THE EINSTEIN-GROSSMANN COLLABORATION 209as to whether he might be interested in returning to Zurich, this time to the ETH.
Grossmann's letter is lost but not Einstein's reply: 'I am certainly prepared in
principle to accept a teaching position at your [ETH]. I am extraordinarily happy
about the prospect of returning to Zurich. This prospect has led me in recent days
not to accept a call which reached me [from] the University of Utrecht' [El]. A
positive outcome of Grossmann's initiative appeared to be assured. Speedy action
was called for, however. Einstein was now in great demand. The offer from
Utrecht, made by Willem Julius, 'one of the most original exponents of solar phys-
ics' [E2], was only the first of several he received in 1911 and 1912. None of these
swayed him. Zurich was where he wanted to be. Even before any official action
had been taken, he telegraphed Zangger, 'Habe Grossmann zugesagt,' Have said
yes to G. [E3]. Zangger himself wrote to the authorities, urging quick action,
especially because he had heard that an offer from Vienna might be forthcoming
[S2]. Einstein also wrote to Zangger of an offer (which he declined) to lecture at
Columbia University in New York in the fall of 1912 [E4].
On January 23, 1912, the ETH authorities sent their recommendation for a
ten-year appointment [S3] to the federal Department of the Interior. It included
recommendations from Marie Curie ('one is entitled to have the highest hopes for
him and to see in him one of the first theoreticians of the future') and from Poin-
care (already mentioned in Chapter 8). The authorities quickly accepted the pro-
posal, and on February 2 Einstein could write to Alfred Stern, 'Two days ago I
received the call from the [ETH] (halleluia!) and have already announced here
my k. k.* departure' [E5]. And so, in the fall of 1912, Einstein began the next
phase of his academic career.
It was to last for only three semesters. Berlin was beckoning even before he
arrived in Zurich. In the spring of 1912, Emil Warburg, the eminent director of
the Physikalisch Technische Reichsanstalt, asked him to join the staff of his insti-
tute. The formalities concerning the Zurich appointment had been completed by
then. The offer from Vienna also came through after the ETH decision had been
made. 'I declined to take anything into consideration until I had settled in Zurich,'
Einstein wrote to Zangger, whom he had informed of the Berlin and Vienna over-
tures [E6].
There was one man who at that time came close to changing Einstein's mind
and perhaps his destiny: Lorentz. During the Solvay conference in October 1911,
Lorentz asked Einstein what the prospects were of his coming to Utrecht [LI].
Perhaps it was not clear to Einstein whether Lorentz would actually have liked
to see a foreigner occupy the chair in Utrecht. At any rate, upon his return to
Prague he wrote to Lorentz, 'I write this letter to you with a heavy heart, as one
who has done a kind of injustice to his father.. .' and added, 'If I had known that
you wanted me to go to Utrecht then I would have gone' [E7]. Lorentz replied
*k. k. = kaiserlich und koniglich = imperial and royal, the adjectives referring to the Austro-
Hungarian empire.