Max Planck entreats Einstein not to engage in a "pissing contest" over academic credit for completion of his theory of relativity. The earliest recorded figurative use of the phrase "pissing contest" is from 1943.
However, Planck and Einstein would be speaking German in that setting, so this is a common case of using modern vernacular to translate an unrecorded historical disagreement. Also, the behavior of animals competing to assert territorial dominance through scent-marking (or other means) is long known, so a metaphor along these lines would have been comprehensible.
However, Planck and Einstein would be speaking German in that setting, so this is a common case of using modern vernacular to translate an unrecorded historical disagreement. Also, the behavior of animals competing to assert territorial dominance through scent-marking (or other means) is long known, so a metaphor along these lines would have been comprehensible.
In reference to Mileva's written demand for money from Albert, he says, "We have no more Deutsche Marks to give." The divorce judge grants Mileva an annual stipend of 9,000 Deutsche Marks. The Einsteins' divorced in 1919. The currency of Germany in the 1914-1923 period was the Papiermark, or simply mark. The Deutsche Mark (DM) was not in use until the 1948-2002 period.