Based on the electrodynamic laws of Wilhelm Eduard Weber, Carl Friedrich Gauß, and Bernhard Riemann, between 1870 and 1900 many scientists tried to combine gravitation with a finite propagation speed and tried to derive the correct value for the perihelion shift of Mercury's orbit.
[A 4] So Gehrcke initiated a reprint of Gerber's 1902-paper in the Annalen der Physik in 1917, where he questioned the priority of Einstein and tried to prove a possible plagiarism by him.
[A 5] However, according to Albrecht Fölsing,[B 5] Klaus Hentschel[B 6] and Roseveare,[B 7] those claims were rejected, because soon after Gerber's paper was reprinted, scientists like Hugo von Seeliger,[A 6] Max von Laue[A 7] published some papers, where it was claimed that Gerber's theory is inconsistent and his formula is not the consequence of his premises.
And Einstein wrote in 1920:[A 8] Mr. Gehrcke wants to make us believe that the perihelion shift of Mercury can be explained without the theory of relativity.
I maintain that the theory of general relativity has provided the first real explanation of the perihelion motion of Mercury.