163 - EINSTEIN (Albert), 1879–1955.

EINSTEIN (Albert), 1879–1955. L.A.S. “A. Einstein,” Berlin, October 4, 1929, 1 page and 1/4 in German, addressed to Mrs. Luchaire: A very interesting letter from Einstein in support of a pacifist work by Heinrich Kanner, which apparently remained unpublished. Einstein recommends to Antonina Luchaire, née Silberstein, also known as Antonina Vallentin (1893–1957), the latest work by the Viennese historian and journalist Heinrich Kanner (1864–1930), “Die Friedensgeschichte der Menschheit. Vom Sippenfrieden zum Weltfrieden [The History of Peace of Humanity: From Clan Peace to World Peace]," a comprehensive essay of about three hundred pages that had at that time “not yet been published.” Einstein deemed the work “quite remarkable,” a historical-philosophical treatise capable of exerting “a restructuring and extremely effective influence on the teaching of history.” He hoped to ensure its international dissemination through a German publication followed by French and possibly English translations, and noted that the Prussian Minister of Education was considering recommending it to teachers. The choice of Antonina Luchaire as an intermediary was no accident. Born Antonina Silberstein in Lemberg in 1893, she was a journalist, translator, historian, and art critic who had established herself in the 1920s as a well-connected figure in Berlin’s literary and diplomatic circles. She was particularly close to Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig, Lion Feuchtwanger, and H. G. Wells, and moved in circles supportive of Franco-German rapprochement. She had also been close to Gustav Stresemann, the German foreign minister, who, along with Aristide Briand, was one of the principal architects of the European reconciliation policy of the 1920s. A few months earlier, on July 3, 1929, Antonina had married Julien Luchaire in Geneva; he was the director of the International Institute for Intellectual Cooperation, a League of Nations organization based in Paris and a precursor to UNESCO. It was precisely this network that Einstein intended to mobilize: Kanner was to send her several chapters, and if she shared Einstein’s enthusiasm, she could bring the matter to the attention of her husband, his Institute, and the French Ministry of Public Instruction so that the book would be recommended to teachers and placed in school libraries. The recipient also had a personal relationship with Einstein, and would much later become his biographer: she published *The Tragedy of Albert Einstein* in 1954. This letter, addressed to the very recently married “Madame Luchaire,” thus constitutes an interesting early account of their relationship and of the trust Einstein placed in her influence. Kanner’s book appears to have remained unpublished in the end. His death a few months later, in February 1930, likely brought the project to a halt. The letter thus documents Einstein’s personal efforts to bring attention to a work that is now forgotten, but above all his desire to shape the teaching of history in a pacifist and internationalist direction by mobilizing the networks of intellectual cooperation that existed between the two world wars.