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248A
Berlin
13 September 1914
Dear Professor,
I must assume that several cards and at least one of my letters have not reached you. Postal services are still difficult. Your letter, dated and stamped 3 September, arrived yesterday, having taken nine days to get here.
I am glad to hear that you are all well and that your sister-in-law is on the way to recovery. My best wishes go with your two sons. Many thanks, incidentally, for the card that you and Martin sent me.1
All is well with our family. There are, on the whole, few signs of war here in Berlin. We have been greatly reassured by the complete defeat of the Russians in East Prussia,2 and are hoping for favourable news in the very next days about the battles on the Marne. Once these are decided in our favour, France is virtually finished; that is to say, the capture of the south-eastern fortifications will only be a question of a relatively short time. This evening we heard of the Austrian withdrawal near Lemberg [Lvov]; I expect that the fortifications and the Carpathian mountains will halt the Russian advance.
Now to the smaller world of our own interests! I wrote a card to Rank on Tuesday, promising him a short paper. Still on the same evening, I had news that very early the next day a transport of wounded would arrive at our hospital, which is situated a long way out of town. That meant that I had to get up at 4.30 a.m., was standing in the operating theatre without a break till 2 p.m. and then spent some hours in my own practice in the afternoon. As the next few days were just as full, I could not even make the smallest beginning on my paper. Perhaps it will be better this week.—I don't feel like starting on the bigger piece of work at all, an excerpt of which I had planned to present as my Congress paper. All the more I am glad to be able to put my ideas to you when you come to Berlin. I shall arrange to be hindered as little as possible by my work at the hospital during your visit.
I add the most cordial greetings