492 APPENDICES
with Einstein at least as early as 1927. In 1928 Einstein wrote to him on distant
parallelism: 'This mathematically so natural theory is worthy of serious consid-
eration, especially in view of the current desperate state of theoretical physics'
[E32]. Miintz came to work with Einstein during the period Lanczos was there.
Both men were supported by stipends from the Notgemeinschaft Deutscher Wis-
senschaftler [K4].* Einstein acknowledged Miintz's work in two papers on distant
parallelism [E31, E33]. In 1929 Miintz became professor of mathematics at the
University of Leningrad, where he received an honorary doctorate in 1935. After
declining to become a Soviet citizen, Miintz had to leave the Soviet Union in 1937
[M7]. In 1938 he arrived in Sweden. Einstein contacted several Jewish agencies
in attempts to obtain financial support for him. I do not know what became of
him after 1938.
- Walther Mayer, b. 1887, Graz, Austria. Studied at the ETH in Zurich
and at the universities of Vienna, Paris, and Goettingen. PhD in 1912 in Vienna,
where he became Privatdozent in 1926. In 1929 he completed a book on Rieman-
nian geometry, part of a textbook on differential geometry [Dl].
After the departure of Lanczos and Miintz, Einstein contacted Richard von
Mises in Vienna to ask if he knew of someone interested in working with him. In
December 1929, von Mises recommended Mayer [M8]. The Einstein-Mayer
collaboration started soon after and was at once a success. In January 1930 Ein-
stein requested a stipend for Mayer from the Preussische Akademie [K5]. In Feb-
ruary 1930 they published their first joint paper, on static solutions of the distant
parallelism theory [E34]. Einstein must rapidly have concluded that he wanted to
keep Mayer close to him, for in June he wrote to the mathematician Ludwig
Bieberbach in Berlin, asking if a job for Mayer could be found [E35]. In October
Einstein presented to the Prussian Academy a paper by him and Mayer in which
a new unified field theory was proposed, one based on a four-dimensional space-
time continuum with a five-dimensional tangent space attached at each point
[E36].** Mayer (as well as Helen Dukas) accompanied the Einsteins on their
first trip to California (December 1930-March 1931), since Einstein did not wish
to interrupt the collaboration. Right after their return, a sequel to the October
1930 paper was submitted [E37]. In December 1932 they completed their last
joint paper to be published in Germany. It deals with semi-vectors and spinors
[E38] and was the last paper published by Einstein in the Sitzungsberichte of the
Preussische Akademie.
Meanwhile, in October 1932, Einstein had been appointed professor at The
Institute for Advanced Study with the understanding that his first period in
Princeton would start in October 1933. Throughout the negotiations with Abra-
*This fund existed from 1920 to 1934 under the presidency of Friedrich Schmidt-Ott. Its purpose
was to give financial support to promising young PhD's and Privatdozente who could not manage
to start their academic career without outside aid.
**See Chapter 17.
