EINSTEIN,ALBERT AS PACIFIST AND DEMOCRAT DURING WORLD-WAR-I

In this article we throw more light on Einstein's position as a pacifi st and democrat during World War I than was possible up to now. This r esults from a systematical search for and evaluation of published and unpublished documents. Among others, it was possible to give evidence of Einstein's radicalization and to clear up the circumstances of his public appearance during the troublesome days of the Revolution in Nov ember 1918. Einstein's role in the Bund Neues Vaterland and other paci fist organizations and his interaction with other pacifists in Germany and abroad is exposed in detail and interpreted. In contrast to the g enerally accepted view, we give a reappraisal of Einstein's activity a nd show that his pacifism was always of a humanitarian nature. He only rarely applied social and political categories to the happenings duri ng the war. Due to his main focus on physics Einstein's pacifism remai ned one more of creed than of deed.