# Mein Weltbild **Autore:** Einstein Albert **Dati editoriali:** Amsterdam, Querido Verlag, 1934 **Codice archivio:** 187 **Prezzo:** 1100.00 USD **Stato commerciale:** Disponibile **Link ufficiale:** https://www.govirarebooks.com/products/mein-weltbild --- ## Descrizione accademica e analisi 8vo (200x130 mm). 269, [1] pp. Original publisher’s black cloth, lettering in gilt, original black dust jacket printed in large ochre-coloured lettering on the front cover, with the abbreviated title repeated on the spine. The dust jacket shows some rubbing, short marginal tears, creasing and small losses, most noticeably at the head of the spine and upper corners, but remains substantially intact and presents well. Slight age-toning and occasional marginal spotting. A very good copy. First edition of Einstein’s original collection of his views on science, religion, society, politics, pacifism and the human condition. Published in Amsterdam in 1934, Mein Weltbild brought together writings composed and delivered at different stages of Einstein's career, including essays, addresses, letters and public statements, and presented them as a coherent portrait of his intellectual and moral outlook. The volume appeared at a decisive moment in Einstein’s life. In 1933, following the Nazi seizure of power, Einstein relinquished his ties with Germany and established himself in the United States, where he joined the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. His internationally celebrated scientific reputation had by then become inseparable from his public opposition to nationalism, antisemitism, militarism and political oppression. The publication of Mein Weltbild in 1934 consequently acquired a significance extending beyond that of an ordinary collection of previously published essays: it gave the German-reading public, including the growing community of political and intellectual exiles, access to Einstein’s reflections on the moral responsibilities of the individual and the position of science within society. The choice of publisher was historically significant. The Querido Verlag had been established in Amsterdam in 1933 as a German-language publishing enterprise associated with Emanuel Querido and directed by Fritz H. Landshoff. It became one of the principal publishing centres of the German literary and intellectual exile, issuing works by writers who could no longer publish freely in Nazi Germany. Einstein's book thus belongs not only to the history of twentieth-century science but also to the literature of emigration and the struggle to maintain an independent German-language intellectual culture outside the Third Reich. The collection is divided into five thematic sections: Wie ich die Welt sehe (How I See the World), Von Politik und Pazifismus (On Politics and Pacifism), Deutschland 1933 (Germany in 1933), Judentum (Judaism), and Wissenschaft (Science). The organisation is essential to the book’s character. Rather than providing a systematic exposition of relativity or a continuous autobiography, the volume juxtaposes ethical reflections, political interventions, statements on Jewish identity and discussions of scientific discovery. It invites the reader to understand the scientist through the principles governing his judgments about society and human conduct. In the opening section, Einstein considers the meaning of individual existence, the demands of intellectual independence, social solidarity and the relationship between scientific inquiry and personal conviction. His reflections on religion are particularly important for the distinction he draws between institutional or dogmatic belief and the sense of wonder inspired by the rational intelligibility of the universe. The scientific enterprise emerges not as an activity isolated from human values but as an expression of curiosity, freedom of thought and the search for understanding. The sections concerning politics, pacifism and Germany in 1933 document the changing historical circumstances in which Einstein formulated his public positions. His earlier internationalist commitments and opposition to war are placed beside writings responding to the collapse of German democracy and the persecution of Jews and political opponents. These texts are particularly valuable when read in their original chronological contexts: Einstein's views were neither static nor wholly detached from the political crises he experienced, and his response to the rise of Nazism required him to reconsider the practical implications of his earlier pacifism. The section on Judaism brings together reflections on Jewish identity, cultural continuity, antisemitism and Zionism. Einstein's position cannot be reduced to a single political formula; it combines an attachment to Jewish intellectual and ethical traditions with a wider commitment to international cooperation, civil liberties and the protection of minorities. The concluding section, devoted to science, includes discussions of scientific method, theoretical physics and the conceptual foundations of modern physical knowledge. These writings are especially revealing because they demonstrate how Einstein understood the relation between mathematical construction, experimental observation and the physical world. His reflections on scientific discovery also help explain the intellectual ideals underlying his better-known technical achievements in relativity and quantum theory. The unsigned editorial arrangement is accompanied by a preface signed with the initials “J.H.”, which explicitly presents the book as a selective portrait rather than an exhaustive compilation of Einstein’s writings. This editorial conception distinguishes the original Mein Weltbild from later, expanded collections. It is therefore important not to treat the 1934 volume as identical in contents or arrangement to subsequent editions bearing the same title. The book was translated into English by Alan Harris and published in the United States in 1934 as The World as I See It by Covici-Friede, followed by a British edition published by John Lane, The Bodley Head, in 1935. The English versions differ in arrangement and, in certain instances, content from the original German compilation. In 1954 Carl Seelig prepared an enlarged German edition of Mein Weltbild, incorporating additional material and creating a substantially different editorial form. The 1934 Amsterdam printing therefore represents the original historical and editorial state of the work, published within the German exile movement at the very moment when Einstein was redefining his relationship to Germany and articulating his public responsibilities as a scientist. --- ## Bibliografia di riferimento Weil, Ernst. Albert Einstein: A Bibliography of His Scientific Papers, 1901-1954. London, 1960, appendix, p. 41; Sternfeld, Wilhelm, and Eva Tiedemann. Deutsche Exil-Literatur 1933–1945: Eine Bio-Bibliographie. Heidelberg, 1962, p. 115; Deutsche Bibliothek, Deutsches Exilarchiv. Deutsche Exilliteratur 1933–1945: Eine Ausstellung aus den Beständen des Deutschen Exilarchivs. Frankfurt am Main, 1965, no. 1203; Pfäfflin, Friedrich. Das Querido-Verlagsarchiv. no. 13,; Einstein, Albert. The World as I See It. Translated by Alan Harris. New York: Covici-Friede, 1934. First American edition; Einstein, Albert. The World as I See It. Translated by Alan Harris. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1935. First British edition; Einstein, Albert. Mein Weltbild. Enlarged edition edited by Carl Seelig. Zurich: Europa Verlag, 1954; OCLC 1856672. --- *Documento generato automaticamente dall'Archivio Govi Rare Books per finalità di ricerca e catalogazione.*