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In 1931 Schrodinger was delighted to be elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He was well aware of the many distinguished mathematicians and theoretical physisicsts who had come from Ireland including George Boole, William Hamilton, Joseph Larmor, George Stokes and Lord Kelvin. Schrodinger equation built on the work of Hamilton. He often found that the distinguished academies he was elected to would be useful to him in his subsequent career.
=== The Nazis ===
After the severe financial problems following the First World War, the situation had gradually improved there through the 1920s but this all changed in October 1929 when the Wall Street stock market crashed. There were very serious economic ramifications around the world and this included Germany. Unemployment rose fast and there were riots on the streets of Berlin. The political situation was becoming complicated with Soviet Russia continuing to expand its influence. Right-wing movements becoming more popular throughout Europe. Hitler and his party of National Socialists took full advantage of this situation and he eventually became Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933. Meanwhile, in the run up to this momentous event, Schrodinger had beeen working to communicate his breakthrough in quantum mechanics to the world and had not had any time to be concerned with the politics.
Einstein himelf was Jewish and had already given up German citizenship long time ago when he moved to Switzerland in 1895 at the age of 16. Einstein was travelling back to Germany by boat after visiting the California Institute of Technology when he heard in March 1933 that his apartment in Berlin had been raided several times by the Nazis as had his summer house in Caputh. He was advised by friends that it was dangerous to return to Germany. He arrived in Antwerp and sought the assistance from the King of Belgium, whom he had got to know at the Solvay Conferences. Einstein renounced his German citizenship and resigned from the Prussian Academy of Sciences. In the summer of 1933, Einstein secretly moved to a small house in the coastal town of Cromer in Norfolk, England where he had armed guards.
Einstein was Schrodinger's close friend. Back then, Schrodinger and Einstein often went sailing together and Schrodinger stayed at Einstein's vacation house in Caputh. Schrodinger had been particularly concerned by the treatment of his close friend Einstein who was the first to be forced overseas. They kept up a close correspondence after Einstein was forced to leave Germany, As Einstein had, out of necessity, moved abroad, Schrodinger was now very seriously thinking of doing the same.
Later, Einstein had a major influence on the British attempts to assist the many refugee scientists who left Germany in the 1930s.
=== Refuge to Britain ===
Shortly after the Nazis came to power, the Academic Assistance Council was set up in Britain by several notable people, including Lord Rutherford. This Council over the next few years helped over 2,600 academic refugees to come to Britain. As many as 16 later won Nobel Prizes, 74 became Fellows of the Royal Society, and 34 Fellows of the British Academy. Furthermore, after being rescued by Britain, several of these scientific refugees moved on to the USA.
Frederick Lindemann, a regular attender at the Solvay Conferences, was a supporter of the Academic Assistance Council. He was well aware of the lead that Germany had taken in physics, so he went to Germany in 1933 to see if he could encourage some of the most promising but demoralised physicists to come to Oxford. Lindemann arrived in Berlin on Easter 1933. He went to see his old research supervisor Nernst. There he met Professor Franz Simon. Simon had worked previously with Nernst and was nor leading a group doing research on low temperature physics. Lindemann realised that here was an opportuiny to build up a new research effort in low temperature physics at Oxford with Simon leading the team. ICI had major interests in the properties of gases and Lindemann anticipated he could persuade them to support the work of this team led by Francis Simon. He then made the arrangements for them to move to Oxford.
Lindemann did not stop with Simon's team. He had heard about the work of Fritz London, who had nominally been Schrodinger's assistant. As a Jewish Privatdozent working in Berlin in 1993, London's prospect's were bleak. Although he was not a theoretician, Lindemann realised the important role theoretical physics had played in driving forward new development in physics in Germany. Meanwhile, Lindemann also appreciated London's more pratical approach to theory. He anticipated London could work on low temperature problems with Simon's experimental group.
Lindemann was invited to meet with Schrodinger in his apartment at the 44 Cunostrasse. Schrodinger explained he was very unhappy about what was happening in Germany. Lindemann mentioned he had made an offer to Fritz London to come to Oxford. Schrodinger then enquired if London had accepted it or not. Lindemann said that London was still considering the offer. Schrodinger said that he didn't understand why London had not accepted the offer but if London didn't want to go to Oxford then Schrodinger himself was interested. Lindemann was taken aback and asked Schrodinger if he was serious and he said he was. Having spent vacations in England as a child and speaking perfect English, Schrodinger felt comfortable with this move.
Schrodinger was not a "non-Aryan". He was not going to be dismissed from his Professorship in Berlin. However, he was well aware by now that several of his colleagues were looking for post overseas. In due course, the scientists such as Bethe, Bloch, Born, Debye, Delbruck, Einstein, Franck, Frisch, Haber, Heitler, Hess, Infeld, London, Mark, Meitner, Peierls, Polanyi, Simon, Stern, Szilard, Teller, Weisskopf, Weyl and Wigner all became refugees.
=== Oxford ===
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