heidelberg, Germany47. The story was understandably inspirational to the Weimar Jews, as they had always struggled to obtain higher positions in society. Einstein, even after his Annus Mirabillis in 1905, did not get a position at a university until 190948. He was still considering becoming a high school teacher before obtaining a university position in Zurich. Although he was living in Switzerland at the time, where he experienced less anti-Semitism than he would in Germany, Einstein nonetheless credited anti-Semitism with making it harder to find a university position. His soon to be wife, Mileva Maric, wrote to her friend of the difficulties: “You know my sweetheart has a sharp tongue and moreover he is a Jew.”49.

Yet here was Spinoza, an outcast and a Jew who rejected the Heidelberg professorship in order to preserve his intellectual autonomy. Much later, during the era of McCarthyism, when intellectuals across the United States were scrutinized for

46 Wertheim, p.46. 47 Nadler (1999), 311. 48 Isaacson, p.153. 49 Ibid, p.61.

18 any communist sympathies, Einstein wrote to a student: “the practices of those ignoramuses who use their public positions of power to tyrannize over professional intellectuals must not be accepted without a struggle. Spinoza followed this rule when he turned down a professorship at Heidelberg and (unlike Hegel) decided to earn his living in a way that would not mortgage his freedom.”50

Spinoza had retreated to solitude and earned his wages grinding lenses51. That Spinoza resisted temptation and stuck to his personal belief of intellectual freedom resonated deeply with the Weimar Jews and especially Einstein. Spinoza was considered to be authentically Jewish because he lived life by what he preached. Later in his life, Einstein said: “If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances.”52

By honouring Spinoza, Jews in Weimar Germany elevated him to a moral authority53. Einstein did that too; by using Spinoza in his image of the authentic Jew, he idealized his characteristics thus making him a moral standard. Einstein did not clearly draw a line between morality and his philosophy of the universe, as we shall see in a later chapter when we discuss the parallels between Spinozism and Einstein’s principle of tolerance. Einstein’s ideas concerning social justice, internationalism and even his philosophy of science were founded on similar ideas of the world as those that are central to Spinozism. In the next section we will see how Einstein used Spinoza to formulate his own response to anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitism and Zionism

Zionism was a movement that was prompted by two developments. The first is the growing anti-Semitism and the second is the secularization of European Jews54. The goal of Zionism was to establish a Jewish state, simultaneously offering answers to

50 Paty, p.276. 51 Nadler (1999), p.198. 52 Einstein, Albert. 1954. On Intellectual Freedom. (Rowe and Schulmann, p.485-486). 53 Wertheim, p.87. 54 Brenner, p.23.

19 the two developments on which it was founded. With the creation of a Jewish state the security threat would no longer exist and the nationalization of the Jewish people would provide an identity for Jews who were developing a new secular culture. There would be no anti-Semitism in the Jewish homeland and its creation would reinvigorate a sense of Jewish identity. Although most Zionists cared for both motivations, some felt more strongly about the security issue while others stressed the need for a cultural home. ‘Political Zionists’ emphasized the importance of security while ‘Cultural Zionists’ were inspired by the thought of establishing a spiritual centre in Palestine and revitalizing Jewish identity. Einstein belonged to the latter group. While anti-Semitism was an important, if not crucial factor in his involvement with Zionism, he emphasized the need for a cultural home for Jews.

We have so far seen that Einstein reconnected with his Jewish heritage in similar fashion to the typical Weimar Jew. In this chapter we will see how the rise of anti- Semitism compelled Einstein to support a movement within the Weimar Jewish communities and how it consolidated his sense of Jewish self-awareness. We will see how Spinoza’s ideas resonated with Einstein and the various movements within Jewish communities.

Anti-Semitism awoke Einstein to his cultural heritage: “Until seven years ago I lived in Switzerland, and as long as I lived there I was not aware of my Jewishness. . . . This changed as soon as I took up residence in Berlin. There I saw the plight of many young Jews. I saw how anti-Semitic surroundings prevented them from pursuing regular studies and how they struggled for a secure existence. This is especially true of East European Jews, who are constantly subject to harassment. … These and similar experiences have awakened my Jewish national feelings”55. In 1929 he remarked that: “When I came to Germany fifteen years ago I discovered for the first time that I was a Jew, and l owe this discovery more to Gentiles than Jews”56. Spinoza had a similar experience with anti-Semitism. He said that it is thanks to the discrimination of other peoples that the Jewish people continue to exist57. Without anti-Semitism, Spinoza said, Jews would simply integrate. Whether or not Einstein

