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 which the children were strangely

aware and on impressions from religious teaching. Physical attacks and insults

on the way home from school were frequent, but

for the

most

part not too vicious. But they were sufficient to consolidate even in a child a lively sense of being an outsider.” 5

we have no

At the same time, though,

evidence that Einstein ever suffered from his “sense of

being an outsider,” either

as a child or in later years.

and “belonging” were both probably

“Being

a stranger”

most important personality

his

traits

from

Even

in elementary school, therefore, Einstein never stepped out of

his earliest years.

his characteristic isolation.

He

rarely played with coevals, not even

who had meantime been born to Uncle Jakob or boy and girl cousins, who frequently came to visit. In his

with the children with his

deliberate but usually reserved

manner he got on reasonably

What

them, but they gave him the nickname “Goody Goody.” bly helped to earn to finish his

him

homework

that reputation

was the

fact that

before being allowed to play:

well with

proba-

he always had

“No

excuse was

accepted by our parents for any infringement of that rule.” 6 Success followed, for on August

1,

1886, at the end of Albert’s

first

year at school in second grade, his mother wrote to her sister Fanny

was again top of the

Einstein: “Albert got his grades yesterday, he class,

he brought

home

a brilliant report

.” 7 .

.

Admittedly, he had an

ingrained dislike of physical training and games, “as he easily got vertigo

and got

tired quickly.” 8

Yet he did not get

tired at

engrossed with his beloved metal construction

set,

all

when he was

or with involved

fretsaw work, or with manipulating a small, hissing steam engine

which Uncle Caesar Koch had brought him

as a present.

School

17

Albert Einstein the schoolboy would thus have appeared to his parents

and teachers

as a

well-behaved child

who had

of routine and obedience,

inevitabilities

learned to submit to the

demanded by school and

as

the world of adults. But behind that facade of adjustment there was still

a

determination to preserve his individuality, though

manifested

more sublimated,

itself in a

this

now

socially acceptable form: a

dreamerlike, skeptical distancing from other people and things.

Now and

again, however, his dislike of

the facade of the well-adjusted

he was moved from

young man. Thus

class Ilia to Illb,

problems in the wake of one of also, for a

any coercion burst through in

probably because of disciplinary

his last outbursts of anger. 9

Unusual

become

a soldier

boy, was the fact that he wanted neither to

nor to play with toy

November 1886

southern

soldiers. In

German

states like Wiirt-

temberg and Bavaria, the army did not quite enjoy the same overriding prestige as in Prussia; nevertheless, even in see nothing

more wonderful than

Munich young boys could

the hope of one day wearing a uni-

form and serving king, emperor, and fatherland served in the war with France military

pomp. Albert

—

as

Uncle Jakob had

—and most children were fascinated by by

Einstein,

contrast, displayed a definite dis-

like.

On

that

someday he might march along with those men

one occasion, when he was watching

said to his parents:

“When

I

grow up

a

parade and was told in uniform,

he

don’t want to be one of those

I

poor people.” 10 Despite drill

many positive

features, schooling

was pervaded by military

and the principle of absolute obedience. There was an exagger-

on order and

ated emphasis

young Albert

make any

discipline. It

explicit criticism; in retrospect, a

at

was

felt

by the

the

to

however, he regarded his

mixture of anger and contempt: “The

teachers at the elementary school

and the teachers

this

At the age of eight or nine he was not ready

Einstein.

Munich schooldays with

tenants.” 11

seems that

seemed

Gymnasium

At the age of nine and

a half

to

[the

me

like drill sergeants,

high school]

like

lieu-

he completed his three years of

elementary school and moved over to the “lieutenants.”

The

Luitpold

Gymnasium

accepted on October

1,

in

Munich, where Albert Einstein was

1888, was by

no means one of the worst

insti-

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

18 tutions. It

was not

strasse, the street

from

far

his old

where he had

elementary school, on Miiller-

lived before the family

Greek were

Sendling. Although here, too, Latin and

education in the humanities, the school

Wolfgang Markwalder

—had

parents:

its

steadily

rate, it evidently

origin

also

had

their

When

Einstein

were 684 students; by 1894, when he severed

his (not

it

had increased to 1,330.

the students were Catholics, but five percent were of Jewish

—two and

purely

Dr.

enjoyed great respect

in education.

altogether easy) relations with the school,

Most of

of

growing number of students cannot have

been due solely to an increasing interest arrived, there

principal,

its

to

gained a reputation as an enlightened,

however modest. At any

among

at the center

where mathematics and the sciences

liberal institution,

place,

—under

moved

statistical

crowded:

a class

times

a half

more than one might have expected on

grounds. Classes, at least the lower ones, were very

photograph of Einstein’s

first

year shows

him with

Other than himself, only two were Jews.

fifty

classmates.

The

old story that Einstein was a bad pupil, or even failed altogether at

school, has been repeated time and again, presumably to console poor

students or their parents

—though low marks

antee of success in later

life.

reflects the a brilliant

In

fact,

the story

at is

school are no guar-

not true:

at

most

it

hope of parents that even the dumbest student might have mind.

as early as the 1920s, Einstein

Still,

was

cited as a

many other fanciful stories smile. Not so, however, a cer-

shining example of this thesis. As with so

about him, he probably

let it pass

with a

tain Dr. Wieleitner, the principal of the

Neues Realgymnasium, the

successor of Einstein’s school.

When, articles

in

1929, on the occasion of Einstein’s fiftieth birthday,

appeared in various journals, mentioning

approval

—Einstein’s

“total

—

if

anything, with

weakness in the ancient languages,” 12 Dr.

Wieleitner was evidently worried that the boy’s allegedly poor grades

might damage the school’s reputation more than that of the man who had meanwhile become

a

famous

physicist.

He

therefore searched the

school records and, in a letter to the editor of a Alunich paper, saved the honor of the Luitpold

had “always [received]

Gymnasium by

at least a 2 in Latin,

pointing out that Einstein

and in the

sixth grade

even

School a

1.

Greek he always had

In

‘secret reports’ there

is

a 2 in his

19

school reports.

no complaint anywhere of

a

.

World War,

.

Even

poor

languages.” 13 As the school records were destroyed in a

during the Second

.

in the

gift for

bombing

the raid

the doughty principal’s letter to the

editor remains the only evidence that Albert Einstein was a

good

stu-

dent in high school.

Despite his good reports, Albert Einstein would later remember his time at school as an almost traumatic experience. 14 While

still

a stu-

dent he suffered in silence; he never voiced any criticism of the school and, presumably, without any comparable experience, was unaware of its

shortcomings

at the time.

child scarcely complained,

“According to the family, the taciturn

nor did he seem too unhappy. Only much

he identify the tone and atmosphere of the high school with

later did

those of the barrack-square, which in his eyes were the negation of

everything human.” 15 Even at the age of forty he told his

biog-

first

rapher that at the Gymnasium, “though he grew fond of some individual teachers, he felt himself harshly touched

by the

spirit

of the

institution.” 16

However, there

exists

Luitpold Gymnasium.

some

rather different testimony about the

Thus Abraham

short time after Einstein and later

has entirely pleasant memories

dox Jew, he would have been

Fraenkel,

became

more of an

attended

it

a

famous mathematician,

a

— even though,

far

who

as a practicing

Ortho-

outsider than Einstein.

Indeed, Fraenkel referred to “nine happy years” 17 spent there. Einstein’s

experience cannot, therefore, have been the fault of the school

alone; there

must

also have

been powerful reasons within Einstein

himself which prevented harmonious integration.

A taste a

glance at the syllabi 18 shows that they were not exactly to the

of Albert Einstein’s “intellectual stomach.” 19 Eight hours of Latin

week

—

in

some grades even ten hours

—plus

much room someone who

six

hours of Greek from

the fourth year on, did not leave

for other subjects.

was not

admitted:

a favorable situation for

weakness was texts.” 20

a

bad memory, especially

There were only three periods

a

bad

for

memory

German,

This

“My principal for

words and

as well as, in the

upper grades, for French. Mathematics was taught only three or four

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

20

times a week; geography and science were taught only twice a week. Physics appeared only in the seventh year; but by then this was no

longer of any interest to Einstein, because “in mathematics and physics ^

I

was, through private study, far above the school requirements, also

with regard to philosophy in so

far as this has

anything to do with the

school program .” 21 Thanks to his private study and the self-assurance this

had given him, he eventually found

it

good

easy, despite

reports,

to leave school early.

Conflicts also

marked the development of young Albert Einstein ’s

reli-

gious sentiments and beliefs. In his elementary school he had partici-

pated in the Catholic religious lessons, while at the same time being

home by

instructed in the Jewish tradition “at

who was father

a distant relation ,” 22

better versed in these matters than Albert’s freethinker

—from

whom

heard

Albert

remarks about dogmatic

rituals .” 23

and unfriendly

only “ironical

At the Luitpold Gymnasium, unlike

the elementary school, there were a few Jewish classmates, for liberal

school

management provided

their

own Jewish

whom a

religious

instruction through Oberlehrer (senior teacher) Heinrich Friedmann.

Friedmann’s exegesis of the Prophets

initially

found

a

very receptive

and grateful listener in young Albert. Like so many adolescents in search of a meaning to

human

existence, Albert Einstein

acutely realized the vanity of hoping and striving, that drove

people restlessly through

life.

Everyone was condemned, by the

existence of his stomach, to participate in this race.

might well be

satisfied

by such participation, but

thinking and sentient being. There the

He a

no longer

ate

The stomach not man as a

way out

strictly

pork

25 .

is

religion

adhered to

He

24 .

ritual

even composed

few short hymns to the greater glory of God, which he sang with

great fervor at

home and

direction of Oberlehrer a

first

keenly studied the preacher Solomon,

precepts, and in consequence

most

as

he was walking in the street

Friedmann and

a rabbi

member on

Under

the

he prepared to become

bar mitzvah, to be solemnly accepted into the Jewish

full

26 .

community

the Sabbath following his thirteenth birthday.

as a

The

School

21

reason this never took place was his encounter with the natural sciences.

One

of the few Jewish customs

was inviting

a

observed in the Einstein

still

home

poor Talmudic scholar to lunch on the Sabbath. For the

Einsteins, admittedly, the Sabbath

had become Thursday, and the

poor student did not want to become

a rabbi:

Still,

his last

weekly

his

he was

a

medical student.

name was Talmud. Max Talmud was twenty-one when

visits

to the Einsteins in Sendling began, in 1889.

Albert, eleven years his junior, he seems to have

been something

For

like a

substitute father in a spiritual or intellectual sense, or at least a substitute uncle.

Max Talmud would

his hosts’ son. In

many

bring popular science books for

respectable families such books

have been considered suitable reading matter for

a

would not

youngster

—they

presented a scientific, materialist picture of the world that reeked suspiciously of atheism and revolutionary attitudes.

boy could engross

givings existed in the Einstein household, the himself, undisturbed, in Buchner’s Kraft

und Stojf (Force and Mat-

which presented the philosophy of the French

ter),

German

the

As no such mis-

also

public in a

studied

the

somewhat

diluted form.

With

great zeal he

twenty volumes of Aaron Bernstein’s Natunvis-

senschaftliche Volksbiicher (Science for the People series);

author of educational works in a

among emancipated Reform Alexander von Humboldt’s physische Weltbeschreihung

Physical

materialists to

(

spirit

Bernstein was an

of enlightenment,

much

read

Jews. In addition, Albert browsed in

five -volume classic,

Kosmos

—Entwurf

einer

—Attempt at a Description of the

The Cosmos

World), and read something by, or

at least about,

Charles

Darwin.

These books soon convinced the boy could not be true.

The

result

combined with the impression ately lied to

by the

state: it

was

was downright that

fanatical freethinking,

young people were being

deliber-

a shattering discovery.” 27

Albert Einstein therefore did not rabbinical standards was not a proper nity.

“that a lot in the Bible stories

become

a

member

of the Jewish

bar mitzvah, and by

commu-

His parents probably did not mind their son’s freethinking any

more than they had minded

his earlier religious fervor. Religious dis-

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

22

enchantment now

mask of the

tinder the

From

what had been hidden

also released

well-adjusted schoolboy:

experience grew a mistrust of any kind of authority, a

this

skeptical

approach to the convictions which were current in

whatever

social

never

left

nections,

For

was

from the

found myself

more than compensation

and was yet in

in mathematics.

Albert

While he

still

far

beyond the school curriculum

know one simply calls x and treats it as were known; one writes that context down and deterdoes not

mines x afterwards .” 30

On

another occasion Uncle Jakob drew his

The boy

nephew’s attention to Pythagoras’ theorem. a

” 29

a sense appropriate to Albert’s age, as “the art of lazy

What one

the context

youth

28 .

Uncle Jakob, the engineer, had intro-

duced him to algebra, which was

was

—an attitude which

“religious paradise of [his]

in elementary school,

calculation.

I

subsequently lost something of its original edge

it

his expulsion

still

environment

me, even though, with better insight into causal con-

Einstein found

if

few years

for a

need to prove

it,

there

felt that

“spent three weeks in strenuous reflection ,” 31

and without help from anyone found

a

proof which his

fondly

sister,

overestimating him, even claimed had been accomplished “in an

new way.” Needless to say, Albert’s proof, based on similar right- angle triangles, was new only to him, but he had worked it out for himself. Far more astonishing than even this achievement was entirely

surely his independent discovery that this was something that needed

proving

at

all,

and that

it

could be proved.

These mathematical preludes were the intellectual stimulation, also

coming from Max Talmud. Before Albert

started his fourth year at the

brought him

a

right tune-up for other

Gymnasium

at

textbook of plane geometry

came

to this subject at school,

simpler textbook. Albert began to

work

his

independently, and each Thursday he would

32 :

would be another two

Spieker’s Lehrbuch der ebenen Geometries It

years before he

Talmud had possibly Theodor

age twelve,

a

much

the

book

and then with

way through show

his

mentor,

Max

Talmud, the problems he had solved during the week. The boy’s astonishingly rapid progress left an indelible impression

“After a short time, a few months, he had

on Talmud:

worked through the whole

School

book of

He

Spieker.

matics, studying

These, too,

right.

Soon the

thereupon devoted himself to higher mathe-

by himself Liibsen’s excellent works on the sub-

all

ject. 34

23

I

had recommended to him

flight

if

memory

serves

me

of his mathematical genius was so high that

I

could no longer follow.” 35

While Max Talmud was amazed mainly by the

breathless speed

with which his young friend absorbed his scientific reading, Einstein’s

own

recollection, especially of his acquaintance with the “sacred

little

geometry book,” 36 had more to do with depth, with the mysterious regions of “wondering” that he had

first

experienced with the compass

needle:

At the age of twelve

I

different kind:^ over a

came

to

my

hands

were statements

in

experienced little

at the it,

such

a

second wonder of

book of Euclidian geometry which

beginning of the school year. There as for instance the intersection

three altitudes of a triangle at a single point, which

no means self-evident

of the

—though by

—could be proved with such certainty that

any doubt was ruled out. This scribable impression

a totally

clarity

and certainty made an inde-

on me. 37

Albert Einstein shared this awakening of an overwhelming love of

geometry with other great

made

intellects. Galileo Galilei at

age seventeen

the chance acquaintance of this branch of mathematics, instantly

dropped

his

medical studies, and from then on read nothing but

Euclid. Bertrand Russell wrote about his studies of geometry,

which he embarked

at

age eleven under the guidance of his brother,

“one of the great events of

my

life,

as dazzling as first love. I

imagined that there was anything so delicious.” 38 three

young

enthusiasts was not so

much

What

form by Euclid around 300

as

had not

impressed

all

the richness of geometry as

the certainty and beauty of the axiomatic-deductive in canonical

on

method described

b.c.

Unlike eleven-year-old Bertrand Russell, twelve-year-old Albert Einstein was not bothered by the fact that Euclidian geometry rests on a

foundation which cannot

known

as

accepted.

itself

be questioned.

The

basic statements,

“axioms,” are unproven and unprovable and must simply be

These axioms had been regarded

as self-evident for

more

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

24

than two thousand years, so that the direct application of that ge-

ometry to world.

was considered the most natural thing

real objects

Only in

in the

the course of developing his general theory of relativity

did Einstein realize that the relationship between geometry and reality

— and he succeeded in

can be more complex and far-reaching

eluci-

dating this only after great effort and within a framework of non-

Euclidian geometry.

thought

it

When he

“sufficiently

first

encountered

wonderful that

man is

degree of certainty and purity in thought, strated in

able at

as the

all

geometry, he

to attain such a

Greeks

first

demon-

geometry .” 39

These grand words

—

called the “sacred little

in

which Albert Einstein

He

in his old age re-

geometry book”— suggest that to him the

encounter with mathematics was delight.

classical

far

more than

purely intellectual

a

later interpreted his religious fervor as a boy’s first

to free himself

from “the

attempt

of the merely personal,” from an exis-

fetters

tence dominated by desires, hopes, and primitive emotions .” 40 After the disappointment of his experiment with traditional religion, he had

found in mathematics another road to the same destination, one to

which he could surrender himself with the same emotional

Through

intensity.

private study Einstein thus acquired the principal areas of

higher mathematics, from analytical geometry through infinite series to differential fascinating:

it

and integral

He

found

this

occupation “truly

contained high-points whose effect measured up entirely

to that of elementary

The

calculus.

fact that

geometry .” 41

most people around him

the few exceptions

—Uncle Jakob was one of

—were poor mathematicians and that most of

his

classmates and teachers tended to regard ignorance of mathematics as a virtue

probably confirmed him in the belief that he had made the

right choice for himself.

Although many of the other books given to him by Max a

deep impression on Einstein

freethinking”

“sacred

little

—

their

it

especially

by reinforcing

his “fanatical

impact could not be compared to that of the

geometry book.”

senschaftliche Volksbiicher

with

—

T almud made

He

read Aaron Bernstein’s Naturwis-

“with breathless suspense

” 42

but found fault

because the “presentation [was] almost entirely confined to the

School

No

qualitative aspect.”

25

doubt the theory of biological evolution and

the wealth of the “description of the physical world,” as presented by

Alexander von Humboldt in his Kosmos must have seemed interesting ,

to

young

Albert, but here, too, the presentation was inevitably re-

stricted to verbal argumentation.

was

less

marked

mathematical

“certainty and purity of thought”

in this wealth of detail than

Max Talmud

As

The

it

was

in mathematics.

was soon unable to follow Einstein’s soaring

flights, their

conversations increasingly turned to philo-

recommen-

sophical problems. At the age of thirteen, with Talmud’s

dation and guidance, the boy studied

Reason

Talmud

43 ,

memoirs

as

probably correct in characterizing

is

attempt

Critique of Pure this

work

in his

“incomprehensible to ordinary mortals,” and his statement

that Kant’s philosophy

probably

Immanuel Kant’s

was instantly

a glorified recollection. It

clear to the

seems

likely,

young Einstein

is

however, that Kant’s

formulation of the “conditions of the possibility of

at a strict

cognition” generally was perceived by Einstein as the same striving for “certainty and purity”

by which he himself was motivated.

Because of his feeling that others should share in there emerged, in Einstein, for the

first

to a small public if he could find one.

come back

to

neighborhood where we then that time

which

I

you were beginning

got quite a

lot.” 44

relieved to learn that the

experience

time, an inclination to preach

One

classmate recalled conversa-

tions of “such forcefulness that even today, after a

the actual words

this

me whenever

I

good

happen

thirty years,

to be in the

receiving.

At

to study the Critique of Pure Reason

of

strolled,

With

boy was

all

you

instructing,

this seriousness,

I

one

is

,

almost

also capable of behavior in line with

who was two years younger than Albert and and who became renowned as a musicologist and a

his age. Alfred Einstein,

not related to him,

reviewer for the Berliner Tageblatt once reminded the famous scientist ,

of their “old connection from 1894 or 1895, at the Luitpold

Gymna-

sium, where, in our joint singing lessons, you were fond of pulling

your younger namesake’s

It

was

at

about

this

hair.” 45

time that Albert Einstein discovered his second

great love, after mathematics

much

&

—music. At the Einstein home “there was

good music-making.” 46 Hermann was not

particularly keen

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

26

on music; but Pauline, an partner in her son. violin teacher.

hoped

excellent pianist,

When he was six,

to find a musical

she engaged a Herr Schmied as a

But the technical practice and the boring etudes seemed

to Albert to be merely a continuation of school

and no progress

drill,

was made. Other teachers were engaged and dismissed: Einstein believed that he had had did not go

In a

no luck with them because

them “music

beyond the mechanical aspect .” 47

way which was beginning to be

typical, Einstein’s love

awakened only when he himself became interested and replaced I

for

later

of music

in certain pieces

his lessons with self-teaching:

only began to learn something after

I

was

thirteen,

My

mainly with Mozart’s sonatas.

fallen in love

duce them to some degree in their

unique gracefulness forced

me

to

artistic

improve

when

I

had

wish to repro-

content and their

my

technique; this

I

acquired with those sonatas, without ever practicing systematically. I believe

of duty

—

altogether that love

at least for

me

is

a better teacher

than a sense

48 .

Thus Pauline saw her hopes of

playing duets with her son

fulfilled.

Their repertoire consisted primarily of Mozart and Beethoven sonatas for piano

and

violin: the

mother probably preferring Beethoven and

the son,* quite certainly, Mozart.

Albert Einstein had grown up to be a strikingly handsome young man,

with slightly wavy dark

hair; full,

sensuous

lips,

modified by the down-

turned corners of his mouth into something like skepticism; large

dark-brown gaze. “In

eyes;

all

and

a challengingly self-assured

these years,”

reading any light literature.

Max Talmud recalls, “I Nor did I ever see him in

schoolmates or other boys of his age .” 49 Even

showed the beginning,

at

describe himself as a “loner,

but often dreamy

least,

who

of those

at

never saw him the

company of

age fourteen Einstein

traits

which made him

never belonged with his whole heart

to the state, his country, his circle of friends, or even his closer family,

but

who

being

felt

with regard to

a stranger

all

those

ties a

with a need for solitude .” 50

never overcome sense of

School

Such

a

27

young man would not always be popular,

people in authority, such

German gymnasium. As men-

as teachers at a

them

tioned above, he saw

especially with

as “lieutenants.”

But there were

few

a

who in Albert’s fourth and sixth homeroom teacher. Dr. Ruess taught not

exceptions, like Dr. Ferdinand Ruess,

years was his ordinarius, or

only Latin and Greek but also history and German, and he his students

world.

.

.

.

with great enthusiasm for the beauty of the

The

boy’s fondness

[for] this

teacher,

to satisfy his students’ intellectual hunger,

who

“filled

classical

alone was able

was so great that even be-

ing kept in after school, under his supervision, was a pleasure.” 51 Ein-

had such fond memories of Dr. Ruess

stein

and

a

that, as a

newly appointed professor, he paid Ruess

man

a visit in

of thirty

Munich

presumably Einstein was en route from Bern to Salzburg, where in

Te

September 1909

participated in his

However, Ruess did not recognize afraid that this shabbily dressed

from him. After

a painfully

long

had no choice but to leave in It

his

first

former student and was even

man might want to borrow money moment of embarrassment, Einstein

a hurry. 52

probably never occurred to Einstein to

teachers.

At

sixty,

physicists’ conference.

visit

any of

he recollected that he had detested the “mindless

and mechanical method of teaching, which, because of

memory

for words, caused

pointless to overcome.

descend upon

me

I

me

great difficulties, which

would rather

than learn to

recollection, however,

rattle

let all

it

sters

—but

my

seemed

poor to

me

kinds of punishment

something off by heart.” 53 This

seems hardly compatible with Dr. Wieleitner’s

report about his good to very good marks in the classics. his teachers

his other

Of course,

all

monof Abraham

with the exception of Dr. Ruess might have been that

does not seem very likely in light

Fraenkel’s testimony.

The

conflict

between Einstein and

partly due to him. In his seventh year

new

his schoolteachers it

had reached

ordinarius, Dr. Joseph Degenhart, informed

never get anywhere in

life.” 54

To

Einstein’s

a

him

was no doubt

point where his that “he

would

remark that surely he

“had not committed any offence,” he replied: “Your mere presence here undermines the

class’s

respect for me.” 55 Both sides must have

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

28

wished to terminate

this disagreeable relationship.

was soon able to do so was due to

stein

a

change in

That Albert Einhis parents’ finan-

cial situation.

From

&

its

establishment in 1885, Electrotechnische Fabrik

Cie. speedily prospered.

Within

a

year

it

had gained

Einstein

J.

local

renown

by illuminating the Munich Oktoberfest on Theresenwiese by tricity for the first time. 56

Orders kept coming in for the

elec-

installation

of electric streetlights in Schwabing, a suburb which was then not yet part of Munich; and in the northern Italian cities of Varese and Susa. blatt

&

Favorable reports on Einstein

fur Elektrotechnik and in

Elettricita

57 ,

Cie. appeared in

Central-

In retrospect, the Einstein

brothers’ high-tech firm looks like something that could well have

developed into a

a giant

of the electronics industry, or at least into

sound large-scale enterprise, successful both commercially and

technologically.

The

innovative head of the firm was Jakob Einstein, the engineer.

Three of them were

Altogether, he held six patents.

(which were

still

in

common

use);

for arc

two of these provided

lamps for an

improved method of advancing the carbon electrode and the third was for an automatic circuit-breaker.

The

other three patents were for

meters capable of measuring ampere-hours or watt-hours

electric

vital prerequisite for

an electrified economy. 58

In addition to lamps and electric meters, the Einstein firm factured

dynamos of various

sizes,

gauges.

The

Show

lighting and

Twenty-one

as well

all

to

the equipment

as electrolysis plants

and

firm was important enough to be noticed at the spectacu-

lar International

on urban

electrification,

manu-

from small workshop models

power-plant generators, along with cables and

needed for urban

—

in Frankfurt in 1891, as well as at a

symposium

power transmission which preceded the show.

firms, including

one from America, had been invited

present their concepts of an electrified future. Einstein

&

to

Cie. and

Ingenieurbiiro Oskar von Miller were the only firms from Munich. 59

At

its

peak the firm had

just

under two hundred employees. 60

Its

turnover and profits must have been considerable, and although,

School mindful of

its

29

persistent undercapitalization, the brothers

withdrew

only modest sums for themselves, these were enough to ensure

com-

a

fortable existence for both families.

In 1893, however, the fortunes of the firm changed dramatically.

The

Einsteins had directed

tract for lighting the

factory fully

Munich

employed

their efforts toward

city center,

winning the con-

which would have kept the

for several years. 61 After

tough and

com-

bitter

Germany’s three biggest electrical-engineering firms

petition with

Siemens and

all

AEG from

Berlin,

and Schuckert from Nuremberg

—the

contract went to Schuckert in April 1893.

The modest volume

of business

left in

Germany was not enough

to

cover the Einsteins’ high overhead, and prospects for the future were represented only By a

number of lesser

projects in Italy. In

March 1894

the two brothers, with their Italian representative as a partner, there-

founded the firm of Einstein, Garrone e C.

fore

Italy; in

in Pavia, in

July they liquidated their firm in Munich.

Leaving Munich was painful, especially for the children, to the

northern

moment

who

“right

up

of moving had to watch from their windows the

destruction of their fondest memories.” 62

An

architect and a building

contractor took possession of the fine properties on Adlzreiterstrasse, cut

down

the splendid old trees, and began to construct four-story

residential blocks. 63 In the

summer of 1894

the Einsteins

moved

to

Milan, and the following year they went twenty miles farther south, to Pavia,

where the new factory was

Italy

with her parents. Albert was

some

distant relations, because he

with the Abitur, the

The and

German high

liquidation of a firm in its

effects

geois

life

in

left in

Maja, the daughter, went to

Munich under

was supposed to

the care of

finish school there

school graduation examination.

economic

on the family were

must have been painful

built.

difficulties is

inevitable.

always a sad

For Albert, then

affair,

fifteen,

it

to find that the comfortable security of bour-

Munich was now over

for his family.

referred to this upheaval at a formative time of his

Although he never life,

we may assume

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

30

that his biting remarks

on the vanity of

which

restless striving, to

everyone was “condemned to participate by the existence of his stomach,” 64 had their origin then.

We

may

assume that subliminal anti-Semitic sentiment had

also

played a part in the contract for the

Munich

awarded to an outside firm rather than to only major manufacturer of dynamos

Whatever caused the Einsteins

them

Munich

a

firm

it

—Munich’s

to lose this crucial business, they

as upstarts

was

—which happened to be Jewish.

have been plagued by a feeling that the leaders regarded

city center, since

who

economic and

city’s

down

should be cut

must social

to the petty

trade appropriate to Jews. It is

possible that in the

young Albert

Einstein,

who had

helplessly as his father’s firm folded, the conviction

ground that German society

may

well have

begun

citizenship

the year

No

1

his native country,

Gymnasium and

his

at least in part,

own

when of German

decisions

his renunciation

go back to the profound traumas of

894.

doubt the three years which, according to

was to spend in Munich on eternity.

even before

His negative, distorted

—soon to be followed by

—may,

his family of its

to develop then.

recollections of the Luitpold

the firm closed

was then gaining

whole had robbed

His very reserved attitude to

livelihood.

1933,

as a

watch

to

his

own must have seemed

Moreover, he cannot have wanted to

though he hated

it

—because

the

to

him

finish school

like

an

—even

gymnasium would then have been

followed by the real barrack square, a small boy,

he

his parents’ plans,

among people with whom, even

he had not wanted to march in

as

step. In this situation, the

request by his ordinarius, Dr. Degenhart, to do

him

the favor of

leaving the school must have looked like the benign hand of fate. For

once, Einstein was ready to please his teachers. However, he was not to be

provoked into

a rash decision: instead,

cumspection in order to limit the damage First of

give

him

a

all,

he got

a

doctor

he proceeded with

cir-

as far as possible.

—an elder brother of Max Talmud’s—

to

medical certificate attesting that he was suffering from

“neurasthenic exhaustion” and demanding a suspension of his schooling.

Next he persuaded

his

mathematics teacher, Joseph Ducrue, to

School

31

confirm to him in writing that he had mastered mathematics up to Abitur level and that he was altogether quite an excellent mathematician

65 .

release

Finally,

from

on the strength of the medical

his school.

When

before the Christmas vacations

these formalities were 66

,

certificate,

he applied for all

completed,

he went straight to Munich’s central

railway station and the next day faced his startled parents in Milan

young man of

fifteen,

his

—

schooling cut short, with no plans or

prospects for the future, but happy to have escaped the “lieutenants.”

CHAPTER THREE A “Child Prodigy

Milan at the turn gloomy

as

any

city

of the year can be every bit

as rainy

and

north of the Alps. But for Albert Einstein the skies

were brighter than they had been

for

him

in

Munich

for a long time.

Perhaps in Dr. Ruess’s lessons he had learned of the traditional

German longing for

the south and

now found

himself in the land of his

dreams, or perhaps he was simply happy to be with his family once

more. Certainly he must have been glad to have escaped the tions of his high-school

life

in

Munich and

things he regarded as typically

to have left behind

German. His

parents, of course,

horrified at their son’s decision: their hopes that he

from school, move on

now seemed

tation

to a university,

many were

might graduate

and thus acquire status and repu-

Young

jeopardized.

restric-

Albert, however, steadfastly

declared that he never wanted to return to Munich. that, in this situation, the family council

It

seems probable

was persuaded by Uncle

Jakob’s suggestion that the fugitive schoolboy be sent to the Eidgenossisches

Polytechnikum (Federal Swiss Polytechnic) in Zurich, an

advanced technological institution which did not

insist

on high-school

graduation as a condition for admission. Albert helped assuage his parents’ misgivings by “assuring

most resolutely

that,

by the

fall

them

of that year, he would have prepared

himself by private study for the Polytechnic’s entrance examination .”

His parents

may

also

have been somewhat appeased by the unofficial

testimonial he had brought with tional

knowledge and

1

ability in

him from Munich about

mathematics.

further: in a university bookstore in

32

He

his excep-

even went one step

Milan he purchased the

first

three

A "Child Prodigy”

33

volumes of the German edition of Jules Violle’s demanding Lehrbuch der Physik. Einstein’s notes and glosses in the extant copies of Violle’s physics texts

show

making

that he

was entirely serious about the promises he was

to his parents.

His method of private study, however, caused

some astonishment: His working method was rather strange: even

when

in

.

.

