LENARD, P.

Vorbemerkung Lenards zu Soldners: Über die Ablenkung eines Lichtstrahls von seiner geradlinigen Bewegung durch die Attraktion eines Weltkörpers, an welchem er nahe vorbeigeht.

Leipzig, Ambrosius Barth, 1921. 8vo. In contemporary full cloth with gilt lettering to spine. In "Annalen der Physik", Vierte Folge, Band 65. Entire volume offered. Library labels pasted on the pasted down front free end paper. Stamp to title page, othrewise a fine copy. Pp. 593-604 [Entire volume: (1), 736, VII pp.].

First appearance of Lenards infamous paper in which he - on the grounds of anti-Semitism - gave priority for "E=mc²" to Hasenöhrl. After Einstein had published his theory in 1905 Hasenöhrl published his results on cavity radiation. The similarity between those formulas led some critics of Einstein, up until the 1930s, to claim that he plagiarized the formula from Hasenöhrl.

However, Max von Laue quickly rebutted those claims by saying that the inertia of electromagnetic energy was long known before Hasenöhrl, especially by the works of Henri Poincaré (1900) and Max Abraham (1902), while Hasenöhrl only used their results for his calculation on cavity radiation. Laue continued by saying that credit for establishing the inertia of all forms of energy (the real mass-energy equivalence) goes to Einstein, who was also the first to understand the deep implications of that equivalence in relation to relativity.

"Lenard’s anti-Semitism and nationalism increased. He attributed the turmoil in the newspapers about the general theory of relativity to an agreement between Einstein and the Jewish press. When the so-called Arbeitsgemeinschaft deutscher Naturforscher zur Erhaltung reiner Wissenschaft, founded by nationalistic and anti-Semitic demagogues, began a slander campaign against Einstein in Berlin in the summer of 1920, Lenard volunteered to head the movement.

The growing conflict broke into the open on 9 September 1920 at the eighty-sixth conference of the Deutsche Naturforscher und Ärzte in Bad Nauheim. The debate over the general theory of relativity turned into a dramatic duel between Einstein and Lenard. As Max Born recounted it, Lenard directed "sharp, malicious attacks against Einstein, with an unconcealed anti-Semitic bias." Fortunately, Max Planck, who was presiding over the debate, was able to prevent an uproar." (DSB).

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