ABSTRACT
The author arrived in Gottingen on 2 December 1908. Toeplitz had taken his old room for him in Kirchweg, where Toeplitz still lived, and although author disliked the idea of being so close to Toeplitz again, author moved in as nothing else was available. The following day he called on Minkowski and was received very kindly. Minkowski explained his ideas on electrodynamics and relativity, and listened patiently to his own suggestions. The author got his admission as a lecturer, called 'Habituation', in the summer 1909. At the beginning of the winter semester he gave his inaugural lecture 'On Thomson's 'plum pudding' model of the atom', a subject not in line with classical tradition, which at that time was still prevalent at Gottingen, but indicating the direction which his interest had taken and which was to absorb me more and more. The lecture was published in Physikalische Zeitschrift in 1909 and he has read it again with interest.
