51O APPENDICEShe had presented a paper on these considerations, a reprint of which was appended
to his report [Gl].*
The main points of Arrhenius's report were first, that a prize for quantum
theory had just been given (Planck, 1918) and second, that it would be preferable
to give an award to experimentalists if the photoeffect were to be honored.
No prize for physics was given that year.- The list of signatories keeps growing. Ehrenhaft, Hadamard, von Laue,
E. and S. Meyer, Naunyn, Nordstrom, and Warburg are back. There is a beau-
tiful letter from Sommerfeld. M. Brillouin writes, 'Imagine for a moment what
the general opinion will be fifty years from now if the name Einstein does not
appear on the list of Nobel laureates' [B2]. There are also letters from T. de
Donder (Brussels), R. Emden and E. Wagner (Munich), P. Langevin (Paris),
and E. Poulton (Oxford).
Planck proposes to give the prizes for 1921 and 1922 to Einstein and Bohr,
respectively.
Oseen repeats his nomination for the photoeffect.
The Committee asks Gullstrand for an additional report on relativity and
Oseen for a report on the photoeffect.
Gullstrand sticks to his guns. His paper of the previous year [Gl] having been
criticized by Erich Kretschmann, Privatdozent in Konigsberg [K2], Gullstrand
published a rebuttal, a reprint of which he appended to his new statement [G2].
Oseen, the theoretical physicist, gives an excellent analysis of Einstein's paper
of 1905 on the light-quantum as well as of his work in 1909 on energy fluctuations
in blackbody radiation.
The Committee proposes Einstein for the 1921 prize. The Academy votes
accordingly.
That is how Einstein got the Nobel prize 'for his services to theoretical physics
and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.' That is also
why Aurivillius wrote Einstein on November 10, 1922, that his award was not
based on relativity.
In his presentation speech on December 10, 1922, Arrhenius said, 'Most dis-
cussion [of Einstein's oeuvre] centers on his theory of relativity. This pertains to
epistemology and has therefore been the subject of lively debate in philosophical
circles. It will be no secret that the famous philosopher Bergson in Paris has chal-
lenged this theory, while other philosophers have acclaimed it wholeheartedly.'
Bergson's collected works appeared in 1970 [B3]. The editors did not include
his book Duree et Simultaneite: A Propos de lo Theorie d'Einstein. Einstein came
to know, like, and respect Bergson. Of Bergson's philosophy he used to say, 'Gott
verzeih ihm,' God forgive him.
'Gullstrand had never published on relativity before that time. It is not more than my guess that he
might have become intrigued with general relativity because of one feature that he had contributed
to in a quite different context: the bending of light.