Albert Einstein 0670855456

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Albert Einstein B

I

O

ALBRECHT FOLSING

Ci

Canada $45.00

A fresh interpretation of the great thinker’s genius, set in the context of his time Albert Einsteins achievements are not just milestones in the history of science; decades ago they became an integral part of the twentieth-century world in which we

Like no other modern physicist, he altered and expanded our understanding of nature. Like few other live.

he stood fully in the public eye. In a world changing with dramatic rapidity he embodied the role of scholars,

H:

scientist by personal example.

Yet despite Einsteins

exceptional significance, both for physics and for our entire culaire, until

death— the

now— more than forty years after his

true breadth

and

variety of his scientific

achievements and his political, cultural, and social ests have not been documented in one volume.

inter-

Albrecht Folsing, relying on previously unknown sources and letters, brings Einstein’s “genius” into

Whereas former biographies, written in the tradition of the history of science, seem to describe a focus.

heroic Einstein

who fell to earth from heaven,

Folsing

attempts to reconstruct Einsteins thought in the context of the state of research at the turn of the century. 1 hus, perhaps for the first time, Einstein’s surroundings come to

Folsing describes in detail the environment in which the enormous burst of creativity occurred in 1905, when Einstein as a twentysix-year-old at the

light.

Swiss Patents Office in Bern began

making contributions to physics. Einstein’s profound knowledge of literature, his discussions with friends and colleagues, and even his handling of patents for machines proved to be a beneficial framework in which he brought the epoch of classical physics to a towering close with relativity theory and at the same electrical

time opened up

Einstein

new horizons in quantum theory

a searching and balanced work, both an extraordinary portrait of a genius in his time and a distillation

is

of scientific thought.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2017 with funding from

Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/alberteinsteinbiOOfols

A

BIOGRAPHY

ALBRECHT FOLSING Translated from the

German

EWALD OSERS

VIKING

by

VIKING

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairu Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England First published in

1

3

1997 by Viking Penguin,

USA Inc.

of Penguin Books

a division

7

5

10

9

Translation copyright

4

6

8

2

© Ewald Osers,

1997

All rights reserved

Originally published in

Verlag.

Germany

as Albert Einstein:

© Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main

Lucien Aigner,

The

Eine Biographie by Suhrkamp

1993.

PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS: Advanced Study, Princeton:

Institute for

29;

American

Insti-

tute of Physics, Emilio Segre Visual Archives: 7, 8, 12, 14, 18, 27, 34; Bibliothek

der Eidgenossischen Technische: Hochschule, Zurich:

2,

3, 4, 6, 9;

Bildarchiv

Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin: 11, 17; Bildarchiv Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Berlin and Siiddentscher Verlag, Munich: 32, 33; Bundesarchiv Koblenz: 21; Ein-

The Jewish National and University Lotte Jacobi, Dimond Library, Durham: 1, 25,

stein Archives,

Library, Jerusalem:

24;

26, 28;

Howard

5, 15, 16,

E. Schrader,

Princeton University, Princeton: 31; Siiddeutscher Verlag, Munich: 13, 30; Ullstein Bilderdienst, Berlin: 10, 19, 20, 22, 23.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Folsing, Albrecht, 1940[Albert Einstein. English]

Albert Einstein

:

a

by Albrecht Folsing translated from the German by Ewald Osers.

biography

/

:

cm.

p.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-670-85545-6 1.

Einstein, Albert. 1879-1955. I.

(alk.

2.

This book

—dc20

is

Physicists

—Biography.

Title.

QC16.E5F5913 5307092

paper)

1997 96-26341

printed on acid -free paper.

© Printed in the United States of America Set in Janson

Designed by Francesca Belanger

Without limiting the

under copyright reserved above, no part of this publibe reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, cation

rights

may

recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This book would not have been possible without the work of those

who began

early

on

to collect

and deposit Albert Einstein’s

The

manuscripts, as well as other documents relating to him.

source

letters

central

the Albert Einstein Archive, formerly in Princeton and

is

and

now

maintained in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem.

I

would

like to

thank

its

curator, Ze’ev Rosenkranz, and

Katzenstein for their generous support during

my

stay in Jerusalem,

and the Einstein Archive, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, its

kind permission to reprint unpublished material.

inspect sets of copies in the in

Mudd

Hanna

Israel, for

was able to

I

Library of Princeton University and

the Science and Engineering Library of Boston University. In

Zurich Beat Glaus was an invariably helpful guide through the history of science collections of the Library of the Swiss Technical University,

ETH.

In the archive of the

Max Planck

Society in Berlin

I

enjoyed the

kind assistance of Eckart Henning, Marion Kazemi, and Andreas K.

Walter. Bernhardt Schell of the Anschutz

enough

to put the correspondence

Anschiitz-Kaempfe I

am

at

my disposal

grateful to Professor

company

in Kiel

between Einstein and Hermann

before

its

publication.

