Hopkins had sights set on Einstein

The year was 1927. America was rolling in money and the stock market crash was two years away. In Germany, Albert Einstein was emerging as the world's leading physicist. In Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University President Frank Goodnow was making an all-out effort to recruit the Nobel laureate and most-recognized scientist of the 20th century.

Unfortunately, things didn't work out as planned.

In January of 1927, the Board of Trustees granted President Goodnow full authority to bring Einstein to Hopkins using any means available. Einstein had won the Nobel Prize in 1921 and would have brought the Hopkins Physics department much greater recognition.

Goodnow was authorized to offer Einstein $10,000 for an academic year appointment or $5,000 for a semester. His full-year salary would have been equal to over $100,000 in today's terms, quite a lot of money for a professor during that time.

Given that Johns Hopkins was modeled on the German university system, emphasizing graduate-level research, it looked like it would be a perfect match for Einstein.

After Goodnow exhausted various contacts to convince Einstein to come to America, he eventually went to visit Einstein in Berlin. At that time Germany had not yet fallen to the reign of Adolf Hitler, who would be elected chancellor in 1933.

The provost of Johns Hopkins at the time was Joseph Ames, a man who would succeed Goodnow as president of the University in 1929. While Goodnow tried to recruit Einstein, Ames was in the process of trying to recruit Gerhard Schr???dinger, another famous German scientist, to come to the university. That attempt would also eventually fail.

In an undated postal telegraph from 1927, Ames gave Goodnow his unabashed opinion on the faculty recruits. It read as follows: "Einstein coming possible but uncertain . . . I really prefer Schr???dinger. Do not think Einstein for one year worth $10,000. Money needed elsewhere badly."

Upon his return to the United States, Goodnow sent a formal invitation to Einstein on July 12, outlining the salary offer and giving him the option of a semester or full-year stay. "On coming back to the United States I find in talking over with my friends that they were, as I supposed, very anxious to have you with us if possible next year or a part of it," wrote Goodnow.

Einstein responded in a letter dated Sept. 7, 1927 (which now lies in the University's archives), with a polite denial of Goodnow's offer. He cited his poor health, as well as his inability to justify the high compensation that Hopkins had offered. Typed in German on his personal letterhead, the reply featured Einstein's perfectly fashioned signature in script.

A translation in the University's archives made at the time of receipt of the letter reads as follows:

"To the President of Hopkins University, Baltimore:

I thank you for your friendly visit as well as for your genuinely magnanimous offer. In view of the many demanding procedures to which I would have to submit when traveling to America, I find myself, unfortunately, for health reasons unable to accept your invitation. Also the scientific results which I have achieved are too well known to the professional people so that I could not offer enough to justify, it seems to me, such a great financial offer.

With the assurance of my great respect, I am your devoted, A. Einstein."

While few people realized the full extent of Einstein's genius at the time, Johns Hopkins had failed to land the man behind the theory of relativity and other influential breakthroughs.

Ironically, Einstein did eventually moved to America in 1932, opting to stay after Hitler's election in Germany.

Though he was again pursued by many universities, including the California Institute of Technology, he chose to make his home in Princeton, N.J., where he would spend the rest of his life as a professor affiliated with the Institute of Advanced Study. He died in 1955. Whether or not Hopkins ever sent him another offer is not known.