.

company,

there was quite a lot of noise, he could retire to the sofa,

pick up pen and paper, precariously balance the inkwell on the backrest, and engross himself in a

problem

to such an extent that

the many-voiced conversation stimulated rather than disturbed

him. 2

The

sofa

on which- Albert Einstein balanced

his inkwell originally

stood in a large apartment on Via Berchet 2 in Milan, which was also

Garrone

the business address of Einstein,

e C. In addition, offices

had

been established in Pavia and Turin. In view of their reasonable hope

would be commissioned

that the firm

to set

up

a hydroelectric plant,

along with the appropriate transmission lines and electric street lighting in Pavia, the Einsteins in the spring of 1895

an old city on the lower Ticino, just before

The two stein

and

families

his family

moved

the poet

Ugo

Foscolo, for

small factory was built

a floor at

Hermann

Ein-

with three reception rooms in

Via Foscolo

whom

to Pavia

runs into the Po.

into separate apartments;

occupied

magnificent ancient building

it

moved

1 1,

a

formerly the house of

the street was named. 3

on the bank of the Naviglio

connecting Pavia with Milan. In addition to the

A by no means

di Pavia, a canal

money

the Einsteins

Munich and an investment by Signor Garrone, considerable sums on credit came from a cousin, Rudolf Einstein, the husband of Pauline’s sister Fanny, whose affluence came had saved from the liquidation

from a

a textile mill at

reputation in

in

Hechingen

Italy, several

of

in its

Wiirttemberg. As the firm acquired craftsmen and technicians arrived

from Munich to work with the Einsteins

again.

For Albert Einstein, who

known only Munich and its Italy if we may so describe

immediate neighborhood,

until

then had

his flight to

—

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

34 it

—was

major journey. His experience of the southern land-

his first

of a different culture and

scape,

many Germans

impression on him, as on prised”

—he would say four decades how

Italy to see

uses

later

cultural history.

people

I

.

— “when

level

I

crossed the Alps to

.

The

man and woman,

of thought and cultural con-

from the ordinary German. This .

unforgettable

before him: “I was so sur-

the ordinary Italian, the ordinary

words and expressions of a high

tent, so different

made an

lifestyle,

is

due to their long

people of northern Italy are the most civilized

have ever met.” 4

This educational experience, however, was confined to northern Italy.

Trips to Florence and Rome, or farther south, were not possible,

and we do not even know

if

he would have greatly wished to undertake

them. His only longer journey, in the early to

Genoa, to see

traveled the

first

his uncle

Jakob Koch,

a

summer of

brother of his modier’s.

a vacation

As for terms in

which took

at

Airolo on the

new hometown

Gotthard

St.

of Pavia, he described

a letter to a girlfriend in Switzerland:

be defined in mathematical terms

ramrods the various gentlemen

&

as

roughly

ladies

“The

(1)

the

The

pass.

it

in rather rude

could

city’s soul

sum

have swallowed,

created in the observer by the uniformly filthy walls

where.

of some

foot, a hike

At the height of summer he spent

several days. 5

with his family his

He

twelve miles by local train, via Casteggio to Voghera,

and then crossed the Ligurian Alps to Genoa on sixty miles,

him

1895, took

&

of the

total

(2)

the

mood

streets every-

only beautiful aspects are the delightful, graceful

little

children.” 6

Nevertheless the land and

its

people,

an indelible impression on him.

left

its

culture,

When, two

and

decades

its

language

later,

he cor-

responded with the mathematician Tullio Levi-Civita about the gentheory of

eral

relativity,

he asked Levi-Civita to “write

next time.” Einstein profusely thanked in the familiar long-missed Italian.

sure

the

it

gives

most

me

him

in Italian

for the next letter “written

You can

hardly imagine the plea-

to receive such a genuine Italian letter. It revives in

beautiful

memories of my youth.” 7

courage to reply to the mathematician in

come out

me

He could not rally enough

Italian,

“because that would

rather too bumpily.” But in his old age he tried his

that beautiful language

when

me

skill in

writing to a “Cara Ernestina,” a friend of

A "Child Prodigy his sister’s in their

in Italy are

my

younger

most

35

“The happy months of my sojourn

years:

beautiful memories.

.

.

Days and weeks without

.

anxiety and without worries.” 8

Along with technic

main occupation

his

—preparing

for the Zurich Poly-

—Einstein seems to have done various jobs

in the factory

occasionally even to have helped in Uncle Jakob’s design office.

know,

this is quite fantastic

one of

said to

his assistants,

my

about

“where

I

and

“You

nephew,” Jakob Einstein once and

my

assistant engineer

have

racked our brains for days, this young fellow comes along and solves the whole business in a

mere quarter-hour.

He’ll go far one day.” 9

The

chronicler unfortunately does not relate the nature of the “business.”

As

a

spin-off of his private study Albert Einstein during the

summer months described as his standes

1895

'of

first

wrote what

also

is

somewhat grandly

physical essay, Uber die Untersuchung des Aetherzu-

im magnetischen Feld (Examination of the

State of the Ether in the

Magnetic Field). 10 This was probably intended

as a self-test

up

and perhaps

for his entrance examination in Zurich,

dence of his studies for the family. At any together with Brussels,

stand

it:

covering

“It deals

with

letter, to his favorite uncle,

young

a rather specialized subject

fellow like me,

you don’t read the

The

“stuff,”

five

stuff at

electricity,

it is still

also as evi-

this first essay,

Caesar Koch, in

all, I

medium

in

and moreover,

as

is

somewhat naive and imper-

won’t blame you in the

is

least.” 11

an examination of the relationships

magnetism, and the ether

—that nonmaterial sub-

stance which was then being postulated as filling

the

warm-

pages in the neat gothic handwriting he had

learned at the gymnasium,

among

he sent

a

though he could hardly expect that grain merchant to under-

natural for a fect. If

a

rate,

and

all

space and being

which electromagnetic waves, discovered

in

Heinrich Hertz, were thought to propagate themselves. thor announced his essay as “the

first

1888 by

The

modest utterance of

a

au-

few

simple thoughts on this difficult subject,” more of “a program than

a

dissertation.” 12

Albert Einstein argued entirely on the lines of the ether theory of his day, as

according to which the propagation of waves was understood

analogous to the mechanical theory of waves

—which he had come

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

36

across in Violle’s textbook.

He must

have heard something about

“Hertz’s wonderful experiments,” and on that basis he his ideas for

“measuring the

elastic

and the acting forces.”

ether]

He

phenomenon of

route, derived the

now

developed

deformations [occurring in the

by

certainly,

this rather strange

“self-induction”

—without, however, using that term.

—purely qualita-

tively

Some enthusiasts see this first essay come ,” 13 but that is overinterpreting

“harbinger of what was to

as a it.

Hertz’s epoch-making discovery a great

In the wake of Heinrich

many popular

accounts of

electromagnetic theory appeared in Germany, and Einstein would

have read

at least

some of

these. In fact, striking parallels have

found between passages in Einstein’s text and an

article,

been

Die Umwdl-

zungen unserer Anschauungen vom Wesen der elektrischen Wirkungen ( The Revolution in

Our

Concepts of the Nature of Electrical Effects), in a

popular-science monthly

As the

fine Italian

14 .

summer was drawing

Meanwhile

in Zurich inexorably approached.

that this examination stipulated a

to a close, the entrance

minimum

it

exam

had been discovered

age of eighteen.

A special

exemption had therefore to be requested for young Albert, then only sixteen.

To

this

end

a friend of the family,

Gustav Maier,

Zurich, was approached. Like the Einsteins, Maier

where he had been branch manager of the

A

successful career

managed liberal,

a

bank and

freethinking

had led him a

a resident of

came from Ulm,

Deutsche Reichsbank.

local

via Frankfurt to Zurich,

department

store,

where he

and where he was part of the

elite.

Maier must have recommended Albert Einstein

to the principal of

the Polytechnic as a “child prodigy” deserving of special provisions.

But the

principal, Professor Albin

Herzog, in

his

against “taking even so-called ‘child prodigies’ tion in

which they began

pleted .” 15

(still

extant) reply

away from the

that his “information

on the

the mental maturity of the applicant were confirmed in

by the principal of the

minimum-age

institu-

their studies before these studies are

Only on condition

institution

com-

talents

full in

was

and

writing

concerned” would he waive the

rule for Einstein. It appears that Professor

Herzog was

A "Child Prodigy” satisfied

37

with the unofficial testimonial of the mathematics teacher in

Munich, who praised Albert Einstein’s “mathematical knowledge and abilities,”

at the

describing

them

as

equivalent to graduation level. 16 Anyway,

beginning of October, Albert traveled by train to Zurich, where

the Maier family put

him

“With

up.

a sense

of well-founded

diffi-

dence” 17 he reported for the exam, choosing the engineering depart-

ment on

The

the strength of his father’s and uncle’s area of interest.

examination began on October 8 and probably extended over

several days. 18 It covered cific to

a

many

subjects,

character of

my

The

it

made me

realize painfully the

That they

failed

me seemed

to

a “child

—

gappy

me

entirely

were dealing

prodigy” was confirmed. Professor Heinrich Friedrich

so impressed

by the mathematical and physical knowledge

of the young candidate that he invited Einstein tions

was

negative outcome was due mainly to the verbal descriptive

subjects; otherwise, the examiners’ suspicion that they

Weber was

it

previous schooling, even though the examiners were

patient and understanding.

with

others spe-

the candidate’s chosen field of study. For Albert Einstein

disappointing experience, “for

just.” 19

some general and

—against

all

regula-

to attend his physics lectures for second-year students, pro-

vided he remained in Zurich. Einstein, however, followed the sensible advice of the principal that he should spend a year at the cantonal

school in Aarau in order to qualify for study at the Polytechnic. 20

The a

cantonal school in Aarau

— about

thirty miles west of Zurich

great reputation as a liberal, forward-looking institution.

ginally a classical

gymnasium,

languages and science.

It

it

for

its

school, to

ori-

“physical cabinet,” which

was extended, during Einstein’s time there, into

electrical

While

had been enlarged to include modern

was famous

laboratory with a dynamo, an

—had

AC

metering instruments. 21

a

superbly equipped

motor, batteries, switchboards, and

The

principal of this remarkable

which Albert Einstein was admitted on October 26, 1895,

was the physicist Dr. August Tuchschmid, formerly an

Weber at the Polytechnic. Though Einstein was placed in the

assistant to

Professor

noted “great gaps” in

his

third year, his admission report

knowledge of French,

as well as a

need to

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

38 “catch up”

him

on chemistry.

A

teachers’ conference urged

little later, a

to “take private coaching in French, natural science,

On

istry .” 22

and chem-

the other hand, he was exempted from singing, from

physical training, and

—

as a foreigner

—from military

instruction.

Although he was obliged to take additional instruction and was no longer receiving good grades in

all

his subjects, Albert Einstein’s recol-

lections of the cantonal school are very different

the Luitpold

By

its

liberal spirit

left

and by the simple seriousness of

its

unforgettable impressions on me. Comparison with six

clearly realize

German authoritarian Gymnasium made me how much superior an education towards free ,

action and personal responsibility

Of equal importance were

one relying on outward

to

is

True democracy

authority and ambition.

of Jost Winteler.

more than

found his

What a

own

is

no empty

illusion

23 .

Einstein’s domestic circumstances in Aarau.

Gustav Maier had arranged for him to be

—he

teachers,

they were by any outward authority, this school

as

years’ schooling at a

board

memories of

his

Gymnasium:

unsupported has

from

a

paying guest in the

he found there was

far

home

more than bed and

second home, one which probably molded him family had. All his

life

Einstein remained close to

the Wintelers.

Winteler taught Greek and Latin stein

was not one of

his students.

He

at the

cantonal school, so Ein-

had studied

Zurich and

first in

then in Jena, Germany, where he obtained his doctorate with guistic study of the

burg region

who was

24 .

Kerenz

dialect, the

In Jena he had

later always called Rosa.

daughters and four sons

speech of his native Toggen-

his future wife, Pauline Eckart,

With

their seven children

—plus one or two paying

have seemed to Albert Einstein literature.

met

a lin-

guests, they

like a family idyll straight

Before long the two Wintelers were

—three must

out of Swiss

“Mama” and “Papa”

to him.

Albert’s cousin Robert

house next door.

ond

class at the

The same

Koch from Hechingen was age as Albert, Robert was

living in the

still

in the sec-

gymnasium. Gustav Maier, who had arranged for both

boys to be placed in Jost Winteler ’s care, had informed him that Albert

A "Child Prodigy” Einstein

“is

much more mature

39

than his cousin and therefore

less in

need of supervision .” 25 Anna, the eldest of the Wintelers’ daughters,

was

a spoilsport.

he had

He

a great

member

of the household, and never

was fond of conducting

scientific conversations, yet

very respectable

a “pleasant,

recalls that Einstein

sense of humor and at times could laugh heartily. In the

evenings he very rarely went out, he often worked, but more often he

would

with the family around the table, where something was being

sit

read aloud or discussed .” 26

One

classmate claims to have realized even then that Albert Ein-

not

stein did

fit

“into any

mold even

young man ,” 27 but

as a

that the

“The

“sharp wind of skepticism” at the cantonal school suited him.

cheeky Swabian

fitted quite well into that

atmosphere, his original

self-

assurance setting hint apart from the rest.” This classmate painted a

romantically exaggerated portrait of Einstein:

The

grey

felt

hat pushed back over the silky mass of dark hair, he

along with vigor and assurance,

strode

tempted to say sweeping a

world within

it.

rapid

mind

—

A

mocking

protruding lower

lip

trait

I

am

that carried

Nothing escaped the acute gaze of the

superior personality. its

restless

Whoever approached him was

sun-bright eyes.

with

—tempo of the

the

at

large

captivated by his

around the fleshy mouth

did not encourage the Philistine to

tangle with him. Unconfined by conventional restrictions, he

confronted the world

spirit as a

laughing philosopher, and his

witty sarcasm mercilessly castigated

That may sound studies a

like

all

vanity and

artificiality.

dubious, overliterary idealization; yet

group photograph of ten graduates taken in Aarau, one

whom

spots the cheeky, exotic type to

Albert Einstein’s discovery of his

own

one

if

easily

the description would apply.

identity

first

of

all

entailed the

surrender of two identities almost universally regarded as matters of course: citizenship and, albeit to a lesser degree, religious tion. It

is

no longer

possible to discover exactly

he no longer wished to be

Munich, when he

realized that

a it

denomina-

when he decided

German. Perhaps

this

that

happened

in

was the only way of avoiding military

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

40

perhaps

service, or

it

did not happen until later, in Aarau, under the

influence of “Papa” Winteler.

The

records 28

show

by the merchant Hermann

that a “petition

Einstein in Pavia for the release of his son Albert Einstein from Wiirt-

temberg citizenship” was granted on January

28, 1896.

The

reason for

the application was given as “for the purpose of his emigration to

The

Italy.”

step is

—

actual date

on which Hermann Einstein had taken

as the legal representative

unknown, but the motive

however, under the law then in force,

would not be released from

when

there

the

a

still a

minor

avoidance of military ser-

fairly certain:

is

German Reich began

Conscription in the

vice.

of his son Albert, then

this

only

at

age twenty;

male applicant over seventeen

citizenship, to

make

sure he

would be

army wanted him. Albert Einstein must therefore have

been happy when the hoped-for document releasing him arrived parents’ house in Pavia six

weeks before

at his

his seventeenth birthday. In

the register of persons released from Wiirttemberg citizenship Albert Einstein’s assistants first

name

appears in the column headed “trade and business

and factory workers.” 29 In another column we

find, for the

time, the entry “no religious denomination.”

Initially,

ality

Albert Einstein’s decision to renounce

may have been

plied'

him with

nation-

emotional, but “Papa” Winteler must have sup-

rational arguments.

Winteler had watched the the Franco-Prussian

German

rise

War

of

While

German

still

a

student in Jena,

nationalism, especially after

of 1870-71. In his native Switzerland he

missed no opportunity to warn against pan-German expansionism.

own

political

later years Einstein frequently recalled his

mentor’s

Winteler drew Einstein so intensively into thought that in

amazing

political farsightedness. In a letter to his sister

in 1933 during a “I

am

his

summer

vacation in Old

Maja, written

Lyme, Connecticut, he

said:

often reminded of Papa Winteler and of the prophetic correct-

ness of his political views.

I

have always

felt this,

but not with

this

purity and intensity.” 30 Jost Winteler died in 1929 and thus did not see the Nazis’ seizure of

power

in

Germany. But from

about the “prophetic correctness” of his views teler, a

were

it is

Einstein’s

remark

clear that to

Win-

Swiss republican, the gathering clouds of the Nazi dictatorship

less

an incomprehensible disaster than an almost inevitable con-

A "Child Prodigy” sequence of

German

political pathology.

41

At any

rate, in

wrote from Princeton to his friend Michele Besso,

“human

Winteler’s:

mention the clowns

affairs in

in

Germany.

when he

rnind Prof. Winteler had in

our age are

Now

less

it is

1936 Einstein

son-in-law of Jost

a

than agreeable, not to

obvious what

a

prophetic

perceived this grave danger so early

magnitude.” 31

its full

Einstein’s decision, after having

renounced German

nationality, to

apply for Swiss citizenship was surely due largely to the example of this

The

upright Swiss. ticular

prescribed five-year waiting period was no par-

problem. Before World

passports.

With

War I

people were not yet tied to their

confirmation from the authorities in Pavia or the

a

Zurich “residents’ control,” Einstein was allowed to travel wherever he

wished and

as often as

he wished.

In addition to renouncing his old nationality, Einstein also stripped

This step had been foreshadowed ever since

off his religious identity. his brief

The

phase of religious fervor in adolescence:

religion of the fathers, as I encountered

religious instruction

attracted

me.

Nor

community of came

to

know

and

did

I feel

destiny. in

in the

it

in

Munich during

synagogue, repelled rather than

anything

The Jewish

like national

bourgeois

community or

circles,

which

I

my younger years,

with their affluence and lack

me

nothing that seemed to be of

of a sense of community, offered

value. Loneliness, at first painful, then productive

and strength-

ening, was the result. 32

A visible

result

was

that, in the application for release

berg citizenship, his father his request

from Wiirttem-

—certainly with Albert’s agreement

if

not

at

—had entered “no religious denomination.” In the records

of the cantonal school, he was listed as

“Israelitic,”

but this

is

no doubt

because the school believed that every student had to be assigned to

some

religion or other. In a questionnaire for “right-of-residence

applicants” in Zurich, 33 which Einstein had to complete in October

1900, he entered “no religious denomination,” and he would keep this status for

more than two

decades.

In view of persistent assertions that at about age sixteen Albert Einstein

had

left

the Jewish

community 34

— assertions which seem

to be

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

42

borne out by the records this account,

made

At that time

—

worth quoting Einstein’s correction of

it is

a year before his death:

would not even have understood what leaving

I

Judaism could possibly mean. Traditional religion had no place all

in

my consciousness.

even though the realized

The

by

me

full

But

was

I

fully

at

aware of my Jewish origin,

significance of belonging to

Jewry was not

until later. 35

youthful skeptic and freethinker thus distanced himself from the

religion of his forebears, but not

from

his forebears themselves.

Albert Einstein’s maturing personality also underwent the experience

of

first

He

love in Aarau.

did not have far to look:

it

was Marie, the

eighteen-year-old daughter of the house. She had just graduated from the local teacher-training college and was

before accepting her

From

Pavia,

first

still

living with her parents

post in a small village in the canton of Aarau.

where he spent the Easter vacation, Albert Einstein wrote

to his “Beloved darling” in the fullness of his emotional experience: “I

have now,

my

had to learn the

angel,

full

meaning of

nostalgia and

much more happiness than longing gives pain. I only now realize how indispensable my dear little sunshine has become to my happiness.” 36 The two did not have to hide their feellonging. But love gives

ings

from either the Einsteins or the Wintelers. Greetings were

exchanged between Pavia and Aarau, and everything seemed to indicate

something

an unofficial engagement.

like

But when Albert Einstein embarked on

changed

his

his studies in Zurich,

mind. True, the two young people continued to meet

he at

the Wintelers’ house whenever he visited Aarau and she was able to

come home from her teaching

job.

But

six

months

later, in

May

1897,

he communicated his determination to break off the relationship, not to

Marie herself but So

me

as is

to her mother:

not to continue fighting unshakable:

be unworthy of already

I

I

me

a

mental conflict whose outcome to

cannot come to you for Pentecost. to

buy

have inflicted too

a

It

would

few days’ pleasure with new pain

much on

the dear child through

my

A "Child Prodigy”

own

me

fault. It fills

savor myself

with

a strange

some of the pain

that

43

kind of satisfaction to have to

my

frivolousness

rance of such a delicate nature has caused the dear intellectual

&

work

through

“Mama” Winteler

all

the troubles of this

did not blame Albert.

The end

premature

liaison.

Einstein’s

relations with

&

yet implacably

life. 37

Maybe

she was even relieved the risk of a

of the romance certainly did not affect Indeed, he soon became

the Wintelers.

related to them. His sister

Paul.

Strenuous

wisdom was sparing her daughter

to find that his youthful

college

girl.

observation of God’s nature are the angels

that will guide me, reconciling, strengthening, severe,

& my igno-

Maja attended the Aarau teacher-training

from 1899 to 1902 and eventually married the Wintelers’

And Michele

Besso, Einstein’s friend from the Zurich Poly-

who

technic, married Anna, the eldest daughter. Marie,

each other sincerely, but

it

was an entirely

married a

later

watchmaker, wrote about her relationship with Einstein:

When

“We

loved

ideal love.” 38

he was not personally involved, the forward young

could talk about love very differently. Consoling

was unhappily

son,

in love with

a

woman

friend

man who

an older man, the twenty-one-year-old

gave her this rather presumptuous advice:

Do you

really believe

you can

find lasting happiness in

through others, even through the only that animal personally,

myself. I

know

There

is

not

for sure.

all

continues, but

much

that

Today we

tude

Young

—matters

I

to be expected

are grouchy,

From

Yet he always

pany, the

more

know

&

frivolous, the

half-tired of

life.

...

So

than the good

life

felt

girls. 39

women was

not

the enriching love of one “angel” one could

observation of God’s nature.”

self.

tomorrow

a lot better

escape by invoking other angels

“lasting happiness in

I

from them, that

Albert Einstein’s repertoire for dealing with

without refinement.

Oh,

nearly forgot to mention infidelity and ingrati-

which we do

in

love?

from personal acquaintance, being one

next day cold, and then again irritable it

man you

life

— “strenuous

And

intellectual

work

&

rejecting the illusion of finding

through others” looks

like a

reference to him-

comfortable, and even happy, in female com-

so as this feeling was often reciprocated.

Many a young

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

44 or elderly

by

also

woman

was enchanted not only by

which suggested

his appearance,

“He had

is

how

a friend

the kind of male

beginning of the century, caused such

that, especially at the

havoc” 40

but

a passionate Latin virtuoso

rather than a stolid student of the sciences.

beauty

his violin playing,

of his second wife’s described Albert Ein-

stein’s effect.

School, as far as his grades were concerned, remained on an even keel.

The

“reproof” 41

about his unsatisfactory performance in French

recurred throughout

the intermediate reports: despite his private

all

up with

lessons he was unable to catch

bore

his Swiss classmates.

His father

blemish on his report of Christmas 1895 with equanimity:

this

“I

have always been used to Albert bringing home, alongside some very

good grades, stein

made

a

also

some poorer

bad

start also in his

& I am not

ones,

other

modern

disconsolate.” 42 Ein-

language, Italian, but

by graduation had improved, earning the second-best grade. 43 His best was

a 6, in algebra

were

5s or 4s.

With

this

and geometry. In physics he had

Only

French did he get

in

a 5-6,

and the

rest

a 3.

school report, dated September

5,

1895, confirming his

successful completion of the “fourth technical class,” Einstein

was now

able to take the Maturitatspriifung the final exam. 44 This lasted several ,

days, -with a written for

some

and an oral

part.

For the

latter

professors of the Zurich Polytechnic to

it

was customary

come over

to

Aarau

to take a look at their future students. This time Professor Albin

—the man who year school to Einstein —was present.

Herzog

On first

earlier

a

September 18

task

at

seven o’clock Albert Einstein got

heart,

His

German

a half hours, unenthusiastically

to his .

and uno-

teacher, Adolf Frey, out of the goodness of his

marked the outline “mostly

5.”

and physics, though

his

—handled grades — came

Next

way, completed rapidly, and earning high algebra,

down

—outlining the plot of Goethe’s play Gotz von Berlichingen

This he managed in two and riginally.

had recommended the cantonal

work here

Thus one mathematical term was

in a masterly

geometry,

revealed a certain careless-

when

it

should have been “imaginary,” and “Wheatstone bridge” appeared

as

ness.

“Watston bridge.”

No

doubt

his teachers

called “irrational”

had long realized that

this

A "Child Prodigy”

45

student did not waste time over such trifles.They were marked as mistakes but evidently not allowed to affect his grades.

As he had

also

done well

achieved an average of

and

a

commendable

of them.

It

5

V

2

in chemistry

and nature study, Einstein

—the best grade among the nine examinees, who was by

result for the student

far the

youngest

should be pointed out, however, that this examination was

relatively easy.

A German — and no

doubt

sium would have expected more, not only

a Swiss

in the

—

traditional

German

gymna-

essay but cer-

tainly also in mathematics.

French paper, the worst of the

Einstein’s

lot

and marked 3-4,

—not because of the mistakes

most interesting

the

but because of the subject of the essay, for the Future). Despite

its

Mes

execrable French,

also

in every other line,

Projets cTavenir it

is

(My

Plans

shows that Einstein had

found his objectives:

A

happy person

is

about the future.

too content with the present to think

On

the other hand,

are fond of

making bold

young man

to

form

young people

plans. Besides,

as precise

it is

much

in particular

natural for a serious

an idea of the goal of his strivings

as possible.

If I

am

lucky enough to pass

the Polytechnic in Zurich.

mathematics and physics. fields

my

I will

examinations,

I will

attend

stay there four years to study

My idea is to become a teacher in these

of natural science and

I

will

choose the theoretical part of

these sciences.

These

are the reasons

marily a personal

which have

gift for abstract

led

me

to this plan. It

of fantasy and practical talent. Moreover,

to the

same

is

pri-

and mathematical thought and

a lack

resolution. This

is

my hopes lead me

quite natural: one always wishes to

do the things one has the most talent

for.

Moreover, there

is

a

certain independence in the profession of science that greatly

appeals to me. 45

Quite apart from the form of these hopes and dreams, they also contain

something

from

a life

like a third

renunciation of identity,

a

breaking away

pattern linked to his family. Originally he had been sent to

4

46

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

Zurich to study

electrical

and uncle’s firm and eventually to take

father’s

But

as

engineering in order to be useful to his

he explained to

two decades

a friend

it

later,

over and carry

it

on.

Aarau had marked

his

decisive renunciation of the profession of a technologist:

.

because the thoughts of applying

.

.

would make everyday

that

aim of piling up

own

capital,

my

even more sophisticated, with the

life

was unbearable

The

me. Thought for

its

him

subjects during his year in

productively, as he confirmed in a letter three

years later: “In Aarau a

its

propagation of electromagnetic waves in the ether con-

tinued to occupy

which

to

sake, like music! 46

This kind of thought had already found Aarau.

inventiveness to things

I

had

a

good idea

for investigating the

way

in

body’s relative motion with respect to the luminiferous ether

affects the velocity

of the propagation of light in transparent bodies.” 47

This “good idea” appears to have been

a variant

of Fizeau’s famous

experiment of 1853 for determining the velocity of light in moving matter. In fact, this experiment

mentioned by Einstein

six

one of the two

is

from optics

results

years after this letter in his special theory of

relativity.

Far more important was another question, also from the range of

problems of electromagnetic waves stein

—

a

question which seemed to Ein-

“worth asking” that year in Aarau. At the time

been much more than Einstein recalled

it

a puzzle,

and from

a distance

it

cannot have

of sixty years

with forbearance: “If one were to run behind

a

light-wave with the velocity of light, one would have before one a

time-independent wave-field. But that can exist! This

was the

first

it

does not seem that something

childish mental experiment to

like

do with

the special theory of relativity.” 48

However, the cantonal schoolboy Albert Einstein was no longer that childish, and the

problem he recognized

at

all

age sixteen or seven-

teen was then not perceived as a problem by even the greatest scientists.

Einstein’s mental experiment

was precisely what Goethe had

defined as the key to scientific knowledge: “Everything in science

depends on what the

is

called

an apergu,

phenomena. And such

a realization

a realization

is

of what

lies

behind

infinitely fruitful.” 49

This

A "Child Prodigy” applies even

more

to Einstein’s theory of relativity:

case of understanding “what lies behind the

47 it is

not so

phenomena”

as

much

a

an analysis

of what should be understood by the concept “phenomenon.”

It

would

take ten years for the “infinitely fruitful” character of that apergu to

emerge.

CHAPTER FOUR

“Vagabond and Loner”: Student Days

In the second week of

October 1896

Department VI, the “School

Zurich

in

Albert Einstein enrolled in

for Specialized

Teachers in the Mathe-

matical and Science Subjects” of the Polytechnic in Zurich. still

six

months short of the

official

minimum

age

He

was

—eighteen—and

must therefore have been one of the youngest students ever

to have

entered that venerable institution.

The

impressive main building at the foot of the Ziirichberg was

designed by the Polytechnic’s

Semper.

1

One

first

professor of architecture, Gottfried

of the most striking edifices in the

city, it offers

from

its

terrace a. splendid view of the historic city center in the valley of the

Limmat. The Polytechnic, founded

in 1855,

was the

university-

first

type school of the Swiss Confederation (created in 1848). Unlike the later universities

of Basel, Zurich, and Geneva, which were financed

and supervised by the cantons, the Polytechnic was subject directly to the Swiss government in Bern.

Compared with

these universities, the

Polytechnic was of slightly inferior status, but only in that

award doctoral degrees. This was changed

in

upgraded to Swiss Technical University with

all

But the people of Zurich to

this

day refer to

At the turn of the century the

institution

it

1911,

it

could not

when

it

was

academic privileges.

as the “Poly.”

had

just

under

a

thousand

students, 2 the great majority of them in the engineering fields. Science

came under Department VI, the “School

for Specialized Teachers”; in

addition to providing basic mathematical and scientific training for engineers,

the department was

also

48

concerned with fundamental

"Vagabond and Loner” research. Mathematical Section

49

VIA, which comprised mathematics,

was the one Albert Einstein attended

physics, and astronomy,

in 1896,

along with ten other freshmen, including Mileva Marie, the only

woman

student in the Mathematical Section, which then, with the

freshmen, numbered only twenty-three students.

When the

in 1855 the first forty professorial

new

Polytechnic, a journalist with a sense of history wrote: “Since

the foundation of the University of Berlin set

appointments were made to

out on

activity

its

with such

a

no scholarly

institution has

wealth of talent.” 3 This applied not

only to architecture, but also to mathematics, in which the renowned

Rudolf Dedekind was the

first

professor. In Adolf

Hurwitz and Her-

mann Minkowski, Einstein had two outstanding mathematicians as his professors, men from whom he might have received first-rate training, but he

let this

opportunity

mathematics was take

up the short

split into

slip

many specialized

lifetime that

position of Buridan’s

by more or

is

granted

less

unused: “I saw that

areas,

each of which could

us. I thus

found myself in the

which could not make up

ass,

one bundle of hay and another.” 4 Added to

this

was

mind between

its

a certain subject-

specific arrogance: Albert Einstein, in his innocence, believed that

it is

sufficient for a physicist to

have clearly understood the ele-

mentary mathematical concepts and

to have

them ready for

appli-

cation, while the rest consists of subtleties unprofitable to the

—

physicist

a

mistake

I

realized only later, with regret.

My mathe-

me

matical talent was evidently not sufficient to enable

to distin-

guish the central and fundamental from the peripheral, from

what was not fundamentally important. 5 At any

on

rate

he remembered Professor Carl Friedrich Geiser’s lectures

infinitesimal

geometry

of the pedagogic art” 6

what he had

learnt

in his

second year

as “veritable masterpieces

—possibly because he was able

from Geiser while working on

to

his

make use of

own

general

theory of relativity.

Every beginner

him by

in

his professors.

Department VI had

a

study plan worked out for

This consisted of core

subjects, in

which grades

were given, and of useful optional subjects which were not

assessed.

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

50

After the prescribed subjects of the stein

found that he could

at universities.

He

now

first

three semesters Albert Ein-

enjoy the academic freedom customary

soon discovered that

“I

had to content myself with

being a mediocre student.” 7 Perhaps with some coyness, he enumerated

that he lacked for being a

all

“good student”

—ease of comprehen-

on what was being offered

sion, willingness to concentrate

in lectures,

and tidiness in making and processing lecture notes. But gradually he learned “to arrange

Some

interests.

wise

I

my studies

lectures

I

to suit

my intellectual

would follow with intense

stomach and

my

Other-

interest.