55 Einstein, Albert. 1921a. How I Became a Zionist. (Rowe and Sculmann, p.151). 56 Paty, p.297. 57 Ibid, p.276.

20 knew of this opinion of Spinoza is unimportant to the fact that for Einstein also, it was the “very strong”58 anti-Semitism that reminded him of his Jewish heritage: “I believe German Jewry owes its continued existence to anti-Semitism.”59 We can hear the echo of Spinoza when Einstein claimed: “Without this antagonism, the assimilation of Jews in Germany would proceed quickly and unimpeded.”60

In response to the wave of anti-Semitism in Weimar Germany, Jewish communities across the spectrum used Spinoza in their defence. The spectrum of responses to anti- Semitism can be divided into three main streams: assimilationists, integrationists, and Zionists.

Assimilationists

Assimilation belonged to the ideals of the generation of Einstein’s father and it was the principle that Einstein’s generation rejected. Assimilation was the idea that Jews should conform to the culture of Germany. The accompanied loss of heritage had long been accepted as the price Jews had to pay for their emancipation61. Among Einstein’s colleagues there were assimilationists such as Fritz Haber who, in an effort to assimilate, dressed accordingly, adopted customs and even wore the pince-nez glasses of a true Prussian62.

Einstein never easily conformed. The post World War I anti-Semitism proved to him and many others that assimilation did not work. To many it was disappointing to see that after years of emancipation, anti-Semitism seemed unabated. Einstein, who initially supported assimilation, became increasingly disenchanted with the idea partly because of the discrimination of ‘German Jews’ towards Ostjuden63. He likened the strategy of assimilationists to the “mimicry of butterflies”64. In Einstein’s opinion, assimilation had clearly failed: “Until a generation ago, Jews in Germany did not regard themselves as part of the Jewish people…. Yet in spite of the equal rights they

58 Isaacson, p.281. 59 Einstein (1921a). (Rowe and Schulmann, p.151). 60 Ibid, (Rowe and Schulmann, p.151). 61 Wertheim, p.124. 62 Isaacson, p.206. 63 Rowe and Schulmann, p.136. 64 Ibid, p.136.

21 enjoy formally, strong social anti-Semitism remains.”65

Integrationists

Integrationists advocated a universalism that stood above separate German and Jewish identities. They used Spinoza to argue how German and Jewish cultures were intertwined66. They wished to erase divisions between cultures by arguing how Spinoza had influenced Kant, Bismarck and most notably Goethe67. Einstein could at some instances be interpreted as an integrationist because of his conviction that he could be at once a German and a Jew. He agreed with Schopenhauer that his Jewish ethnicity did not in any way conflict with being German. Were it not for the fact that he clearly stated his support for the Zionist cause, one might deduce an integrationist position in him. Einstein attempted to reconcile the opposing convictions of his Jewish nationalism and his internationalism as follows: “I am against nationalism but in favour of Zionism. . . . I am, as a human being, an opponent of nationalism, but as a Jew I support . . . the Jewish-national efforts of the Zionists”68.

The stances of the typical Weimar Jew were often contradictory as they wrestled with the dilemma of keeping the liberal ideology of their parents’ generation, to which they owed their emancipation, or abandoning liberal values in line with the anti- democratic, anti-liberal wave engulfing Germany. Contradicting stances were common for Jewish communities and that Einstein struggled to reconcile his Zionism and internationalism supports the idea that in many ways Einstein is a typical representative of Weimar Jewish culture.

Jews in Germany were expected to see themselves as German. If they did not, they were open to attacks of disloyalty. Yet, if they complied they could be accused of being insincere, because a Jew could never be fully German so one who tried was considered suspicious. In light of such a problematic position, Spinoza provided an alternative way out. Spinoza was simultaneously seen as Jewish and as someone who had been crucial to German culture. Despite the fact that Spinoza had lived his life in

65 Einstein (1921a). (Rowe and Sculmann, p.149). 66 Wertheim, p.64. 67 Ibid, p.30. 68 Rowe and Schulmann, p.137.

22 Amsterdam and Rijnsburg, Germans often considered Spinoza (and Rembrandt) part of the German cultural sphere69. Spinoza provided a way to cope with the intricate position of Weimar Jews in society by showing how a Weimar Jew’s contradicting viewpoints could be appreciated by both Jews and Germans. In the midst of the contradictory positions that many Weimar Jews felt forced to adopt, Spinoza was considered an inspirational model. David Wertheim has coined the term ‘Spinozist Alternative’: a way to reconcile the liberal ideals of the older generation with contemporary attitudes formed in response to the rise in anti-Semitism70.

