Attempts to find a successor for the late Berne professor of mathematics Johann Heinrich Graf in winter and spring 1919 proved fruitless when, unexpectedly, the renowned Gottingen mathematician David Hilbert intimated that he himself would, under certain conditions, accept a call to Berne. Subsequent negotiations between Hilbert and the Bernese and Prussian authorities mainly concerned the question of salary, with offers of unusually high compensation both in Berne and in Gottingen. Although Hilbert eventually declined for financial reasons, it is argued that his consi-derations may well have been rather complex and reflect both his own situation in Gottingen and the general state of affairs of university mathe-matics in Germany and Switzerland after the First World War.