A ehuda Elkana and the Van Leer Foun-

dation, Jerusalem, for enabling

me

to participate in a

workshop on

“Einstein in Context” in April 1990 in Jerusalem, and to

pants for I

many informative

greatly benefited

was good

its

partici-

suggestions.

from conversations with Anne

Renn, and Robert Schulmann of the project of The

J.

Kox, Jurgen

Collected Papers of

Acknowledgments

vi

Albert Einstein Robert Schulmann, especially, generously shared with ;

me

his I

knowledge about Albert Einstein’s early years.

owe

a

debt of gratitude to the publisher Siegfried Unseld for his

great confidence in this difficult project, and for his patience.

My wife, Ulla, patience

my

and our children, Philipp and Julia, had to bear with

prolonged preoccupation with

this

book; for this

I

not

only thank them sincerely but also ask their forgiveness. This apology

should also include our dog, Rufus, for

understand

my changed lifestyle

as I

whom

worked

at

it

was most

my desk.

difficult to

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

v

Foreword

xi 4T

CHILDHOOD, YOUTH, STUDENT YEARS

I

1.

Family

2

School

1

3.

A “Child Prodigy”

32

4.

“Vagabond and Loner”: Student Days

5.

Looking for

.

3

in

Zurich

a Job

48 70

THE PATENT OFFICE

II

6.

Expert

7.

“Herr Doktor Einstein” and the Reality of Atoms

122

8

The “Very Revolutionary”

135

.

III

Class

95

Light Quanta

Movement: “My Life for Seven Years” The Theory of Relativity: “A Modification of the Theory of Space and Time”

155

11.

Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes

199

12.

Expert

221

9.

10.

Relative

II

Class

III

178

THE NEW COPERNICUS

13.

From “Bad Joke”

14.

Professor in Zurich

to

“Herr Professor”

235

258 vii

Contents

viii

Prague

—But Not for Long

15.

Full Professor in

16.

Toward the General Theory of Relativity From Zurich to Berlin

17.

IV

18. 19.

278 301

322

THE NOISE OF WAR AND THE SIZE OF THE UNIVERSE

A Pacifist in Prussia “The Greatest Satisfaction of My Life”:

“In a Madhouse”:

343

The Completion

3

of the General Theory of Relativity

69

20.

Wartime

2

Postwar Chaos and Revolution

417

Confirmation of the Deflection of Light: “The Suddenly Famous Dr. Einstein”

433

1

.

22.

V 23

.

394

in Berlin

Relativity

SPLENDOR AND BURDEN OF FAME

under the Spotlight

45 5

24.

“Traveler in Relativity”

472

25.

Jewry, Zionism, and a Trip to America

488

26.

More

Hustle,

and a

Little Physics

VI

Long Journeys,

UNIFIED THEORY

a

Lot of Politics, 510

IN

A TIME

OUT OF JOINT

Receives the Nobel Prize and in Consequence Becomes a Prussian

27. Einstein

535

552

29.

“The Marble Smile of Implacable Nature”: The Search for the Unified Field Theory The Problems of Quantum Theory

30.

Critique of Quantum Mechanics

578

28.

31. Politics, Patents, Sickness,

and a “Wonderful Egg”

566

593

32.

Public and Private Affairs

608

33.

Farewell to Berlin

633

Contents

IX

THE PACIFIST AND THE BOMB

VII

34.

Exile as Liberation

659

35.

Princeton

679

36.

Physical Reality and a Paradox, Relativity and Unified

Theory

693

Bomb

37.

War,

38.

Between Bomb and Equations

721

39.

“An Old Debt”

739

Notes

743

Bibliography and Abbreviations

82

Chronology

849

Index

861

a Letter,

and the

706

*

*

FOREWORD

Even four decades

death, an exceptional fascination

after his

evoked by the name of Albert Einstein.

It far

is

transcends the fact that

he was indisputably' the greatest physicist of our century, comparable

Newton

to Isaac

cialists in

—but Einstein

much more

is

is

a subject for spe-

the history of science.

which

Einstein’s legendary greatness,

today,

than

based on

a

still

multitude of factors; but

physics, in several respects.

touches

many

of us

primarily linked to

it is

His concepts of space and time, of the

“fourth dimension,” and of a finite but

unbounded universe

which

in

light travels along a curved path, are regarded as revolutionary,

parable, in their effect

on human understanding, only

com-

to those of

Copernicus. However, the results of his profound reflections on nature are also

— through

his

nected with the atom

legendary formula

bomb and

all

that

E = me —indirectly 2

it

meant

has

in

con-

terms of

destruction, fear, and terror. If ever a theory born of an innocent

search for knowledge

became

a material force,

then

it

was

in the

mush-

room cloud over Hiroshima.

The

creator of this theory lived not in an ivory tower but in a time

of wars and conflicts, and he faced this situation with a strong sense of

humanitarian responsibility and

a

need to intervene

humanism, which assigned greater importance all

to

in politics.

what was

His

common

to

people than to what divided them, gave him a “left-wing” identity.