Einstein and Zionism

Zionists claimed Spinoza exclusively for the Jews by arguing that one had to be a Jew to understand Spinoza. Einstein did not agree that one had to be Jewish in order to understand Spinozist philosophy. Einstein said: “I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.”71 Spinoza’s God is devoid of personifications. According to Spinozism, the relationship between humans and God is individualistic, as everyone is capable of understanding God through their own intellectual endeavour. Einstein would not have agreed that Spinoza’s philosophy of God was more accessible to Jews than Gentiles.

On the other hand, Spinoza’s Jewish background inspired Einstein. As we saw earlier, both Einstein and Spinoza were made to feel Jewish by the discrimination of others. Although Einstein likely thought that ethnicity does not influence one’s ability to understand Spinoza’s God, the shared experience of anti-Semitism added to Einstein’s admiration of Spinoza. In 1943 Einstein described how he felt closer to Spinoza because of their shared Jewish heritage: “Although I firmly believe, that the chasm between Jewish theology and Spinozism can never be bridged, I am not less convinced that Spinoza’s contemplation of the world (“Weltanschauung”) was thoroughly imbued with the principles and sentiments that characterize so many Jewish intellectuals. I feel I would never have come so near to Spinoza had I not

69 Wertheim, p.58. 70 Ibid, p.213. 71 Jammer, p.49.

23 myself been of Jewish extraction and grown up in a Jewish milieu.”72 Einstein noted that there is nothing to bridge Jewish theology and Spinozism – supporting the idea that he did not think Spinozism was more easily comprehended by Jews. Furthermore, we see that although Einstein was not politically motivated to make Spinoza exclusively Jewish, he nonetheless felt a personally closer bond due to their shared Jewish heritage.

In 1921 Einstein accepted an invitation to join a fundraising campaign to America in name of the Zionist cause. The aim was to collect money for the immigration and colonization fund as well as for the erection of the Hebrew University73. When Fritz Haber scolded him for travelling to the land of the enemy so quickly after the war, Einstein again attempted to solve the seeming contradiction between his Jewish nationalism and internationalism: “He who remains true to his origin, race and tradition will also remain loyal to the State of which he is a subject. He who is faithless to the one will also be faithless to the other”74.

Zionism as a movement had serious political ambitions. Einstein, however, attempted to remove himself from the politics that would be necessary to complete his wish for a cultural home for Jews. Einstein’s advocacy for the fate of his brethren was born out of a sense of longing for a place where Jews could live without anti-Semitism and have access to education. According to his sister, Einstein felt a strong responsibility to educate Jewish students and in the 1920’s he gave free lectures to those who could not afford them. Einstein envisioned the Hebrew University in Palestine as a spiritual centre. Its proposed establishment was an important part of Einstein’s motivation to join the Zionist fundraiser: “The prospect of establishing a Jewish university fills me with particular joy, having recently seen countless instances of perfidious and uncharitable treatment of splendid young Jews with attempts to deny their chances of education.”75 While Einstein’s emphasis on education and intellectual development could be seen as a Bildung value that he inherited from his parents’ generation, it is also a value he credited Spinoza for advocating. Namely, Spinoza preached that in intellectual endeavour lay happiness, a thought Einstein not only agreed with, but also

72 Jammer, p.46. 73 Rowe and Schulmann, p.137. 74 Ibid, p.138. 75 Isaacson, p.292.

24 rigorously applied in his life. We will return to this in the final chapter when we discuss how Einstein’s admiration of Spinoza during the Weimar years related to his philosophy of science.

Zionists, with their emphasis on self-preservation and self-empowerment of Jews used Spinoza to inspire people to take matters into their own hands. Advocates pointed to Spinoza’s move to Rijnsburg following the excommunication in Amsterdam as an example to show how Jews can leave behind oppression. Spinoza left the religious and intellectual oppression of the Amsterdam Jews to practice his own ideals and live according to his own values and preferences. Similar to many Zionists, Einstein eagerly wanted to raise the Jewish morale. In fact, he considered “raising Jewish self- esteem essential, also in the interest of a natural coexistence with non-Jews. This was my major motive for joining the Zionist movement.”76

Einstein’s relationship to Zionism is characterized by an emphasis on the cultural importance of its cause. At times it seemed that he was naively unaware of the political intentions of other Zionists. In New York in 1930 he said: “unity of Jews the world over is in no way a political unity and should never become such. It rests exclusively on a moral tradition. Out of this alone can the Jewish people maintain its creative powers, and on this alone it claims its basis for existence.”77 He did not share the political Zionists’ emphasis on mass migration and security78. Instead, Einstein thought that “The goal which draws on the leaders of Zionism is not a political one, but social and cultural.”79