‘played hookey’ a lot and studied the masters of theoretical

physics with a holy zeal at home.” 8

“At home” was, Unionstrasse stitute

—

4,

initially,

not

far

the apartment of Frau Henriette Hagi at

from the Polytechnic or from the Physical In-

a separate building set

at a small pension

where he

also

up

in 1890. In his third year he stayed

run by Stephanie Markwalder

had

his

midday meal. In

at

Klosbachstrasse 87,

his last year

he returned to Frau

whom he later moved to Dolderstrasse

Hagi, with

17. All three

student

lodgings were in the bourgeois district of Hottingen, favorably situated both for the “Poly” and for the Hotel Bellevue by the lake.

His monthly draft of 100 Swiss francs came not from but fro$i his wealthy relatives in Genoa.

Garrone for

e C. in Pavia

power

had come to

summer of as

some

grief.

stations, the Einstein brothers

tried to overbid local interests

firm, they

The

1

896, barely

had

to

and had

more than

his parents

reason was that Einstein,

In an attempt to get licenses

and their failed so

Italian partner

had

badly that in the

year after the foundation of the

a

go into liquidation, losing

their entire capital as well

loans from relatives. 9 Uncle Jakob gave

up

his entrepreneurial

ambitions and became an employee. Later, as the manager of an

instrument-making firm in Vienna, he led

mann, on the other hand, wanted

firm in Milan,

and

electric

comfortable

life.

Her-

to try his luck as an entrepreneur

one more time, with help from the

new

a

on Via Manzoni,

family.

He

immediately

for the “production of

set

up

a

dynamos

motors.” Jakob Einstein’s position as technical manager

was taken by an

efficient

foreman named Sebastian Kornprobst, 10 who

had followed the Einsteins from Munich to Pavia. Despite

financial

“Vagabond and Loner” difficulties, the family’s lifestyle in

steins

occupied

When

Milan was

with eleven rooms

a floor

the firm in Pavia

been busy preparing for

his

went into

examination in Aarau. like

have saved him and us from the worst,” 12

went bankrupt.

What

depresses

parents

who

me

pains

me

To his

a

would

the thought that

strength allowed

at

really

all. I

I

1.

He had

as

two years

Maja he wrote is

&

keeps

me

the misfortune of my poor for

many years.

It also

have to stand idly by, without

am

be better

nothing but if I

a

burden to

did not live at

that year-in year-out

upright and must protect

But things soon improved

I

for his parents,

in

feeble

never permitted

me from

and

my

talent at

The

all

for

stateless

Zurich.

my

Only

all.

my

studies

despair. 13

any case Einstein was

not given to prolonged sorrow, knowing only too well “that jolly Joe and, unless

Milan

sadly:

myself any pleasure, any diversion, except that which offer,

had

tried to per-

later the

have always done everything

I

11

Uncle Jakob: “This would

happy minute

an adult person,

being able to do anything family. ... It

sister

most, of course,

have not had

that, as

Bigli 2

liquidation, Albert Einstein

suade his father to seek employment,

firm also

— the Ein-

bourgeois

still

Via

at

51

my stomach is upset or something similar,

am

I

a

have no

melancholy moods.” 14

young student Albert Einstein soon

The Winteler

boys and his cousin Robert

felt

Koch

at

home

often

in

came

over from Aarau, and the house of Gustav Maier, also from Ulm, was always open to him. Maier

with

a

—

a

wealthy

few like-minded friends, had

Ethical Culture,”

where

man

of liberal views

founded

—together

a

“Swiss Society for

social reform, educational

problems, and the

just

danger to peace from militarism and chauvinism were discussed. 15

The

founding members included “Papa” Winteler and Robert Saitchick, professor of literature at the Polytechnic. Einstein’s entree to this circle

ensured that his republican views, and the skeptical attitude

toward Bismarck’s Germany

first

aroused by Jost Winteler, would be

confirmed.

Through

friends in Milan, Einstein also

made

the acquaintance of

the family of Alfred Stern, a notable historian of German-Jewish

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

52

who was

origin,

regularly every

teaching at the Polytechnic. Einstein visited the Sterns

week and enjoyed

For

their cultivated hospitality.

his

personal problems, too, he always found a sympathetic ear with Professor Stern. After completing his studies, to Stern in these touching words: “But

he

summed up

what can

his gratitude

say about

I

the

all

kindness and fatherly friendship which you have always bestowed on

me whenever certain:

I

had the pleasure of being with you?

no one has met me the way you have, and

once came to you in

a dejected

.

.

that

mood and

or bitter

One

.

I

thing

is

more than

there invariably

found joy and an inner equilibrium again.” 16 In addition, Einstein was invited for Sunday lunch every family

named Fleischmann,

in

much

the same

way

as

week by

Max Talmud

a

had

Munich every Thursday. Michael Fleischmann had originally managed the Zurich branch of the been

a

Koch

family’s grain business in

guest in the Einsteins’ house in

Genoa, but had then

firm on Bahnhofstrasse, representing the

Koch

set

up

his

own

interests as an agent.

After his Sunday roast, Einstein would usually be seen in a Bahnhofstrasse cafe, deep in thought while

smoking

a

pipe

—

a

newly discov-

ered passion that he would maintain for a long time.

The 1 00

Swiss francs which the Kochs remitted to

should have been enough for

not poor.

Of course, when

a typical

him each month

student lifestyle

—modest but

Albert Einstein had to pay a ten-franc fine

to the Zurich Residents’ Control 17 because

he had carelessly omitted

money would be tight, especially as he month for the fee that would be payable

to deposit certain documents,

was saving 20 francs every

when he received Swiss citizenship. Now and again he would earn a little money by coaching private students for instance, Dora, the

—

daughter of his fatherly patron Professor Stern.

The

traditional social

life

of a student was not to Einstein’s

taste: in

retrospect he described himself as “something of a vagabond and loner.” 18

That does not mean

that he was lonely at the Polytechnic.

developed a “genuine friendship” with Marcel Grossmann, matics student a year older than himself.

mathe-

a

“Once every week

He

I

would

solemnly go with him to the Cafe Metropol on the Limmat Embank-

ment and

talk to

him not only about our

studies but also about any-

"Vagabond and Loner” thing that might interest

“vagabond” Einstein

53

young people whose eyes were open.” 19 The

felt

strangely fascinated by Grossmann’s firm

roots in the stolid, yet liberal, Swiss environment that he

when visiting the Grossmann home mann in turn was impressed by his is

came

to

know

Thalwil on Lake Zurich. Gross-

in

friend’s intellectual profundity;

he

reported to have told his parents: “That Einstein will one day be

someone

really great.” 20 Einstein regarded

student, close to his teachers

popular.” 21 also

.

.

Grossmann

as a

“model

myself apart and unsatisfied, not too

.

Grossmann not only

zealously attended

lectures, but

all

wrote them up so neatly that they could have gone straight to the

These notebooks were Albert

printer.

Einstein’s “lifesaver” as soon as

examinations approached: “I would rather not speculate

how

I

might

have fared without them.” 22 In later years, too, Grossmann was

a life-

saver

—once

in connection with Einstein’s first post at the Patent

Office in Bern and later with the

first

mathematical calculations of the

general theory of relativity. After Grossmann’s untimely death in 1936, Einstein wrote to his widow: “But one thing

and remained friends

all

our

up

in Italy.

had been born

He

we were

lives.” 23

Another lifelong friend was Michele Besso, Einstein. Besso

great:

is

in the

had qualified

as a

years older than

six

canton of Zurich but had grown

mechanical engineer

at the

Poly-

technic and was working for a firm in Winterthur. Besso advised Einstein to read the

works of Ernst Mach; he discussed with him endlessly

the philosophical foundations of physics, and soon

board for Einstein’s

The

became

a

sounding

ideas.

acquaintance with Besso came about through Einstein’s unswerv-

ing love of music. During Einstein’s

Zurich

meet

home

to

of

a

woman named

skill as a violinist is

afternoons. 24

attested to

school inspector

who had examined

dents in Aarau.

He

“One

semester, they had

Selina Caprotti,

make music on Saturday

siderable

first

met

at the

where people would

Young

Einstein’s con-

by the objective record of

the musical

skills

a

of seventeen stu-

mentioned only one of the examinees by name:

student, [named] Einstein, actually sparkled

performance of an adagio from

a

[in]

his

emotional

Beethoven sonata.” 25

At that time, long before radio and other advanced means of repro-

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

54

ducing music, good amateurs

like

Albert Einstein were sought-after

guests at domestic musical entertainments. Hardly any

was immune to Markwalder,

his musical passion

elderly

“charming old

Wegelin

.

am

their is

as

duet partners,

as there

&

spending the Pentecost days

God

which

Susanne

he presented with the

and devotion”; and not an piano

the

like

like

pianist

teacher,

Fraulein

At times one even has the impression that he preferred

woman

older

to her “In loyalty

maid,”

young one

a

whom

his landlady’s daughter,

Mozart sonatas inscribed 26

—not

woman

sends

me

was no

risk of complications: “I

nights with musical pleasures,

who do

through one of those angels

two-edged sword, threaten impressionable

hearts. It

is

not, with

who

a lady

already a grandmother .” 27

As numerous

as

women

the

are the anecdotes connected with

Einstein’s violin playing, often testifying to his considerable self-

assurance.

When,

Markwalders’ house, he had

at the

a small

audience

of women, some of whom began to click their knitting needles during his recital,

disturb

The

you

he simply put in

his violin

back into

its

case:

“We must

not

your work .” 28

extent to which his violin had

become indispensable

to

him

as

an instrument of intimate dialogue became clear to Einstein toward the end of his third year in Zurich,

when he

injured his

hand so

seri-

ously in the physics laboratory that he had to have stitches put in at the clinic.

In a letter to a “Dear lady,” with

whom

he had played duets in

Aarau, he regretted that, as a result of that mishap, he could not play

my old

his violin: “I greatly miss

myself everything myself, or at

that, in

most laugh

friend,

through

sober thoughts,

at

when

I

see

Alongside that “old friend” there was

it

I

whom I say &

sing to

often do not even admit to

in others .” 29

now

also a

new one

of the kind

which, “with their two-edged sword, threaten impressionable hearts.”

This one had nothing to do with music but was Mileva Marie, the one

woman

a

student of physics

student in Section VTA. She came from

Vojvodina, then part of the Hungarian half of the Habsburg empire

and

later part of Yugoslavia,

from

a family of Serbian

had grown up

in

an ethnically colorful region. Mileva came

landowning farmers

in the village of Titel

what was then Neusatz and

later

became Novi

and Sad.

"Vagabond and Loner”

Though not

55

by her family or the school system of

exactly supported

the day, Mileva had set her heart

on going

to the university. 30 Switzer-

women could young women

land being the only German-speaking country where

went

study, she

from

all

at the

which attracted scholarly

to Zurich,

over the world. She had had to pass her “school-leaving” exam

Young

Ladies’ College in Zurich before starting

studies at Zurich University in the

on her medical

summer semester of

1896. In the

winter semester, she switched to the Polytechnic and, simultaneously

with Albert Einstein, enrolled in the program that would lead to

a

teacher’s diploma.

There

is

some evidence

that

by the second semester,

if

not before,

Albert Einstein the loner and Mileva Marie, three years his senior, had

become

closer than just fellow students. Perhaps

it

was Mileva who

was behind Einstein’s decision to break off his relationship with Marie Winteler in the spring of 1897. During the summer vacation,

at

any

Einstein had written to her and she had told her parents about

rate,

him and

excited their interest: “Papa has given

am

to give

our

little

it

to

you myself, he wanted

bandit country.” 31 This

to

letter,

me some

tobacco and

make your mouth water

I

for

however, was posted from

Heidelberg, where Mileva was walking “under

German

charming Neckar

guest student for the

valley,” 32

having enrolled

as a

third physics semester at the local university. locale

some

this

had been planned some time ahead or put into distance

from Einstein

Mileva regarded the move

between the

The

Whether

lines of

a

is

as a

oaks in the

change of

effect to gain

matter of surmise. But the fact that kind of test of her feelings emerges

her letter to Einstein.

physics taught in the

first

few semesters

at the

Polytechnic tended

to be an appendix to the mathematical training of future engineers

rather than a discipline in

its

own

right. In the first

semester there

was only mathematics; in the second and third semesters there was mechanics, taught by Albin Herzog and attended by 140 students, also attuned to the needs of the engineering students. Einstein’s account for

Mileva Marie was: “Herzog dynamics and strength of materials, the

latter

very clear and good

—

natural in a mass course.” 33

in

dynamics

a little superficial, as is quite

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

56

Not until

the third semester was there even a lecture announced as

was given by Professor Heinrich Friedrich Weber and

“physics.” This

met with

great mastery.

I

lectured

on heat

.

.

and with

.

look forward from one of his lectures to the next.” 34

Einstein had in fact taken

he was able to give the selfish

“Weber

Einstein’s applause:

down and

“little

runaway” the

— “advice to get back here

will find everything

you need

Mileva Marie followed Zurich. However,

it

as

soon

—perhaps not quite un-

as possible,

because here you

closely recorded in our notebooks.” 36

this advice

was not

written up this lecture, 35 so that

and from April 1898 was back in that simple to

all

make up

for the

semester she had spent in Heidelberg, so that, despite Einstein’s and

Grossmann’s notes, she had to postpone the “intermediate diploma examination”

—due

Einstein, in his

second semester

after the

own

—by

a year.

eyes a “mediocre” student, had reported in

time for the exam fixed for October 1898 and spent the

working hard, mostly with Grossmann

“When one

sure:

takes such an

thing one thinks and does, as grind, however,

—which was not always

exam one

5.7,

maximum

grade of

6,

feels responsible for every-

After his brilliant

work on

The

in his five subjects Einstein

and otherwise

5.5.

which made him the best student of

Marcel Grossmann came second, scoring

a plea-

in a penal institution.” 37

one were

was crowned by success:

twice received the

an average of

if

summer

This gave his year. 38

5.6.

the intermediate examination, Albert

Einstein spent his third year at the Polytechnic working “with zeal and application ... in Professor this

course

tory”

—described

—Zurich had

H.

F.

Weber’s physical laboratory.” 39 For

in the catalogue as “Electrotechnical

the best possible conditions.

Werner von Siemens, Weber had

Labora-

With support from

created a magnificently equipped

Physical Institute, meeting the requirements both of experimental fun-

damental research and of scientifically based

The

electrical engineering.

building on Gloriastrasse had been completed in 1890, almost

in rivalry with

Semper’s main building, and towering above

situated higher

up on the slope of the Ziirichberg. An American physi-

cist

who

visited

amazed by

its

Zurich

a

opulence:

it,

being

year before Einstein began his studies was

“They not only have

the most complete

"Vagabond and Loner” instrumental outfit

I

57

have ever seen, but also the largest building

ever seen used as a physical laboratory.

.

.

.

Tier on

tier

I

of storage

have cells,

dozens and dozens of the most expensive tangent and high resistance galvanometers.

.

.

.

The

apparatus in this building cost 400,000 francs

—the

Phys. Laby.

($80,000), the building francs.” 40

— alone

cost one million

These perfect working conditions may have reminded Ein-

stein of the

homemade equipment

in

Uncle Jakob’s workshop, but

his

grateful recollection of the fascination of “contact with experience” 41

proves that he was not the narrow-chested thinker that the public

imagined

a theoretician to be,

tical interests

and

but a full-blooded physicist with prac-

abilities.

Einstein was less lucky in “Physical Exercises for Beginners” under

Professor Jean Pernet, which he also took in his third year.

he did not

like his professor

great deal and,

Whether

or the experiments, he played hookey a

“upon written request by Herr Pernet,

citing neglect of

the practical work,” received a “reprimand from the director for lack of application” in

March

wonder

1899. Small

lowed between Einstein and Pernet.

that

When

many a

sharp clash

fol-

the professor asked his

“neglectful” student why, instead of studying the difficult subject of physics, he did not prefer to study medicine, law, or philology, Einstein

even

is

reported to have answered: “Because, Herr Professor,

less talent for

those subjects.

a

1,

have

Why shouldn’t I at least try my luck

with physics?” 42 Pernet had his revenge dent

I

when he gave

the cheeky stu-

the lowest possible grade.

With regard

to theoretical physics, the situation at the Polytechnic did

not meet Einstein’s range of interests either, though for different reasons: “Physics

dent who,

was not greatly favored,” complained Adolf Fisch,

like Einstein,

a stu-

had come to the “Poly” from the cantonal

school in Aarau. Weber, to both of them, was “a typical representative

of classical physics,

who

simply ignored anything since Helmholtz. At

the conclusion of one’s studies one was acquainted with the history of physics, but not with

its

present or future.

We were

therefore depen-

dent on studying the newer literature privately.” 43

Only during

his final semester,

when

Einstein was already working

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

58

on

his

diploma

a lecture

on

mathematician

essay, did the

Hermann Minkowski

supplement to Professor Her-

analytical mechanics, as a

on mechanics. Minkowski, who had

zog’s standard class

Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences), supplied his

(.

teners with a reprint and discussed the subject within the

At the end of

his lecture.

it

told a fellow student: “This

we have heard write his

just written a

ma th ema tisch en

study on capillarity for the Enzyklopddie der senschaften

first

at the

Annalen der Physik

six

Wis-

few

lis-

framework of

Einstein enthusiastically, but also sadly, the

is

Poly .” 44 At

first

months

lecture

on mathematical physics

least the lecture stimulated Einstein to

publication

scientific

give

45 ,

which he submitted

after receiving his diploma,

to the

even though

the subject was not exactly at the center of scientific discussion, nor

indeed of Einstein’s

interests.

seems probable that

It

many

own

—

in Gottingen,

at

one of the better

Bonn, or Berlin

found training more in

line

universities in

Ger-

—Albert Einstein would

have

with his “intellectual stomach,” but his

graduation from the school in Aarau entitled him to study only at the

Zurich Polytechnic. Besides,

Germany

him was

to

a closed chapter,

and switching to Vienna or Paris was out of the question, citizenship that he

hoped

as the Swiss

to be granted required a prolonged stay in

Switzerland.

The

intellectual state of physics at the

end of the nineteenth cen-

tury did not, in retrospect, greatly impress Albert Einstein: “There was

dogmatic

was

on matters of

rigidity

beginning)

a

God

principle. In the beginning (if there

created Newton’s laws of motion, together

with the necessary masses and forces. This derives

is

the

by deduction from the development of

everything else

suitable mathematical

methods .” 46 This observation probably contains truth.

lot:

at least a grain

of

Eloquent propagandists of a “mechanical world picture” had put

forward

a similar

formulation

—only more expansively than Einstein

and the major part of physics teaching

at the

Polytechnic was probably

no more than pedagogical application of those maxims. But physics just before the turn of the century was a lot

more

in fact,

lively

than

Einstein’s characterization suggests, and he himself

was aware of

was fascinated by physics, and was developing

problems for the

future. “I

soon learned to

ferret out that

his

which might lead

this,

to the

"Vagabond and Loner” bottom of things, tude of things that

59

to disregard everything else, to disregard the multifill

mind but

the

detract

from the

essential.” 47

Despite his sarcastic view of the dry, rigid program of universal

mechanics, Einstein, tion for

like

“any receptive person,” 48 was

full

of admira-

what had been achieved within that framework. Yet he was

less

impressed by the solution of even the most tricky problems than he

was by the efficiency of the mechanical program when applied to areas which, at

above

all,

no

glance, bore

first

relation to mechanics.

the kinetic theory of gases,

some of whose

This meant,

essential

theorems

could be plausibly derived only by the assumption that gases consisted of minute globules of matter, whose movements and impacts obeyed the laws of mechanics.

This part of the theory of gases had been dealt with by Professor

Weber

in his lectures.

The

other,

more profound

aspect

—that the

theory of the mechanical treatment of an ensemble of

statistical

mechanical particles was capable of deducing the basic laws of thermo-

dynamics

—Einstein had learned about by private study of the recently Ludwig Boltzmann, 49 which he

published fundamental books of

known

to have read in the

summer

is

of 18 9 9 50 and which show anything

but “dogmatic rigidity.” If one considers that the very existence of

atoms was

being questioned

still

at the

time but

that,

on the other

hand, X-rays, cathode rays, and other types of radiation had just

opened

a

new world

of microphysics, one

is left

with the impression of

an exceedingly interesting phase of scientific research.

This applies equally to the other major development in physics

in

the second half of the nineteenth century: the electromagnetic field

theory developed by James Clerk Maxwell and brilliantly confirmed in

1888 by Heinrich Hertz.

mechanics to

as the sure

foundation of

anchor electromagnetic

derive

it

field

all

a

regarded

physics and had therefore tried

theory in mechanics, or indeed to

from mechanics. This was one of the reasons

of the “ether,” a

Of course, Maxwell and Hertz had

for the invention

strange immaterial substance which initially served as

substratum for the so-called “polarization states” of the electromag-

netic field and

which was subsequently drawn on

to provide a basis for

the propagation of electromagnetic waves, such as light or Hertzian

waves, since these, in mechanical concepts, could not proceed in

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

60

“nothing” but needed an oscillating medium, more or

waves in

The

less like

sound

air.

price paid

by

physicists for tying electromagnetic fields to

mechanics was, of course, rather high, conceptual construct

full

proved to be

as the “ether”

of internal contradictions. As an

pervading body, though weightless and noncompressible, of “ghost existence” alongside normal matter; offer resistance to the

it

a

elastic, all-

it

led a kind

was not permitted to

motion of normal matter or

interact with

it

in

any other way. In order to explain the velocity of light in moving matter,

was to

had to be assumed that the ether, independently of matter,

it

in a state of

permanent

rest.

However, when an attempt was made

measure the Earth’s motion through the ether

in the

famous experi-

ments of Albert Michelson and Edward Williams Morley,

it

had to be

acknowledged, sadly, that apparently there was no such motion. Here,

were enough problems capable of “leading to the bottom of

then,

things,” and, with his sure instinct for the essential, Einstein felt self

drawn

to them.

His thinking probably proceeded from what he had called childish mental experiment to

Our

earliest

psychology

Max

if

riding

on the beam?

one were

to

run

mind,

“problem horizon” during that

at all?

in relation to

after a ray of light?

... If .

.

one were to run .

What

something,

tion to something else

all

Einstein’s

1916 in Berlin.

in

as follows:

What

no longer move

In

had with Einstein

( Gestaltpsychologie ),

probing phase

it

special relativity theory.” 51

Wertheimer, one of the founders of Gestalt

Wertheimer has represented

have

do with the

his “first

information on these reflections comes from a con-

versation which

first

him-

which

is

What

fast

if

one were

enough, would

“the velocity of light”? If

this value

itself is in

it

I

does not hold in rela-

motion. 52

probability Einstein turned these problems over and over in his first

in

Aarau and then during

his first year in Zurich; certainly

we know of no partners in conversation or studies in literature that could have led him to such ideas. In his second year at the Polytechnic he surprised Professor Weber by proposing an experiment to deter-

"Vagabond and Loner” mine the velocity of the Earth

61

relative to the ether

—evidently

in igno-

rance of the Michelson-Morley experiments, as “he learned only later

had already conducted such experiments .” 53

that physicists

As

a

matter of

Einstein’s proposal

fact,

was no more than

a variant

of the Michelson-Morley experiment: “I thought of the following

experiment using two thermocouples. Set up mirrors so that the light

from

a single

source

parallel to the

two

different directions,

motion of the Earth and the other

assume that there beams,

to be reflected in

is

is

one

anti-parallel. If

we

an energy difference between the two reflected

we can measure

the difference in the generated heat using two

thermocouples .” 54 Needless to

say, this

way of building

because “there was no

remained

just a suggestion,

that apparatus.

The

skepticism

of his professors was too great and the persuasive force of the project too small .” 55

We

do not know whether Professor Weber

experiment because he regarded

it

as uninteresting,

rejected the

or as the crazy idea

of a generally odd student, or as technically impossible. In the

one would,

It

in retrospect, have to agree with him.

was chiefly because electromagnetic

problems were not dealt with classes at

last case

at the

field

theory and associated

Polytechnic that Einstein cut

and “studied the masters of theoretical physics with

home .” 56 For him

this

a

holy zeal

was “simply the continuation of an

earlier

practice .” 57

We

owe our

first

clue to

which books on

field

theory he was

studying in his second year to his habit of forgetting his key.

found himself once more keyless

went

and

in a note requested the absent

“be too angry with

me

The

study a

little .” 58

German

physicist Paul

work written

magnetic

field

justice to light

By

Frau Hagi’s locked front door, he

straight to the Pension Bachthold,

staying,

a

at

if in

my need

When he

I

where Mileva Marie was “Dear young lady” not

abduct your Drude, so that

I

to

can

purloined object was a book by the young

Drude, Physik

des Aethers (Physics of the Ether) f 9

in the conviction that

Maxwell’s theory of the electro-

was more

likely

than the old mechanical approach to do

and to Hertzian waves.

the following year Einstein had worked his

way through

the

most important publications of Hermann von Helmholtz 60 and Hein-

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

62

emerges from

rich Hertz. 61 This fact

summer

during the

Mileva Marie written

a letter to

vacation of 1899: “I returned the Helmholtz

volume and am now rereading Hertz’s Ausbreitung der elektrischen Kraft (

Propagation of Electrical Force) with great care because

stand Helmholtz’s treatise

on the

trodynamics.” 62 Whatever

it

I

didn’t under-

principle of the least action in elec-

was he

he had

failed to understand,

certainly gained an entirely independent critical attitude toward

Hein-

rich Hertz’s views:

I’m more and more convinced that the electrodynamics of

moving bodies and that

reality,

The

as

it

will

it

presented today, doesn’t correspond to

is

be possible to present

described without,

ing to

it.

I

accomplished

can be

believe, being able to ascribe physical

six

a first hint

mean-

of the abolition of the ether

years later in the special theory of relativity.

of that later study,

shadowed

medium whose motion

63

Here we have

title

in a simpler way.

introduction of the term “ether” into theories of electricity

has led to the conception of a

title

it

On

though admittedly

which Heinrich Hertz had given

his treatise

as

to be

Even the

the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies

in this letter to Mileva,

—

,

is

fore-

an echo of the

of 1890.

A

few of

Einstein’s remarks, such as the concept of “electrical currents ... as

the motion of true electrical masses” 64 and the future definition of

electrodynamics as “the theory of the movements of moving electricities

&

magnetisms

empty

in

space,” 65 suggest that he was also familiar

with the work of the great Dutch theoretician Hendrik Antoon Lorentz. 66

still

a

student in Zurich, had thus turned to the same

than

a

year earlier, the Gesellschaft deutscher Natur-

Albert Einstein, subject

as, less

forscher

und Arzte (Society of German

Scientists

and Physicians)

annual convention in Diisseldorf in September 1898.

The

at its

ether and

its

behavior in moving media had been chosen as the topic of a special session, to

which

all

the leading figures had been invited, including

Lorentz from the Netherlands, and for which the young Aachen

assis-

"Vagabond and Loner”

63

Wilhelm Wien had prepared an introductory “over-

tant professor

view” paper.

Wien’s very

first

sentence revealed the confusion of the situation:

“The question whether or not bodies, and

whether

the ether participates in the motion of

altogether to be credited with mobility, has

it is

been agitating physicists for

a

long time, and there

sumptions and assumptions which

make of

it

the properties of the carrier of electromagnetic

dictions arising

all

retical part the discussion

astronomers in the

phenomeof contra-

ether, as well as a

together, thirteen experiments that might yield

movement

information on the Earth’s

iary constructs

a juxtaposition

from conflicting concepts of the

careful listing of,

to pre-

has been thought necessary to

na .” 67 Wien’s observations were essentially

late

relative to the ether. In

its

theo-

was somewhat reminiscent of the debate of

Middle Ages, when epicycles and other

were piled on top of each other

phenomena” and hence

auxil-

for the “salvation of

for defending the concept of the Earth as

resting at the center of the universe.

doomed

no end

is

to failure because they

were resolved only by the

radical

These

efforts

were

all

ultimately

produced new complications, which

new

start

represented by the “Coper-

nican revolution.” In Diisseldorf, though, there were tion in the matter of the ether.

Lorentz,

who

no

heavy) matter, and

its

let

little

as

physical

the

“The

ether, ponderable (that

we knew whether or not matter, with it, we would have a way of peneif

further into the nature of these building blocks and their

mutual relations .” 68 asked,

Professor

us add electricity, are the building blocks

motion, carried the ether

trating a

like

gave the co-report to Wien’s survey, could not imagine

making up the material world, and on

comparable revolu-

Even an authority

the future of physics without the ether: is:

signs of a

None

of the physicists present in Diisseldorf

twenty-year-old Albert Einstein had, whether any

meaning could be ascribed

whether the ether was not perhaps

to that statement a superfluous

—

in other words,

concept for physics,

not to be investigated but to be abolished.

The

student Einstein had not been present at the learned conven-

tion in Diisseldorf, but he

was informed about

it,

probably better

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

64

informed than anyone in Mettmenstetten,

1899 with

From

else in Zurich.

he was spending the

his parents,

Milan, where, after a stay

summer vacation

rest of the

he consoled Mileva Marie, cramming for her

intermediate examination, saying that he too had been “quite

worm

myself

trying to

lately,

of

work out

some of them

several ideas,

very interesting.” 69 “I also wrote to Professor

Wien

my paper on the relative motion of the luminiferous

book-

a

in

Aachen about

ether against pon-

derable matter, the paper which the ‘boss’ handled in such an off-

handed

fashion.

I

this subject. He’ll write

me

was Wien’s paper

treatise”

Wien from 1898 on Polytechnic.” 70 The “interesting

read a very interesting paper by via the

at the Diisseldorf

vious year; Einstein had probably discovered

und Chemie. 11 Unfortunately, Einstein’s even

know whether Wien

replied to

convention of the preit

in

Annalen der Physik

letter is lost,

and we do not

it.

Extant documents, however, show that Albert Einstein in his

second and third year dated,

self-assurance

at the as

a

Polytechnic developed, or

Through

physicist.

at least consoli-

intelligently

chosen

reading he involved himself directly in the mainstream of topical research, and he tices

was strong enough not to be carried away by the vor-

of that stream but to choose his

own

ized any of this, except perhaps Marcel

These years were physics.

a

happy time

bank. But no one then real-

Grossmann and Mileva Marie.

for Albert Einstein,

His father had been lucky with

his

and not only in

newly founded firm

in

Milan, winning contracts for the streetlights in the small towns of

Cannetto sull’Oglio and

Isola della Scala,

both near Mantua. 72 Even

though these contracts had to be immediately pledged to creditor

—

his cousin

Rudolf Einstein

debts exceeded his assets, there was

in

Hechingen

who

admitted to his

sister that “I

at

his

Via Bigli 21 in

also a great relief to Albert,

now sometimes

find time to stroll for

an hour or so in Zurich’s beautiful surroundings.

thought that the worst anxieties are over for lived like

main

— and although

no hardship

Milan now. This change of fortune was

his

my

I

am happy

at the

parents. If everyone

me, romance-writing would never have been invented.” 73

Meanwhile he had

started

on

his

own romance.

Private study was

mostly done a deux and from his 1899 spring break he wrote to Mileva ,

"Vagabond and Loner”

65

Marie from Milan: “Your photograph had quite an

While she studied

lady.

Yes, yes, she certainly

carefully,

it

on

effect

my

old

said with the deepest sympathy:

I

a clever one.” 74

is

During the summer vacation the two were separated. She had prepare for her intermediate examination,

first

in

to

Novi Sad and then

in

Zurich, while he was in Milan, having spent August with his mother

and

sister in

From

Mettmenstetten,

the Pension “Paradies” he reported to Mileva about his “nice,

quiet, philistine

He

be.” 75

just as the pious

life,

then went on:

could not

— and

still

me.

sitting next to less

between Zurich and Zug.

a small village

I

“When

I

& the upright imagine paradise to

read Helmholtz for the

—believe that

first

time

I

I

was doing so without you

enjoy working together

& I find it soothing & also

cannot

boring.” 76

With

his sister,^

he climbed the 8,200-foot

years previously, as a “badly shod tourist” the cantonal school, he

“had not,

would have crashed

he was beginning to

as

on

Santis,

where, three

three-day outing with

a

to his death if a classmate

down the steep slope, quickly pull him up again.” 77 Einstein,

slip

extended his mountaineer’s cane to

however, sent Mileva some news from his “paradise” that was not so

sometimes he

cheerful:

Mama’s

felt

acquaintances. ...

by slipping away end of our stay arrogance

&

if

my

we

I

disturbed by “unpleasant

don’t happen to be at the dinner table. At the

aunt from

Genoa

is

coming,

a veritable

a

like “Dollie.”

monster of

insensitive formalism.” 78

whom

along with

from

can usually escape their mindless prattle

His escape, of course, was straight into physics Marie,

visits

in his letters

southern

He

he

German

still

—and

to Mileva

addressed with the formal

dialect expression

was generous with

Sie,

but

meaning something

his advice for

her exam, which he

himself had passed the previous year, and sincerely wished that “you

could be here with souls

&

me

for a while.

also drinking coffee

announced

that he

would bring

We understand

and eating sausage his sister

one another’s dark etc.” 79 Finally

he

along to Switzerland and take

her to Aarau, where she would attend the teacher training college and live

with the Wintelers. That the mention of Aarau would arouse

divided feelings in Mileva was clear to Albert Einstein, because that

was where the

“critical

daughter with

whom

I

was so madly

in love

4

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

66 years ago” lived

my high fortress I

would

He went on:

80 .

of calm. But

This was neither the

first

I feel

know that if I saw her I

am

nor the

last

Of

go mad.

certainly

I

“For the most part

that

certain

&

a

quite secure in

few more times

fear

it

like fire .” 81

time that Albert Einstein’s

remarks on personal matters were guided

by

less

tact or sensitivity

than by ruthless frankness.

