Many thanks for your letters, cards and for the flowers, which came in grand condition; they are now decorating my desk. I hope that now, when you receive this letter, you will think “better late than never” and forgive me that it has taken so long to write the account of the “Scientific Football Expedition to Holland and Göttingen anno 1909”. Well, before I begin, I should say how delighted I was to hear via Pa that your work was published in Transac. and not in Proced.; I must admit that I lied a bit to you (not with any evil intent) when I continually said that I thought P. was as good as T., I am looking forward so much to seeing my clever big brother’s work in that wonderful publication. Finally, I should remark that I did not know that you were so eminent an author of letters, even though I always knew you were such a fine packer of flowers.
|Now, about me. About Holland I will be brief
and simply say 1) the Rembrandt hall in the Hague Museum was one
of the most wonderful one could imagine (we must take a trip to Holland together)
2)
that I got out of there with life and limb intact 3) that I had a terribly enjoyable
automobile ride (at a speed of up too 68 kilometres an hour) to
Leiden and finally 4) that it was an enjoyable and successful
trip despite the painful defeats. Now comes the trip to Göttingen, which I shall relay
somewhat more comprehensively while perhaps a bit jumpy. Let us start with the most
important, the people.
1) Landau,
the Richard Strelitz of the scientific
world, as I wrote to Ma, terribly talented,
not frightfully original, a somewhat over eager and ambitious personality, who does
not
excite my sympathies, a man whose lectures are probably well prepared, |very comprehensive and educational, but not exactly
marked by an abundance of true brilliance (this last point is hypothetical as I have
not heard any lectures as the term has not yet begun). I have already had a few dealings
with L., written him a few letters and had supper with him etc.
2) Klein, an impressive figure; handsome, superior,
harmonious and well-spoken but perhaps overly aware of his own superiority; I have
only
seen him at the Math. Gesellschaft where I exchanged a few words with him; won’t get
to
hear his lectures (on mechanics), unfortunately, as they clash with Landau’s.
3)
Bringing up the rear, if I dare the impertinence; Hilbert I don’t’ know much about him yet but I think greatly of him; |at first glance he appears somewhat anonymous
and easy to overlook but soon one feels that this is the man who leads Göttingen’s
whole
mathematical world, who with his great and original brilliance and strange
all-encompassing knowledge and interests ensures that the discussion of the Göttingen
Math. Society is not, like at home, marked by a random nature, but always ends up
addressing real and important questions. I am particularly looking forward to his
lectures.
4) Poincarée (you will no
doubt be surprised, as I was, to hear that P. was in Göttingen and would hold 6-7
lectures.) I have already heard 3 lectures 1) on Integral equations 2) on their
application to ebb and flow, and 3) on their application to electric waves. I enjoyed
listening |to them, but, unfortunately, I dare
not say, the first excepted, that I have understood very much of them, particularly
their physics content. I wish you could have heard them, I think you would have got
great deal of pleasure out of them. P. is rather different than I had imagined him
after
what little I know of his work. He speaks slowly and labouredly (perhaps because he
speaks in German) he does not have a Frenchman’s usual animation a lively mimicry
(You
should see the Frenchman at my boarding house, his whole head moves when he talks,
in
relation to the magnitude of the motion of his lips, he is my complete opposite.)
I am
looking forward to hearing P.’s next lecture on Cantor’s Numbers. A lively discussion
is
anticipated with Zermelo. P., as you may
know, |utterly rejects the legitimacy and
significance of set theory whilst Zermelo goes to the opposite extreme. In all modesty,
I take the same position as Holberg in that I believe neither head nor tail of it.
5) The younger students are soon dealt with as I don’t know any yet; though yesterday
I
spoke to a young Russian who, if I may say so, is obsessed, in true Russian style,
with
mathematics. He seems very endearing but I don’t know him at all. -
Tomorrow I shall dine with Prof. Verworn and am looking forward to it. – I had a most
|pleasant birthday and received many cards
and letters from Eva and Hans, Rigmor, Adda
Max
and Betty Meyer, which I was very touched by. –
By the way, let me tell you a little about the Physics professors I met at the
Math. Gesellsch.
1) Voigt makes an
excellent impression a totally captivating savage and obviously very clever.
2)
Riecke and Simon Very important but apparently not very
substantial.
3) The Astronomer Schwarzchild, apparently a very clever math. physicist.
|I am very pleased with the boarding house and dining area. It is very beautiful district here, where spring is bursting forth. I am staying in a beautiful avenue on the outskirts of the city (the city, by the way, is not very large, similar to Aarhus). I have 2 nice rooms with large windows facing the street. I will be able to give you a great deal of more or less useful advice when I finally get home and you will be able to avoid a lot of silly mistakes that I have made in front of the family due to my ignorance of German student life. Now goodbye for today. I have had hardly anything to tell but I shall write soon in more detail and hopefully with more content. At the moment, I am reading Wilhelm Meister who is the wonderful everyman and rich. Be well little Nebuve and give many regards to the Møllgaard family.