Spinoza also commented on the Diaspora of the Jews and their future. As one of the founding fathers of Biblical Criticism, Spinoza argued that the scriptures and their commandments were of temporary significance and that they should no longer be authoritative. He applied this thought to the idea of Jews having a claim to the Promised Land in Palestine. In the TTP he wrote: “at the present time there is nothing

76 Einstein (1921a). (Rowe and Schulmann, p.152). 77 Einstein, Albert. 1930. The Jewish Mission in Palestine. (Rowe and Schulmann, p.187). 78 Brenner, p.23. 79 Rowe and Schulmann, p.138.

25 whatsoever that the Jews can arrogate to themselves above other nations”80. Spinoza did not think that a longing to the return to their home in Palestine should be what sets the Jews apart from other peoples. He would thus have disagreed with the ‘Political

Zionist’ standpoint that Jews had a rightful claim to Palestine.

Einstein and Spinoza have both credited anti-Semitism for their Jewish self- awareness. As Einstein’s self-awareness and his sense of responsibility for his ethnic brethren grew, Einstein formulated views regarding the future of Jews that resemble the standpoints of ‘Cultural Zionists’81. Perhaps he intentionally avoided involvement in politics out of fear that the complexities of the situation might have forced him to break with his principles. When he did express himself on the politics of Palestine he consistently advocated for a peaceful modus vivendi with the Arab population82. In the next chapter we will see how the foundation of Einstein’s tolerance bears resemblance to Spinoza’s teachings.

Tolerance

We have already seen how the developments in Weimar Germany inspired Einstein to voice his opinions publicly. In this chapter we will look at how the Weimar context encouraged Einstein to promote social justice and tolerance. We will see how Spinoza might have inspired Einstein’s ideas concerning these issues and where their philosophies aligned.

Einstein’s attitudes concerning society and politics were fraught with references to the importance of tolerance. During the Weimar years Einstein felt a responsibility to promote tolerance and denounce hatred and violence. These viewpoints coexist with a passionate Spinozism deeply rooted in Einstein. That Spinoza’s teachings appealed to Einstein was obvious as far back as 1915 when he writes his future wife Elsa Einstein that he thinks the Ethics “will have a permanent effect on me”83.

80 Nadler, Steven. “Baruch Spinoza.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, July 4, 2016. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/. 81 Brenner, p.23. 82 Rowe and Schulmann, p.139. 83 Einstein to Elsa Einstein, 3 September 1915, (The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein Volume 8).

26 Einstein believed in Spinozist determinism and applied its implications to his philosophy of the universe and his ideas pertaining to politics. Einstein said he does “not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity.”84 In 1932 he reiterated this point when he spoke to the Spinoza society: “Human beings in their thinking, feeling and acting are not free but are as causally bound as the stars in their motions,”85. To Einstein, this was not merely a philosophical proposition. He did not limit this determinism to the realm of science but relied upon it to explain his strong sense of compassion and tolerance. Schopenhauer, who was also a Spinozist86, said that “A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants,”87. In 1932 Einstein said this saying of Schopenhauer “has been a real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life’s hardships, my own and others’, and an unfailing wellspring of tolerance.”88

Einstein’s moral framework rested on Spinozist determinism. In a 1948 letter to his close friend Michele Besso he wrote: “For me, however, the intellectual basis is the belief in an unlimited causality. I cannot hate him, because he must do what he does. Consequently I am nearer to Spinoza than to the prophets. This is the reason why, for me, there is no sin”89. The Weimar context stimulated Einstein to develop this moral framework rested on the idea of determinism, and devoid of sin. In 1933, when the situation in Germany was becoming increasingly oppressive, Einstein wrote a letter saying: “I do not share your view that the scientist should observe silence in political matters, i.e., human affairs in the broader sense. The situation in Germany shows whither such restraint will lead: to the surrender of leadership, without any resistance, to those who are blind or irresponsible. Does not such restraint signify a lack of responsibility? Where would we be had men like Giordano Bruno, Spinoza, Voltaire and Humboldt thought and behaved in such a fashion?”90 That Einstein developed his Spinozist ideal of tolerance during the Weimar years is further supported by how he

84 Jammer, p.73. 85 Isaacson, p.391. 86 Bunker, Jenny. Schopenhauer’s Spinozism, University of Southampton, Faculty of Humanities, PhD Thesis, 2015, p.15. 87 Jammer, p.73. 88 Ibid, p.73. 89 Paty, p.272. 90 Einstein to Max von Laue, 26 May 1933, (Rowe and Schulmann, p.277).