In his fourth and last year at the Zurich Polytechnic Einstein evidently set aside his reflections

moving bodies

—presumably because he had found no new point of

than because of the necessities of preparing for exams

attack, rather

and writing

on the ether and the electrodynamics of

his

diploma

His own interests coincided with those

essay.

of the principal, Professor Weber, in the

field

of heat, so that

have seemed advisable to him to deal with that subject in greater “Scientific

work

consuming of

in

his subjects; in addition

on

technical lectures as well as a

the physical laboratory” was the

most time-

by Professor Weber

82 ,

of mathematics, and “analytical mechanics”

by Hermann Minkowski. Although tual

detail.

he attended the rather more

alternating current, also

minimum

may

it

this lecture suited his “intellec-

stomach,” he stayed away from Minkowski’s advanced mathe-

matics

class, for

“no one could make him attend the mathematical

seminars .” 83 All students

had to attend

special field. Einstein chose,

at least

one

class

each year outside their

and evidently enjoyed, the general studies

of Department VII, the “General and Economics Department,” which

were often taught by original minds attracted by the amenities of a ulty without regular syllabi

more of these

84 .

Einstein in fact enrolled for considerably

lectures than the

spectrum of subjects, such

as

mandatory minimum, covering

morning yet always had

Einstein

heard

met

commended

a lecture

a

wide

started at seven

crowded lecture room. Even

the “magic” of Heim’s

on Goethe by Robert

in his patron

a

“Man’s Prehistory” and “Geology of

Mountain Ranges,” both given by Albert Heim, who in the

fac-

way of

Saitschick,

in old age

lecturing

whom

85 .

He

he had already

Gustav Maier’s Swiss Society for Ethical Culture,

and he heard August Stadler on Kant’s philosophy and on the “Theory of Scientific Thought.” There were also some practical subjects, such

"Vagabond and Loner” as

67

“Banking and Stock Exchange Dealing” and

and Life

“Statistics

Insurance.”

It

was probably

his friendship

with Friedrich Adler that led Einstein in

his final year to attend lectures

on “Fundamentals of Economics” and

on “Income Distribution and the Social Consequences of Free Competition.” Adler

was

a socialist in his family’s tradition: his father,

Victor Adler, was the unchallenged leader of the Austrian Social

Democrats and one of the Friedrich Adler had first

spiritual fathers

come

of Austro-Marxism. 86

to Zurich a year after Einstein.

He

had

studied chemistry, and later also physics, though not at the Poly-

technic but at the university. Einstein revered Adler as “the purest and

most fervent

idealistic character” 87

he ever met.

The two

shared an

admiration for Ernst Mach’s empiricist philosophy and, with their girlfriends

—Einstein

with Mileva Marie and Adler with

woman, Katya Germanishskaya where Hermann Minkowski

—would taught

sit

a

in the small lecture

mechanics.

analytical

probably did not have to work hard to win Einstein over to his ideas,

but he could not persuade him to join the party.

was

that “Einstein

tion, given Einstein’s sense it

applied throughout his

socialistically colored,

dogmas of any Zurich

emotional

a typical

Russian

socialist.” 88

He

room Adler

socialist

concluded

This characteriza-

of justice, was probably quite correct, and life.

His

social attitudes

but he did not

feel

may have been

greatly attracted to the

political party.

at that

time was

a

haven for

socialist

and anarchist student

groups, especially from the Slavic countries, but Einstein’s occasional contacts did not lead to socialism.” It

more than

a

confirmation of his “emotional

was only the horrors of World

into a political person. But he

may

well have

only the foundations of physics could be

War

I

felt in

fragile,

that turned

him

Zurich that not

but those of society

as

well. 89

What

Albert Einstein called his “household” 90 with Mileva Marie

seems to have been somewhat unconventional,

if

not by Zurich stu-

dent standards, then certainly by those of respectable bourgeois morality. Mileva lived within a few minutes of Einstein’s lodgings, in

the pension of Fraulein Engelbrecht at Plattenstrasse 50, and Einstein

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

68

appears to have been a frequent and popular visitor

of foreign

women

him from

his

When, on

Whenever

students.

among

the group

parcels of delicacies arrived for

mother, he would take them straight to Plattenstrasse. 91

the occasion of his twenty- first birthday, a particularly gen-

erous package arrived, Mileva described to a friend the “tremendous

which

effect”

it

had on Einstein: “radiantly he walked down Platten-

strasse, carrying the

right or left.” 92

box

in

both hands, so pleased that he did not look

Sometime

in his fourth year, the

two must have

decided to get married. 93 Einstein and Mileva Marie also spent the spring break of 1900

March Pro-

together in Zurich, working on their diploma essays. In fessor

Weber had

accepted the suggestions of the two candidates, and

Mileva was looking to the future the research ject.” 94

I

The

will

full

of hope: “I

am looking forward

have to do. E. also has chosen a very interesting sub-

essays

had to be completed within three months, so no

com-

real flashes of genius were, or could be, expected. 95 Einstein’s

ment

to

in his old age was:

“My

and

my

first

wife’s

with heat conduction; they were of no interest to

diploma essays dealt

me and

are not

mentioning.” 96 In the assessment Mileva’s essay was given the top grade), while Einstein’s received 4.5

a

worth

4 (6 being

—neither of them

a bril-

liant result. 97

In the actual subject exams Einstein would

much on Grossmann’s

seem

to have relied too

lecture notes, because he did not repeat his suc-

cess in the intermediate examination.

Of the

five

candidates of Section

VIA

the three mathematicians did better than the two physicists, Ein-

stein

and Marie. After various calculations and weightings of individual

grades, Einstein finished fourth with an average of 4.91 and Mileva

Marie achieved only an average of 4.0. The “conference of examiners” therefore decided “to award the diploma to the candidates Ehrat,

Grossmann, Kollros, Einstein, but not

to Fraulein Marie.” 98

The

inevitable

“cramming”

for the exam, even

went on

for only a

few months,

left traces

In his old age he related,

full

though

probably

of trauma in Albert Einstein.

of horror, “that one had to stuff

jumble into oneself for the exams, whether one liked

compulsion had such

a deterrent effect that,

exam,

for

I lost all taste

it

any reflection on

it

all

or not. This

having passed the

scientific

that

final

problems for

a

"Vagabond and Loner” whole year .” 99 However, the

exam

He

reveal nothing of

letters

what he

69

he wrote immediately

after the

called his “intellectual depression .” 100

took some physics books with him on his vacation, and

three days after finishing his

nerves have calmed again

” 101

exam he was writing

down enough,

at the Polytechnic, in

to Mileva:

so that I’m able to

Moreover, he was firmly counting on

a

mere

“My

work happily

a position as assistant

order to establish himself in both the scientific

and the bourgeois world, so that he could marry Mileva. However, he

was soon to discover that “there are worse things in

life

than exams ,” 102

because once more there were long and tortuous routes to be covered before he arrived at his goal.

CHAPTER FIVE Looking

for a Job

Einstein spent the summer of 1900 Lucerne, in the company,

and

his sister,

his

as usual,

in Melchtal, south of

Lake

of his “ghastly aunt” from Genoa,

mother. Tension began on the very

first

evening,

when his mother with affected casualness asked what was now going to become of “Dollie,” to which Einstein, just as casually, replied, “She’ll become my wife.” There then unrolled a family drama, often to be repeated: pillow,

“Mama

and wept

threw herself onto the bed, buried her head in the like a child.” 1

As the mountains were drenched

had no other escape than

rain, Einstein

his books,

famous investigations of the motion of the marveling

What

at this great

in

“mainly Kirchhoff’s

rigid body. 2 I can’t stop

work.” 3

the Einsteins soon called the “Dollie affair” continued to

give rise over the next few years to fierce clashes

between parents and

son. Needless to say, neither his mother’s histrionics

more moderate arguments could shake Albert especially as he believed he

had already

Papa are phlegmatic types and have bodies than

I

have in

my

little

less

won

nor

his father’s

in his determination,

the battle:

“Mama

and

stubbornness in their entire

finger.” 4

But he was mistaken:

his

mother’s obstinacy was quite equal to his own.

Trying

to put himself in his parents’ position, Albert Einstein

wrote to Mileva:

“I

understand

my

wife as a man’s luxury which he can afford only

comfortable

living. I

ship between

have

man and

a

They think of a when he is making a

parents quite well.

low opinion of that view of the relation-

wife, because

it

makes the wife and the

tute distinguishable only insofar as the

70

former

is

prosti-

able to secure a

Looking

for a Job

71

from the man because of her more favorable

lifelong contract

rank .” 5 Such theorizing on bourgeois sexual morality, however,

which are pervaded by

in his letters to Mileva,

longing for his

belong nowhere, and

mouth

of tenderness and kisses .” 6

full

that separation he dialect

miss your two

I

feelings of love

and

And

I

want

—but

I

arms and the glowing

little

up during

to cheer her

would occasionally include

a

few rhymed

ditties in

7

his

mother was

horrified and his father worried about this

liaison, Einstein’s fellow students

so successful with to Mileva Marie.

women

were merely astonished that

should so firmly and inseparably

jealousy. Besides, site

a stately beauty.

to Einstein’s shoulder;

childhood had done lasting damage to her

joints,

she had a noticeable limp. But Einstein did not

When

a fellow

student remarked to

reported to

is

let

him

Nor was

it

in

these matters worry

that “he

component of

sufficient to Einstein.

She was very

with the result that

would never

entirely healthy,”

a

voice .” 8 Important as this acoustic

hardly sufficient.

himself

and tuberculosis

woman who was not have replied: “Why not?

have the courage to marry Einstein

man

—perhaps not without reason—of

was by no means

coming up

short, barely

tie

a

She spread around her an aura of Slavic melancholy,

not indeed gloom, and soon also

him.

rare

.

While

if

is

go anywhere

darling”: “I can

“little

social

She has love

His

may

a

sweet

be,

letters, in

it is

which

declarations of love are oddly intermingled with scientific matters,

instead suggest that as a

bohemian kind of physicist he was

in his future wife as a colleague.

Even though Mileva

still

interested

had to repeat

her diploma examination the following year, Einstein already saw her

working to

working on our new paper. You must continue with your investiga-

tions I

for her doctorate at the university: “I’m also looking forward

—how proud

remain

seemed

a

I

will

be to have

still

totally

stage and

unaware of

amaze the world:

you and squeeze you and

down

to

Ph.D. for

completely ordinary person .” 9 With

future in which the two of them, tific

a little

work

life’s difficulties,

arm “I

in arm,

sweetheart while

cheerfulness which

he painted to her

would bestride the

a

scien-

can hardly wait to be able to hug

to live with

right away, and

a

a

you

money will be

again. We’ll happily get as plentiful as

manure .” 10

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

72

The economic

foundation of their hoped-for

life

together over the

next few years was to be the salary of an assistant at the Polytechnic,

and during the

few weeks of

first

that such a post

would be

Department VI needed

his vacation Einstein

matter of course.

his as a

was convinced

The

professors of

number

several assistants because of the large

of engineering students; and, as only a few students enrolled in the

mathematics and physics, virtually any graduate

lucrative fields such as after his

exam

could,

less

if

he wanted, become an assistant for

a

few years.

This, however, did not apply to Einstein, as he was soon to discover.

With

Professor Pernet,

application,” he too,

who had

had no prospects

initiated his

in

any

case.

a post to

dent, had persistently addressed

him

But Professor Weber, a

German

someone who, even

as a stu-

was not particularly fond of him. Weber,

and therefore unlikely to give

reproof for “lack of

as

after

all,

was

“Herr Weber” 11 instead of

“Herr Professor” and had generally shown scant

respect.

Weber

diploma essay had been rather mediocre,

felt

As Einstein’s

no obligation

toward the rebel graduate and was inclined instead to engage two mechanical engineers

as his assistants.

Einstein probably surmised to the mathematicians.

all that,

On August

9,

and therefore turned

hopes

his

barely two weeks after his exam,

he was in Zurich again “to straighten out

my

‘business and political’

The conditions he found there seemed to him so favorable he summed them up for Mileva to the effect that he would be

affairs.” 12

that

“provided for in any case.” 13

He

felt

so confident that he actually

down a temporary job one of his fellow students offered to arrange for him with an insurance firm: “an 8-hour day of mindless drudgery. One must avoid such stultifying affairs.” 14 turned

.

.

.

Einstein spent most of the vacation with his parents in Milan,

where discussions of the “Dollie

affair”

were poisoning the atmos-

phere. In bed at night he wrote to Mileva:

&

I

don’t have a single

almost

as if I

had

died.

moment

of peace.

aren’t healthy ...

My

often cries bitterly

parents

weep

Again and again they complain that

brought misfortune upon myself by

you

“Mama

oh

Dollie,

way of consolation he was

it’s

my

I

me

have

devotion to you, they think

enough

able to pass

for

on

to drive

one mad.” 15 By

to Mileva the latest

news

Looking

from Zurich,

in a letter

from

for a Job

73

his fellow student

Jakob Ehrat, that one

of Professor Hurwitz’s assistants would be moving into the educational service,

which made Einstein conclude that

“Ell

become Hurwitz’s

ser-

God willing .” 16

vant,

But the vacation was not

lamentation over Mileva. Einstein met

all

Michele Besso, who had been married to Anna Winteler

his old friend

for a couple of years

and had

settled in

Milan

as a technical consultant

to the Societa per lo Sviluppo delle Industrie Elettriche in Italia

(Society for the stein spent

many of his

joys of family his sharp little

Electrical Industry in Italy). Ein-

know

evenings with the Bessos and came to

and fatherhood:

life

mind and

kid .” 17

stein;

Development of the

“I like

him

his simplicity. I also like

A spinoff was

a small

a great deal

the

because of

Anna, and especially their

—but presumably paid —job

for Ein-

how

he examined for Besso’s society the “interesting question:

does electric energy radiation through space occur in the case of

He

sinusoidal alternating current ?” 18 to his

power

his father

on

a trip

plants in Cannetto and Isola della Scala, because he was

anxious to “learn a I

accompanied

little bit

about the administration of the business so

can take Papa’s place in an emergency .” 19 As promised by his father,

detour was

made

more escaped

to Venice.

to the

And toward

mountains

20 ,

ited Isola Bella, the largest of its

By

a

the end of September he once

traveled to

Borromean

Lake Maggiore, and

vis-

Islands.

the end of September Einstein finally thought

it

humble inquiry whether

write to Hurwitz with “the

a

necessary to I

prospect of becoming an assistant in your department .” 21

have any

The Herr

Professor must have been rather surprised, as this student had never

shown up

at the

inquiry, Einstein

mathematical seminars. In response to a courteous

had to confess

Hurwitz without any attempt “As, because of lack of time,

matical seminars ...

I

at I

his omissions.

He

did so in a letter to

whitewash and without any remorse:

was unable to take part

can say nothing in

tended most of the lectures on offer to could easily discover, was a bit of a

tall

my

in the

mathe-

favor except that

me .” 22 Even

that, as

I at-

Hurwitz

story as far as mathematics was

concerned, so that one cannot really blame the professor shelved this rather cheeky application. But

when

if

he simply

Einstein traveled to

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

74

Zurich

at the

beginning of October, he was

post at the Polytechnic: “Hurwitz

still

confident of getting a

still

hasn’t written me, but

I

have

hardly any doubt.” 23

When,

shortly after his arrival in Zurich, Einstein had to face the

unpleasant truth, his financial

must have been

it

a serious

blow to him,

problems were becoming more acute. His

had discontinued

Unsuspecting of the many disappointments

he soon adjusted to the new situation and

woman

him

Isn’t this a

—

about

Mileva Marie at the

only

journeyman’s

we’ll be cheerful

exam

if

still

it,

a

still

few days

we

life,

could find some, which

his

regular sup-

in store for him, later

“We have neither of us landed

friend of Mileva’s:

by private lessons

relatives in Italy

monthly remittance when he received

their

diploma, and his parents were in no position to give port.

especially as

is

wrote to

a job

and

a

live

very doubtful.

or even a gypsy existence? But

I

think

as usual.” 24

had to repeat her fourth year and her diploma

Polytechnic but was intending to work simultaneously on a

doctoral thesis for the university. Albert was planning to develop earlier reflections

toral thesis and,

on the thermoelectric Thomson

some

effect into a doc-

because he needed to conduct the experiments in

Professor Weber’s laboratory, remained enrolled as a student at the Polytechnic. But he probably realized that, given his not too brilliant

diploma grades, some further amiss.

He

therefore

first

of

scientific qualifications all

would not come

developed his ideas on

capillarity,

intended for early publication in a reputable scientific journal.

Interface tubes,

phenomena, which include the

believed he was

I

of water in fine glass

were thought by most physicists to be due to the interaction of

individual atoms and molecules, and

full

rise

on the verge of new

it

was

in this area that Einstein

discoveries.

During the vacation,

of enthusiasm, he had written to Mileva: “The results on capillarity

recently obtained in Zurich

seem

to be entirely

new

despite their

simplicity. ... If this yields a law of nature, we’ll send the results to

Wiedemann’s Annalen

”25 .

On December

13

his

received by the editors of the Annalen der Physik;

appeared on March

1

it

manuscript was

was accepted and

of the following year. 26 Einstein was

now

able to

enclose with his job applications reprints from the most renowned

Looking for

German

Job

75

physical journal, and to that extent the enterprise was a suc-

But he was

cess.

a

less

lucky with the natural law he was hoping to

discover, and even his hypothesis about the forces

which he rather

cules,

gravitation, 27

superficially

between two mole-

connected with Newton’s law of

soon proved to be untenable.

Meanwhile, however, he was entirely happy with and

tried to

develop

it

further. Six

months

Grossmann

Einstein wrote to Marcel

after his first publication,

that he

conceived a few marvelous ideas, which properly hatched. tion forces

I

now

between atoms can be extended

mined without major

difficulties.

now

only have to be

my

theory of attrac-

also to gases,

and that

elements will be deter-

all

Then

relationship of molecular forces and a

had

firmly believe that

the characteristic constants for nearly

his hypothesis

the question of the inner

Newtonian

forces will

move

big step closer to solution. 28

In the event that his expectations were

fulfilled,

he would “use every-

thing achieved so far about molecular attraction for the doctoral thesis.” 29

This suggests that there must have been problems with the

about the

thesis

concluded tives

Thomson

his reflections

effect

with

begun under Professor Weber.

a lyrical

hymn

to the glorious perspec-

of properly understood scientific research, entirely in the

Alexander von Humboldt, whose Kosmos he had read

Munich:

“It is a

as a

wonderful feeling to realize the unity of

phenomena which,

to

He

spirit

of

schoolboy in a

complex of

immediate sensory perception, appear to be

totally separate things.” 30

The field

effusiveness, however, did not yield

of molecular forces of attraction.

saline solutions,

Annalen pursue

,

not in the

applied his hypothesis to

second publication in the

this subject for his doctoral thesis at the

He

now

to be applied, after surfaces

University of Zurich.

and solutions,

also to

submitted his work to Professor Alfred Kleiner sometime in

November tion” 32

a

at least

but nothing of lasting value. 31 Einstein also intended to

His method was gases.

which indeed yielded

He

much,

1901, convinced “that he won’t dare reject

—but precisely that seems

to have happened.

my

With

dissertaa receipt

76

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

dated February

1,

1902, Albert Einstein confirmed

“received back, in cash, the doctoral fee of Frcs. 230

and

on Nov.

thirty) paid

No

33 23, 1901.”

that he

had

(Two hundred

doubt Kleiner took

a closer

look at Einstein’s ideas on the molecular forces than the editors of

Annalen and did not think them tenable. At

least

,

opportunity to withdraw his thesis before

it

he gave Einstein the

was formally turned down,

so that the “rejected” doctoral candidate could at least save his high financial stake.

This receipt

attempt to gain

a doctorate.

The two in the

deep

articles

pit

a

mere

the only extant trace of his second

published in Annalen would have vanished forever

of the history of science

Albert Einstein.

and

is

He himself had no illusions

five years later called

author had not been

if their

about their shortcomings,

them “my two worthless

firstling

works.” 34

Before

it

was even certain that the

Mileva wrote to

a

woman

friend

first

paper would appear in Annalen

how proud

she was of her “sweet-

heart” because of this “very significant” article. vately sent it,

it

we hope

master of

to

Boltzmann and would

he’ll

write us.” 35

statistical

As soon

have also pri-

know what he

Ludwig Boltzmann,

thinks of

the unchallenged

physics and the kinetic theory of gases, held the

chair ©f theoretical physics versity of Leipzig.

like to

“We

—one of the few then existing—

No record exists On March

9,

wrote off to other

1901, he inquired of the experi-

mental physicist Otto Wiener “whether perhaps you require an tant”; 36 in his letter

appeared

a

assis-

he referred to his “small treatise” which had

few days previously and which the Herr Professor was pre-

sumably expected to track down

He

that encouraged

inquired “if

me

to

“it

was your work

produce the enclosed

maybe you might have some use

mathematical physicist” and confessed that only that kind of post would enable

days

famous professor of physical

chemistry Wilhelm Ostwald, with the remark that

on general chemistry

Ten

for himself in the library.

later Einstein enclosed a reprint to the

treatise.”

Uni-

of any reply to Einstein.

as the article appeared, Einstein also

professors in Leipzig.

at the

me

“I

am

.

.

.

for a

impecunious and

to continue

my

studies.” 37

Looking

When

no

there was

reply, Einstein

spring break in Milan sure whether

—wrote

then enclosed

I

for a Job

—

77

few weeks

a

during his

later,

again, with the excuse that “I

my address.” 38 The

more

son’s

explicit,

knowledge he wrote

not

ploy did not work.

This camouflaged cry for help was followed ten days another, this time

am later

by

from Hermann Einstein. Without

his

to Ostwald, after appropriate introductory

courtesies:

My

&

each

his career has

been

son, lacking a post at present, feels deeply

day the thought gains strength in him that

&

derailed

he cannot find

over depressed

not very well

As

He

connection any longer.

thought that he

is

burden to

a

us,

is

more-

who

are

off.

my son

fessor,

at the

a

unhappy

probably reveres and esteems you, dear Herr Pro-

more than any other

physical scientist working today,

I

am

taking the liberty of turning to you with the respectful request that

you

Physik

&

were to find

now

in

Annalen der

perhaps send him a few lines of encouragement, so he

might regain

for

by him

will read the treatise published

his vitality

and working vigor.

possible to find for

it

or for next autumn,

him an

my

If,

moreover, you

assistant’s post, either

gratitude to

you would be

boundless. 39

This

letter

from

a

father

suffering

remained unanswered by Ostwald, and stein ever

knew of

along with his son likewise it is

unlikely that Albert Ein-

his father’s desperate act. It

speculate whether Ostwald

remembered those

would be amusing

letters

when,

to

as the first

of those entitled to propose names for the Nobel Prize, 40 he nominated Albert Einstein in 1909 for the 1910 prize and twice more repeated his proposal. 41

Depressed though Einstein not inactive.

On

may have been

at times,

he certainly was

April 12, 1901, he seems to have bought a stack of

postage-paid reply postcards and to have sent them to a dozen or so professors

whose names he happened

scattershot approach have been

to

know.

Two

samples of

preserved— one addressed

to

this

Heike

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

78

Kamerlingh Onnes, the founder of low-temperature physics,

in

Leyden, the Netherlands, and the other to Professor Carl Paalzow,

at

German

the Technische Hochschule in Berlin, the capital of the

Reich

—

country he was not

a

Kamerlingh Onnes he

fond

at least referred to

fellow student “that there

came

at all

is

your department,” 42 he

straight to the point with Professor Paalzow: “I take the liberty

your department, and,

common

is

It

assistant’s post it.” 43

Otherwise the two in

the fact that both reply cards, to be returned to “Herr

might perhaps be stated here,

Leyden, he

later

became

in

both

cities.

in his regular letters

from Milan, other

Thus Pro-

Gottingen had actually advertised two

tants’ posts in Physikalische Zeitschrift. Einstein applied

“given up on the position.

I

to us

assistant’s post in Berlin or

hopes, and indeed less outlandish ones, were also dashed.

Eduard Riecke

down

in anticipation of later events,

a professor in

As he reported to Mileva

have come

Italia,”

though Einstein did not then obtain an

fessor

vacant in

comma. Another thing they have

Albert Einstein, Via Bigli 21, Milano,

unused.

an

is

of applying for

if so,

postcards are identical to the last

in

in writing to

information received from a

a vacant post in

of inquiring from you whether there

that

Whereas

of.

can’t believe that

assis-

but had soon

Weber would

such

let

a

nice opportunity pass without meddling in things.” 44 Einstein had by

then become convinced that his former professor must be behind his lack of success;

Weber was bound

to put further obstacles in his

way by

references.

He

was, therefore, not surprised

have been here with

my

parents and

when Riecke turned him down, being “absolutely convinced that Weber is to blame.” 45 And to Marcel Grossmann he wrote: “For the past three giving

weeks

him poor

I

find a post as an assistant at

some

university.

am trying from here to And I would have long

Weber wasn’t double-crossing me.” But he was not discouraged: “God created the donkey and gave him a thick hide.” 46 Whatever opinion Weber may have had of his student, he probably found one

if

would not even have had an opportunity of “double-crossing” him.

Most of there

is

the professors simply shelved Einstein’s letters or postcards;

no evidence

that any of

inquiries in Zurich about this

reason for Riecke’s refusal

is

them even took the trouble

odd

applicant.

A much

more

that in his advertisement he

to

make

plausible

had

specifi-

Looking

for a

Job

cally stipulated a doctoral degree; Einstein’s

very impressive

first

79

mediocre diploma and not

publication were surely

no

substitute. Besides, the

time between the publication of the advertisement and Riecke’s rejection

was

too short for any intervention by Weber. 47 There simply

far

was no reason why any professor should have considered appointing

who was unknown

candidate

to

him and whose

qualifications,

a

on

paper, were indifferent.

His rejection by the academic world

Weber’s intrigues

—was very painful to Einstein.

of injury which, ten years

later,

when he was

and shortly to be appointed to technic, a

— due,

made him comment on

as

It is this

The

deep sense

professor in Prague

a full

Zurich Poly-

a professorship at the

Professor Weber’s death in

Zurich friend and colleague that “Weber’s death

for the Polytechnic.” 48

he believed, to

old

wounds were

still

good thing

a

is

a letter to

smarting when, in

1918, the Polytechnic tried to bring Einstein back from Berlin by

making him an exceptionally generous have been

1

8 years ago if I could have

Polytechnic! But

reputation

is

I

couldn’t bring

it

“How happy

offer:

become off!

a

humble

The world

would

I

assistant at the

is

a

madhouse,

everything!” 49

Expecting nothing but bad references from Weber, Einstein conceived the unusual idea of asking his former teachers in

Aarau for references with,

in order to apply for posts in Italy:

one of the main obstacles

as

it is

a

hindrance.

in

And

German-speaking counties in [the]

good connections here.” 50 This referred tant) that a friend of the Einstein family

fessor of chemistry in

“To begin

in getting a position doesn’t exist here,

namely anti-Semitism, which unpleasant

Munich and

Milan and

second place,

I

impor-

was acquainted with

among

physicist

from the North Sea

his Italian colleagues. “I will

a

pro-

an uncle of Michele

Besso, the mathematician Giuseppe Jung, had been asked to inquiries

make

soon have graced every

to the southern tip of Italy with

offer,” 51 Einstein boasted to Mileva, assuring

as

have very

to the fact (not very

that, in addition,

is

my

her that he would not

leave a single stone unturned.

Meanwhile direction.

a

On

glimmer of hope appeared from

a totally

the very day that his father had described

unexpected

him

to Pro-

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

80 fessor

Ostwald

“deeply unhappy,” Albert Einstein received a letter

as

from Marcel Grossmann, a

permanent position

“in

be overjoyed

if

what

a

me

that

I’ll

be getting

Patent Office in Bern .” 52

at the Swiss

on, to Mileva: “Just think I’d

which he informed

wonderful job

this

He went

would be

for

something came of it.”

Marcel Grossmann’s father was

a friend of Friedrich Haller, the

director of the “Federal Swiss Office for Intellectual Property”

Patent Office

—and had recommended

for the next vacancy in Bern.

do with an academic

his son’s

Grossmann

need hardly field

of

you

tell

activity,

it

was

still

effusively: “I

your loyalty and humanity which did not

granted such a fine

unemployed colleague

career, the date of the next vacancy

Einstein thanked Marcel

let

that

stein,

am

truly

you forget your old iuckI

would be happy

I

would do everything

and that

also

to be in

knew how

few months of the waiting period. Jakob Reb-

the Technical College in Winterthur, had to enlist for

two-month mandatory

Einstein

if

military service in

mid-May and had

he could stand in for him. “You can imagine

would ,” 54 Einstein wrote

One

touched by

formerly an assistant to Professor Herzog at the Polytechnic and

now teaching at his

first

was uncertain,

rather vague; but

my power not to disgrace your recommendation .” 53 He he would spend the

— the

Work at the Patent Office had nothing to

and the prospect of being appointed to

less friend. ... I

me!

how

asked

happily

I

to Mileva.

of the conditions of employment at the Office for Intellectual

Property was Swiss citizenship, but year of bureaucratic delays, had

become Swiss was due not only Actually, later, recalling the stein wrote:

this condition, after

now been

more than

met. Einstein’s wish to

to the inconvenience of being stateless.

good old days before World

War

Ein-

I,

“An ordinary person then would not even know what

passport was, because none was needed for traveling. Besides, stateless for five years

without any

cumstance .” 55 Nevertheless

it

a

difficulties arising

a

I

was

from that

cir-

had seemed useful to him,

after the

conclusion of his studies, to become a Swiss citizen in order not to exclude himself from state-controlled jobs, such as teaching posts.

An

equally important reason, according to his sister Maja, was the “agree-

Looking

ment between

for a Job

81

and Switzerland’s democratic

his political convictions

constitution.” 56

Swiss citizenship

an automatic consequence of cantonal or muni-

but these require the permission of the Federal

cipal “civic rights,”

Council in Bern.

is

On

October

19, 1899,

Albert Einstein therefore sub-

mitted to the “Illustrious Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation in

Bern”

his application for “permission to acquire Swiss cantonal

&

municipal civic rights.” Fie enclosed a good-conduct testimonial from the Zurich police and his certificate of release from Wiirttemberg zenship. Being his father; this

still

a

citi-

minor, he also needed the written agreement of

he supplied subsequently. 57

The Zurich

cantonal police

sent a “favorable” report to the Federal Attorney’s Office in Bern, and

on March

10, 1900, the

Federal Council approved Einstein’s applica-

At the end of June, therefore, during

tion.

his final

exams

at the

technic, he submitted his petition to the Zurich City Council.

Poly-

This

Council then involved various other departments and immediately charged Detective Hedinger to report on the applicant. Hedinger’s report stated that Einstein was “a very zealous, hard-working, and

exceedingly respectable person (teetotaler).” 58

when summoned on

Einstein confirmed his dislike of alcohol

December

14,

1900, before the Immigration Section of the City

Council, 59 which then

recommended

his application to the

Plenary

City Council. (Einstein remained a teetotaler in his later years.

when, with much hullabaloo, he arrived

December asked

at

Thus

San Diego, California, on

on board the Oakland and

a

newsreel reporter

him what he thought of Prohibition, Einstein

replied, cheerfully

laughing

30, 1930,

at the

Among cants,” 61

his

it is

,

camera: “I don’t drink, therefore

answers to

a

I

couldn’t care less.” 60)

“questionnaire for civic rights appli-

worth noting that he described himself

being of “no

as

religious

denomination” and, under the heading “occupation,” de-

clared: “I

am

manent

giving private lessons in mathematics until

post.” It

is

also interesting that

nowhere

I

find a per-

in these

documents

are there any questions about patriotic avowals or basic civics.

