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Albert Einstein’s Guestbook

Gäste-Buch vom Hause Einstein – Guestbook at House Einstein
Guestbook at House Einstein (Leo Baeck Institute Archives, DM 272, front cover)
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Page 4 in Albert Einstein’s guestbook
Page 4 in Albert Einstein’s guestbook (Leo Baeck Institute Archives, DM 272, page iv)
Page 2 in Albert Einstein’s guestbook
The second page of Einstein's guestbook includes the following "Decree" in rhyming couplets and a small sign indicating that "prose is forbidden": Men, women and children / Please write into this book / However, not with plump words / As they are used everywhere / But with verses soft and fine / like poets did in the old time / do not fear but slave away / then you will also master the task! / In the name of the Caputh estate manager, the man of the house.". Leo Baeck Institute Archives, DM 272, page ii.

From 1929 until his emigration to the United States, Albert Einstein spent the summer months in a wooden house in the village of Caputh, just outside of Berlin. There he held a guestbook, given to him by a neighbor as a welcome present, which was then signed by many of his visitors.

On page 2, Einstein encouraged his visitors to sign the guestbook in verse, putting his demand into a humorous little poem under the title “Decree” - “Verordnung”, signed by “the landlord” – “der Hausherr”.

In the fall of 1931, the artist Hermann Struck illustrated the top of page 4; it then was signed, among others, by Chaim Weizmann, visiting from London.

Online Catalog Record

Gästebuch vom Hause Einstein (DM 272)

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