However, he was not stamped by the the underdog.

tied to

any party doctrine but instead was

social ethics of

Judaism, which include sympathy for

He

put his fame

—he was already xi

a

legend at the age of

Foreword

xii

—

forty

of social

at the service

democratic freedoms, pacifism,

justice,

the welfare of the Jews, and a cosmopolitan internationalism, though rarely with success and frequently setting off controversy.

Einstein’s kindness if

he were

a saint.

was often praised and

There was some

his simplicity

justification for that,

admired

as

but he could

be rude and wounding, and below his modest surface there was

also

unfathomable complexity. Although his birth

was complicated,

unequivocal.

his attitude

his attitude

toward Nazi Germany was

him, despite his passionate pacifism, to write

It led

a

Roosevelt suggesting the development of an atom

letter to President

bomb. After Hiroshima, when he warned

many

toward the country of

regarded him

as

against a nuclear arms race,

wise old man, a personification of the world’s

conscience.

However,

his “excursions into politics,” as

—excursions.

that

physics. Physics

They were never was

nearly as important to

and

his passion

he called them, were

his

life.

No

one

just

him

as

else has ever

enriched a science as Einstein enriched physics during the two decades

between 1905 and 1925.

If asking

who was

the greatest physicist of the

century produces the answer “Einstein, for his theory of relativity,”

then asking

who was

the second-greatest physicist might justifiably

produce the answer “Einstein, for the last three decades of his physics.

His road led to no

life,

result,

all

his other achievements.”

Over

he searched for the foundations of but he never gave up; and right to

the end he remained addicted to physics. In addition, he was a husband (twice), lover, and father (at least

three times).

He

was

a

Jew.

offered the presidency of a

He

was

a citizen

fifth, Israel

of four nations and was

— but he

declined this honor

even though his deepest loyalty was to those he called his “tribal brethren.”

He

was born

in

Germany, and German remained

his first

language, the only language in which he wrote and in which he could

adequately express his feelings and ideas. After the Holocaust he called

German

his

guage even

“stepmother tongue,” displaying at a distance.

The depth and

He never

a fine feeling for his lan-

forgave the Germans.

variety of Einstein’s thinking about nature, the

scope and color of his

life,

and the complexity of

his character

about them something alarming to a biographer; and in

fact this

have

book

Foreword has turned out

have based

more voluminous than

my

I

writing on Einstein’s

xiii

Wherever

intended.

own

possible

testimony: his published

work, his unpublished manuscripts, his countless

letters,

and

his inter-

mittent diaries, so far as they are at present accessible. In addition,

have used firsthand sources that seemed to stories spread

there

reliable.

Some

will cast

I

of the as

in discussing freely invented or unattested,

to offer

much

that

new light on known

facts.

The most

fantastic assertions. Instead, I

manner which

me

about Einstein are not mentioned in these pages,

would be no point

I

hope

is

new, and in

a

important

aspect to me, always, was Einstein’s physics. Physics was at the core of his identity,

and only through physics can we get close to him

seeker after truth,

whose

like

we

shall

not see again.

as a

PART

I

CHAPTER ONE Family

He was born

on March

14, 1879, in

Ulm in

southern Germany, on

a

cold but sunny Friday, half an hour before the church bells rang out

midday. His parents and

relatives,

anxious to perpetuate the family

name, were no doubt pleased that the

who

happens with young couples time, their joy

“When

child

was

“Mother was alarmed first

—

his

But

a boy.

as often

are facing parenthood for the

was clouded by concern and even

he was born”

occiput and at

first

younger

at the sight

thought he was

sister

first

anxiety.

many years

wrote

later

of his exceptionally large angular

monster.”

a

1

The

physician reas-

sured the twenty-one-year-old mother, Pauline Einstein, that this peculiarity

would soon disappear, and

a

few weeks

later the size

of the

baby’s skull was indeed quite normal, though a rather square occiput

remained

The

a lifelong characteristic.

following morning the father,

frock coat and

boy was

went

to the

town

hall to

Hermann

Einstein, put

on

record the birth of his son.

to be called Albert, only faintly

his

The

echoing his grandfather’s

name, Abraham Einstein. Nothing, of course, suggested that the

motto of Ulm, dating from mathematici brilliantly

—“The

people of

confirmed by

for religion,

this

its

medieval prosperity, Ulmenses sunt

Ulm

are mathematicians”

—would

be

Albert Einstein. In the column provided

both parents and child were recorded

as “Israelitic.” 2

In spite of their Jewish origin, Albert Einstein’s ancestors could be

described as true Swabians. settled in the region for

On

the paternal side the family had been

more than two 3

centuries

—not

in

Ulm, but

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

4

some

on Lake

forty miles to the south, in Buchau, a small township

Feder in the

abbey

cratic

foothills of the Alps.

who was

1665

in

was joined by Baruch Moises

it

from the area of Lake Constance, the

originally

large lake separating stein’s

the patronage of an aristo-

Jewish community had been in existence there

a small

from the sixteenth century; Ainstein,

Under

Germany from

Austria and Switzerland. Ain-

descendants later changed the

producing the spelling familiar to

first letter

of their

last

name,

us.