An

applicant’s wish

ments were

and the satisfaction of the

sufficient for the authorities.

knowledge of legal require-

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

82

The

records also disclose that the “directorate of the interior” of

the canton of Zurich gave instructions for Einstein’s financial situation

economic circumstances,

to be examined: “with regard to his as

we endeavored

from

own

his

this day,

it

it

was possible to establish that he has no income

work. Concerning the information received from Milan

emerges that he likewise has no resources from the side of

his parents.” 62 service,

he offered no indication of

to investigate the same,

any kind, except that

in so far

As the “Swiss Information Bureau,”

a kind of civil secret

was not allowed to operate outside Switzerland,

a private

detective was hired to investigate Einstein’s family. After a brief note

on the bankruptcy of the firm of Einstein

Garrone

e

in Pavia, the

detective concluded: “In Milan, Einstein senior seems to be

better

off,

but there

is

no

real estate

information, however, did not trary, it

had

property and Einstein junior could

on pecuniary support from

certainly not count

harm

his father.” 63

the applicant at

a beneficial effect: the authorities

cantonal civic rights to 200 francs

amount

—he

citizen instantly

On

birthday, the Zurich District

examination. vice

book64

Under

listed:

“

recruit

his

to the military

twenty-second

Command summoned him

for a medical

the heading “Diseases and Complaints” his serVarices Pes planus, Hyperidrosis ped,,” in plain lan-

guage varicose veins,

from

a Swiss citizen.

one day before

13,

February 21,

unemployed and

became an object of interest

and on March

authorities,

on the con-

had had to pay twice that

1901, with a badly depleted savings account, the

impecunious Albert Einstein became

all;

This

reduced his fee for the

for the civic rights of the city of Zurich.

The new

somewhat

,

flat feet,

training because

and sweating

feet.

He

was exempted

of his classification of “Unfit A,”

according to which he had to perform only “auxiliary services, local service,”

though

in fact

he was never called on to do even these.

his forty-second birthday

he regularly paid

—-though

of compensation for not serving later,

when he had become

his military taxes this did

a consistent pacifist,

against the Swiss militia system 65 and scientious objector in a letter, telling

to

—by way

not prevent him

from publicly arguing

from encouraging

him

Up

a Swiss

con-

that through his example

Looking

for a Job

83

“the machines of war [would be] destroyed or at least the unworthy

compulsory service abolished.” 66

Whatever other

citizenship Einstein

was to acquire

in later years,

whether through necessity or voluntarily, he always held

He

zenship dearest of all.

invariably traveled

American, he emphasized in

point of view, as

was

a brief

had always remained Swiss:

that he

I

on the red passport of the

when he was

Swiss Confederation, and even

“I

am still

The

Swiss from Switzerland’s

have never renounced that citizenship. In addition,

Academy from 1919

a Prussian.

America and an

in

account of his citizenship career

for a while an Austrian citizen (Prague),

Berlin

his Swiss citi-

to 1933

came

latter

I

and

as a

member

I

of the

even was (horrible thought)

to a dramatic end.

.

.

.

Now

I

am

also

an American. This country generously disregards the fact that one

may

be

also

ognize

a citizen

elsewhere, even though

it

does not

officially rec-

it.” 67

He

always had his

own

ideas about national labels. In 1919,

when

he explained his theory to the English in The Times (London), he startled taste

them with an

“application of the theory of relativity to the

of readers,” while at the same time poking fun at misunderstood

popularizations and national claims to his person:

Today

in

England

I

Germany

am

a

Swiss

am

,

German man of science, and in Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded

called a

represented as a

as a bete noire

come

I

the descriptions will be reversed, and

Jew

Germans and

for the

a

German man

I

shall be-

of science

for the English. 68

This he wrote the

as a

man who had

suddenly become world-famous; for

moment, however, he was no more than

to reconcile himself to the

thought that

remain barred to him and for citizenship

was simply the

whom

a

modest Swiss who had

a university career

would

the principal advantage of Swiss

fact that at least

one formal obstacle

to a

post in the Swiss public service had been removed. Einstein’s job as a

locum

at

would keep him above water

Winterthur Technical College, which

for

two months, was

a challenge for a

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

84

young beginner

He had

in the profession.

to teach thirty hours a week;

moreover, he was teaching descriptive geometry,

a subject

he had

fre-

quently cut at the “Poly”; but, as he repeatedly assured Mileva, quoting a line

from the poet Uhland, “the

valiant

Swabian

is

not afraid .” 69

Before starting the job he had met Mileva for a few days together at

Lake Como. They

sailed across the lake to

Cadenabbia, admired the

lush gardens of the Villa Carlotta, and crossed the Italian-Swiss fron-

by the

tier

snow-covered Spliigen pass in

still

was merrily snowing

sleigh. “It

horse-drawn

a small

the time,” Mileva shortly afterward

all

we drove one moment through long galleries and the next on the open road, where, all the way to the remotest distance, our eyes could see nothing but snow and more snow, so that at a friend 70 “as

wrote to

times

shuddered

I

my

round

us. ... I

more

,

at this cold

sweetheart under the coats and blankets which covered

was so happy to have

so as

must have

I

saw that he was

him

told

patient! You’ll see that

are beginning a

There

is

but

prised Mileva, just read a

am of

for

it

fret, darling. I

aren’t so

this,

bad to

the

Mileva

May

he

his “dear kitten”

of

by the end of

won’t leave you and

happy conclusion. You

my arms

just

rest in,

have to be

even

if

things

awkwardly.” also of happiness, indeed at the very

refers to physics.

who by

then had

That would

known her

beginning

scarcely have sur-

Albert for a few years: “I

wonderful paper by Lenard on the generation of cathode

ultraviolet light.

filled

it

little

mention

a

letter,

by

happy.” Soon after

was pregnant,

that she

will bring everything to a

rays

just as

“Be happy and don’t

a better future.

of the

my lover for myself again for a while,

“How’s the boy ?” 71 Of course he assured

inquired:

my arm

white infinity and firmly kept

Under

the influence of this beautiful piece

with such happiness and joy that

I

absolutely

I

must share some

with you .” 72 His happiness and pleasure were to bear

fruit:

four

years later his theoretical interpretation of the “photoelectric effect”

would become the foundation of quantum theory, and two decades later

it

would earn him the Nobel

Einstein found teaching, and

he had expected.

life,

Prize.

in

Winterthur more agreeable than

He met Hans Wohlwend

Aarau cantonal school

—and rented

a

again

—

a friend

room from Wohlwend’s

from the landlady

Looking at

for a Job

85

Schaffhauser Strasse 38, at the edge of town.

and

friend

his

it.” 73

enjoyed

—

as

he informed Mileva

Sundays he took the

— “an

He made

music with

older lady.

I

really

train to Zurich, twelve miles away,

was in turn cheerful and sad with Mileva, and supplied himself with scientific literature.

him

pleasing

Teaching,

he wrote to Papa Winteler, was

as

“quite extraordinarily.

enjoy teaching as

much

never suspected that

I

as in fact I did.” 74 In

I

would

order to accumulate some

savings he also gave private lessons.

Of vital importance

for Albert Einstein

and

his future plans

was the

surprising and pleasant discovery that the practice of a regular occupation did not exhaust

morning,

I

am still

library in the

him

at

all:

“Having taught

quite fresh and

work on

5

or 6 hours in the

my further education at the

afternoon, or on interesting problems at home.” 75

mean

Failure to find a university post clearly did not

the end of his

love of physics: “I have entirely abandoned the ambition of getting into a university

now

that

strength and inclination

left for scientific

As the Patent Office was,

at best,

feld,

in

Canton Bern, and next

Canton Thurgau

as

it is, I

have enough

endeavor.” 76

long-term prospect, Einstein

a

applied for a couple of teaching posts,

Burgdorf

even

realize that,

I

first at

at the

the Technical College in

cantonal school in Frauen-

—both times without

success.

The

fact that

he

applied for the Burgdorf job twice in short succession and that he sent his application to the

wrong

in the advertisement

might suggest to some psychopathologists that

deep down he was not

The

that keen

all

on becoming

warmly congratulated on

I

do not have

to

tell

was firmly convinced that

I

whom

his success: “[it] will provide for

pleasant activity and a secure future.

only so

a schoolteacher. 77

Frauenfeld post went to his friend Marcel Grossmann,

Einstein a

authority instead of to the address stated

I

myself that

you

too applied for that post, but

I

was too timid to apply. For

had no prospect of getting

this

I

or any simi-

lar post.” 78

Einstein’s self-assurance had not suffered setbacks, and he

Winterthur.

He

was

as

busy

as ever

from the many

pursuing his

reported to Mileva about

a

long

refusals

scientific

letter

and

work

in

he had written

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

86

Drude, “with two objections to

to Paul

his electron theory. He’ll

hardly be able to offer a reasonable refutation, as

my

very straightforward. I’m terribly curious to see

he

what

effect.

if

objections are replies,

mentioned of course that I’m without

I

Drude, however,

who was

and to

a position.” 79

the director of the Physical Institute of the

University of Giessen and also the editor of Annalen der Physik had no ,

post to offer and, besides, was by no means convinced by Einstein’s objections

—which

wretchedness of sary.” 80

eerie

And

Einstein

its

saw

comment by me

author that no further

Papa Winteler he wrote that

to

“I

tance of a sorry example of that species

of Germany.

truth.” 81

.

I

.

will shortly give that

As both Einstein’s

lost,

dubiousness about the

—one of the leading

man

a kick

letter to

up

But

physicists

the greatest

enemy of

Drude and Drude’s

reply have

is

no longer be

Drude’s electronic theory of metals was also

as

cized by other physicists and was not tenable in the long run

which cannot have escaped so eager

—

it is

with

his backside

the factual background of the controversy can

elucidated.

was

neces-

German professors, have again made the acquain-

hefty publication. Befuddled authority

been

his

is

neighbor in the north, and especially about

had by no means been exaggerated.

a

“manifest proof of the

such

as

—

criti-

a fact

reader of the journals as Einstein

a

not impossible that Einstein did in

fact

touch on

a

few sore

spots in Drude’s theory.

Having

more

finished his temporary teacher’s job

15, Einstein

once

joined his mother and sister in Mettmenstetten while Mileva was

cramming

for her

failed again. 82

Novi

on July

exam

in Zurich.

On July 26

it

Deeply depressed, she traveled

Sad. Einstein returned to Winterthur,

room, worked on

his doctoral thesis,

was clear that she had to see her parents in

where he had retained

and kept

his eyes

skinned for

his

new

sources of income. In the Schweizerische Lehrerzeitung (Swiss Teachers' Gazette) he

saw an advertisement for

young Englishman

a “private tutor,” to

for the Swiss “school-leaving”

exam

coach

a

at the private

school of a Dr. Niiesch in Schaffhausen. In order to “be rid of the worries

about where the next meal

offer.

is

coming from,” 83 he accepted the

“You can imagine how happy

I

am

about

it,” a

more modest

Looking

for a Job

87

Albert Einstein wrote to Marcel Grossmann, “even

if

exactly ideal for an independent character.” In

mid-September he

moved from Winterthur

therefore

such

a post

is

not

on the Rhine.

to Schaffhausen

Einstein initially stayed at the house of his employer, Dr. Jakob Niiesch, who, in addition to being a teacher in a secondary school, ran a

“Teaching and Education

on reasonably well with

his

Institute.” Einstein

young English

seems to have gotten

who

student, Louis Cahen,

intended to study architecture at the Polytechnic and therefore needed the Swiss “school-leaving” examination. Neither of zeal. 84

have shown excessive

house of

his

employer,

But he did not

who under

bed and board, in addition to

a

feel at all

mother had

When

to pay 4,000 francs for

on

to live

his

after another,

own

Niiesch’s expense.

live

impudence!

free

and the meals

one year of instruction

huge

for her son,

profit, Einstein

pro-

with the result that he was allowed,

first,

—

all at

a

Mileva he wrote that “the Niiesches are in

vicious rage against me, but

Long

setting

and, next, to take his meals in a restaurant

To

in the

he discovered that Cahen’s

and that Niiesch therefore was pocketing

voked one row

It is

now

I’m just

my guardian

as free as

any other man.

on the position

since the

in Bern, as

.

a .

.

angel in this world.” 85

His only other hope was the Patent Office, but more than

months had elapsed

to

salary of 150 francs. Einstein

would gladly have done without the domestic with the large Niiesch family.

happy

was to provide

their contract

monthly

them seems

six

Grossmanns’ intervention. “Eve given up

no notice has appeared

in the

newspaper

he wrote to Mileva toward the end of November. She in turn,

yet,” 86

writing to a friend, bewailed “the misfortune of Albert not finding a post.

.

.

.

You know

that

my sweetheart

has a sharp tongue and more-

over he’s a Jew.” 87

Albert Einstein

now

once he received

it,

placed his hopes in the effect which his doctorate,

would have on

his search for a post:

“As soon

as I

my doctorate I’ll apply for a secure position. Someday fate will on us.” 88 When he had submitted his thesis to Professor Kleiner

receive

smile

on November 23 and paid that not

his

examination

fee,

he boasted to Mileva

one of his former colleagues, who had landed

assistants’ posts,

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

88

had yet completed first,

hounded

despite being

dure, too, brought

“See, your Johnnie finished his paper

a thesis:

in the process.” 89

But the degree proce-

him nothing but annoyance.

Professor Kleiner, in Einstein’s eyes, was a useless “shortsighted person.” “If

I

had to be

fessor, I’d rather

beck and

at his

remain

a

call in

order to become a pro-

Much

poor private tutor.” 90

to Einstein’s

chagrin Kleiner was in no hurry to read his thesis, and he aroused Einstein’s fury

by refusing

him during

for

to keep the university library

the Christmas vacation,

over from Winterthur:

instinctively

Even

dignity,” 91 he ranted. this

who

view every intelligent youth

especially

when he intended

to

aren’t of their kind. as a

come

the things these old

“It’s really terrible, all

philistines put in the path of people

open

danger to their

They fragile

years later Friedrich Adler mentioned

six

episode as an illustration that Einstein was treated “rather con-

temptuously by the professors

at the Polytechnic”;

of the library, etc.” 92 Einstein,

he was “locked out

who presumably had

included a few

cheekily formulated objections to Drude’s theory of electron conduction in metals,

would

was curious to see how not only Kleiner but

react: “a fine

bunch,

all

also

Drude

of them. If Diogenes were alive today,

he’d be looking in vain for an honest person with his lantern.” 93

It

predictable that this emotionally overcharged degree procedure

would

end

in disaster,

francs

and Einstein was lucky to recover

when he withdrew

at least his fee

was

of 230

his doctoral thesis. 94

Mileva spent these months with her parents. After some outrage

demanded by bourgeois propriety they selves to Mileva’s

would as

pregnancy and,

establish himself in a

soon

as possible.

eventually reconciled them-

like her,

were hoping that Einstein

sound occupation and

as

head of

a family

But that was the very thing Einstein’s parents,

especially his mother,

were dreading. Although they were unaware of

Mileva’s condition, they feared that Albert would not give her up and therefore resorted to drastic measures.

Mileva complained to reviling

me

in a

felt

— “about writing

a friend

manner

“They

that

was

no compunctions”

a letter to

a disgrace.” 95

Toward

my parents, the end of

October, Mileva went to Switzerland. But in order not to compromise the

young

private tutor

by her then “funny shape,” she stayed

at a safe

Looking

from Schaffhausen,

distance

for a Job

else.

.

.

.

“When we

so much, quite frightfully like that too.” 96

When

Soon everything was

river.

are together

And, do you know, in

we

especially

when

I

must love him

see that he loves

me

Mileva returned to Novi Sad again, Einstein

showered her with good advice and seemed to look forward birth of their child without misgivings: “Just take

and keep your

just as

anyone

are merrier than

spite of everything bad, I

much,

am

the Hotel Steinerhof in Stein

at

Rhein, some twelve miles along the in the old days:

89

spirits up,

to the

good care of yourself

and be happy about our dear

Lieserl,

whom I

secretly (so Dollie doesn’t notice) prefer to imagine as a Hanserl.” 97

At

there was cause for optimism.

last

On December

11

Einstein

received news from Marcel Grossmann: “a very sweet letter in which

he said that the position in Bern

weeks and that he’s certain find our lives brilliantly

would be pier for

,

get

be advertised within the next few In two months’ time

it.

changed for the

better,

we

could

and the struggles

when I think about it. I’m even hapGrossmann after all had not promised

over. I’m dizzy with joy

you than

too much. Gazette

I’ll

will

for myself.” 98

The same day

almost as

if it

an advertisement appeared in the Federal

had been tailored for Einstein.

“thorough university education of cally physical direction.” 99

a

The head

It

demanded

mechanical-technical or specifi-

of the Patent Office, Friedrich

Haller, had added the (not normally customary) “physical direction.”

Until then there had been no physicists in the Patent Office. 100 In polite bureaucratic

German, Einstein on December 18 com-

posed his application for the “Engineer

II

Class vacancy in the Swiss

Federal Office for Intellectual Property,” 101 casually mentioning his thesis

“on an aspect of the kinetic theory of gases.” 102

The

following

day he went to see Professor Kleiner in Zurich. Kleiner had not yet read Einstein’s work, but they talked about

all

kinds of physical prob-

lems, and Einstein concluded that the professor was “not quite as

stupid as I’d thought, and moreover, he’s a

count on him for

a

good

fellow.

vacation he stayed in Schaffhausen,

beckon

said

I

recommendation anytime.” 103 Small wonder

Einstein was “absolutely crazy with happiness.” 104

nities that

He

full

can that

Over the Christmas

of expectation of the “opportu-

to us in the near future.” 105

Only on Christmas Day

Childhood, Youth, Student Years

90

and the next day did he allow himself

who had come

with his

a special treat:

sister,

over from Aarau, he spent these two days at the Hotel-

Pension Paradies in Mettmenstetten, known to the family from past vacations.

Nothing

is

known about

the events of January 1902 which led to

from Schaffhausen.

Einstein’s premature departure

We

know

neither

the doctoral thesis nor Professor Kleiner’s reservations which induced

Einstein to withdraw

it.

Bern would have made January.

But

any case the prospect of the post in

in

easy for

it

him

to pack his bags at the

By way of Zurich, where he recovered went

the university chancellery, he probably tainly, as

he wrote to

his doctoral fee

from

straight to Bern. Cer-

he had “cast off with

a friend,

end of

a

bang” 106 from

Schaffhausen and Dr. Niiesch’s institute.

Meanwhile, he had become a letter

a father

from Novi Sad, forwarded

had hoped, was

a Lieserl. It

to

—but

him

was not

Einstein

may have

physical thought.

—but without

for a

damentally important,” as well

little

the end of the year

baggage in the con-

well stocked with creative

young man was as the

baby, as Mileva

Lieserl.

mind by then was

Unusual

The

middle of the year that

Toward

arrived in Bern with very

ventional sense, but his

he learned only from

in Bern.

until the

Einstein could at last start on his job.

Mileva came to Switzerland

this

his focus

on the “fun-

broad spectrum of his

interests.

Alongside the “great” themes of thermodynamics and the kinetic theory of gases, and Maxwell’s theory of the electromagnetic

concerned himself with

capillarity, thermoelectricity,

field,

he

and the elec-

tronic theory of conductivity in metals.

Although

his studies

proceeded on the margin of topical physical

research and largely in an autodidactic manner, he seemed to aim,

almost with

He was

a sleepwalker’s assurance, straight at the central

a regular

problems.

and thorough reader of Annalen der Physik, though he

could not afford to subscribe to the journal himself. In his letters to

Mileva Marie he would regularly comment on cially interested

on the

articles

which had espe-

him. These included not only Wilhelm Wien’s article

ether, Drude’s

work on metal

periments on the photoelectric

conductivity, and Lenard’s ex-

effect,

but above

all

Max

Planck’s

Looking

for a

work, published toward the end of

mula which contained

his

1

Job

91

900, about his

new

radiation for-

quantum, subsequently to be known

as

“Planck’s constant.” Einstein

commented on

as early as April in a letter to

Mileva, 107 and he realized, “shortly after

this article quite critically

Planck’s pioneering work, that neither mechanics nor electrodynamics

can (except in limiting cases) claim exact validity.” 108

As

way out of

a

the dilemma in which physics found itself at the

young Einstein had

turn of the century,

in

mind

a

fundamental theory

along the lines of thermodynamics: “the discovery of a general formal

might lead us

principle

to reliable results.” 109

Such

a

theory was pre-

sented by Einstein a few years later in the form of the special theory of

but his letters from his “apprenticeship period” are already

relativity,

pervaded by already

this

come

theme.

It is

to him- while

possible that the crucial insight had

he was

at

school in Aarau and that since

1898, with a physicist’s tools, he had further pursued the idea. so

happy and proud”

“when we

—he wrote

was “busily

at

Unfortunately

at that time,

it is

he was an Expert

III

his earlier letters

to a

bodies,

which

of work.” 111

come down

or indeed what

treatise”

motion

impossible to conclude from such remarks, in

still

to

to us,

what direction

his thinking

wrong turnings he must have

needed

— and that would come

would succeed

relative

the end of 1901, in Schaffhausen, he

a capital piece

those letters that have

ration

work on

work on an electrodynamics of moving

promises to be quite

His “splendid

Toward

be

Mileva in the spring of 1901

are together and can bring our

successful conclusion!” 110

took

to

“I’ll

a lot

taken.

of work and one flash of inspi-

him only

in the spring of 1905,

when

Class at the Patent Office in Bern. Nevertheless,

already reveal an unshakable conviction that he

in solving the riddle,

down. There probably never was

a

no matter what job he was holding

young man about

to enter a

modest

post with, at the same time, such high-flying plans as Albert Einstein,

when he thing

is

arrived in

Bern

in

February 1902. And the most astonishing

that his hopes in fact

came

true.

PART

II

CHAPTER Expert

SIX

Class

III

Albert Einstein’s move to Bern had escape by an angry

would have

to live

was known

at that

his application

young man

hand

it

the characteristics of an

was rash and not

mouth, subsisting on hope, because

had been received and that the

all

that

it

director, Friedrich

sympathetically as soon as any

were authorized. But he was glad not to have to be Schaffhausen any longer. “It does

me

a

new

posts

a private tutor in

world of good to have escaped

from those unpleasant surroundings.” Besides, 1

ries,

He

free of risk.

point about the post at the Patent Office was that

would consider

Haller,

to

—

all

if

he did have any wor-

he was not going to show them.

“It’s

wonderful here in Bern,” 2 he wrote to Mileva immediately

after his arrival at the

oughly pleasant

beginning of February 1902. “An ancient, thor-

city, in

which one can

live exactly as in

Einstein liked best about this architectural

gem

of a

Zurich.”

What

more than

city,

the

massive ramparts or the impressive baroque towers, were the arcades

along both sides of the old keitsgasse 32 at the lower city,

quite close to the

streets.

He

end of the

found

fine line

Nydegg Bridge and

a

room on Gerechtig-

of streets crossing the

the bear

pit,

where Bern’s

heraldic animals are kept.

There was

still

the problem of a livelihood. Since the matter at the

Patent Office was making no visible progress, Einstein, as

a

holder of

the Swiss specialist teacher diploma, offered his “exceedingly thor-

ough”

services as a private tutor in

local advertising

paper

—with

mathematics and physics

“free trial lessons.” 3

95

He

in the

received a few

The Patent Office

96

including one from an engineer and one from an architect, and

replies,

already saw himself as the professor of a small private college, with

enough earnings

One

of his

to cover the waiting period for the Patent Office.

first

students was Louis Chavan, a French-speaking

Swiss technician in the Swiss Postal and Telegraph Service, and before

long one of Einstein’s most loyal friends in Bern. In his meticulously kept notebooks Chavan not only recorded Einstein’s lessons but also left

us a thumbnail sketch of his youthful teacher: “His short skull

seems unusually broad. His complexion his large

sensuous mouth

is

a

a thin black

matt

brown. Above

light

The nose

moustache.

His striking brown eyes radiate deeply and

slightly aquiline.

voice

is

is

attractive, like the vibrant

note of a

cello.

softly.

is

His

Einstein speaks cor-

rect French, with a slight foreign accent .” 4

Immediately on

his arrival in Bern, Einstein

had received

a letter

from

Mileva’s father, addressed to Schaffhausen but forwarded to him,

which,

when he

read

quite prepared, as an

it,

“frightened [him] out of his wits .” 5

unemployed man

He

was

in his early twenties, to be

accused, in terms of bourgeois morality, of having become, scan-

dalously prematurely, a father, and without the blessing of a rabbi or at

What he was

least a registry office clerk.

not prepared for was to learn

about the serious complications of the birth. Mileva was actually so exhausted that she could not write to him herself. Einstein’s concern

about Mileva’s health, however, was tempered by his concern for and joy over the baby: “Is she healthy and does she cry properly?” he inquired.

“What

resemble? ...

I

are her eyes like?

love her so

a researcher’s curiosity

Now you “I

would

like to

interesting!”

pretation,

much and

don’t even

he continued:

can make observations.”

sion of men’s inferiority

Which one

And

“Is she

of us does she

more

know her yet .” 6 With

looking at things yet?

he made

a frank

admis-

compared with women’s reproductive

ability:

make such

a Lieserl

This wish, almost too

finally

myself one day,

explicit

on

a

it

must be most

psychoanalytic inter-

was to be echoed on many occasions, when Einstein

described his mental efforts as “hatching” and sometimes as “laying eggs.”

Despite Einstein’s protestations

—

“I

long for you every day” and

Expert “I’d rather be in

Bern” 7

97

with you in some provincial backwater than without you

—there was no mention

The

riage.

Class

III

in his letters

much

reason probably was not so

of an imminent mar-

the fact that without a

post at the Patent Office he would not be able to support a family but rather the vigorous opposition of his parents. Pauline Einstein reacted to

what

was anything but

to her

a

happy

event, and to Albert’s sugges-

engagement, by declaring,

tion of at least an official

“We

against Albert’s relationship with Fraulein Marie, and

wish to have anything to do with her. causing

me

the bitterest hours of my

.

.

.

life; if it

anything to banish her from our sight,

I

are resolutely

we

don’t ever

That Fraulein Marie were in

have

my power,

is

do

I’d

a veritable antipathy

any influence on Albert.”

toward her.” 8 She complained of “having

lost

Given

angry resolution not to give

his scorn for “Philistines”

damn about

and

his

the world, this sounds entirely credible. Yet basically he

was an obedient son, reluctant to rebel against determination

engagement,

a

—with the

let

his

mother’s fierce

result that for the time being there

was no

alone a wedding. Mileva, therefore, having to bear the

precarious consequences of premarital

motherhood on her own, stayed

with her parents in Novi Sad, while Einstein was trying to survive in

Bern

until a decision

Max Talmud,

his

came through about the Patent mentor from

Office.

his school days in

Munich, had the

impression that Einstein was only just about managing to survive.

Traveling through northern Italy in April 1902,

were now

that the Einsteins

living in

Milan and

found them depressed, and, in response to son,

was told only that he was now

Talmud remembered them.

visited

his inquiries

living in Bern.

He

about their

Unaware of

the

cause of this estrangement, he went to Switzerland specifically to see his

former pupil,

poverty.”

The

whom

he found in conditions “testifying to great

lodging on Gerechtigkeitsgasse, which Einstein had

described to Mileva as though a “small,

it

were

a

small palace, struck

Talmud

as

poorly furnished room.” 9 In conversation Einstein blamed his

sorry situation

on obstacles

—no

assistant’s post

“laid in his

But Einstein had

and

his failure to get a doctorate

way by people who were a

Although he had arrived

jealous of him.”

knack for making the best of adversity. in

Bern

totally

unknown and with no

contacts

either socially or in university circles, he did not remain alone long.

The Patent Office

98

Paul Winteler, one of the sons of Einstein’s “parents” in Aarau, had

begun

just

stein

to study law there.

knew Conrad Habicht,

He

mathematics.

now

also

And from his time in Schaffhausen Einwho was working on a doctoral thesis in

met Hans Frosch

from Aarau,

studying medicine. Einstein explained some of his physical prob-

lems to Habicht, the mathematician,

my

again, a classmate

good

He

ideas .” 10

who was

“very enthusiastic about

accompanied Frosch to

pathology with “demonstrations ad oculos.”

a

He was

class

on forensic

“so fascinated” by

the drunkards, arsonists, and megalomaniacs presented to the students “that

from now on I’m going

In his

own

to

go every Saturday .” 11

special subject of physics,

cover anything of comparable interest.

however, Einstein did not

Aime

dis-

Forster, the head of the

department, lived in the astronomical observatory, converted into laboratory,

the huge

on the Grosse Schanze, the old

city ramparts,

not

far

a

from

where the new main building of the university was then

site

under construction. Forster had gained some renown, but

as a local

meteorologist rather than a physicist, and his lectures did not go

beyond an elementary theory

12 .

The

seriously and

level;

self-assured

had to find

he made only derogatory remarks about

young Einstein could not

take Forster quite

intellectual contacts elsewhere.

In response to Einstein’s advertisement in the Berner Anzeiger a

young

Jew from Romania, Maurice Solovine, turned up one day. Solovine had come to the University of Bern with a thirst for knowledge but no clear idea of

what

to study.

He

had enrolled

for

both philosophy and

physics but had found Professor Forster’s lectures theoretically and philosophically shallow. So he turned to the private tutor

on Gerech-

tigkeitsgasse. In old age, Solovine recalled climbing the stairs to Einstein’s

room, hearing

his forceful

“Come

in,”

and being impressed by

the brilliant clarity of Einstein’s eyes.

After a few hours of regular, paid teaching, Einstein found

it

more

interesting to discuss with Solovine the general philosophical foundations of physics, for

he

felt like

Habicht

it.

which purpose Solovine was

to visit

him whenever

At the beginning of the summer semester, Conrad

also joined these conversations,

and the three decided to

set

Expert

up

kind of club,

a

a

III

Class

99

discussion circle with a firm agenda and an

absurdly grandiloquent name, Akademie Olympia.

meet regularly

a

honey, and

fruit,

little

enough

Solovine’s recollections, was

for

three would

meal of sausage, some

in the evening for a frugal

Gruyere cheese,

The

tea.

That, according to

them

to “brim over with

merriment .” 13 Regardless of the fun and games, the cheerful “Academy” was

based on a serious, systematic reading program. Solovine has noted the

books the three members studied and discussed with

was probably the driving

program Ernst Mach’s

force, putting

—antimetaphysical works which he knew from

Under

Wissenschaft

the (

on

Analysis of Perception and Mechanics and

Development days.

list,

emphasis on theoretical works touching on the founda-

a clear

tions of physics. Einstein

the

— an impressive

his student

same heading came Karl Pearson’s Die Gramm, atik der

Grammar of Science ) and Richard Avenari us’s two-volume

Kritik der reinen Erfahrung

( Critique

of Pure Experience ), though only

one chapter of this work was discussed. Several weeks were devoted

La

Science et Phypothese

(

Science

Stuart Mill’s reflections his Logic

,

still

Hume

work was of considerable

effect

Now

remembered

good German

(in quite a

on

by Einstein, and

fine literature

was read

— Sophocles’ Antigone

Don

These works were probably more

Quixote.

,

causality.

chiefly conedition).

His

man, Einstein once confessed that did not concern myself

novels .” 15

He

explained

empathy rather than too

this,

however,

little:

aspect was easily lost

much

“It

is

a little

in a kind of “gen-

Racine’s tragedies, and in line with Solovine

and Habicht’s interests than Einstein’s. In reply to

artistic

in the third

and again the “Academy” meetings were enriched by

program

I

John

my development— along with Poin-

eral studies”

later)

“we

that

as

Mach .” 14

violin recital

literary

such

and David Hume’s subtle critique of

cerned ourselves with D.

care and

as well,

on the problem of induction

Five decades later Einstein

to

and Hypothesis) by the great Frenchman

Henri Poincare. But older works were studied

volume of

Its

“as a

a

question from

young man (and

a

also

with poetical literature or as resulting

from too much

partly due to the fact that the

on me because the

fate

of the characters

as

The Patent Office

100 such gripped

me

too strongly.”

mann had “enormously Himmelfahrt aloud

neles

from pain .” 16 His

Thus some

inflamed” him, and “I

had to cry

when

made

“What

I

loved

little

Han-

bliss,

half

him

to

more were books of At any

were served by Baruch Spinoza’s

continued to read frequently, long after the

from

necessary for

it

ideological character, and especially philosophy .” 17 stein’s preferences

read

a friend

like a child, half

sensibility evidently

shape his preferences differently:

by Gerhart Haupt-

plays

Ein-

rate,

Ethics

,

which he

“Academy” had been

scattered to the winds.