27 relates compassion to authentic Jewry, which, as we have seen, he was formulating during this time. He wrote: “The bond that has united the Jews for thousands of years and that unites them today is, above all, the democratic ideal of social justice, coupled with the ideal of mutual aid and tolerance among all men. … Personalities such as Moses, Spinoza and Karl Marx, dissimilar as they may be, all lived and sacrificed themselves for the ideal of social justice;”91.

Quantum theorists, like Einstein’s friend Max Born, often argued that a deterministic world would undermine ethics and moral responsibility. Einstein struggled to respond to this resolutely. He maintained that free will could still be used as a guide of conduct: “I am compelled to act as if free will existed, because if I wish to live in a civilized society I must act responsibly.”92 In a joking manner and with at least a touch of hypocrisy he said: “I know that philosophically a murderer is not responsible for his crime, but I prefer not to take tea with him.”93 Many intellectuals have grappled at the problem of how to combine determinism, or an all-knowing God, with the idea of free will. In this respect Einstein did not do any better at reconciling the two. Einstein lived life as if there was free will but, as he has said, in the face of adversity the idea of a Spinozist universe provided him with a bottomless well of tolerance.

On Waterlooplein in Amsterdam, in what was formerly the city’s Jewish neighbourhood, stands a statue of Spinoza with his famous words: “Het doel van de staat is de vrijheid” (The purpose of the state is freedom). In 1931 Einstein echoed him when he said: “the State exists for man, not man for the State . . . I believe that the most important mission of the State is to protect the individual and to make it possible for him to develop into a creative personality. The State should be our servant; we should not be slaves of the State.”94

91 Einstein, Albert. Out of My Later Years. New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1995, p.249. 92 Isaacson, p.392. 93 Ibid, p.393. 94 Einstein, Albert. 1931. The Road to Peace. (Rowe and Schulmann, p.253).

28 Science and Spinoza

We have not yet discussed how Spinoza relates to Einstein’s achievements in science. We have seen how Einstein’s appeal to Spinoza’s character and philosophy grew as he reconnected with his Jewish heritage and how he used Spinozist ideas when he formulated political standpoints and his response to anti-Semitism. In this chapter we will see that during the Weimar years Einstein’s ideas regarding science shift from an empiricist philosophy to a rationalist philosophy similar to Spinozism. In order to assess the depth of this change in Einstein’s thinking, a background into the empiricist nature of his pre-Weimar science will prove useful.

Pre-Weimar Empiricism

Before the Weimar years, Einstein’s epistemology laid much greater emphasis on the importance of empirical evidence. This is supported not only by his writings but also by the nature of his pre-Weimar scientific work. In his 1905 Annus Mirabillis Einstein produced four outstanding papers that propelled him to the top of the scientific world. One of these papers we now refer to as the Special Theory of Relativity. While Einstein is credited with having performed a rare imaginative leap to formulate this theory, its empiricist basis is often underappreciated. For instance, one of the postulates of the theory; that the speed of light be constant for all observers had significant experimental support. A series of experiments, most famously the Michelson-Morley experiments were aimed at finding the ether – the medium that supposedly allowed for the propagation of light. The experimentalists hoped to show that light moving in parallel direction to the proposed ether would affect the speed of light95. That they failed to show this supported the idea that the speed of light might be constant for all observers.

In the 1905 paper on Special Relativity, Einstein made no mention of the Michelson Morley experiments even though he was most likely aware of these experiments as

95 Isaacson, p.112.

29 early on as 189996. Einstein only credited Michelson and Morley on a few occasions and these date to before the Weimar years – before his shift to Spinozist rationalism. As a general rule, Einstein was reluctant to attribute influence to experiments in his conception of theories. During and especially after the Weimar years Einstein would often deny empirical evidence any influence at all in his conception of theories. At the time of his Annus Mirabillis however, Einstein attributed greater importance to the role of experience in science. His version of the creative process of theory development was much more experience directed and his Special Theory is a good example as it is arguably “a reformulation in which experience stood at the epistemic core”97. It is not surprising then that the influence of sceptical empiricists like Hume and Mach was more apparent in Einstein at this time than Spinozism.