In the Jewish cemetery of Buchau, dozens of tombstones,

now cov-

ered with overgrowth, are silent witnesses to the family history of the Einsteins over

many generations. The

was Siegbert Einstein,

a

great-nephew of the

camp and

Theresienstadt concentration

World War was opening

the

—not only the

for a while after the after the

Second

cemetery and

In 1968 he too was

visitors.

also Albert Ein-

entry in the council records of the then Reich

Town of Buchau,

stein’s last relative in

dated

few occasional

He survived the

Buchau but

buried there

An

its

inhabitant of Buchau

physicist.

mayor of Buchau, looking

gates for

its

last Jewish

March

on Jews

last

Jew

in

Germany.

16, 1665, records the restrictions

settling in the town. Against

and conditions imposed

payment of an annual

“sitting

charge” of twelve guilders, they were granted freedom to practice their religion and their trade

and

cloth.

Buying and

—

in

Moises Ainstein’s

selling

case, dealing in horses

were the only sources of livelihood per-

mitted to Jews until the nineteenth century. In 1806, Buchau was assigned to the southern

German kingdom

of Wiirttemberg, created

under Napoleon’s patronage. There, in 1828,

a

law was eventually

enacted allowing Jews freedom in their choice of trade. This marked the

first

temberg

step in their emancipation as citizens, even this

Some of craftsmen

—

town

in

old

were

still

was not

for instance, furriers

new

opportunities and

became

and bookbinders. They lived in the

respectability, but

its

limitations and poverty

reminiscent of the centuries following the Thirty Years’

War, and conditions much too in

in Wiirt-

fully attained until 1862.

the Einsteins seized the

modest

though

any way.

restrictive to allow

any of them to excel

Family

The tombstones tion of the tury.

5

Jewish cemetery also

testify to the assimila-

Buchau Jews and the Einstein family

in the nineteenth cen-

in the

The Hebrew

become

inscriptions

less

frequent

and soon

disappear altogether; and venerable biblical names, such as Samuel,

David, and Abraham,

come

by German names, such

to be replaced

German

August, Adolf, and Hermann. South

gradual loosening of the formerly strong

more

Buchau Jews

the

so as

Germany

southern

—were

—

which the

liberalism facilitated a

ties to

the synagogue, the

other Jewish communities in

like

strongly rooted in tradition than the

less

Jews of Eastern Europe, with their perity

as

shtetl culture.

Moreover, the pros-

brought to the bigger

industrial revolution

cities

tempted many to escape from the confines of the provincial towns.

The whose

were

walls

just

move

to

Ulm,

down to make room for a The first member of the Einstein family

city.”

in 1864,

was Jette Dreyfus, nee Einstein, with her

husband Kosman Dreyfus, who lowed

after

1

Ulm. According

came from Buchau. She was

who were hoping

1877,

to

who

without

when

southern tower

last,

munity demonstrated

solidarity with the city

its

fellow citizens by a generous

times;

it

seems

related to

much

the city festively observed the five-hundredth

the completion, at long

a local artist.

had

as fellow citizens.

anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the cathedral

by

fol-

make

to a census in 1875, the city then

thousand inhabitants, including 692 Jews,

ado were accepted In

also

869 by several male Einsteins

their fortunes in thirty

the Danube, an ancient city

then being pulled

“new

rapidly expanding to

Ulm on

nearest such center was

Among

of

its

gift: a

likely that, including the

moved from Buchau

to

— the Jewish com-

and with

its

Protestant

sculpture of the prophet Jeremiah

the donors, the

them by marriage,

—and

name

Einstein appears six

Dreyfus and

Moos

at least twelve Einsteins

families

had by then

Ulm. One of these was Hermann,

Albert’s

father.

Hermann chant,

Einstein was born in Buchau, in 1847, the son of a mer-

Abraham

Einstein.

Wiirttemberg, to attend

its

He

was sent to

Realschule

,

a

Stuttgart, the capital of

type of high school. Despite

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

6

Hermann’s

and some sign of mathematical

lively intelligence

no thought of his

there could, given the family’s financial position, be

going to

He

a university.

which

rity” certificate,

classes of society

“medium matu-

therefore left school with a

any rate provided an entree to the better

at

and carried the privilege of having to serve only one

year, instead of the usual three, of military service, officer cadet, with the prospect of a

commission

and of serving

as a lieutenant

However, Hermann evidently saw no point

reserve.

talent,

as

an

of the

in participating in

the two field exercises which were a condition of being commissioned,

and thus spared the royal Wurttembergian army the problem of having to accept a Jew

as a lieutenant

of the reserve.

Albert Einstein’s maternal ancestors also came from the Swabian

Jewry.

They

lived in

Jebenhausen, near Goppingen, on the northern

spurs of the Swabian Alb.