Although he had to abandon

his

hope of an

assistant’s post at a univer-

sity,

Einstein had not given up his scientific interests or even the idea

of a

scientific career.

today, was for his

One prerequisite, at the turn of the century as name to become known through publications. Ein-

stein therefore used his electrolysis,

begun

ample

leisure time to

make

his reflections

on

in Schaffhausen or possibly even in Zurich, ready

for publication.

His second

essay, like his

first,

dealt with the conclusions deriving

from the hypothetical assumption of molecular forces and, more parwith the experimental verification of these conclusions.

ticularly,

Toward nalen

,

the end of April the manuscript was sent to the editor of An-

and ten weeks

under

a long,

later,

involved

without any problems,

title 18 .

More

it

was published

significant than his

turgid and ultimately unproductive physical reflections

is

somewhat Einstein’s

concluding apology for “only setting out a meager plan for

manding

a

de-

investigation without contributing anything to an experi-

mental solution.” Because he was in no position to perform the necessary experiments himself, he believed, rather grandly for an

unknown plished

twenty-three-year-old, that his paper would have accom-

its

objective “if

it

induces some researcher to attack the

problem of the molecular forces from

Nothing of the self

sort happened,

would describe

works .” 20 But

paper

his pattern of

leagues to pursue

with every

this

it

as

this angle.

and

” 19

five years later

one of

his

the author him-

“two worthless

throwing out an idea and inducing

was to recur frequently, and within

justification.

a

firstling

his col-

few years

Expert

Because

it

did not yield

had

lecular forces

much

Class

III

in

101

terms of science, the study of mo-

lost its attraction for Einstein.

There were plenty of

problems to be pondered, but for the next two years only one ripened into publications early as

foundations of thermodynamics. As

June 1902, Einstein was able to send off

paper

a

The

titled

Heat Equilibrium and of the Second Law of Thermody-

Kinetic Theory of the

namics.

—the

field

This was the

described in context

first

of a series of three publications which will be

later.

At

this

point

should merely be said that

it

with them Einstein not only established himself

as

an original

researcher but also developed the foundation of his later magnificent contributions to statistical physics. as the

completion of his

after a

first

To him,

however,

thermodynamics

just as

was the

treatise

long and nerve-racking waiting period, he

important

at last

fact that,

got into the

Patent Office.

Spring was well advanced again to

when

two vacancies

fill

the Swiss bureaucracy

moved

into gear

Sometime toward the

in the Patent Office.

end of May, Friedrich Haller invited the candidate Einstein, recom-

mended tion.” 21

to

him by Grossmann

pere

for a

,

“thorough oral examina-

This time Einstein’s hopes were not disappointed:

a

proposal

soon went to the Swiss Federal Council that the mechanical engineer Heinrich Schenk and Albert Einstein be “provisionally elected Technical Experts III Class at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property, at

an annual salary of 3,500 francs each.” 22

Two weeks later came

their

appointment by the Federal Council, and on June 23, 1902, Einstein reported for work.

The “annoying

business of starving” 23 had

an end. Marcel Grossmann had again proved to be

come

a “lifesaver,”

to

and

Einstein would remain eternally grateful to him. But for that opportunity,

he observed,

“I

might not have

died, but

I

would have been

intel-

lectually stunted.” 24

Henceforth, every morning office.”

The

at eight o’clock, Einstein

went

to “the

Patent Office was then on the upper floor of the new,

somewhat pompous building of the tion

on Genfergasse, near the

were

clearly favorable: “I very

soon reported to

a friend,

Postal and Telegraph Administra-

railroad station.

much

“because

like

it is

His

my work

first

impressions

at the office,”

enormously varied and

he

calls for

The Patent Office

102

much

thought.

What I

even better

like

is

my handsome pay .” 25 He

got

on well with the director and the dozen or so colleagues ranked

as

“experts,” but he complained about the workload: “I have a frightful lot

of work. Eight hours

lesson,

and then

I

have

each day and at least one private

at the office

my

work .” 26 Once he had

scientific

though, he found his forty-eight hours per week

settled in,

at the office tolerable.

When his friend Habicht was not entirely satisfied with the school service, in

which he had landed

after

completing

his studies, Einstein sug-

gested that one day he would smuggle Habicht in slaves”

and

commend

tried to

the

work

to

among

the “patent

him by observing

that

“along with the eight hours of work there are also eight hours of fun in the day, and then there

is

Sunday .” 27

also

Even though the Patent Office had been he never

felt that

a

good “patent

haps, the Patent Office even

was

more

the job was merely a matter of survival. For

than seven years he was

refuge:

Einstein’s second choice,

“Working on the

seemed

in retrospect to have

been an

ideal

formulation of technological patents

final

a veritable blessing for

slave, ’’and for that reason, per-

me.

enforced many-sided thinking and

It

important stimuli to physical thought .” 28 In old age he

also provided

even considered himself lucky to have escaped the academic treadmill

by having

young person under tities

Academia, he believed, “places

a practical occupation. a

kind of compulsion to produce impressive quan-

of scientific publications

only strong characters can practical occupations are

—

temptation to superficiality, which

a

resist .” 29

moreover of

He

further argued that “most

a character

which allows

son of normal

gifts to

existence he

not dependent on special illuminations.

is

achieve whatever

scientific interests, let

is

him engross himself

work .” 30 Einstein was

the Patent Office he

managed

When

which

also

he had attained

to

looked back nostalgically, in

If

he has deeper

in his favorite

most

to be of outstanding importance.

and become

a

famous professor, he

a letter to his friend

beautiful ideas and

together .” 31

problems

lucky; in the seclusion of

and sometime col-

league Michele Besso, to “that temporal monastery, where

my

civil

produce “impressive quantities” of

happened

his goal

a per-

expected of him. In his

alongside his regular

publications,

a

where we spent such

I

hatched

a pleasant

time

Expert

Albert Einstein

As

a

may have found

III

Class

103

himself quite

at

home among

patents.

boy he had watched Uncle Jakob, the busy development engineer

of the family firm, applying for

must

ratory he

also

In Professor Weber’s labo-

six patents.

have come into contact with recently patented

inventions. Nevertheless, the duties of an Expert III Class at the Swiss

Patent Office were something a novice had to be instructed

This

in.

was done personally by way of individual meetings with the boss. By almost schoollike instruction of

his strict,

fessor

new

staff

members, Pro-

Haider ensured that the patent examiners would

all

judge sub-

mitted inventions according to objective, verifiable, uniform criteria that could, if necessary, stand

up

in a court of law. Einstein, moreover,

with only slight experience in reading and interpreting

as a physicist

technical drawings, -lagged behind his colleagues with engineering

from the

training; this called for private instruction

director. Einstein

seems to have accepted Haller’s severe regime without demur: he regarded him

as “a splendid character

gets used to his

The

reason

rough manner.

why

and

a clever

mind.

One soon

hold him in very high esteem .” 32

I

the job called for

“much thought” was

that a

patent officer’s central role was as a bookkeeper of technical progress

on

a scientific basis.

As

a rule,

an inventor

—

in Einstein’s days rarely

—would formulate

represented by a patent attorney

in addition to verifying the formal criteria,

officer,

whether the submitted invention was

in fact

patent protection, whether

on

case of

had

more

to be

It

it

infringed

basis of

and the

had to decide

new and

deserving of

existing patents, and, in the

elaborate machinery, whether

done on the

it

actually worked. All that

drawings and specifications.

turned out that for young Albert Einstein, examining patents was

more than

just a livelihood. In fact,

it

characteristic approach to his favorite osity with “mental experiments” lectual

in short, in line

agreed quite strikingly with his

problems in physics. His

was not

all

that far

removed from

penetration of an invention, and his typical

ing in images involved visual

as

his claims;

more than conceptual

had almost providentially landed

with his

own way

in a job

way of

virtuintel-

think-

operations. Einstein,

which was so much

of thinking that he might have experienced

an agreeable exercise in technological and scientific imagination.

it

The Patent Office

104

Even

the procedures favored Einstein’s inclination toward criticism

and contradiction. authority,

course, Te could not oppose Professor Haller’s

Of

but he could

and contradict the applicants

criticize

moreover, on his boss’s instructions. tion, think that

anything the inventor says

“you

his experts; otherwise,

and that

“When you is

pick up an applica-

wrong,” 33 Haller advised

will follow the inventor’s

will prejudice you.

You have

to

remain

way of thinking,

critically vigilant.”

This procedure of “brushing an argument against the grain” and, possible, refuting

by

it

a

counterexample, greatly sharpened one’s

thinking and was entirely to Einstein’s It

would be interesting

opinions, but

Under

we have

the rules,

all

if

taste.

to prove this point with Einstein’s expert

too few traces of his activity at the Patent Office. papers were destroyed after eighteen years of

patent protection. Even in the 1920s,

when

it

was realized that no

other employee of the Bern Patent Office, or any patent office any-

where, would ever

nor

his successor

rise to Einstein’s heights,

neither Friedrich Haller

wished to make an exception from that rule for the

benefit of future biographers.

Thus

the last papers processed by Albert

Einstein probably went into the shredder in 1927. expert opinions has

come down

court record and there survived. official

to us, because It

it

was compiled

Only one of

found

way

into a

when

in the

its

in 1907,

his

judgment Einstein was “one of the most highly esteemed

experts at the Office.” 34 It rejected a patent claim

pany of Berlin

for

by the

an alternating-current collector

as

AEG Com“incorrect,

imprecise, and not clearly drafted.” “As for the various shortcomings

of the design,

we can

deal with those only

patent has been clarified by

when

the subject of the

a correctly drafted claim.” 35

That was

sovereign, curt judgment, entirely in the spirit of Einstein’s chief,

was anxious to teach inventors, especially big This

critical

comment

firms,

for the post

who

the boss.

suggests that Einstein was concerned mainly

with processing electrical-engineering patents.

ment

who was

a

The

original advertise-

had specified “thorough university education of

a

mechanical-technical or specifically physical direction.” As physics had

not previously figured in these advertisements, Einstein believed that “Haller put this in for

my

sake.” 36

young Einstein than about

But

Haller,

this

probably says more about

who, having headed the Patent

Expert

III

Class

Office since 1887 with great propriety,

such

a

105

would hardly have indulged

in

maneuver ad personam.

Actually, Haller’s reason for enlarging his staff of predominantly

mechanical engineers by adding

a physicist

was the rapid development

of the electrical industry and a resultant flood of patent applications in that field.

The

first

decade of the nineteenth century was characterized

by the development of advanced alternating-current and polyphasecurrent machines, by telephone technology, and especially by wireless transmission of information bv means of electrical oscillations.

Werner Siemens and Thomas Alva

this later

a

than the pioneering achievements of the self-taught

far greater extent

geniuses

To

Edison, the inventions of

period were based on a theoretical understanding of electro-

magnetic phenomena

—which was why Einstein,

as a physicist familiar

with Maxwell’s theory, found a rich and interesting

field

of activity at

the Patent Office. Also, he enjoyed

long after he

left

working with patents, and he continued to do so

Bern. In later years he often served as an expert or

consultant on patents, and he kept up the connection with his “temporal monastery” by having a few of his

When

Switzerland.

own

inventions patented in

anyone expressed surprise that such

scholar should stoop to technology, he would say: “I to

.

.

.

a

famous

never ceased

concern myself with technical matters. This was of benefit also to

my scientific stein there

research.” 37 His

was “a

first

biographer even noted that for Ein-

definite connection

between the knowledge he

acquired at the Patent Office and the theoretical results which, at that

same time, emerged

The “handsome

as

examples of the acuteness of his thinking.” 38

pay” of 3,500 francs

a

year was about double what

Einstein could have expected from an assistant’s post

grand but sufficient for theless, there

was too

was

great,

still

and

modest bourgeois family

no question of marriage. His

so, despite all his protestations,

dependence on them. possible circumstance

Hermann

a

He

finally received their

—when

his father

existence.

life as

Never-

parents’ opposition

was

his

emotional

consent in the saddest

was dying.

Einstein’s health had been prematurely

the ceaseless worries of his

—by no means

undermined by

an entrepreneur. Although his two

The Patent Office

106

power

plants in northern Italy did not, for once,

go bankrupt, they did

not yield enough profit to repay his loans, chiefly from

“The

relatives.

poor things have been constantly aggravated and worried about the

damned money,” 39

is

how

his

them

uncle Rudolf (“The Rich”) has been nagging

Hermann

of 1902, just after

birthday, his heart proved

Milan

just in

“My

son described the situation.

dear

terribly.” In the fall

Einstein had celebrated his fifty-fifth

no longer up

to the stress. His son arrived in

time to see his father on his deathbed. At that painful

hour of parting, Einstein received

his parents’

Hermann Einstein died on October 10, Milan. “When the end came, Hermann asked riage.

room, so he could die on

his

consent to his mar-

1902, and was buried in all

own. His son never

of them to leave the recalls that

moment

without a sense of guilt.” 40

Less than three months after his father’s death, about the turn of

1902-1903, Einstein

summoned Mileva

modest room on Gerechtigkeitsgasse

to Bern.

in

He

had given up

his

August and had moved to

Kirchenfeld, an area newly developed after the construction of a

bridge over the Aare. In a pretty house of typical Bernese style on Tillierstrasse 18

cony and

home

he had rented

a splendid

a small attic

apartment with

a big bal-

view of the Bernese Alps. This became the

first

of Albert and Mileva Einstein.

On

January

6,

without

much

registry office in the old city.

No

from Einstein’s or from Mileva’s

wedding took place

at the

wedding guests had arrived

either

ado, the

family.

The

witnesses were the other

two members of the Akademie Olympia, Conrad Habicht and Maurice Solovine.

Then

the small party

evening they celebrated

When

went

to a photographer,

and

in the

a little.

the newlyweds arrived at Tillierstrasse, Einstein had to

rouse the landlord: he had forgotten the key to his apartment. 41 That tells

us something.

Einstein, in fact, drawing riage that eventually ried primarily

from

ended

a “sense

embarked on something that he

up the balance sheet of an unhappy mar-

in divorce,

would

recall that

he had mar-

of duty.” “I had, with an inner resistance,

that simply exceeded

my strength.” 42 The

had wrested consent to that marriage from

his father

fact

under

Expert

III

tragic circumstances

must have been

admitted to himself.

And

marry outside the cipation, have

hung

as a

trauma than he

a greater

and eman-

reproach between them.

if silent

when he was

at first

of his family to

first

also, despite their assimilation

grave

years later, in Princeton,

107

the fact that he was the

must

faith

Class

Many

asked by Jewish students in

a

discussion whether marriage outside the tradition was permissible, his

answer reflected

“That

his personal experience:

then, any marriage

is

while Einstein was

—but

Mileva shortly before the

his

—the

mar-

fate

of

child’s birth,

waiting for his job in Bern, the only question

still

“how

yet to be resolved was

keep our Lieserl with

to

us; I

wouldn’t

to have to give her up.” 44 Despite these initial intentions, the girl

at first

remained with Mileva’s parents

None first

which

stress to

must have been subject from the outset

their daughter. In a letter to

want

dangerous

dangerous.” 43

However, he never mentioned the greatest riage with Mileva

is

Novi

Sad.

of these problems or any other problem

accounts of his

new

She looks

is

reflected in his

marital status. “So I’m a married

he reported to Besso, “and lead

my wife.

in

man now,” 45

very pleasant comfortable

a

after everything splendidly,

is

a

life

with

good cook, and

is

always cheerful.”

Einstein also had every reason to be satisfied with his scientific work.

Immediately before assuming off his heat, 46

first

and two weeks

after his

dent”: 48 the explanation of

wedding

second

He

treatise,

developing

thus took up again a sub-

a

very great impression on the stu-

many

superficially disparate properties of

matter, especially of gases, solely

on the

countless minute particles

as the derivation

a

was ready. 47

which had already “made

ment of

Patent Office he had sent

study on the molecular-kinetic explanation of the theory of

this subject in greater depth,

ject

his post at the

basis of the

mechanical move-

— the atoms or molecules—

of the laws of thermodynamics through the

as well

statistical

treatment of mechanical systems. In Professor Weber’s lectures at the Polytechnic

been made of the

Boltzmann

latest

no mention had

advances by James Clerk Maxwell or Ludwig

in this field. Einstein

had acquainted himself with the

theory through private study. By September 1902 he believed he had

The Patent Office

108

achieved something suitable for Annalen

:

have lately concerned

“I

myself thoroughly with Boltzmann’s work on the kinetic theory of gases

&

supplying the

He

my

over the past few days have written a small piece of final

brick to a chain of proof started by

did not publish

it

wanted to use the idea withdrawing

his thesis

own,

him .” 49

immediately, though, presumably because he in his doctoral thesis.

he produced

But

five

months

after

a treatise “deriving the laws

on

heat balance and the second law of thermodynamics solely by the use

of mechanics and probability calculus .” 50 Einstein began by declaring that while “Maxwell’s and Boltzmann’s theories had already

would

“fill

a

gap”

come

close to that objective,” his observations

—without,

however, revealing to the

somewhat bewildered reader what hand, the gaps in Einstein’s

more

are

own

exactly that gap was.

(to this day)

On

the other

acquaintance with Boltzmann’s work

obvious: although he had studied Boltzmann’s two-volume

Vorlesungen zur Gastheorie (Lectures on the Theory of Gases), he

knew

nothing of the subtle investigations which Boltzmann had published in the Accounts of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, to which

Boltzmann primarily owed theoretical physics in eries in his tedly,

his reputation as the

Germany .” 51 Thus

“unchallenged head of

Einstein

made some

paper that he might have found in the

Boltzmann’s acute reflections were

far

literature.

from being the

discov-

Admit-

common

property of physicists at the time, or even of those interested in theory;

but even so the novelty value of the paper must have been greater for its

author than for the few experts in the

field.

Nevertheless, Einstein had reason to be proud of his interpretation

of some central concepts of thermodynamics, such as temperature and entropy, and in deducing these he formulated essential aspects of statistical

mechanics which were to remain valid

that discipline.

Most noteworthy, however,

as far as possible

is

as the

his

foundations of

endeavor to manage

without specific assumptions about mechanics and to

base his arguments on general laws alone.

Now and

again the reader

crudely reminded that only very slight use has been chanics eral

52 ;

this justifies the

assumption “that our results

than the mechanical presentation

commonly

used.”

is

made of meare more gen-

Summing

up,

Expert

III

Class

109

Einstein claims that “no assumptions had to be

made

.

.

.

about the

nature of the forces, nor even that such forces occur in nature .” 53

were obvious:

Einstein’s next steps

one thing, to further reduce

for

the assumptions about mechanics; for another, to include the difficult

problem of irreversibility, considering that

Somehow

himself to states of equilibrium.

in the past

he had confined

mechanics had to

statistical

resolve the inherent contradiction that the basic equations for the

atoms are reversible in time, but not the macroscopic processes which, though ultimately reduced to these mechanics, do have a direction in time.

Thus milk

is

stirred into coffee a million times each day,

resulting in light coffee, but that process,

i.e.,

no amount of

stirring will ever reverse

separate out the few drops of white milk and restore

the black coffee.

This next paper was completed only “after

a lot

amending,” which kept Einstein busy, in addition to during his

first

few weeks of married

and simple, so that

“On

I

am

life.

“But

quite satisfied with

now

it ,” 54

of rewriting and his official duties,

it is

perfectly clear

he wrote with

relief.

the assumption of the energy principle and atomic theory, the

concepts of temperature and entropy, as well as

thermodynamics

in

its

.

most general form follow

.

the second law of

.

logically.” If certain

assumptions on the structure of mechanics were to be found correct,

he saw “the generalization achieved by of the concept of force

” 55

as

my last paper in the

being entirely in the

spirit

elimination

of Heinrich

Hertz’s theoretical program.

This paper too contained in

a

few things the author might have read

Boltzmann, especially on the subject of

point there was even in his footnotes to

a false

the

is

The

and on

this

fact that Einstein referred

Boltzmann’s Vorlesungen demonstrates his isolation

from the mainstream of ever, the paper

conclusion.

irreversibility,

scientific discussion; at the

a brilliant

same time, how-

testimony to his creative treatment of even

most complex problems. Both papers would have deserved to become milestones of

tical

mechanics. That

ignored

—was

this did

due to the

not happen

fact that

— that

statis-

they were largely

an epoch-making study by the

American Josiah Willard Gibbs, Elementary

Principles in

Statistical

The Patent Office

110

Mechanics, which included the topics also treated by Einstein, had been

published in 1902.

Max

“The resemblance

is

Born’s comment. Discussion in the

mined by Gibbs’s comprehensive beginning of his career, was

nomenon,

field

treatise.

a victim

Thus

Einstein, at the very

of that by no means rare phe-

German

its

not come across

He

translation.

“masterpiece, though tough reading, and most of lines,” 57

adding that “many have read

was

was henceforward deter-

parallel discovery. Einstein actually did

Gibbs’s book until 1905, in

startling” 56

downright

it,

verified

it,

later called

it

it

a

between the

and not understood

it.” 5 *

One

person

who had

read and understood Gibbs was Paul Hertz, a

privatdozent at Heidelberg and a distant relative of the great Heinrich

Hertz. Referring to Gibbs in 1910 lication

—Paul

Hertz

upon

less

demands

like Einstein, that

probable ones, one

ducing a special assumption which certainly

after Einstein’s

criticized his derivation of the

thermodynamics: “If one assumes, distributions follow

—eight years

special proof.” 59

is

pub-

second law of

more probable thereby intro-

by no means evident and which

is

Such proof,

as

Hertz

realized,

was

of course not possible. Clearly, in 1902 young Einstein was unaware of the pitfalls besetting any proof of the second law of thermodynamics;

nor did he know Boltzmann’s

analysis,

probable distributions follow on

less

according to which more

probable ones not inevitably but

merely with overwhelming probability. Therefore,

it is

not certain but

only overwhelmingly probable that entropy increases. After Paul

Hertz had

visited Einstein

—by then

Professor Einstein

—

in

Zurich

and their conversation had produced complete agreement, Einstein unhesitatingly announced in Annalen that he regarded “this criticism as entirely correct.” 60 Besides,

book

earlier,

he added, had he known of Gibbs’s

he would “not have published those papers

at

all,

but

confined myself to the treatment of some few points.” 61 At the time of publication, however, he viewed the papers in a different light: they

were to ensure

Among

his entree, albeit

by

a side door, to

an academic career.

his colleagues at the Patent Office Einstein discovered

with similar

scientific interests

— Dr. Josef Sauter,

a French-Swiss,

one

who

Expert

had

III

Class

and

also studied at the Polytechnic

Weber’s chief

who had been

assistant for a while. Since Sauter

than Einstein, they had not met before. Sauter, fill

Professor

was eight years older like Einstein, tried to

the gaps in the Polytechnic’s syllabus by private study, so that Ein-

stein

was able

him Maxwell’s thermodynamics and

to discuss with

Helmholtz’s and Hertz’s theoretical concepts.

To

the astonishment of

his older colleague, Einstein frequently declared: “I

The two

also discussed Einstein’s publications

with the result that Sauter discovered stein accepted “without

Einstein recalled “that

my

1 1

1

a heretic .” 62

on thermodynamics,

mistake in them, which Ein-

being in the least upset .” 63 Fifty years later

had

I

a

am

a lot

of discussions with Sauter about

thermal-statistical papers ,” 64 but

.

.

.

he had forgotten “what aspects

were then being discussed.”

At

least as

important

as his

help with the “rewriting and amending”

were Sauter’s connections with soon introduced

his

new

scientific circles in Bern, to

which he

colleague. Thus, shortly after starting

work

at

the Patent Office, Einstein was incited, as Sauter’s guest, to the meetings of the Naturforschende Gesellschaft (Natural Science Society) in

Bern, an association of professors, high school teachers, and the

prominent figures

inevitable

absence of

modest

a Swiss

scale,

was there,

if

in

medicine and pharmacology. In the

Academy, the Bern Society played the

part, if

on

of the great scholarly institutions in other countries.

not

earlier, that

Einstein

made

a It

the acquaintance of a

friend of Sauter’s, Dr. Paul Gruner, a high school teacher and simulta-

neously

a

privatdozent in physics at the university.

Gruner was

a

may have seemed

man

to Einstein an ideal

hood and academic

more

with predominantly theoretical interests and

prestige than

career.

The

money,

as a

title

combination of practical

liveli-

privatdozent, of course, yielded

privatdozent received no salary from

the university but was entitled only to teach and collect the lecture fees

of his few students. But, after the doctorate,

represented the

first

rung on the academic ladder and was the customary prerequisite

to a

it

professorship after the ponderous Habilitation procedure sive original thesis plus a trial lecture. Einstein

— an impres-

now hoped

to

become

a

privatdozent like Gruner, even though Gruner had to spend nine years

The Patent Office

112

academic limbo before he was granted the humble position of

in that

titular professor

—

with the right to

really

call

no more than

privatdozent, unsalaried, but

a

himself professor

—

in 1903

the risks of an academic career based chiefly

Normally

on

and thus personified

theory. 65

doctorate was a prerequisite for Habilitation

a

,

but

someone, possibly Gruner, must have drawn Einstein’s attention to an exceptional regulation for Bern, 66 according to which doctorate and Habilitation thesis could be dispensed with in the case of “other out-

standing achievements”

— and these Einstein believed he had accomon thermodynamics.

plished by his two papers

have

now

“I

of course that

I

my doctorate,

as this doesn’t

begun

me.” 67

He as

we have no

,

can get away with help

away with

did not get

therefore wrote in

decided to become a Privatdozent provided

January 1903:

to bore

He

it.

I

it.

won’t, on the other hand, take

me much

and the whole comedy has

He must have

an early stage,

failed at

indications even of a properly initiated, though subse-

quently disallowed, procedure. It is

not hard to imagine that the professors

regard Einstein’s

demand

at the university

would

The

of youthful impertinence.

as a piece

exceptional regulation was intended for “other achievements” by considerable scholars, not for

two papers

in

Annalen by

a

greenhorn.

doubt any number of physicists whose published work

fell far

No

short

of Einstein’s papers had been appointed to professorships, but no

one

in the

department in Bern was able to recognize the importance

of Einstein’s work

Aime

— and

this

included the head of the department,

Forster. Einstein, refusing to

university here

of time.” 68

is

a pigsty. I

Thus ended

acknowledge

won’t lecture there,

Einstein’s

first

that, ranted:

“The

would be

waste

it

attempt to become

a

a “great

professor.”

Nevertheless, the episode was not entirely in vain. Einstein had

contact in Bern with circles interested in science. At

May

2,

1903, held as usual in the assembly

its

room of

made

meeting of

the Storchen

Hotel, “Hr. Alb. Einstein, mathematician at the Patent Office” was

accepted as a

member

of the Naturforschende Geselischaft. 69 That

evening Gruner gave the customary lecture: he spoke about atmo-

Expert

On December

spheric electricity.

was the speaker:

A

Waves.” cine

Class

III

1903, Einstein, for the

5,

time,

second lecture that same evening was on veterinary medi-

became

Einstein

Only once more, on March

the rostrum: to report

Suspended

interests in the society.

a fairly regular visitor to the meetings,

exactly a zealous speaker.

“On

in Liquids,” a subject

but not

23, 1907, did he

the Nature of Microscopic Particles

which he had discovered

physics in his annus mirabilis

tical

first

was “The Theory of Electromagnetic

his subject

— evidence of the broad spectrum of

mount

113

1905.

,

More

for statis-

often than in the

Storchen, Einstein would give informal lectures at Paul Gruner’s

home; apart from

Sauter,

Gruner was probably the only person

to rec-

ognize Einstein’s outstanding talent. In 1936, after

he had

when left

the Society observed

its

150th anniversary, and long

Bern, Einstein was elected an honorary member.

He

4T

was obviously touched:

“It was, in a sense, a

vanished youth,” 70 he wrote to scroll.

“The

memory.

its

message from

president, thanking

pleasant and stimulating evenings

my

him

for the

emerge again

had the charter framed straight away and hung

... I

long

in

it

my

up

in

my study — the only one among similar acknowledgments where I have done this — as a memento of my time in Bern and my friends there.” Sometime reached

in the

summer of

a decision to part for

before she was born,

1903, Einstein and his wife must have

good from

when Mileva

their daughter, Lieserl.

Even

visited Einstein in Schaffhausen

with her “funny shape,” 71 they must have discussed the option of

having the child adopted. There are to Einstein, in

which some kind of

for Mileva’s friend

husband and had

Helene

just

Savic,

become

a

a

few hints in

role

from Mileva

seems to have been intended

who was

mother

a letter

living in Belgrade with her

herself.

Although Mileva did

not then wish to say anything to her friend about her baby, she asked Einstein to write to her every

now and

then:

“We must

treat her

well” 72 was the explanation, “because she can help us with something

important.” In the circumstances, the “something important” can only

have concerned their child’s future.

Meantime had

initially

Lieserl had remained in

been delighted with

Novi Sad with Mileva. Einstein

his daughter,

but after their marriage

The Patent Office

114 Lieserl

was evidently not wanted

in Bern.

Judging by what we know,

her existence was carefully concealed from their friends in Bern.

The

reasons for this remain uncertain.

Einstein, after the disappointments of

It

might be supposed that

two years of job-hunting, did

not wish to jeopardize his position in the Patent Office. After

was only “provisionally elected”

—

in other words,

on

trial

— and

all,

he

a pre-

marital child might have offended the Swiss authorities’ sense of pro-

though naturalized, was

priety, especially as Einstein,

Jew. But

it is

equally possible that

on

his

deathbed

a foreign

still

Hermann

Einstein

had consented to Albert’s marriage, but not to the legitimation of child “born in shame.”

handed over

ally

Whatever the

to strangers. In

Novi Sad, most probably

Belgrade

—

how the

stein asked her

in order to

envisaged two years child

was eventu-

August 1903 Mileva went to her par-

ents in

a possibility

real reason, Lieserl

a

earlier.

take the child

to

On a postcard Ein-

was registered, voicing some concern

lest

disadvantages might accrue to her. 73 During her journey, meanwhile,

Mileva had discovered that she was pregnant again. Einstein did not

mind and recommended

careful “hatching.”

He

never saw his

first

child.

Evidence of the

beyond

The

that, the fate

two years of

Lieserl’s life

of Albert Einstein’s

first

daughter was never again mentioned in a

sive searches office

If it

first

no

entries have

few indications

— then

it is

totally

unknown.

and despite inten-

been found in parish

registers, registry

else.

was Einstein who regarded it

is

scant enough;

letter,

documents, or anywhere

best solution and enforced

child

is

this parting

with their daughter

—an assumption supported by

as the

at least a

not surprising that Mileva did not regain in days.

She spread around her an

aura of melancholia, mistaken for a Slavic

phenomenon, which con-

Bern the cheerfulness of her student

trasted dangerously with her husband’s jovial, extroverted nature. later described

ing

this,

with

a

her basic attitude then

common

as “depressive

He

or gloomy,” 74 attribut-

overestimation of genetic factors, to an

inherited schizophrenic disposition in the family of Mileva’s mother, as well as to Mileva’s limp.

These were probably

oversimplifications.

“Generally she was very cool and suspicious toward anybody who,

Expert in

some way or

came

other,

III

Class

115

close to me,” 75 he complained, but there

were some exceptions, such

as his friends

of the Akademie Olympia,

especially the “kind Solovine.” Solovine reports that Einstein’s

riage ally

had made no difference to

which were now usu-

their meetings,

held in the young couple’s apartment,

mar-

when

Mileva, “clever and

reserved, listened to us attentively without ever intervening in our discussions.” 76

As for Einstein’s conversations on physics with Paul

who came to Bern later, she all; at least we have no indica-

Gruner, Josef Sauter, or Michele Besso, apparently did not take part in those at tion that she did. Nothing, therefore,

work

seems to have come of the joint

when

so often referred to in earlier years,

Einstein would be

“proud and happy” when “we are together and can bring our work on to a successful conclusion.” 77

motion

relative

After the disappointment of two failed exams prising

Mileva had

if

domestic

on

his

own. Certainly there

November 1903

is

the

no indication of any

this fine

narrow

city,

moved from

It

was reached by

a steep

and consisted of two rooms, one of them with large

staircase

fine street.

was to be born.

He

manner: “We’ll have

In the

Kirchenfeld

renting a third-floor apartment at

house would lead one to expect.

May

the

This apartment was more modest than the exterior of

windows onto the

born on

close collaboration

more modest way. 78

Einsteins

neighborhood back into the 49.

a

her husband to pursue his scientific endeavors

role, leaving

Kramgasse

sur-

and withdrawn into

lost all interest in physics

or even that Mileva helped in a

In

would not be

it

This was where Einstein’s second child

announced the event a

14, 1904,

pup

in a

in his usual boisterous

few weeks.” 79

The

child, a boy,

was

and was named Hans Albert.

summer of 1904 Michele Besso

joined Einstein as a col-

league at the Patent Office. In Trieste, Besso had experienced difficulties

earning a living as a freelance engineer. Thus,

“Technical Expert

II

a

vacancy for

a

Class” was advertised toward the end of 1903,

Einstein drew his friend’s attention to

Needless to

when

say, the

Expert

III

it.

