"The state exists for man, not man for
the state. The same may be said of science. These are old phrases, coined by people who
saw in human individuality the highest human value. I would hesitate to repeat them, were
it not for the ever recurring danger that they may be forgotten, especially in these days
of organization and stereotypes."
The outbreak of the First World War brought Einstein's pacifist sympathies into
public view. Ninety-three leading German intellectuals, including physicists
such as Planck, signed a manifesto defending Germany's war conduct. Einstein
and three others signed an antiwar counter-manifesto. He helped to form a nonpartisan
coalition that fought for a just peace and for a supranational organization
to prevent future wars. As a Swiss citizen Einstein could feel free to spend
his time on theoretical physics, but he kept looking for ways to reconcile the
opposing sides. "My pacifism is an instinctive feeling," he said, "a feeling
that possesses me because the murder of men is disgusting. My attitude is not
derived from any intellectual theory but is based on my deepest antipathy to
every kind of cruelty and hatred."
Along with Germany's military collapse in November 1918, chaotic workers' and soldiers'
councils proliferated. One of Einstein's lectures at the University of Berlin was "canceled due
to revolution." On November 16 Einstein was one of the original signers of a manifesto announcing
the creation of a progressive middle-class party, the German Democratic Party. After a
democratically elected assembly met in Weimar, Einstein formally accepted German citizenship as a
gesture of support for the infant republic.
With his scientific fame Einstein could act as unofficial spokesman for the
Weimar Republic, and he protested the continued hostility of Germany's former
enemies. In 1921 he refused to attend the third Solvay Congress in Belgium,
since all other German scientists were excluded from it. In 1922 he joined a
newly created Committee on Intellectual Cooperation set up under the League
of Nations. The next year he resigned, distressed by the League's impotence
when confronted with France's occupation of the German Ruhr. But he soon returned
to the committee. As a leading member of the German League for Human Rights,
he worked hard for better relations with France. He also made numerous gestures
against militarism.
Einstein attracted attention to a number of causes, such as the release of political
prisoners and the defense of democracy against the spread of fascism. He spoke
in public, made statements to the press, signed petitions. In 1924 he defended
the radical Bauhaus School of Architecture; in 1927 he signed a protest against
Italian fascism; in 1929 he appealed for the commutation of death sentences
given to Arab rioters in British Palestine.