There Julius Dorzbacher,

supported his family with

ther,

name was changed

to

a small bakery. In

Albert’s grandfa-

1842 the family

Koch, and in 1852 Julius Koch moved to

Cannstatt, near Stuttgart. Together with his brother Heinrich he ran a profitable grain business, acquiring within a few years a considerable

fortune and even becoming a “Supplier to the Royal Wurttembergian

Court.” Clearly, the business entirely different class

more ried,

activities

of the

Koch

family were in an

from the small trade of the Einsteins

profitable, but also

more

extensive and worldly.

—not only

When

he mar-

Heinrich Einstein not only became the husband of a pretty young

woman

(she

was eleven years younger than himself) who was regarded

as efficient, well educated, and,

because of her piano playing, musical;

he also made what was called

a

In Einstein’s case, perhaps

more than with anybody

“good match.”

else,

one

is

tempted to engage in the popular game of asking what he might have inherited from

mathematical

he took

whom. One obvious answer would be

gifts

after his

he took

after his father

and with

that with his

his love

of music

mother. There have, of course, been attempts to

find the first indications of Albert Einstein’s exceptional talents

where

in his family tree.

speculations:

some-

But he himself refused to go along with such

Family

7

know virtually nothing about them, nor are there any people alive who could say a lot about them. If talents existed, First of

all, I

then they could not emerge under their restricted living condi-

know

tions. Besides, I talents. It

brought

was

me

perfectly well that I myself have

my

But

ideas.

as for

thinking power (“cerebral muscles”) ent, or

only on a modest

scale.

special

and sheer perseverance that

curiosity, obsession,

to

no

any especially powerful

—nothing

like that is pres-

Exploration of my ancestors there-

fore leads nowhere. 3

More

without any doubt,

significant,

father’s

and on

his

mother’s

side,

is

the fact that both on his

Albert Einstein was born into a large,

widely ramified family, whose members were soon settled in cities

and several countries of Europe.

relatives later.

and

They include an

his favorite uncle,

aunt in

Caesar Koch,

a

We

Italy,

will

meet some of these

who

financed his studies;

brother of his mother,

the grain business had taken as far afield as

Argentina, and sent

him

who

settled in

Antwerp

St.

whom

Petersburg and

—where Albert,

at

age sixteen,

for

young Ein-

his first scientific essay.

These family connections were not only stimulating stein;

many

they also helped him cope with

many

difficult

phases in his

life.

may have been no uncle, there would at least be a close friend of the family who looked after the young man. Much later, it was Professor Einstein, by then in America, who would try to help many of his relatives during the Nazis’ persecution of the Jews. And

if in a city like

Zurich there

After their marriage in 1876, first lived

moved

— thanks alarm.

Helene, on too

at

in the old part of

into a bigger apartment. Early in 1879, with Pauline six

comfortable apartment in

some

young wife

years, at the beginning of Pauline’s first pregnancy,

months pregnant, they moved

seen

Einstein and his

on Miinsterplatz, the cathedral square,

Ulm. After two they

Hermann

to the livelier Bahnhofstrasse 135B, to a

a three-story building.

to his sister’s notes

From

first

fat!” 4 Little

We

have already

—that Albert’s birth was not without

the same source,

we

learn that

seeing her grandson, exclaimed,

Albert seems to have been

a

“Much

Grandmother too

fat!

Much

quiet baby, causing

trouble to those charged with looking after him.

no

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

8

Albert Einstein did not develop any particular feeling for his birthplace, because a year later the family

to

Munich. When, on

photograph, he responded, not without some sarcasm: “For

be born

in,

the house

makes no great at one’s

his

owner of the building presented him with

birthday, the

fiftieth

moved

is

pleasant enough, because

aesthetic

demands

yet; instead

on

one

of

much about

dear ones, without bothering too

a place to

that occasion

first

a

one

screams

all

reasons and

circumstances.” 5 Still,

even though Einstein spent only the

Ulm— growing up

in Bavaria,

and

something Swabian clung to him

first

later in Italy

his

all

year of his

in

life

and Switzerland

For one thing, there was

life.

the soft Swabian dialect, which the family never dropped after leaving

Wiirttemberg and which Einstein,

He

himself became an object of

even

tives:

as a

second wife during his

remained

if less

markedly, kept to his old age.

peculiar tendency toward diminu-

its

grown man, he always remained,

(his

cousin Elsa), “der Alberti”

final years in

—

to his family

and

his

Even

“Little Albert.”

America, his English, which for him always

a foreign language,

seemed

to have

Swabian undertones.

In other respects, too, the Swabians would always have recognized

him

as

one of

their

own:

in his speculative brooding, in his often

roguish and occasionally coarse humor, and in his pronounced, individualistic obstinacy. It

most famous

son, he

comment, he

readily

attaches to one’s

one’s mother. ...

combines

just flattery

was asked by the editor of the

came up with

life as

I

was probably not

something

a

with

a

local

just as

unique

first

child

Ulm’s

paper for

Ulm

as one’s origin

a

from

with gratitude, because

it

simple and sound character.” 6

That Hermann Einstein planned another move so soon of his

as

compliment: “One’s place of birth

therefore think of

artistic tradition

when,

was due to the

initiative

after the birth

of his youngest brother,

Jakob. Jakob was the only one of the five brothers to have higher education. After leaving his Realschule Stuttgart,

had qualified

in the Franco-Prussian

Munich, where he ran

as

he had attended the Polytechnic in

an engineer, and

War

as

an engineer had served

of 1870-1871. In 1876 he had settled in

a small firm that did

water and gas installations.