Einstein characterized Mach’s philosophy as follows: “Concepts have meaning only if we can point to objects to which they refer and to the rules by which they are assigned to these objects.”98 Mach’s argument that Newtonian ‘absolute space’ and ‘absolute time’ are meaningless because they cannot be defined by observations was a key idea in Einstein’s Special Relativity. Einstein granted that “The critical thought necessary for the discovery of this central point … was afforded me decisively by the reading of David Hume’s and Ernst Mach’s philosophical writings.”99 In 1915 he wrote of the importance of the philosophies of Hume and Mach: “It is very well possible, that without these philosophical studies I would not have arrived at the special theory of relativity”100.

A similar dependency on empiricist philosophy can be observed among his other scientific contributions around the time of his Annus Mirabillis. During this year Einstein also wrote an influential paper on Brownian Motion. In a letter to his friend Habicht, Einstein says his paper “proves that bodies on the order of magnitude 1/1000 mm, suspended in liquids, must already perform an observable random motion that is produced by thermal motion. Such movement of suspended bodies has actually been

96 Dongen, Jeroen Van. “On the Role of the Michelson–Morley Experiment: Einstein in Chicago.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences63, no. 6 (2009): 655–63. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-009-0050-5, p.2. 97 v. Dongen (2017), p.3. 98 Isaacson, p.83. 99 Jammer, p.40. 100 Ibid, p.41.

30 observed by physiologists who call it Brownian molecular motion.” 101 He thus realized that his theoretical work has been observed experimentally. However, in the published paper he spoke more subtly about the connection between his work and the observations: “It is possible that the motions to be discussed here are identical with the so-called Brownian molecular motion; however, the data available to me on the latter are so imprecise that I could not form a judgment on the question.” 102 Remarkably, in his 1949 Autobiographical Notes, when he had long since left his empiricist notions behind him, Einstein distanced himself completely from the experimental influence in his conceptualization of Brownian Motion. He recalls: “I discovered that, according to atomistic theory, there would have to be a movement of suspended microscopic particles open to observations, without knowing that observations concerning the Brownian motion were already long familiar.”103 That Einstein did not conceive of his breakthroughs by pure imagination is clear. What is not clear is why he was so reluctant to attribute influence to the empirical evidence he made use of. Perhaps Einstein had always favoured rationalist science; an idea that he would wholeheartedly uphold after his conversion to rationalism and Spinozism.

The older Einstein thus attempted to deemphasize the empirical influence on his previous science, even relating his discoveries as if they had been the product of pure imaginative conception 104 . This alternative recollection is part of a change in philosophies from empiricist to rationalist that took place within Einstein during the Weimar period. Einstein’s contradictory recollections can make it difficult to ascertain his philosophical positions at different stages. In any case, most scholars agree that he underwent a remarkable change in philosophies. Philosopher of science Gerald Holton noted that “For a scientist to change his philosophical beliefs so fundamentally is rare” 105. Einstein’s reconnection with his Jewish heritage and accompanied appreciation of Spinoza during the Weimar years coincided with his scientific shift to Spinozism.

101 Einstein to Conrad Habicht, 18 or 25 May 1905, (The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein Volume 5). 102 Isaacson, p.103. 103 Ibid, p.104. 104 v. Dongen (2017), p.2. 105 Holton, Gerald. “Mach, Einstein, and the Search for Reality.” Daedalus, vol. 97, no.2, 1968, pp. 636-673. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20023833, p.662.

31 Towards Spinozism

During the Weimar years, Einstein reconnected with his Jewish heritage and experienced a new sense of Jewish self-awareness. We have seen that he is typical of Weimar Jewry in that he built an image of what to him is authentically Jewish. That Einstein used Spinoza to define what for him were authentic Jewish qualities shows the increasing attraction to Spinoza’s life and philosophy. The growing presence of Spinozist principles in Einstein’s societal ideas concurred with Einstein’s shift from empiricism to Spinozism during the Weimar years.

To Einstein there was no definitive line between the subjects of tolerance, religion, and determinism. Einstein’s epistemological shift from empiricism to rationalist Spinozism is part of the same trend of Spinoza becoming more appealing to Einstein through the Weimar period. Before the Weimar years, Einstein’s philosophy regarding theory development incorporated empiricist ideas. During the Weimar years Einstein started to develop a philosophy of science that contained Spinozist ideas. Thereafter, Einstein thought that the creative process of theory development should be characterized by imaginative endeavour. His post-Weimar ideas regarding the formulation of new theories remind us of the Spinozist idea that one should strive to understand the universe by intellectual endeavour. In 1929 he said that God can only be understood by studying the “rationality or intelligibility of the world which lies behind all scientific work of a higher order”106. Einstein believed that God was Spinoza’s God, hence nature itself. He thus implied that discovery of the universe was an endeavour that should be practiced rationally. A further way in which Einstein’s shift to Spinozism can be characterized is by observing the distinction he made between empiricist and rationalist science. After the Weimar years his differentiation between the two went hand in hand with his distinction between the virtuous versus non-virtuous scientist107. Einstein thought empiricists were uninspired, while the rationalist, who believed the universe should be unravelled by mind, not experiment, reflected the ideal scientist.

