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So I found this on the internet the other day- enter image description here

Is this fake? Are there any ways to prove that it's fake?

Does there, if any, exist any real copy of such a rejection letter?(Was Einstein ever really rejected?)

I thought that why should people use English and not German here. That's suspicious of the originality of this letter!

Edit:Interested people may also see this-https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/30501/did-albert-einstein-really-receive-this-rejection-letter-from-the-university-of/30505

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    $\begingroup$ ? You expect the letter to have been in English? And a hidebound boilerplate institutional American english of the last quarter of the 20th century, at that? Evidently you were never stricken by the self-parodying PhysRev officialese, right there.... $\endgroup$
    – Cosmas Zachos
    Commented Apr 7, 2018 at 20:06
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    $\begingroup$ The "0" in "06 June" also seems awfully suspicious to me. I've seen a fair number of old documents (special collections and archives stuff), old journal papers/books (on internet and in libraries), etc. and I don't recall ever seeing a zero-fill-in digit like this on anything more than 50 years old (and probably not even that far back). $\endgroup$
    – Dave L Renfro
    Commented Apr 7, 2018 at 20:58
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    $\begingroup$ Why does the letter have a stamp issued from the USA with (old) Einstein on it? I'm sure I've seen this question asked on another SE site before but I can't find it. $\endgroup$
    – CJ Dennis
    Commented Apr 8, 2018 at 3:21
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    $\begingroup$ It is funny to see the logo of the old Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and English language in a letter of a Schwitzerland scientific institute ;-) They used German in the time, even in scientific circles and Schwitzerland wasn't ever part of the Monarchy. $\endgroup$
    – peterh
    Commented Apr 8, 2018 at 3:24
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    $\begingroup$ This is a duplicate of history.stackexchange.com/questions/30501/… $\endgroup$
    – Andreas Rejbrand
    Commented Apr 8, 2018 at 11:20

3 Answers 3

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According to this, it's a modern fabrication:

Although Einstein’s initial application for a doctorate at the University of Bern (he had previously been awarded a PhD by the University of Zürich in 1905) was indeed rejected as insufficient in 1907, and it was not until the following year that he completed a new dissertation that resulted in his being awarded a doctorate by the University of Bern and given a position as a lecturer at that school, this image depicts a modern creation and not an actual letter sent to Einstein in 1907.

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http://www.uniaktuell.unibe.ch/2016/die_einstein_faelschung/index_eng.html

This is the official link from The University of Bern itself which declares it as a fraud.

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Its far more obvious than all of your assumptions, the supposed author of the letter was dead for more than 25 years by 1907. Case closed

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  • $\begingroup$ @tatan Wikipedia says 1880 which would make the claim in the answer true. Where did you get 1897 from? $\endgroup$
    – Stella Biderman
    Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 13:12
  • $\begingroup$ @stellabiderman Okay... it was Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl (German journalist) $\endgroup$
    – Soham
    Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 13:55
  • $\begingroup$ according to the official announcement of The University of Bern, there is no Wilhelm Heinrich to begin with, and I guess even if Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl would sign, his signature would be Wilhelm Riehl, not Wilhelm Heinrich. So since this answer implicitly assumes that there was once a dean named Wilhelm Heinrich, I guess it's technically a fallacy, and hence deserves a downvote? $\endgroup$
    – Ooker
    Commented Jun 17, 2018 at 7:41

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