Family

No

9

doubt Jakob convinced Hermann that there was

Hermann’s business

new

the

—dealing

in goose feathers for

industrial age held out greater

future in

little

bedding

—and

that

promise in more appropriate

fields.

Hermann Einstein moved to Munich with his wife and one-year-old son in the summer of 1880 and became a partner in the firm Jakob Einstein & Cie. The family took an apartment at MiillerAt any

rate,

strasse 3, close to the Sendlinger

Jakob, firm.

still

The

was

a bachelor,

living

division of labor

Tor, in the same building where

and which was

also the address of the

was determined by the

and

interests

abili-

of the two brothers: Jakob dealt with technical matters whereas

ties

Hermann concerned

himself with the commercial

&

boilers. In this

Hermann

way,

workshop and

Cie., a “mechanical-technical

name

boilermaking firm” which had earned a

years

by acquiring two-thirds of

later the brothers enlarged their business

the assets of Kiessling

Two

side.

for itself

making

gas

Einstein productively and profitably

invested the major portion of his wife’s dowry.

Jakob

saw to

also

it

extended to the relatively

new

almost at the same time

as

Cie.,

the

Technical

field

Cie. were

of electrical engineering. In 1882,

they acquired their share of Kiessling

two Einsteins took part

Show

&

that the activities of Einstein

organized in

the

in

International

Munich by Oskar von

&

Electro-

They

Miller.

exhibited dynamos, arc lamps, and lightbulbs, as well as a complete

telephone system. This side of the business developed so well that the brothers soon abandoned gas and water installations and boilermaking. In 1885, they sold their shares in Kiessling their capital, along with loans

from

erty

a

&

Cie.”

newly founded

To

this

end they

major piece of land in the suburb of Sendling, “prop-

No. 14” on what was then Rengerweg but

the unpronounceable residential building,

addition, and behind

with ancient

Cie. and invested

relatives, in a

“Electrical engineering factory J. Einstein

had acquired

&

trees.

name

in 1887

would be given

Adlzreiterstrasse. Facing the street

which was immediately enlarged by which was

The

a rather

factory was set

a

was

a

spacious

neglected but large garden

up

in buildings

on

property, Lindwurmstrasse 125, purchased for that purpose.

a

nearby

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

10

Thus

the Einsteins had established themselves in an innovative

They were what we would

industry with good prospects of growth.

now

A

describe as high-tech venture entrepreneurs.

photograph of Hermann Einstein from

this

time shows him

as a

typical patriarch of

Germany’s early

cropped short; he

clean-shaven, except for a precise mustache; he

is

gazes severely through a monocle, looks like a Prussian. But those

—

ferently

industrial period:

demanding respect

his hair

—

kind and friendly man, esteemed and loved by

as a

family and friends, especially those of the female sex.

He

he

in fact,

who knew him remembered him all

is

dif-

of his

certainly

was

hardworking, but not to an extent that would have interfered with the pleasanter side of

life.

He made

frequent excursions with his family to

the surroundings of Munich, and he enjoyed the ancient Bavarian pas-

time of visiting beer

He was

cellars.

exceedingly fond of his wife, Pauline, and “the character of

the couple harmonized so perfectly that throughout their whole lives

the marriage was not only never clouded, but in fact proved the only solid

and

reliable

been due to the

element

of fate .” 7 This

at all turns

may

also

have

views were in harmony. Both

fact that their religious

of them respected and declared their Jewish origins, and they probably

never considered Christian baptism, either for themselves or for their children, as a

way of assimilating

further.

longer played a role in their family

nor did they pray

at

life:

However, the synagogue no they did not go to a temple,

home. The precepts of kosher cooking were

ignored, and pork was eaten as a matter of course. thinker’s attitude

Hermann even

customs were not practiced in

his

prided himself that Jewish

house

8 .

were scarcely read, and the Talmud not his family

Hermann

With

The writings at

all.

his freerites

and

of the Prophets

Instead, in the circle of

Einstein recited Schiller and Heine 9

—

Schiller as a

Swabian national hero of the enlightened bourgeoisie and Heine a

popular Jewish poet writing in German. Comparing his

may indeed have Hermann Einstein

Heine’s tion:

to be accepted

life

with

buttressed his faith in the progress of civiliza-

—unlike Heine—did not have

by

own

as

his fellow citizens.

to be baptized

Family

1

This, then, was the environment in which Albert Einstein grew up to the pure joy of his parents

first

ization of his personality visited

Munich

in the

and

comes from

summer

grandson: “Little Albert

relatives.

