Michael D. Gordin - Einstein in Bohemia

1. ix

TERMS AND PRONUNCIATION

Naming conventions present an obstacle for any book that addresses the history of Prague during the late Habsburg Empire, and those issues get more problematic when the story extends into the twentieth century. I have made every effort to use the name appropriate to the time period and the actors concerned. Thus, the region of which Prague is the dominant metropolis was Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, Czecho-Slovakia, or the Czech Republic in different periods. Almost all toponyms had a German and a Czech variant. When there is a conventional name in EnglishPrague instead of Prag or PrahaI have always used that. For other sites, I have endeavored to always present both names, but I revert to the German spelling (Brnn for Brno) when presenting the point of view of a Germanophone person. For the same reason, the Vltava River is sometimes the Moldau in these pages, Vinin ulice the Weinberggasse, and so on.

Regarding peoples names, I have kept them in the form which was most customary for them in the primary context in which I discuss them. So a Czech-identified person would be Frantiek where a German-identified one would be Franz. Both names can be found in the scholarly literature. When there is a risk of confusion, I present both possibilities.

Czech orthography often presents challenges to the uninitiated. The accents represent the length of the syllable, and should not inhibit reading. Likewise, the circle over the u (i.e., ), is the same as an accented u. The haekwhat looks like an inverted circumflex over the crequires some attention, as does the letter c when unadorned. Here is a rough guide:

cts as in bats

tch as in batch

chch as in Bach

insert a y sound before the e, as in Byelorussia

gn as in gnocchi

close to the rg sound in bourgeois

sh as in brash

g as in Bruges

AEAAlbert Einstein Archives. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

AEDAAlbert Einstein Duplicate Archive. Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, C0701. Princeton University Library, Princeton, New Jersey.

AUKArchive of Charles University, Ovocn trh 5, Prague 1, Czech Republic.

Cohen PapersRobert S. Cohen Papers. Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts.

CPAEThe Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, vols. 115 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 19872018). This is an ongoing project, currently under the editorship of Diana Kormos Buchwald. So far, the volumes extend to May 1927 in Einsteins life. All volumes are available open access at https://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu.

HFCHanna Fantova Collection of Albert Einstein. Rare Books and Special Collections, C0703. Princeton University Library, Princeton, New Jersey.

LBILeo Baeck Institute Archives, New York City.

MA AV RMasarykv stav a Archiv Akademie vd esk republiky, Gabkova 2362/10, Prague 8, Czech Republic.

NOKNachla von Oskar Kraus. Forschungsstelle und Dokumentationszentrum fr sterreichische Philosophie, Universitt Graz, Austria.

Struik PapersDirk Struik Personal Papers. Institute Archives and Special Collections, MC 418, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

YVSYad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem, Israel.

All unattributed translations are my own. The online version of the CPAE offers access to all the original texts cited, as well as an alternative translation.