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3 The New York Years (1931–1953)

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300 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man<br />

Fig.9.4. Ernst Mayr at the AMNH on 13 May 1991, reception on the occasion of the 60th anniversary<br />

of his joining the AMNH in January 1931 (AMNH Library photographic collection,<br />

negative no. 600653-9)<br />

progress. […] I cannot help standing in sorrow at the ruins of an incomparably<br />

more pleasant past of our class. […] Above all one cannot get rid of the nervous<br />

question: Where will all this lead us?” (12 April 1934; transl.; for full letter see<br />

Haffer 1997b: 378).<br />

When Mayr visited Germany a few months later, he witnessed the reality of the<br />

Nazi regime and replied:<br />

“It would be nice here at home if the evil politics would not embitter one’s<br />

life. I now understand everything you wrote and told me. Judging by the endless<br />

unhappiness and bitter rage which I observe wherever I talk to someone, riots<br />

will soon take place here” [which, however, the harsh measures of the police state<br />

prevented] (30 July 1934; transl.).

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