his

earliest character-

of 1881 and said of her two-year-old

him

already not to be able to see

at

grandmother Jette Koch, who

good

so sweet and so

is

The

—

1

that

for such a long time.”

she wrote to Munich: “Little Albert

is

it

me

pains

A week later,

fondly remembered by us; he

was so sweet and good, and we have to repeat

amusing ideas again

his

and again.” 10 Unfortunately, the fond grandmother did not record any of those amusing ideas. Little Albert’s reaction to the birth of his sister

vember

18, 1881,

years and eight

was certainly amusing.

months

had been told of the

old,

new

the Riidele the wheels, of his ,

early hint of his later delight in a little

strikingly slow, as

,

a

where

may have been an or it may have been

making up rhymes,

a plaything. Actually, the

since Einstein’s speech

he himself would

parents were worried because so they consulted a doctor. less

Mddele

toy were. 11 This

was not

more probable,

is

arrival of a

boy’s mishearing and being disappointed to find

that the screaming bundle

explanation

doubt the boy, then two

future playmate, because he promptly inquired

little girl, as a

no more than

No

Maria on No-

I

I

can’t say

development was

later confirm: “It

began to speak

second

is

true that

much

relatively late, so

how old I was

my

then, certainly not

than three.” 12 However, the delay seems to have been due to an

early ambition to speak only in complete sentences. If

him

a question,

an undertone after

he would

—

first

form the answer

deliberately, with obvious lip

someone asked

in his head, try

movements

it

out in

— and

only

assuring himself that his formulation was correct would he

repeat the sentence aloud. This often gave the impression that he was

saying everything twice, and the maidservant therefore called “stupid.” 13

He

gave up this habit only in his seventh year, or perhaps

(according to some testimony) not until his ninth. sion not only of particular thoroughness later

gave for

him

—but

this peculiarity

critical acquisition

—the

One

has the impres-

explanation his sister

also of a boy’s laborious

and

self-

of language, in contrast to most children’s natural,

unproblematical learning.

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

12 Albert’s

younger

sister

—nicknamed Maja—recorded in her warm-

hearted biographical notes that he was fondest of engrossing himself in all

kinds of puzzles, making elaborate structures with building blocks

He

and constructing houses of cards of breathtaking height.

young

interested in playing in the garden with

came

visiting,

street.

and he was

who

relatives

If

less

often

boys in the

totally averse to the fights of the

These boys soon nicknamed him “the bore.”

was

he could not

avoid playing with other children, he deliberately sought the job of

umpire, which, because of his instinctive sense of

justice,

was gladly

assigned to him.

When Albert was five years

woman was

old, a

prepare him for the rigors of school

unequal to another

trait in

life.

the boy’s

engaged

as a tutor to

She, however, found herself

makeup

—one

that the family

believed he had inherited from his grandfather Julius Koch.

something was not to Albert’s

liking,

he was seized by

Whenever a

sudden

temper, his face paled, his nose turned white, and the consequences

were

terrible.

grabbed

On

a chair

and with

fied that she ran sister, too,

one occasion, when he did not

had to

away

it

struck the

“On

tutor,

who was

another occasion he threw

“he

so terri-

and was never seen again .” 14 His

in fear

suffer:

woman

like a lesson,

little

a large nine-

pin bowl at [her] head, and yet another time he used a child’s pickaxe to strike a hole in [her]

head .” 15 Fortunately, these tantrums receded

during his seventh year and disappeared completely during his

first

years at school.

One might

ask at this point

how

such

a child

—with conspicuously

delayed speech development, averse to play and social behavior appropriate to his age,

control

—would

and moreover with an occasional

fare in the tests

enrollment in school. Such

total lack

and examinations that

a child, in a

fit

now

of

self-

precede

of temper, might attack

a

teacher or a psychologist with a chair, just as occurred a century ago

with young Albert Einstein and his tutor. In the accepted view of child psychologists, a child like this should be diagnosed long before starting

school and given

some form of therapy or

other,

when,

as

with

little

Albert, there are speech problems suggesting defective development.

The

psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson,

who

has ventured to

make

this

remote diagnosis on the strength of the records, believes that cases of

Family this

kind deserve or even

demand

careful attention. 16

he regards Albert Einstein’s example tendency to rather than

as a

At the same time,

warning against the present

children into the same mold; this could inhibit

all

fit

13

promote the development of talent. In the

grew up without the benefit of

a therapist

event, Einstein

and developed

tinctive character traits: his determination to apply his

brooding, and his profound

his intense

own

him throughout

to

own

dis-

yardstick,

way of wondering about

Einstein’s receptiveness to “wonders” and “wondering”

mous importance

his

things.