Class Albert Einstein had also

applied for this higher position, but the director judged that, while he

had “displayed some quite good achievements,”

it

would be wiser

“to

The Patent Office

116

become

wait with his promotion until he has

mechanical engineering, because by his qualifications he cist.” 80

Einstein

is

with

fully familiar

a physi-

is

unlikely to have blamed his boss for rejecting his

rather premature application, the less so as the post, which carried a

went

salary of 4,800 francs,

Michele out of a

to his friend

of thir-

field

teen applicants. Einstein himself, in line with regulations, was “made definitive”

on September

16, 1904, after

more than two

employ-

years’

ment. 81 His salary was increased to 3,900 francs, but his status continued to be Expert

III Class.

now had

In Besso Einstein

an ideal friend, both

To

also during their leisure hours.

our joint way

home

.

.

.

at

work and

often

Einstein their “conversations on

[were] of unforgettable charm.” 82

Although

Besso had studied mechanical engineering, his quick, acute intellect

was not

satisfied

with

that;

he was passionately interested in nearly

questions in the exact sciences, both philosophical issues and the

all

more

prosaic aspects of research.

During

his student days in

stimulation from Besso,

the emphasis

now

much

by eight

Bern

his senior

shifted. Einstein

active researcher with tant,

who was

Zurich Einstein had received

some

years, but in

was no longer

a

student but an

brilliant publications and,

more impor-

an acute awareness of the problems of contemporary physics.

former mentor was hardly able to offer stimulation, but he was

The

a valu-

able critic: not exactly a collaborator but an ideal sounding board. 83

Einstein’s only publication in 1904

end of March, before Besso’s because, for the

first

had been completed toward the

arrival.

It

should not be overlooked

time in the pages of Annalen

Einstein on a creative, original path, in a

is

a strange similarity

month. And you too

shows the young as

He mapped

between

shall receive a

us.

a

mathematical

prepa-

out his

Grossmann, who had written

about the joys of parenthood and sent him

“There

it

way that can be seen

ration for the strokes of genius soon to come. objective in a postcard to Marcel

,

to

him

treatise:

We too will have a child next

paper which

I

sent to

Wiedemann’s

week ago ( General Molecular Theory of Heat). You deal with geometry without the axiom on parallels, I with the atomistic theory of

Annalen

a

heat without the kinetic hypothesis.” 84

Expert

This paper,

a

III

mere eight pages,

is

Class

117

rather disparate. Since his prob-

lematical derivation of the second law of

thermodynamics of January

1903 had not satisfied him even then, 85 he

now begins by presenting

alternative,

which, however, does not stand up to criticism either.

then analyzes the constant later

named

stein first of

all

finds a

new

it

relation

He

Boltzmann, which occurs

after

in such a variety of connections in the kinetic theory that Einstein

have assumed that hidden behind

an

may

was the crux of that concept. Ein-

between

this

fundamental constant

and the equally important Avogadro number N, which for any sub-

number of molecules

stance gives the

becomes

a

one mole. The constant thus

kind of yardstick in the microcosm of molecules.

But Einstein had more to

meaning of these tion

in

phenomena

basic laws of

constants,

—

a surprising

new

in the analysis of fluctua-

thermodynamics on

thermodynamics naturally

molecules.

uncovers

which emerges

in a sense, a

sisting, like all objects in

number of

He

offer.

a small scale.

The

refer to “large” systems, con-

our everyday experience, of an enormous

Even though,

strictly speaking, these laws are

merely statements about mean values, they are nevertheless regarded as strictly valid

number of

may

still

because

all

irregularities are

molecules. However, in “small” systems, which of course

consist of

many thousands

or millions of molecules, the

movements

chaotic confusion of molecular that

evened out by the colossal

thermodynamic magnitudes should

values. Admittedly,

is

no longer evened

reveal deviations

no one had yet observed such

out, so

from mean

fluctuations,

and the

theoreticians, occasionally running ahead of experiment,

had discussed

concept only sporadically and controversially. In

this situation

this

Einstein briefly and tersely develops a simple theory of these fluctuations for the energy of a system stability

and derives

a

condition of the thermal

of a system, in which Boltzmann’s constant appears as a yard-

stick for the

magnitude of the

relation because “it

fluctuations. Einstein greatly liked this

no longer includes any quantity

that

is

reminiscent

of the assumptions underlying the theory.” 86

At the time,

it

seemed out of the question

to specific systems consisting of molecules.

to apply these reflections

Boltzmann and Gibbs, the

two giants of statistical theory, had discussed the observability of fluctuations and ruled

it

out,

and Einstein too, “at the present

state

of our

The Patent Office

118

knowledge,” sees no possibility of this. But he does not leave

He

at that.

it

assumes, of a totally different kind of physical system, “that energy

fluctuations attach to

it:

vacant space

this is

radiation.” 87 In a daring step, justified

with temperature

filled

by nothing except

a kind of

primal confidence in methods he had worked out by himself, he applies the formulas developed for material molecules to immaterial

own

electromagnetic radiation. Perhaps to his

surprise,

empirically verifiable relation between the energy

he obtains an

maximum

of the

which agrees with Wien’s

radiation and the temperature, a relation

displacement law. This, he concludes, “given the great generality of

The

our assumptions, cannot be attributed to coincidence.” 88 nature of the treatment of fluctuation treatise

phenomena

would be shown the very next

Brownian movement and

first

seminal

tested in this

year, in Einstein’s theory of

in his radiation theory.

Before the year 1904 was out, Einstein had become a collaborator of the Beibldtter zu den Annalen der Physik Physics),

(,

Supplements

to

the

Annals of

an early “journal about journals” founded in 1877. In

it

were

published not original papers, but reviews of papers in other journals

—especially

foreign-language journals

reviews of books. sixty- two

— and

in rare

cases

also

We do not know how Einstein came to be one of the

referees of Beibldtter

89 ,

but

we might not be wrong

assuming that the editor had noticed Einstein’s

in

five publications in

Annalen and had therefore invited him to referee papers on the “theory of heat.”

The

subjects

were

laid

down by

the editor, who, whenever

necessary, supplied the referees with offprints of articles to be refereed, or with review copies.

At the end of the year there was even

a

modest honorarium. All together, Einstein

which appeared

in 1905.

wrote twenty-three reviews, twenty-one of

Over the next two years he wrote only one

book review each year but one of these two was worthy review of

Max

Planck’s

Wdrmestrahlung (Lectures on stein

had sent to him

Vorlesungen

in 1906, his note-

iiber

die

Theorie

the Theory of Heat Radiation) in 1906.

articles

from the most varied

Philosophical Magazine of the British

journals,

der

Ein-

from the

Royal Society to the Schweizerische

Expert

III

Class

119

Bauzeitung ( Swiss Construction News). In addition to

he also refereed French and

tions,

He

both languages.

publica-

being familiar with

Italian papers,

also reviewed four articles written in English, a

language he had not learned; with them

German

it is

probable that someone helped him

—possibly Mileva, who knew

a little English, or a colleague

Patent Office.

at the

Depending on the

and on

fees paid for his reviews,

his

own

range

of interests, Einstein’s reviews differed a good deal. Sometimes he

would seem

apathetic, writing a

some awful mistake; 90

mere

at other times

five lines

he went into such

review might have replaced the original a

work’s usefulness outweighed

little

book

its

berating the author for

article.

He was

detail that his

generous when

shortcomings, as in the case of

called Die Grundziige der mechanischen

a

Wdrmelehre (Funda-

mentals of the Mechanical Theory of Heat), which despite “some inaccuracies”

he recommended to any polytechnician facing an exam with

incomplete lecture notes. 91

His work for the to acquaint himself

Beibldtter provided Einstein with

more thoroughly with

would otherwise have been Patent Office. Without the occasion of

it

an opportunity

the topical literature than

possible, given his official duties at the

he might easily have missed the

Ludwig Boltzmann’s

sixtieth birthday,

Festschrift

on

which included

117 contributions by prominent authors and thus offered an exceptionally broad

panorama of physics

at the

beginning of the twentieth

century. Einstein discussed three papers from this volume, and he

probably read the reputation

rest.

Needless to

say, his

—but by the time most of them

reviews also enhanced his

appeared in print he no

longer had any need of that.

If,

on

toward the end of 1904, Albert Einstein had decided to concentrate a career in the

work,

this

science.

league

Swiss public service and to abandon his scientific

would probably not have been considered

His contemporaries would scarcely have noticed that

who had his

a col-

published a few papers but otherwise was quite

unknown had stopped found

a serious loss to

writing. Professor

judgment confirmed that

this

Weber

in

Zurich might have

impertinent young

man would

The Patent Office

20

never achieve anything worthwhile.

And many decades

by himself, developed an equivalent Actually, Einstein’s publications

his-

But no one

physics.

up to

point were only the sur-

most

difficult

come together

ruminations would

mirabilis in

an explosion of creativity.

was probably

this

problems of

—perhaps not even Einstein himself—suspected

that these ,

all

to Gibbs’s statistical physics.

face of his ceaseless wrestling with the

letter

some

might have been surprised to discover that an outsider had,

torian

It

later,

in late

from Einstein

in

1905, his annus

in

May

of 1905 that Conrad Habicht received a

Bern

—undated,

as usual

—which may well be

the most remarkable letter in the history of science. After a boisterous

and jocular opening, Einstein promised to send Habicht four papers, the receive

first

of which

I

could send off soon, as

I

am

to

my free copies very shortly. It deals with radiation and the

energetic properties of light and see provided

you send

is

very revolutionary, as you will

me your paper

first.

The second paper

is

a

determination of the true size of atoms by way of the diffusion

and internal

The

stances.

friction of diluted liquid solutions of neutral sub-

third proves that,

on the assumption of the mo-

lecular theory of heat, particles of the order of magnitude of Viooo

millimeters suspended in liquids must already perform an observable disordered

movement, caused by thermal motion. Move-

ments of small inanimate suspended bodies have

been

in fact

observed by the physiologists and called by them “Brownian lecular

movement.” The fourth paper

is

at the draft stage

an electrodynamics of moving bodies, applying

a

mo-

and

is

modification of

the theory of space and time; the purely kinematic part of this

paper

is

certain to interest you. 92

These four papers would transform the brief span between

than three months. far

ahead of

Nobel

Prize.

its

The

March

physics.

They were completed

17 and June 30, 1905

—

a little

in

more

— “very revolutionary” —publication was

first

time but sixteen years later would earn Einstein the

The

Zurich University,

second, which soon earned is

him

a doctorate

from

one of the most frequently quoted works of the

Expert

III

Class

121

The third established him as the founder of modern statistical mechanics. The fourth contains in fundamental form what would soon century.

come

to be called the special theory of relativity.

Never before and never by so much

And tions

in

such

a short

since has a single person enriched science

time as Einstein did in

his creative vigor continued: over the next

came

thick and

fast.

The man

place twentieth-century physics spectives that

To

on

a

annus

two years

mirabilis.

his publica-

Patent Office in Bern would

new foundation and open up

per-

would influence research well into the next millennium.

enable the reader to understand this unique climax of scientific

creativity, its external conditions, 7

at the

this

through

1 1

What

inner connections, Chapters

as

between

reception and their consequences.

initial

own words may serve is

its

will present Einstein’s contributions to physics

1905 and 1907, with their Einstein’s

and

an introduction to

essential in the life of a

man

of

my

kind

this material:

lies in

what he

thinks and how he thinks, and not in what he does or suffers. 93

CHAPTER SEVEN “Herr Doktor Einstein”

and the Reality of Atoms

One

more original contributions

of the

to the observances in

1979 of the hundredth anniversary of Albert Einstein’s birth was of papers in

all

areas of the exact sciences,

between 1961 and 1975, still

had

a

1

in other

words papers which,

list,

lowed by

his

was

A New

Of

the eleven

Einstein had written four (the other

seven had seven different authors). list

after half a cen-

major influence on ongoing research.

“classics” at the top of the

ping the

from physics through chem-

published before 1912 and most frequently cited

istry to physiology,

tury,

a list

Of the

four works by Einstein, top-

Determination of Molecular Dimensions

2 ,

fol-

paper on the Brownian movement. 3 Both deal with the

reality of molecules.

Counting

citations or footnote references,

sarily the best

way

to

measure

epoch-making papers of 1905, on were not included influence

modern ally

on

in this

list,

is

not neces-

work’s scientific value. Einstein’s

light

quanta and on relativity theory,

and that was because they had too much

scientific progress.

physics and have

a

however,

become

They

are the prerequisites of

all

so integrated into physics that virtu-

no one quotes them any longer. In

fact,

hardly any physicists today

have read the original papers: everyone has learned about them in classes or

from textbooks.

To return to Einstein’s top-ranking papers on the list,

these have of

course affected an unusually wide range of investigations. Both of

them

deal with the

in liquids

movement of large molecules

and were therefore quoted, for instance,

or colloidal particles in ecological studies

of the dispersal of aerosols in the atmosphere and in dairy research

122

— "Herr Doktor Einstein" and the Reality of Atoms

123

papers dealing with the behavior of casein particles in milk during

cheesemaking. 4

interesting to note that

It is

it

was

this

counting of

footnotes that led to the posthumous discovery of Einstein’s doctoral thesis,

which had been dismissed by

mandatory academic

exercise,

his biographers as

an insignificant

not to be compared to the three famous

papers of 1905. 5 Physicists and historians of science had also ignored it6

when

writing about his annus mirabilis

appear in that famous in 1906. It

Volume

—possibly because

it

did not

17 of Annalen but was published later,

had been completed on April

however, in close

30, 1905,

connection with his work on the Brownian movement.

who had given up the idea of a doctorate “as this doesn’t help me much and the whole comedy has begun to bore me,” decided after all to get his Ph.D. The reasons for his In the

summer of

1905, Einstein,

7

change of mind are obvious:

at the

him, and for an academic career it

Bern or

in

in Zurich,

it

he asked

Patent Office

was

it

a prerequisite.

could well help

Should he try for

his colleague Dr. Sauter,

experienced in such matters. Sauter’s reply was: “Zurich

be

it’ll

It

who was

— and

for

you

a cinch.” 8

would have been the custom

for Einstein to agree

on the subject

of his thesis with the head of the department. Instead, though

according to his

sister

Maja

—Einstein

completed Electrodynamics of Moving of

relativity,

which “seemed

a little

first

submitted his recently

Bodies, in

other words the theory

uncanny

to the decision-making

—having, Proproblem” — simply picked

professors” 9 and was rejected. Einstein thereupon fessor Kleiner records, “chosen his

from

his

“work

in progress”

own

as

10

whatever he thought would

least upset the

department: nothing too revolutionary or too speculative, but solid assumptions, conventional mathematics, and (since pure theory was in

still

bad odor in Zurich

as

something rather

exotic) an investigation

based on experiment. These criteria were best met by his investigation of the

movement of large molecules

On July

aqueous solution.

20 Einstein addressed his degree application to the dean

and, together with his treatise, sent

drawing to

in

a close,

the paper, with

everything

comment, was

it

to Zurich.

moved very circulating

As the semester was

quickly: within four days

among

the faculty. Kleiner

The Patent Office

124

emphasized that “the arguments and calculations are among the most difficult in

who

hydrodynamics and could be approached only by someone

possesses understanding and talent for the treatment of mathe-

matical and physical problems, and

has provided evidence that he fully

with

scientific

is

it

seems to

me

that

Herr Einstein

capable of occupying himself success-

problems .” 11 Because of the tricky mathematics,

Kleiner had brought in the head of the mathematics department, Pro-

who had thereupon “examined

fessor Heinrich Burkhardt,

the most

important part of the calculations, especially the passages marked by

my

colleague Herr Kleiner.

every respect, and the

What

I

have examined

manner of the treatment

mastery of the mathematical methods concerned

matics professor had missed one mistake quences, but not until four years

recommended accepting

later.

I

found correct in

testifies to

” 12

In

—which

fact,

a thorough

the mathe-

had some conse-

Like Kleiner, Burkhardt

the thesis, though he criticized

it

for a lack of

fastidiousness in detail: “Stylistic infelicities and slips of the

pen

in the

formulas will have to be, and can be, eliminated for publication in print.” Einstein

That

was now

did not cost

happy

days,

it

much,

free to take his as

it

emended paper

to the printer.

was only seventeen pages long. As

in less

was dedicated to “my friend Dr. Marcel Grossmann.”

After handing in the prescribed copy to the university, Einstein

now

was Herr Doktor Einstein.

The dissertation belonged to a his own later characterization

range of subjects where

—according to

—Einstein was concerned

chiefly with

“discovering facts which would establish with certainty the existence of

atoms of definite

finite

magnitude .” 13

It

may seem

strange to us that at

the beginning of the twentieth century the existence of atoms was in contention.

Even stranger

dispute, especially

is

still

the passion which characterized the

among German

scientists.

Radioactivity and the

electron had already been discovered; moreover, ever since the

first

decades of the nineteenth century chemists had been regarding the transformation of substances as combinations of atoms into molecules or as reactions between molecules. In the second half of the nineteenth

century this view became universally accepted, and chemists

were not plagued by metaphysical questioning

—were

in

—who

no way both-

"Herr Doktor Einstein” and the Reality of Atoms

125

ered by the fact that they had never actually seen an atom and that,

considering what was being discovered about the dimensions of atoms

and molecules, they were not

The

situation

likely ever to see one.

was entirely different

Although the suc-

in physics.

cess of the atomistic hypothesis in the kinetic theory of gases

bodies was perhaps even

more

impressive,

some

and

solid

influential scholars,

mainly those priding themselves on methodological strictness and philosophical acumen, regarded the

deed harmful, invention

atom

as a superfluous, if

not in-

—partly because they had not yet seen one and

partly because they refused to accept the fictions of chemists as an

acceptable basis of physics.

Ostwald headed

a

Thus

the great physical chemist

school of thought which hoped to base

Wilhelm

all scientific

research on the concept of energy; and another, shorter-lived school believed that electromagnetism was the basis of

all

physics.

The

influ-

4T

ential

Ernst

Mach

is

reported to have asked anyone

atoms to him: “Ever seen one?” Mach’s statement that atoms exist” 14 positively alarmed his colleague in

who mentioned

“I

do not believe

Ludwig Boltzmann

Vienna. At the turn of the century Boltzmann, aware of “how

powerless an individual

damage

is

against the trends of the day,” lamented “the

to science if the theory of gases

rary oblivion by the prevailing hostile

on September

15, 1906,

tion to this dispute

to be relegated to

tempo-

mood.” 15 Boltzmann’s

suicide

were

should not, of course, be seen as a direct reac-

—but perhaps he would have borne

science had brought

him more

his life longer if

joy and recognition.

Einstein later regarded Mach’s and Ostwald’s rejection of atomic

theory

as

intellect

dice

“an interesting illustration of

how

even researchers of bold

and subtle instinct can be prevented by philosophical preju-

from an interpretation of

facts.” 16 In this instance

positivist belief “that facts alone

man from

had been the

without free conceptual constructs

should and could lead to scientific knowledge.” the

it

the Patent Office helped

make

More

than anyone

else,

the skeptical positivists

eventually accept the atom.

Ever since

his

student days, Einstein had as a matter of course

regarded the existence of atoms

as

unquestionable. All five of his publi-

cations had, in a sense, been variations

on the atomic theory of natural

The Patent Office

126

phenomena. His

now aimed

dissertation

at

providing evidence for

atoms and molecules. Naturally, he was not able to make an atom or even

a

molecule visible

—that

would become possible only

in the

1950s, with the field-ion microscope. But Einstein invented his

own

kind of “microscope”: an elegant theory which allowed the size of sugar molecules to be determined from something as ordinary as the

aqueous sugar solution.

viscosity of an

Einstein had worked out the basic

you already calculated the absolute

method two

size

enough

that they are spheres and large

years earlier.

“Have

of the ions, on the assumption for the equations of the hydro-

dynamics of viscous liquids to be applicable to them?” 17 he had then asked Besso. “I would have done the time; you might also draw neutral salt molecules. If

write

you again

it

myself, but

upon

I

lack the literature and

diffusion to obtain information

you don’t know what

in greater detail.” It

I

mean,

I’ll

on

be glad to

seems that Einstein did have to

explain himself in greater detail, and the dissertation therefore looks like a direct fulfillment

of his promise given to Besso, as well as an

attempt to convince Ernst

Mechanik

Mach

—that atoms were not

Einstein’s

—whom he otherwise revered

fictional.

argument proceeded not

gases but, for the

first

time,

for his

(as usual)

from the theory of

from the behavior of liquids. Because

contrast to a similar theory of gases

—

a molecular-kinetic

—

in

theory of liq-

uids would, in Einstein’s view, be faced with “insuperable difficulties” 18

he confined himself to solution of a substance

a

simpler model. His model was an aqueous

whose molecules

molecules of water, so that

(in a

are large

reasonable approximation) the water

can be treated as an unstructured homogeneous

on the dissolved molecules, which assumed to be increases.

This can be measured. As

ume

between

this

medium

in

its

effect

for the sake of simplicity are

spherical. If a substance

establish a relation

compared with

is

dissolved in water, viscosity

a first step,

Einstein was able to

change in viscosity and the

total vol-

of the dissolved molecules. Despite his simplified assumption, this

called for involved calculations

and represented the most demanding

part of the investigation. As a second step, mathematically simpler but

more demanding

in terms of physics, Einstein dealt with the diffusion

of a swarm of molecules dissolved in the water, obtaining a diffusion

"Herr Doktor Einstein” and the Reality of Atoms

127

coefficient which, with experimentally determinable values, again gave

information on the size of the molecules.

method which,

surprisingly,

He

had thus developed

a

combined experimentally measurable

properties of solutions, such as viscosity and diffusion, to create his

Though one could not, of course, “see” the “microscope” made it possible to determine their

ingenious “microscope.” molecules, Einstein’s size.

Such it

a

theory demands practical application, and Einstein provided

for sugar water because experimental data

The

were

available for this.

way

radius of the sugar molecules he found in this

millionth of a centimeter tercheck,

—was new. Added

to this,

—one

by way of

a

ten-

coun-

was the determination of the Avogadro number, and

Einstein’s result in fact agreed “satisfactorily, as for order of

tude, with the values found for that quantity

This confirmed both the

reliability

magni-

by other methods,” 19

of the method and the reality of

molecules.

The

judges at the university in Zurich were satisfied with Einstein’s

results,

but Paul Drude, the editor of Annalen, was not. Einstein had

submitted his treatise to Drude in August 1905, after the conclusion of the degree procedure; however,

it

was published not within the cus-

tomary eight weeks, but only about

months

six

later.

This had never

before happened with any of Einstein’s papers, nor did afterward.

Drude

must have asked

evidently

knew of better

for a small

ever happen

data for sugar solutions and

addendum. 20 Einstein supplied

beginning of the following year, with for the

it

a substantially

at the

it

improved

result

Avogadro constant. 21

Nothing happened

for the next four years.

With

the sensation

caused by Einstein’s paper on the Brownian movement, his dissertation was scarcely noticed. This applied also to Jean Perrin, a

professor at the Sorbonne in Paris,

who

with superb experimental

was investigating the Brownian movement

in

who had

fessor in Zurich, used the opportunity to

draw

just

become

a

pro-

Perrin’s attention to his

autumn of 1909. Thereupon one of

leagues, Jacques Bancelin, took the subject

skill

1909 and corresponded

with Einstein on the subject. Einstein,

dissertation in the

young

Perrin’s col-

up experimentally. 22

He

did

The Patent Office

128

%

not dissolve molecules, but instead suspended accurately prepared microscopic mastic globules of Einstein’s theory

known dimensions

Much

of

was confirmed by Bancelin’s experiments, but on one

point there was a major discrepancy.

he was unable to find

culations,

in water.

When

Einstein repeated his cal-

mistake. Although he did not rule

a

out some experimental error, he nevertheless requested Ludwig Hopf, the assistant at the Zurich institute, to have another good look at the dissertation:

have

“I

now

re-examined

arguments and not found

a

my

earlier calculations

mistake in them,” 23 he wrote to

during the Christmas vacation. “You would be doing the subject

if

you could

my

seriously check

and

Hopf

a great service to

investigations.”

Hopf

found the mistake, which the mathematician Burkhardt had previously

—

also failed to spot

but

a rather trivial slipup,

it

threw off the nu-

merical result. Einstein sent a correction to Annalen with an acknowl,

edgment of Bancelin’s and Hopf’s work and with an even for Avogadro’s

Nine days had

May ment,

number. 24

after

his next

completing his dissertation

paper ready;

11, 1905. Its title is

Demanded

Liquids at Rest.

it

He

that he could only

in the

—Einstein

might have at the

called

more

it,

On

the

Move-

of Particles Suspended in

,

succinctly,

On

the

very beginning of his paper he admitted

assume “that the movements to be here dealt with

me

movement.’ However, the

are so inaccurate that

I

cannot form

a definite

this.” 25

entitled

A

Brown

privately published a paper in

brief Account of Microscopical Observations, conducted

months ofJune, July and August 182 7, on

the Pollen of Plants;

organic

not sooner

of almost baroque convolution:

In 1828 the botanist Robert

London,

if

was received by the editor of Annalen on

are identical with the ‘Brownian molecular

data available to

—

by Molecular-Kinetic Theory

Brownian Movement, but

opinion on

better result

and inorganic

and on bodies.

the particles contained in

the general existence of active molecules in

Brown

described

how he

had, under his

microscope, seen pollen grains in a permanent trembling movement.

He

regarded this

as a typical characteristic

of male sex

cells,

similar to

spermatic filaments. But he had the brilliant idea of testing this

assumption by observing minute particles of inanimate matter in

— "Herr Doktor Einstein” and the Reality of Atoms

He

water.

found that the same permanent

129

movement was

erratic

present in very finely ground splinters of glass and granite, as well as in

smoke

particles.

Hence

the cause could not be the vitality of living

matter, and the “Brownian

movement”

therefore passed from the

hands of botanists or physiologists into the hands of physicists. In the second half of the nineteenth century

some

physicists sug-

gested a molecular-kinetic model to explain the Brownian movement.

The

zigzag

movements of the suspended

particles,

due to impacts from the molecules of the liquids cally sound,

up

but

26 .

they believed, were

This idea was

basi-

the theories had serious flaws 27 and failed to stand

all

to experimental testing.

The

theoretical situation remained con-

fused and controversial.

Even

if

and even

he had known everything there was to

if

Brownian movement, a brilliant

ever,

He

work of

Einstein had been familiar with the

his theoretical explanation

his predecessors,

know about

would

the

have been

still

achievement. Unburdened by any previous knowledge, how-

he chose an entirely different and more fundamental approach.

asked himself

demanded by

if

movement of

the irregularities in the

molecules,

the molecular-kinetic theory, might not after

observable effects.

To

his

own

cause

surprise he discovered that the theory

in fact predicted fluctuations observable

scope, and that the

all

under

measurement of these

a

conventional micro-

fluctuations represented a

kind of penetration into the microcosm of atoms. This was an original, theoretically

founded concept of the Brownian movement and of

characteristic properties

its

nomenon

that

as

a

fluctuation

had been observed for nearly

a

phenomenon

—

a

phe-

hundred years without

being understood. Einstein therefore observed not molecules in solution, but sus-

pended still

particles

clearly visible

about

under

a

a

thousandth of

a

microscope and

millimeter in diameter actually, in kinetic theory,

gigantic macroscopic structures. Unlike his predecessors

repeat

—were unknown to him) Einstein evidently realized

(who

—

to

from the

outset that the velocity of the particles could not be observed directly.

According to simple calculations, their velocity would amount to about one-tenth of

a

millimeter per second: in other words, a particle would

The Patent Office

130

about one hundred times

travel a distance

second.

Under

viewing

field like a wraith.

own

its

diameter in one

microscope, such a particle would

a

However, the

particle

flit

through the

also greatly

is

slowed

down by the liquid and simultaneously struck by individual molecules. The result of these two effects is an extremely irregular trembling movement whose track and velocity cannot be measured directly. At the same time, though, a kind of mean value, the mean square dis-

—

placement, should be observable under the microscope, and this would

be enough. Einstein tion

first

of all demonstrated

—and

—that “osmotic pressure,” which

dynamics should

exist

more

was

a very

according to

bold innova-

thermo-

classical

only in solutions, was present also in suspensions

of “gigantic” spheres or globules. Next, in dissertation, but

this

elegantly,

much

he worked out

the same

way

a diffusion

as in his

formula for

the spherules and examined the interplay of diffusion and ceaseless

impacts from the molecules of the liquid as a

statistical process.

mean displacement of

He

finally

obtained an expression for the

ticles,

depending only on measurable or otherwise familiar values.

From

this

he was able to calculate that

the par-

his standard particle of

one-

thousandth of a millimeter, suspended in water, must after one second

have moved by

under one-thousandth of

just

one minute by six-thousandths of

a millimeter,

a millimeter.

and

after

Conversely, the Avo-

gadro "number could be determined from that expression, provided the displacement and the time were measured.

That suggestion was minute spherules,

a

surprising to experimental physicists: with

microscope, and a clock they were to count atoms.

Einstein, moreover,

had formulated

his

argument

as

a

yes-or-no

experiment. If his prediction was not correct, “this would

mean

weighty argument against the molecular-kinetic concept of heat.” 28 therefore concluded his article with an exclamation mark:

a

He

“May some

researcher soon succeed in deciding the question here posed, a question vital to the theory of heat!” 29

This time Einstein could not complain that he got no reaction. Soon after the

appearance of the paper on July

18, 1905,

Henry Siedentopf

wrote to him from Jena, Germany, confirming that the predicted phe-

“Herr Doktor Einstein” and the Reality of Atoms

nomenon probably was

the Brownian

131

movement. 30 Siedentopf,

at the

Carl Zeiss Works, was engaged in improving the ultramicroscope

invented in 1903 by Richard Zsigmondy. This instrument illuminates objects

by

scattered

by them, makes

stantially smaller

ment

is

from the

light projected

it

side and,

by intercepting the

possible to view particles

which

light

are sub-

than the wavelength of light. As the Brownian move-

even more erratic for smaller and therefore lighter particles

than for larger ones, this

new ultramicroscope made

it

possible to

study particularly hectic trembling. Zsigmondy compared what he saw in colloidal gold suspensions to a

swarm of midges dancing

in a sun-

beam. But he had not, any more than Siedentopf, carried out any measurements that might have permitted comparison with Einstein’s detailed predictions.

Einstein quite obviously enjoyed this subject.

Even before Christ-

S'

mas of 1905 he dispatched appropriate

title,

On

Annalen

a further

paper, this time with an

the Theory of the Brovonian

presented the theory in further,

to

a substantially

more

and in particular discussed the

something no one had seen yet

—

1

it

it

it

limits of its validity for short

As

a

Brownian

a

bonus he calcu-

rotation, that

trembling rotational movement of the suspended particles. If could be measured,

he

elegant form, developed

periods: less than a ten-millionth of a second. lated

Movement} In

is,

a

this

too would be suitable for determining the Avo-

gadro number. Interest in the stein

numerous

Brownian movement increased and brought Ein-

letters

from

scientists, as well as

Zangger, professor of forensic medicine later to

become famous

as the

at the

visitor.

Heinrich

University of Zurich,

founder of emergency medicine and

director of spectacular rescue actions in the interested as a researcher in the

one

mining industry, was

Brownian movement.

When

he ran

into difficulties with his counting under the microscope, the professor

of mechanics, Aurel Stodola, had told him to “go and see Einstein in Bern.” 32

The meeting was

did not yield any

new

the beginning of a lifelong friendship, but

insights into the

it

Brownian movement. These

came from elsewhere. In Uppsala, Sweden, a

young

physicist,

The

Svedberg, was experi-

menting with the ultramicroscope. Unfortunately he had

failed to

The Patent Office

132

mean displacement (the had to make a slight correc-

observe the difference between velocity and

only observable quantity), so that Einstein tion, 33

“which corrected only the worst mistakes, because

bring myself to impair Herr studies, including

his

work.” 34 Other

failed to

Proof came only

in 1908,

when Jean

and, in a series of excellent experiments, confirmed

all

theory. Einstein was delighted: “I wouldn’t have thought

movement

Perrin in his

movement

means of

a sophisticated

aspects of the it

possible for

to be investigated with such precision;

piece of good luck for this subject that

cine-

provide unequivocal proof of

laboratory at the Sorbonne in Paris studied the Brownian

the Brownian

could not

some by the Frenchman Victor Henri, using

matographic pictures, likewise Einstein’s theory.

enjoyment of

S.’s

I

it is

it.” 35

you undertook to study

a

By

method of tagging minute mastic spherules

Perrin was even able to measure the Brownian rotation calculated by Einstein,

which surprised him

measurement of the rotation

wouldn’t have thought a

greatly: “I

possible.

