Everybody as in, the leading experts in theoretical physics of the time:
"It was noted by Sir Edmund Whittaker in his 1954 book that David Hilbert had derived the theory of general relativity from an elegant variational principle almost simultaneously with Einstein's discovery of the theory.[B 1] Hilbert's derivation of the theory predated that of Einstein by five days.[B 2]"
"It was noted by Sir Edmund Whittaker in his 1954 book that David Hilbert had derived the theory of general relativity from an elegant variational principle almost simultaneously with Einstein's discovery of the theory.[B 1] Hilbert's derivation of the theory predated that of Einstein by five days.[B 2]"