Since the Riga Polytechnic remained closed after the Easter break of 1905, several friends and I decided to spend the summer semester in Germany. My father agreed, though with the thought in the back of his mind of keeping me further from the revolutionary tendencies in Russia. Most of the Riga students went to the Technical University of Karlruhe, among them my friend Popka Lurie, whose brother Sascha and I went to Heidelberg. It was a beautiful trip through the flowering trees of the Bergstrasse [221] and a fine semester. I did not work in the lab, but attended a lot of lectures. I had chemistry with Curtius (the discoverer of hydrazine), Knovenagel and Bredig. Philosophy with Windelband and Elsenhans, and so on. I attended the latter with Sascha Lurie, but it did not do any good, I never became a philosopher, in spite of later passing my doctors examination in philosophy in Kiel in 1911. I once observed Curtius cheating [mogelei] in a lecture. When I later asked him what had happened he was visibly pleased and wanted to keep me as an assistant.  By not staying there - though it bcame impossible - I missed two things: first, attending the lectures and demonstrations by the mineralogist and crystallographer Victor Goldschmitt - at that time I thought as little about mineralogy as I did about astronomy; second, traveling to Switzerland. [222] It was so close, there were kilometer booklets available, third class at the price of fourth class, of two pfennig per kilometer, for ten mark one could take the round trip, and the whitsun vacation provided enough time. But Selly and Gina Eliasberg studied in Brussels, so I just had to go there at that time. But how? I was always short of cash, Heidelberg was an expensive place, and my 100 marks a month were not enough. Aunt Manna Weinberg in Berlin gave me 50 Mark, on condition that it be the last request. So I cycled till Mannheim, from there with the Rhein steamer down the Rhein to Bonn, For nourishment my backpack contained a loaf of whole grain bread, cheese, and butter. That would have to be enough. The trip down the Rhein was just as marvelous in the fore deck of third class as it would have been in first class. In the evening we arrived in Bonn, [223] and I immediately continued cycling. I stayed nights in small village inns for 50 pf, very clean and pleasant. Then I went through Euskirchen, Aachen, through the dutch corner, until Maastricht on the Belgian border. There experienced a double misfortune. I fell off the bike after getting stuck in a streetcar track, and tore my only pants during the fall. Then I had to pay customs on the bike, and the fee was so high that I would have been broke. So I left my bike as security [pawned?] at the hotel where I cleaned up, and then took the train to Brussels. Selly was not there, but Gina assumed care for me. Anyway, with my cap [beatmutze], black Russia shirt, and torn pants, I did not look fit for introduction to polite company. That did not bother me, I visited all museums I could walk to, lived on bread and milk, and headed back very happy. naturally Gina had to help me again with 10 franks. I came back via Luttich, visited [224] the world exposition for a day, recovered my bike in Maastricht, and rode to Bonn, where I again took the steamer to Mannheim. But we only got to Maintz. The ship was not to continue till morning, and one was not allowed to stay on board. I had only 3 mark left, and would either have to spend the night in a hotel, or take a train to Heidelberg. I decided on the latter, but at the station I was short 10 pf for the ticket. I took my identity card and went from table to table in the first class waiting room, where people were having Rhein wine and Rhein salmon, and begged for some pennies. I must have looked pretty bad, they did not believe me to be a student, and I got nothing. Finally the conductor at the gate took pity on me and loaned me the 10 pf. So I arrived back at my lodging in Heidelberg, tired, late at night, [225] but in a good mood after having gotten through my adventures.

The summer semester in Heidelberg was very nice. Almost every Sunday one went on excursions, partly from the university to Heilbronn, Ludwigshafen; partly with friends to Frankfurt, Hart, Wiesbaden, Schwetzingen, or in the closer surroundings, Konigsstuhl, etc. We were at the castle almost daily. The memory of the tragic fate of Gustav Schick, a friend, is tied to these excursions. We were often together in the lecture hall, and became friends. He invited me to a visit to his uncle, who lived in the Hart. In Durkheim I had my first real tipsy condition. I have never been totally drunk, but in Durkheim I had become pretty lively and happy. The local wine was so good and so cheap. The next year, when I was in Freiberg, I received a goodby  letter from this friend [226] . He came from a strict catholic family. There are many of these in the Westphalen Rheinland, fossils of the time of the 30 year war, for whom holiness meant let people die for their beliefs, and to die themselves. Schick fell in love with a protestant and they got engaged. The family was so upset that he finally had to break the engagement. At this the girl took her life. He tried to overcome his grief, but could not. He wrote me from Jena that he would take his life. I took the next train to Jena, but found the poor guy as a corpse.

The great summer semester in Heidelberg was over, I went back home by fourth class rail through Germany. I went trough Dresden, where I visited uncle Joseph and aunt Frieda at Lahmann's in Weissen Hirsch and [227] and naturally borrowed a bit from them. Until Konigsberg the fourth class trip was quite nice, from there to the border awful. Then I took third class to Libau. The last day I was hungry, but did not meet anyone I knew from Libau who might have helped me. All things end though, and I was well cared for in the family home. I had been a student for three years, and the times were so uncertain that one could not in any way predict where ones journey would lead. The waves of revolutionary sentiment kept rising higher and higher, while anti-Semitism in Russia kept increasing. Pogroms had become daily events. When in the fall the technical university of Riga was still closed, I was finally able to persuade father that I should move to Germany to study metallurgy in Freiberg (where I had already wanted to go two years earlier). So I liquidated everything in Riga, packed my personal things, and in October 1905 moved to the Bergacademie in Freiberg. [228]

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