106 Jammer, p.75. 107 v. Dongen (2017), p.10.

32 In his younger days, Einstein had an interest in experiments. He worked at a patent office in Bern reviewing intricate designs and his father and uncle had run an electrical appliance company. He was thus imbued with a hands-on, experimentalist, mind-set. However, in 1925 he wrote to his friend and physicist Paul Ehrenfest that he “no longer think[s] about experiments on the boundary of waves and particles” as “inductive means will never get you to a sensible theory”, denoting a considerable change of opinion over the years108. Einstein is increasingly arguing for the creative process of science to be conducted à la Spinoza; purely by the mind, and thinks “inductive means” are not the right way to develop theory. Furthermore, Einstein here expressed his discomfort with quantum theory. It was Einstein himself who had laid the foundation of quantum mechanics with his paper on the photoelectric effect. The implications and results of quantum mechanics would haunt him for the rest of his life. Einstein rejected quantum mechanics and instead preferred a philosophy aligned with Spinozism that was based on a strictly deterministic and realist version of the universe. It is comprehensible why Einstein, partaking in Weimar Jewish culture and, additionally, being a staunch rejecter of quantum mechanics, became enchanted with Spinoza. Spinozism substantiated Einstein’s conviction of social justice, his idea of God and in the face of quantum mechanics’ successes provided him with an alternative worldview that he eagerly adopted. Few Jews in Weimar Germany were physicist or philosopher. Hence, Einstein’s relationship with Spinoza was comparatively deeper than that of the typical Weimar Jew because Spinozism aligned with his philosophical convictions.

During the 1920’s the quantum theorists headed by Niels Bohr enjoyed success upon success and Einstein was becoming outnumbered in his disagreement with quantum theory. In an irony that was not lost on him, Einstein had now become an authority to be broken with – much like his younger self had broken with conventional Newtonian physics. Einstein became more and more entrenched in his philosophy of science as he continued to disagree with the implications of quantum mechanics. He disliked the idea that all we can know about the world around us is what we can observe – it conflicted with his sense of realism; that there must be a stable world beyond our immediate perception. Hence, in defence of his intuition, Spinoza’s philosophy was

108 v. Dongen (2017), p.3.

33 more appealing to him. Spinoza believed in a universe that, although infinitely difficult to grasp, was still realistic, and approachable by the power of one’s mind. During the Weimar years, as Einstein was reconnecting with his Jewish heritage and thus becoming closer to Spinoza, his philosophy of science increasingly came to resemble Spinozism. At the same time that Einstein was admiring Spinoza for his tolerant philosophy and ‘authentically Jewish’ qualities, Einstein’s profound dislike of the implications produced by quantum mechanics provided further reason to be interested in Spinoza. Einstein did not necessarily deny the veracity of quantum mechanics, he just thought it was incomplete: “The theory says a lot, but it does not really bring us any closer to the secrets of the Old One. I, at any rate, am convinced that He [God] does not play dice”109. Instead, Einstein believed in Spinoza’s God and this statistical description of the Quantum mechanical universe he so disliked, made Spinozism even more appealing.

A related theme through which Einstein’s scientific conversion to Spinozism is apparent, is in his increasing insistence on mathematical simplicity as a criterion for the validity of a theory. After his theory of General Relativity, Einstein would spend the rest of his life looking for a Unified Field Theory that unifies all the known forces into a “single logical system”110. Arguably, he was on a quest to find Spinoza’s God and he used the ideas of “naturalness” and “inner perfection of theories” as criteria111. Einstein once told his friend and mathematician Banesh Hoffmann: “When I am judging a theory, I ask myself whether, if I were God, I would have arranged the world in such a way.”112 Marking his transformation to rationalism he said: “I believe that [the unified] laws are logically simple and that the faith in this logical simplicity is our best guide, in the sense that it suffices to start from relatively little empirical knowledge. If nature is not arranged in a way corresponding to this belief, then there is no hope at all to arrive at a deeper understanding.”113 He now considered a purely rational approach to theory development as the only possible road to any true understanding.

