Einstein and Planck

As an editor of the Annalen der Physik, Max Planck published Einstein's early papers on thermodynamics and on special relativity, which Planck probably was the first major physicist to appreciate. They respected one another not only as physicists but also, for their inspired creation of world pictures, as artists. Planck helped to establish Einstein in a sinecure at the center of German physics, Berlin. Despite their differences in scientific style, social life, politics, and religion, they became fast friends. Their mutual admiration survived World War I, during which Einstein advocated pacifism and Planck signed the infamous Manifesto of the 93 Intellectuals supporting the German invasion of Belgium. It also survived the Weimar Republic, which Einstein favored and Planck disliked. Physics drew them together, as both opposed the Copenhagen Interpretation; so did common decency, as Planck helped to protect Einstein from anti-semitic attacks. Their friendship did not survive the Nazis. As a standing secretary of the Berlin Academy, Planck had to advise Einstein to resign from it before his colleagues, outraged at his criticism of the new Germany from the safety of California, expelled him. Einstein never forgave his old friend and former fellow artist for not protesting publicly against his expulsion and denigration, and other enormities of National Socialism. .