was of enor-

his life as a motivation for pro-

ductive thought, especially in scientific matters. This was a trait which

he

he could not explain to himself, but he commended “won-

felt

dering,” and slowness, in a letter to a colleague, the reate

James

Nobel Prize

lau-

Franckf:-

When

I

anyone

else,

ask myself

who

why

it

should have been me, rather than

discovered the relativity theory,

was due to the following circumstance:

on space-time problems. Anything

An

and time when

I

I

think that this

adult does not reflect

on

that needs reflection

matter he believes he did in his early childhood. hand, developed so slowly that

I

this

on the other

I,

only began to reflect about space

was grown up. Naturally

I

then penetrated more

deeply into these problems than an ordinary child would. 17 It is

clear therefore that Einstein’s notion of

ferent

common meaning

from the

inability to understand. In his

It

“wondering”

of that term

—

a

very

dif-

noncommittal

own view:

seems to occur whenever an experience comes into conflict

with a conceptual world sufficiently fixated within conflict

back

is

child of 4 or

in

manner upon our mental world.

development of that mental world

from “wonder.”

Thus

us. If

experienced strongly and intensively, then

in a decisive

sense, the

ary”

is

5,

—

I

when my father showed me

a

facetiously called his

—he

as Autobiograph isches

a

reacts

In a certain

a continual flight

experienced a wonder of just that kind as

what Einstein

—published

is

it

such

a

compass. 18 “

Nekrolog

recalls

” ,

his

“Obitu-

an experience which

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

14

he frequently related and which agreeing) versions.

He

brought him

his father

sion this instrument

The not

was a

compass

my

behaved in such

I

—the deep and

on me. There had that

lasting impres-

a definite

manner

did

of occurrences which had established

subconscious conceptual world (effects being con-

nected with “contact”).

member

—not suspecting the

would make:

at all into the pattern

itself in

when, no doubt to divert him,

sick in bed,

fact that the needle

fit

recorded in several (basically

is

to be

remember

to this

—or think

day

lasting impression this experience

something behind the

objects,

I

re-

made

something

was hidden. 19

—the

Although the subject matter of Einstein’s great accomplishment

essay Z,ur Elektrodynamik bewegter Korper (On the Electrodynamics of

Moving

Bodies) of 1905,

—seems

tivity

too

much

to be

which contains the

special theory of rela-

foreshadowed here, one should probably not read

into this experience.

A

lot

of children wonder about a

rainbow, and some no doubt will have wondered about a compass needle,

which seems

to be

moved by an

fracting light or an apple dropping

and clever questions. Altogether,

from as

invisible hand.

a tree

A

prism

dif-

may evoke wonderment

Sigmund Freud observed, the

intelligence of adults pales against the brilliant intelligence of five-

year-olds.

Still,

among

all

Newton and only one an

these children only one

became an

Isaac

Albert Einstein.

Einstein himself was unable to explain this powerful experience,

because “a person has

little

insight into

what goes on inside him.

may not produce a similar effect on a young dog, nor indeed on many a child. What then is it that determines a particular reaction from an individual? More or less plausible theories may be constructed about it, but one does not arrive at a Seeing

a

compass for the

deeper insight.” 20

first

time

We will have

to content ourselves with the sugges-

tion that a productive result probably depends both

and on the person “wondering.”

on the “wonder”

CHAPTER TWO School

When

Albert Einstein reached the

statutory school age,

parents were spared the problem of choosing a school.

six,

The

his

only

Jewish private school in Munich had been closed in 1872 for lack of pupils, 1 a clear indication of the readiness of its

(One

in fifty of

had remained

Jews to

Munich’s population was Jewish, and

fairly

constant during the

city’s

it

was

proportion

growth over the

decades of the nineteenth century. In the city center higher, and in suburbs like Sendling

this

assimilate.

it

was

last

two

slightly

distinctly lower.) In the

absence of any alternatives, therefore, beginning on October

1,

1885,

Albert attended the nearest school, the Petersschule on Blumenstrasse, a

big Catholic elementary school with

dents from

all

strata

Lindwurmstrasse

it

of the population. At a brisk walking pace

its

stu-

down

could be reached in about twenty minutes. Albert

was accepted into the second grade: despite

more than two thousand

disastrous end, cannot have

Albert was the only

his private tuition, therefore,

been entirely

Jew among some seventy

by the teacher. 2 “The teaching

were

liberal

classmates.

He

par-

and was

in fact particularly

staff in the

elementary school

ticipated in the Catholic religious studies liked

in vain.

and made no difference between denominations.” 3 Such

an attitude was

a result

of both the humanitarian educational reforms

of the time and the progressive views of a large part of the

Munich

bourgeoisie.

Nevertheless, that same teacher of religious studies clearly realize that

among

all

made

Einstein

those good Christians he must feel an

15

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

16 outsider:

“One day

that teacher brought a long nail to the lesson and

had been nailed

told the students that with just Such nails Christ

to the

Cross by the Jews.” 4 This macabre method of teaching the Gospel was an indication that even

from an

innate, if mild, anti-Semitism.

more outspoken dren

liberal teachers were, as Christians,

at the

Among

not free

the students this led to

“Among

aggression, as Einstein recollected:

the chil-

elementary school anti-Semitism was prevalent.

It

was

based on racial characteristics of w