109 Isaacson, p.335. 110 Ibid, p.337. 111 v. Dongen (2017), p.5. 112 Isaacson, p.335. 113 v. Dongen (2017), p.10.

34 Einstein credited his formulation of General Relativity as the start of his attraction to mathematical simplicity. He enjoyed success in using mathematical simplicity as a criterion instead of working based on the physical requirements of the theory. It is not hard to imagine why this idea took such a powerful hold on him. Spinoza’s God was the infinite substance and everything in this universe was, according to him, a manifestation of the same God. Logical simplicity; looking for a universe written in as few independent laws as possible and his desire to feel the universe as a single whole are Einstein’s reflections of these Spinozist ideas. He used logical simplicity to translate Spinoza’s teachings to his ideas concerning science.

That Einstein’s post-Weimar science was imbued with Spinozism is also evident in how he experienced the practice of science as an emotional and spiritual endeavour. Spinoza had developed a philosophy in which God and the universe became one – he had combined intellectual endeavour and emotional belief. In Spinozism, spirituality and science are not mutually exclusive. Spinoza argued that the transcendence that we associate with the nature of God is equivalent to the mystery we sense when considering the complexity of the universe. Honouring God thus became equivalent with intellectual effort to understand how the universe works. Besides pacifism, and Zionism, Einstein was also influential in the debate concerning religion versus science. In 1930 Einstein spoke of the “cosmic religious feeling” to describe the experience when “The individual feels the futility of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvellous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of thought.”114 Einstein combined religion and science in one philosophy that reminds us of Spinozism. Einstein entangled religion and science by saying “science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind,”115. During the Weimar years, Einstein developed a Spinozist philosophy of science that was realist and deterministic and also personal and emotional. In 1951 he said: “I have found no better expression for ‘religious’ than confidence in the rational nature of reality as it is accessible to human reason. Wherever this feeling is absent, science degenerates into uninspired empiricism.”116

114 Jammer, p.78. 115 Ibid, p.11. 116 v. Dongen (2017), p.10.

35 Concluding Remarks

The emancipation of Weimar Jewish communities came to a sudden halt due to the rise of anti-Semitism following World War I. The assimilationist approach of the generations Einstein’s parents was no longer an option for the younger generation of Weimar Jews. Instead of seeing the split between Weimar Jewry and Germany as Jews clinging to old-fashioned liberal values, other scholars are arguing that the Weimar period saw a surge in Jewish self-awareness and the beginnings of a new Weimar Jewish culture. They argue that the Jewish Renaissance was actually a story without an ending – stopped in its track by violent anti-Semitism.

The Jewish Renaissance had two main causes – the deception of acceptance into Germany after World War I and the subsequent influx of Ostjuden. While Einstein held a controversial pacifist position with respect to World War I and thus cannot be taken as representative of Weimar Jewry, Einstein was typical of Weimar Jews in his reaction to the influx of Ostjuden. Einstein experienced an increased Jewish self- awareness that was characteristic of Weimar Jewish communities and their Jewish Renaissance.

Spinoza was very popular among Weimar Jews. The celebrations of his birth and death in 1932 and 1927 are a testament to the importance of Spinoza to Weimar Jewish communities. Einstein’ relationship with Spinoza went even deeper as their philosophies were similar and they thus shared an intellectual bond on top of their Jewish connection. Einstein used Spinoza to define what for him were authentic Jewish qualities. Like most Weimar Jews, Einstein was looking to develop a new Jewish secular culture that was different from that of his parents’ generation in that it contained Jewish elements. By using Spinoza to distinguish authentically Jewish characteristics Einstein raised him to moral authority. Einstein saw in Spinoza’s life and philosophy a justification for his opinions on social justice and Zionism. He used Spinoza’s idea of a deterministic universe to reason for tolerance and it is one example of where Einstein crossed borders between fields.

36 Another example is how Einstein merged religion and science into a philosophy that resembles Spinozism. Spinoza equated God with nature and saw intellectual effort to understand God as a way to happiness. Einstein described his intellectual endeavours to make sense of the universe as an emotional, even spiritual experience. Einstein, throughout his life, saw the intellectual world as a way to escape the futility of man’s desires and as a way to attain true happiness instead of material pleasure. When he was a young man he wrote: “Strenuous intellectual work and looking at God’s nature are the reconciling, fortifying yet relentlessly strict angels that shall lead me through all of life’s troubles.”117 As far as we know, he had not yet read Spinoza at this time. The way in which he saw intellectual endeavour as the path to his happiness reminds us of Spinoza’s teachings and he would remain faithful to the credo throughout his life.

117 Einstein to Pauline Winteler, May 1897, (The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein Volume 1).

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