To me it was merely an amusing

pastime.” 36 This was the final proof.

Einstein meanwhile had been concerned

On March 23,

more with

popularization.

1907, he gave a lecture at the Natural Science Society in

Bern 37 on the Brownian movement, and the following year,

at the sug-

gestion of Richard Lorenz, the professor of chemistry at the Polytechnic, he wrote Elementary Theory of the Brownian

Movement

38 ,

to be

comprehensible also to chemists. In addition, he was on the lookout for other macroscopically observable fluctuation as his

second paper he had considered an

discussed

what subsequently came

rise to his

own

to be

phenomena. As

electrical circuit 39

known

as “noise.”

and briefly

This gave

experimental study of the Brownian movement, though

in the field of electricity, in voltage fluctuations in condensers. tially

early

He

ini-

published a theoretical concept, 40 and then, together with the

Habicht brothers, began to build an apparatus for measuring very small amounts of charges.

More about

this “little

machine”

will

come

later.

Einstein must have been exceedingly gratified by a letter from Wil-

helm Conrad Rontgen, the

first

Nobel

laureate for physics, even

though Rontgen objected that the Brownian movement

“will

be

diffi-

“Herr Doktor Einstein” and the Reality of Atoms cult to reconcile with the

reply

is

lost

—

second law of thermodynamics.” 41 Einstein’s Einstein had never thoroughly examined

a great pity, as

this tricky question.

133

However,

second paragraph of

in the

his first

paper he had pointed out that in the observation of the Brownian

movement “along with

the regularities to be expected

thermodynamics can no longer be regarded

.

.

classical

.

even for

as absolutely valid

microscopically distinguishable spaces.” 42 This was something he had

surmised anyway, and

it fit

problems of physics. But

it

into his overall ideas of the fundamental

took another quarter-century before Leo

Szilard satisfactorily proved that

that

would

it

was impossible to build

machine

a

energy of the suspended particles for

utilize the kinetic

work, or to withdraw energy from the solvent. Einstein never disclosed

when he had

Brownian movement he had predicted. tunity to see

it

in Bern, but

himself

He would

he must have seen

it,

first

seen the

have had an opporif

not before,

at the

annual meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft der Naturforscher und

(German Society of Natural

Arzte

Salzburg in September 1909,

with demonstrations.

A

Scientists

when Henry Siedentopf gave

few years

later,

visible.

in

In a

it

Brownian movement

made

the disordered elemental processes are

manner of speaking, one can

a lecture

Einstein would write, with

restrained emotion, that the significance of the

was “that

and Physicians) in

see, directly

directly

under the micro-

scope, a part of the thermal energy in the form of the mechanical

energy of moving

particles.” 43

This was

and the

a spectacular assertion,

agreement of the theory with Perrin’s accurate measurements played major part

in convincing

even the

last skeptics

a

of the reality of the

atoms. In 1913,

when

Einstein was to be brought to Berlin,

an expert opinion emphasized,

among many

stein’s contribution to the kinetic

effect

on experimental research

beautiful

Max

Planck in

other points, that Ein-

theory of matter “had

in different directions,

a

seminal

above

all

the

measurements of the Brownian molecular movement, which

acquired their real value primarily through Einstein’s work.” 44

In 1926, three protagonists of the research on the Brownian

ment met

in

move-

Stockholm. Jean Perrin was awarded the Nobel Prize for

The Patent Office

134 Physics.

The Svedberg and

Richard Zsigmondy received the Nobel

— Svedberg

Prize for Chemistry tively, for

1925. As early as 1910,

for

1926 and Zsigmondy, retroac-

when

Einstein was

Ostwald, the Nobel committee had pointed out in that the theory of the

occasions in his nominations; but it

was

its

proposed by

internal report

Brownian movement had earned Einstein great

recognition. This achievement was mentioned

prize in 1922,

first

when he was

for a different paper,

on

several subsequent

eventually awarded the

though from the same

leg-

endary year, 1905. That paper had been completed in March and was actually the first of his magnificent series. It dealt with light quanta.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The "Very Revolutionary Light Quanta

Albert Einstein did not

see physics as a sequence of scientific

revolutions, nor did he see himself as a revolutionary. Indeed, he was

extremely cautious about describing discoveries or theories

as revolu-

4T

tionary. In his references to his

come

across only

Conrad Habicht

own

contributions to physics,

one use of the word

—

Habicht’s attention the

first

to

when he commended

to

of the four promised papers: “It deals with

radiation and the energetic properties of light and

you

tionary, as

hyperbole;

it

will see.” 1

have

workshop report

in his

in the spring of 1905,

I

is

very revolu-

This confident assessment was not youthful

was accurate

at the

time and

is

even more so in retro-

spect. In this paper, Einstein questioned the universally recognized

model of

light as waves,

and with

it

the unlimited validity of

Max-

wellian electrodynamics; instead, he “invented” a granular structure

—the

for light

light

quantum, the

netic radiation. This radical and

young author In his

a father

title,

particle associated with electromag-

immensely bold proposal made

its

of quantum physics.

Einstein did not promise anything like a theory, but

rather “a heuristic viewpoint concerning the generation and transfor-

mation of

This may have seemed

light.” 2

a bit frivolous to

some

readers of Annalen “heuristic viewpoints” did not form part of theo:

retical physics at the turn

of the century.

A concept was

confirmed and therefore open to future verification or

which case worth

it

was regarded

in practice, in

as a hypothesis; or else

which case

it

it

would be elevated

either not yet

falsification, in

had proved

its

to the rank of

theory. Einstein had presumably encountered “heuristic viewpoints”

135

The Patent Office

136

in the course of his philosophical studies, perhaps as early as in his

schooldays,

when he

read

Immanuel Kant, who frequently used

The purpose

“heuristic principles.” 3

of Einstein’s “heuristic view-

point,” like that of Kant’s “heuristic principle,” was to state, or perhaps

from which

invent, an assertion

From

familiar facts could then be deduced.

the outset, therefore, Einstein was focusing on something that

would emerge only

at the

end of the paper. Experimentally observed

phenomena

oddities of the photoelectric effect and other

that posed a

riddle within the

framework of Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetic

waves were to be

effortlessly explained

by reference

to the “heuristic

viewpoint” of the light quanta. Einstein thus took seriously the

quantum hypothesis introduced all

by

Max

Planck

contemporaries and indeed unlike Planck himself,

his

years

into physics

would remain reluctant

On December in Berlin,

14, 1900, at a

Max

for

many

to accept Einstein’s radical step.

meeting of the German Physical Society

Planck had presented his famous radiation formula,

which contained the quantum of action This was

who

—unlike

later to

be named for him.

a crucial innovation and, in retrospect, constituted the birth

of the modern quantum theory of the microcosm, the theory which

gave twentieth-century physics an entirely different appearance from nineteenth-century physics. All physics not involving the quantum

now became

“classical” physics.

At the time, Planck was scarcely aware of the

radical nature of his

work. At forty- two he was at the peak of his vigor, but by nature he was “peaceable and averse to risky adventures” in science. 4

an unwilling revolutionary, anxious, almost split

between

his

own

at

any

He

had become

cost, to avoid

any

—though

this

research and “classical” physics

term was not yet being used.

What Planck was tion of an old

after

was not

problem expressed

a revolution in physics,

in

1

but the solu-

860 by Rudolf Kirchhoff. This

concerned heat radiation. Everyone knows that heated metals glow red at

first,

turning yellow at higher temperatures, and eventually

turning almost white. In each case, this radiation ferent frequencies, with light: into ultraviolet at

its

spectrum extending

is

a

far

mixture of

beyond

dif-

visible

high frequencies and into infrared, invisible

The "Very Revolutionary” Light Quanta

On

heat radiation, at low frequencies.

dynamics, Kirchhoff derived a absorption, valid for

all

137

the basis of abstract thermo-

number of statements on emission and

materials. In these, a central role

was played by

an ideal object, the “black body,” which completely absorbs tion striking

it.

The

ideal case of “black radiation,” totally

of the properties of materials, was postulated radiation ture,

is

in a state of equilibrium,

with the material of the walls.

radiation”

observed and

its

radia-

independent

as a cavity in

which the

determined solely by temperaof this “black-body

If a small part

allowed to escape through a minute opening,

is

all

it

may be

frequency spectrum analyzed.

Kirchhoff brilliantly

summed up

all

that

was known and surmised

about “black radiation” by claiming that for the emission capacity of “black bodies” there must exist a function that depends solely on tem-

perature and frequency. “It

is

a task

of great importance to discover

that function. Its experimental determination culties, yet there

by experiment,

seems to be

as

justified

undoubtedly

it is

is

hope that

faced with great it

diffi-

may be determined

of a simple form, as indeed are

all

functions discovered so far that are not dependent on the properties of individual bodies.” 5 Every part of Kirchhoff’s statement was correct,

including the great experimental

difficulties.

it

possible to

compare

failed at

a level

theoretically derived radiation for-

mulas with actual measurements. However, later revealed

until after his death

measuring techniques reach

in 1887 did experimental skill or

which made

Not

all

formulas sooner or

major shortcomings: the best of them, Wien’s formula,

low frequencies

in the infrared range;

and Lord Rayleigh’s

what Paul Ehrenfels

resulted at high frequencies in

later called “the

disaster in the ultraviolet.”

Max

Planck, Kirchhoff’s successor at Berlin University, firmly be-

lieved that the frequency distribution of “black cavity radiation”

“something absolute. And to

me

as the

the finest research task,

I

was

search for the absolute always seemed tackled

it

with zeal.” 6

When

Planck

concentrated on this problem in 1894, he was helped by the fact that

some outstanding experimental

physicists

were equally fascinated by

it.

Friedrich Paschen, for instance, regarded Kirchhoff’s problem as

important enough to “decline

a

professorship for

its

sake.” 7

He

The Patent Office

138

remained

duced

in his laboratory at the Polytechnic in

Hanover and pro-

graph with which he was able to improve the numerical factors

a

of Wien’s formula. For two or three years solution

it

looked

as if this

was the

—but that proved to be wrong.

At the Physical-Technical Reich

Institute in Berlin, then probably

Lummer and

Ernst Prings-

heim had greatly refined the measuring techniques,

especially in

the world’s best-equipped laboratory, Otto

infrared, in the range of long wavelengths. Heinrich

Rubens and Fer-

dinand Kurlbaum achieved a new degree of precision by Rubens’s “rest radiation” method,

whereby the

were

rays of shorter wavelengths

faded out, so that very reliable measurements were

made

possible in

the extreme longwave infrared at high temperatures. All the results in that range contradicted

Wien’s formula.

contradiction that provided the key to the

The

date

when

very precisely.

were

October

7,

visiting with the Plancks.

talking shop, and

ments

at the

was the resolution of

new

1900, a Sunday,

The men were

Rubens informed Planck

this

physics.

new quantum theory was born can be

the

On

It

Rubens and

stated

his wife

unable to refrain from

that the latest measure-

Reich Institute had shown that

at

very long wavelengths

the energy density of radiation was proportional to temperature. This

information must have excited Planck greatly, because that same evening, as soon as the guests had his efforts over

Rubens bore

many

fruit.

he got down to work. Thanks to

years, the information

all

data.

one was interpreted by Planck

molecule and was

later

unknown

However,

a

The

little

to

do with

in physics, having the

formula arrived at by

a radiation for-

formula had two con-

as a gas

named Boltzmann’s

speaking, Boltzmann had until then

he had received from

That same night Planck developed

mula which accurately matched stants:

left,

constant for a single

constant (though, strictly

it);

the other was a quantity

dimension of action.

trial

and error, no matter

accurate, needs theoretical interpretation. This

how

was what Planck con-

cerned himself with during the next few weeks. According to “classical” physics the total

cavity,

energy would pass from the walls into the

with no equilibrium being established. Overcoming his past

rejection of the atomic view, Planck

was eventually compelled to

inter-

a

The "Very Revolutionary” Light Quanta

139

pret the radiation as the emission of individual atoms; he conceptualized

them

“harmonic

He now

processes.

mann’s

as

He

was

model

treated these “resonators” with

methods

statistical

ceptable.

oscillators,” the simplest

—which

until recently

desperation,” 8 meaning, evidently, what to

With

Ludwig

Boltz-

he had found unac-

whole business

later to describe “the

use of atomic concepts.

for periodic

as

him seemed an

these methods, however,

an act of

illegitimate it

followed

from the equilibrium between matter and radiation “that energy

is

compelled from the outset to keep together in certain quanta.” 9

On December

14, 1900,

Planck presented

tation of the radiation formula to a

laying great emphasis

most

the

posed of

on

its

novelty:

his theoretical interpre-

meeting of the Physical Society,

“We therefore regard — and

essential point of the entire calculation a

very definite

number of

is

com-

to be

equal finite packages, making use

for that purpose of a natural constant h

unimaginably small, though

—energy

this

=

6.55

X

10 — 27 ergsec.” 10 This

“magnitude”

is

written with

twenty-six zeros after the decimal point) represented the

abandonment

finite,

(it

of the continuity-based conceptual apparatus of “classical” physics and the foundation of a

To I

Planck, the

didn’t give

and

at

it

new

physics.

quantum was

much

whatever

But

was not realized

this

initially “a

purely formal assumption and

thought, except only that, under

cost, I

until later.

had to produce

all

circumstances

a positive result.” 11

He

was,

moreover, able to placate his “peaceable” nature because the energy quanta would play

a role

only in

statistical

counting procedures by the

resonators, while radiation

would continue

with Maxwell’s theory,

continuous wave in the ether.

as a

Neither Planck nor his

new microphysics

to be understood, in line

listeners suspected that a terra incognita

—was opening up before them. Indeed,

for a

—

whole

decade Planck endeavored “somehow to harness the quantum h into the framework of classical physics,” 12 and other physicists, like

Lord

Rayleigh and James Jeans in England and Hendrik Antoon Lorentz in

Leyden, the Netherlands, were doing the same. These clever

were examining such rial

delicate

problems

as the interaction

men

of the mate-

resonators with the ether, never for a minute questioning the strict

validity of Maxwell’s theory

and thus never questioning the wave

The Patent Office

140 nature of light.

Only one man thought

come

the revolutionary element which had

quanta

—the “heretic”

at the

differently,

recognizing

to physics with energy

Patent Office in Bern. •x

Albert Einstein had a student. lehre

,

He came

first

interested himself in heat radiation while

work

across Kirchhoff’s

which he studied, along with

in Ernst

own measurements

his

Weber

second

presented

of the energy spectrum of heat radiation,

together with an empirical formula, and

it

may well have been

ture that led Einstein to further reflection. After the

semester he wrote to Mileva Marie:

beginning to take on more substance will

Mach’s Wdrme-

his assigned reading, in his

year at the Polytechnic. In his third year Professor

still

“My

—

I

this lec-

end of the winter

musings on radiation are

myself am curious

if

anything

come of it.” 13

Two

years later, during the depressing period of job-hunting, he

—which came immediately before the discovery of the correct radiation formula — but he studied at least one of Planck’s papers in Annalen

had “reservations of a fundamental nature, so much so that I’m reading his

paper with mixed feelings.” 14 Einstein

in Proceedings of the Physical Society but ,

comprehensive issue in

which

article in the

his

own

he

March 1901

may have is

missed the report

sure to have read Planck’s

issue of Annalen, the

“firstling” publication

on

capillarity appeared.

At the beginning of April Einstein was intending to “have now,” 15 but we have no record of radiation formula.

Only

his

,

it

a

go

at it

immediate reaction to Planck’s

in his Nekrolog did

period. According to the Nekrolog

same

he refer back to that

had quite early struck Einstein

that Planck’s derivation of the radiation formula “is in conflict with the

mechanical and electrodynamic basis on which that deduction otherwise rests.” 16

It is true that

Planck’s thermodynamic arguments, and

especially his abstract subdivision of total energy into separate ele-

ments, seemed like an attempt to avoid an explicit discussion of the role of energy quanta. “In reality,” Einstein said, lier reflections,

summarizing

his ear-

“the deduction implicitly assumes that the energy can

be absorbed and emitted by an individual resonator only in ‘quanta’ of

magnitude hv that therefore the energy of an ,

oscillating mechanical

structure, as well as the energy of radiation, can only be converted into

The “Very Revolutionary" Light Quanta such quanta namics.

.

.

.

—

in contrast to the laws of

All this

I

141

mechanics and electrody-

realized a short time after the publication of

Planck’s fundamental paper.” 17

This realization had been helped along

also

by Einstein’s

interest in

the photoelectric effect, which was then being investigated quite sepa-

from the problem of the radiation formula. Heinrich Hertz had

rately

discovered this effect about 1888 in the course of his experiments on the propagation of electromagnetic waves.

made him

was not

The

it

how-

significance of that observation,

at first realized. It

was only by the discovery of X-rays

1895 and of the electron two years

Soon

fortunate coincidence

notice that in a spark gap illuminated by ultraviolet light, a

spark gains in brightness. ever,

A

later that this

matter was

was assumed that the cause of the photoelectric

in

clarified.

effect

was the

release of electrons

from gas molecules or metal surfaces

irradiated

with ultraviolet light

—those molecules which had

identified

as the

been

Max-

corpuscular components of the so-called cathode rays.

well’s theories sity

just

would have

led

one to expect that with increasing inten-

of light both the number and the energy of the electrons would

increase.

But

this

was not

so.

Sophisticated experiments, especially by Hertz’s former assistant

Philipp Lenard, showed that the energy of the electrons was not gov-

erned

words

at all its

by the intensity of light, but only by

“color”

—

this

invisible ultraviolet or

its

frequency, in other

term being understood to apply

also to the

X-ray radiation. The yield of electrons certainly

increases with the intensity of the light, in normal conditions, but for

every metal there

observed

Above

at

this

all,

is

frequency below which no electrons are

a definite

no matter how long or

intensively they are irradiated.

threshold frequency, on the other hand, electrons are

emitted even at exceedingly weak irradiation

—

all

this in contradiction

to accepted theory.

This was very much to the

gauged from the opening of

taste

of young Einstein,

a letter to

Mileva Marie:

as

can be

“I just read a

wonderful paper by Lenard on the generation of cathode rays by violet light.

Under

the influence of this beautiful piece

such happiness and joy that

I

I

am

ultra-

filled

must absolutely share some of

it

with with

The Patent Office

142

you.” 18 Although his “dear kitten” had just informed him that she was pregnant, he came to that topic only in a later passage of his

Some

of Einstein’s letters suggest that he also concerned himself

with the photoelectric effect

as

an experimenter. Thus he intended,

after his third year of study at the university, “to

with

a

letter.

work

scientifically

gentleman from Aarau.” 19 This was Conrad Wiist, principal of

who was

the Aarau district school, a physicist

No

experimenting with

known about

their

cooperation, but “radiation experiments” were at least intended. 20

Even

X-rays in his school laboratory.

as a student, Einstein

details are

had regarded the ether

as superfluous,

had

in-

tended to deprive electromagnetic waves of their substrate, and had believed that “electric forces can be directly defined only for

space.” 21

Thus

it

seems reasonable to assume that

empty

as early as 1901, after

studying Lenard’s and Planck’s papers, he had been toying with the idea

wave

that light could propagate not as a

but as a stream of corpuscles

—

medium such

in a

“light quanta”

as the ether,

—through empty space.

Einstein begins his article by highlighting a contradiction to which the

become

supporters of atomic theory, at any rate, had that they scarcely

opening Einstein

saw liked.

it

hidden contradiction, and in that device

whenever

This was the kind of

as a contradiction.

His

own his

style

so accustomed

of reflection was fired by

fundamental

treatises

possible. In this particular case

it

a

he would use

was the “deep-

going formal difference” 22 between the atomistic structure of matter

and the description of all electromagnetic phenomena, including

by continuous mathematical functions material

body

is

understood

as the

sum over

which therefore cannot be subdivided into size

Thus

in space. its

just

light,

the energy of a

atoms and electrons,

“any number and any

of small parts,” whereas according to the wave theory of light the

energy of

a ray of light “is continuously distributed

increasing volume.”

It

soon emerges that Einstein

resolve that contradiction

by ascribing

over is

a steadily

proposing to

a corpuscular structure to light.

Naturally, Einstein concedes that the wave theory has “superbly

proved will

its

worth for the description of purely

optical

probably never be replaced by another theory.”

however, that optical observations relate to

mean

phenomena and

He

points out,

values over time for

The "Very Revolutionary” Light Quanta a

multitude of waves, so that

of

light,

it is

at least

143

conceivable “that the theory

operating with continuous spatial functions, will clash with

when

experience

applied to

phenomena of

and

light generation

light

transformation.” After this preparation, and an announcement that entire “groups of phenomena will appear

on the assumption

more

that the energy of light

is

readily comprehensible

distributed in space dis-

continuously,” the “heuristic viewpoint” comes as a thunderbolt:

On

the assumption here to be considered, energy during the

propagation of a ray of light

is

steadily increasing spaces, but

ergy quanta localized

not continuously distributed over

it

consists of a finite

at points in space,

moving without dividing

and capable of being absorbed or generated only

This

is

number of en-

as entities

23 .

the most “revolutionary” sentence written by a physicist of the 4T

twentieth century.

Though statement of

its

formulated apodictically and programmatically, Einstein’s

is still

provisional, merely a “heuristic” assumption.

value and usefulness will be the extent to which

be shown that

physical

phenomena.

nomena

to a very great extent.

It will

paper endeavor to make

this

The

it

it

The

test

helps explain

does explain those phe-

next fifteen pages of Einstein’s

viewpoint and

its

significance

compre-

hensible or at least plausible.

As Einstein has no compelling theory to paragraphs he presents disparate arguments.

a

He

panorama of what

offer, in the first

few

at first glance are rather

begins with a critique of Planck’s formula for

“black radiation” by pointing out that in deriving

it

Planck used two

other formulas which contradict each other. Next follows an elegant

determination of the Avogadro number from Planck’s black-radiation formula. (A few weeks offer

later, in his statistical papers,

Einstein would

two further methods of determining Planck’s important con-

stant.) All

he

is

trying to demonstrate here

tion of the elementary

quantum

set

of his theory of ‘black radiation’

is

out by Herr Planck ” 24

—

having to accept what Einstein regarded

is

independent

in other words, that

quanta and Planck’s black-radiation formula

interpretation.

“that the determina-

as a

may

energy

be used without

mistaken derivation and

The Patent Office

144

Next come thermodynamic

reflections

on the entropy of radiation.

Einstein confines himself to the range of high frequencies, for which

Wien’s formula

is

valid,

and derives an expression for the volume-

dependence of the entropy of monochromatic radiation

The

radiation density.

reason for this

is

at a slight

that in a paper he wrote the

previous year, volume-dependence played an important role in his investigation of the energy fluctuations of radiation. Einstein next interprets the expression he obtained in light of what, for the

“Boltzmann

time, he calls the

entropy of

a

system

is

principle,” according to

first

which the

related to the probability of the system’s state.

Next he considers the same

situation in gases

and in dilute solutions,

obtaining formally identical formulas for the volume-dependence of entropy, on the one hand for gases and on the other for radiation.

The purpose

of Einstein’s disparate argumentation

he concludes, by analogy, that

just as a gas consists

now

emerges:

of atoms, so radia-

“Mono-

tion should be seen as consisting of independent particles.

chromatic radiation of slight density (within the validity range of

Wien’s radiation formula) behaves in

heat-theory respect as

a

if it

consisted of mutually independent energy quanta of a magnitude

bv” 25 That much cise

—

his

contemporaries might accept

crazy, perhaps, but harmless. After

vation what

is

all, it is

as a theoretical exer-

irrelevant for obser-

thought about radiation enclosed in

announced

follows the “heuristic viewpoint”

and only to him,

“it

seems reasonable

now

in the

to

But

a cavity. title.

examine

To

if

Einstein,

the laws

the generation and transformation of light are of a nature as consisted of such energy quanta.”

now on

if light

Whereas Planck’s energy quanta had

been postulated only in connection with involved argumentation

in

order to derive the radiation formula, Einstein, in a manner of speaking, has liberated the for a

quantum from

its

whole range of other phenomena.

quences by

The most was

his

him

a

a

cavity

He

and made

it

illustrates the

useful

conse-

number of examples.

interesting consequence of Einstein’s “heuristic viewpoint”

law on the photoelectric

Nobel Prize

in 1922.

effect,

and not only because

it

won

(The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The "Very Revolutionary” Light Quanta awarded the Nobel Prize to Albert Einstein for retical physics, especially for his discovery

electric effect.”)

quantum

light

—

later

to

be called

a metal,

of the law of the photo-

“photon”

a

this effect, a

—penetrates

like

a

there encounters an electron, and transfers

whole energy to that electron.

tron can lose

“his services to theo-

According to Einstein’s explanation of

minute missile into its

145

some of the energy

On

that

its

way

to the surface, the elec-

was transferred to

it

by the

light

quantum, and additional work has to be done to escape from the surface.

These

mum

relations can be rather involved in detail, but the maxi-

energy of

a photoelectrically ejected electron

on the frequency of the incident inable manner:

E=

hv 2

P,

where

light,

P is

depends solely

and in the simplest imag-

work

the exit (or photoelectric)

function.

This was the “second appearance” 26 of the quantum of action, but its first

appearance outside the black cavity, and

it

constituted the basis

of an unequivocal prediction: energy, plotted against frequency, must

be

a straight line,

identical with the

gram

whose gradient

quantum

is

represented by a constant that

in the radiation equation.

Here was

a

is

pro-

for experimenters.

The

only conclusion which

was then possible to draw from

it

Lenard’s measurements was that the energy of photoelectrically emitted electrons depended solely on the frequency of the incident light,

not on the intensity of irradiation

of the incident effect,

light.

—that

is,

not on the “quantity”

Quantitative investigations of the photoelectric

however, were exceedingly delicate because there were

of interference, especially electrostatic.

The

best

all

kinds

measurements were

obtained for the “threshold frequency” at which the irradiated metal did not yet lose any electrons but with a minimal increase in frequency electrons

obtained

would be a result

ejected.

which

For

this

“as for order of

Lenard’s results.” This was about

by Einstein

threshold frequency Einstein

had to

as “pioneering,”

all

magnitude agrees with Herr

that Lenard’s treatise, praised

offer; in particular, his data

were

not nearly adequate to verify the linear dependence of energy on frequency. Einstein therefore had to confine himself to the statement that his concept, “as far as

observations.

I

can

see,

does not contradict” Lenard’s

The Patent Office

146 “groups

Further

of phenomena”

which the frequency

Stokes’s law of photoluminescence, according to

of luminescence, or re-radiation,

by Einstein were

discussed

than that of the incident

is less

light;

and the ionization of gases by ultraviolet lightl^Both of these phe-

nomena by

conflict with the

wave theory of light but are

easily explained

light quanta.

Almost exactly

a year later, Einstein also derived a relation

between

the so-called Volta effect and photoelectric diffusion. This was done in a

marginal note in

a

and Light Absorption

,

paper entitled in

On

the Theory of Light Generation

which Einstein continued

his

argument with

Planck’s theory of radiation. Although Planck’s theory had initially

seemed

to

him

own

“counterpart” 27 to his

a

“heuristic viewpoint,”

was now able to show that the “theoretical

basis

he

on which Eferr

Planck’s radiation theory rests differs from the basis that would follow

from Maxwell’s theory and from electron theory

—

specifically in that

Planck’s theory makes implicit use of the above-mentioned light

quantum hypothesis.” 28 According to Einstein’s argument, Planck’s formula presupposed that the energy of an elementary resonator could

which were energy of

integral multiples of hv. It followed, therefore, that “the

a resonator

leaps, specifically

acquired a

changes by absorption and emission only by

by an integral multiple of hv.” 29 The quanta had thus

new meaning, and

undoubtedly correct but had provided with

not in

Planck’s radiation formula (which was until then lacked justification)

at least a provisional theoretical

classical physics, as

foundation

like

it

hallmark of “revolutionary” work in science

poraries refuse to follow

was

now

— admittedly

Planck would have wished, but in the newly

emerging quantum physics. Planck did not

If a

assume only values

it

and that

it

at

is

all.

that one’s

takes a great

many

contem-

years to be

accepted, then Einstein’s “heuristic viewpoint” was indeed “very revolutionary.”

The

fact that his

without any quibbles 30

paper was evidently accepted by Annalen

testifies to

the liberal attitude of

Max

Planck,

the coeditor responsible for theoretical papers, since initially he does

not seem to have regarded light quanta In the

summer

as

even worthy of discussion.

of 1906, a year after publication of the paper, Planck’s

The "Very Revolutionary” Light Quanta assistant

Max von Laue

wrote Einstein in Bern: “Incidentally,

my chief. Maybe

discussed your heuristic viewpoint with ferences of opinion

on

147

it

the elementary

between him and me.” 31 The very different

summer of

quantum of action

vacuum

equations. At least,

I

letter

1907: “I look for the

quantum) not

(light

but at the points of absorption and emission, and processes in the

never

there are dif-

opinion of his “chief” emerges from the earliest extant

Planck to Einstein, in the

I

from

meaning of

in the

vacuum,

believe that the

I

by the Maxwellian

are accurately described

don’t as yet see any compelling reason for

departing from this assumption, which, for the moment, seems to

me

the simplest one, and one which characteristically expresses the contrast

between ether and matter.” 32

In 1909 Hendrik

Antoon Lorentz, who

had been

for a long time

reluctant to accept even Planck’s radiation formula, attempted to con-

nect the quantum of action only “with a limitation of the degrees of

freedom of the ether.” 33 And so

it

curious apology which Planck, in the his otherwise

the Prussian

may

all

summer of

the

way

to that

1913, inserted into

overgenerous nomination of Einstein for membership in

Academy of Sciences

That sometimes, he

continued,

in Berlin:

as for instance in his

hypothesis on light quanta,

have gone overboard in his speculations should not be

held against

him too much,

for without occasional venture or risk

no genuine innovation can be accomplished even

in the

most

exact sciences. 34

Einstein of course did not see this nomination, but he was aware of Planck’s views. At almost the same time, using a kind of imaginary dialogue, Einstein in a tribute to Planck referred to the difficulties of the

radiation formula with

which everything had

flippant tone, he observed: “It

would be

started. In a cheerfully

uplifting if we could place

on

a

balance the amount of brain substance sacrificed by theoretical physicists

on the

altar

of this universal function

sight yet of these cruel sacrifices!” 35 It

—and

there

is

no end

in

would take ten years more

before light quanta were eventually accepted, on the eve of the

new

quantum mechanics.

Why

did

it

take

two decades

for Einstein’s “very revolutionary”

The Patent Office

148

concept to be generally accepted? There has never been

a

comparable

For one thing, there

situation in twentieth-century physics.

no

is

doubt that the stubborn opposition to the new idea of light quanta was primarily due to the fact that the wave theory of light had proved itself in a

thousand different ways and that discarding

able.

But there were other

factors,

it

was almost unthink-

'some of them having to do with

experiments and others with Einstein himself. Let us look

first at

the

experiments.

Although Einstein’s equation for the photoelectric was

difficult to

effect

confirm or disprove experimentally.

It

was simple,

remained an

object of contention for a whole decade. For example, Lenard,

received the

Nobel Prize

it

for his cathode-ray experiments in the

who of

fall

1905, corresponded with Einstein soon after the publication of the “heuristic viewpoint”

papers,

your

and even sent an offprint of one of

his

own

which Einstein “studied with the same sense of admiration

earlier

work.” 36 But Lenard,

to a resonance theory based

no reason

as

as

an experimental physicist, clung

on Maxwellian electrodynamics and saw

to take account of light quanta.

Rudolf Ladenburg, three

years younger than Einstein, in a thorough, sixty-page overview in

1909, 37 juxtaposed the two views, clearly emphasizing the advantages

of Einstein’s light quanta. His experimental data, however, were insufficient to let

him decide

for or against a linear relation

between energy

and frequency.

From about 1905 Robert Andrews

Millikan at the University of

Chicago was working on the photoelectric

effect, at first

along with

other problems and unaware of Einstein’s equation. After 1912, he

devoted

a great deal

In 1915, contrary to “to assert

its

of effort to an attempt at refuting that equation. all

his expectations,

he found himself compelled

unambiguous experimental

unreasonableness since

it

seemed

verification in spite of

to violate everything that

its

we knew

about the interference of light.” 38 In his publications of 1916, though, Millikan did not hesitate to attack the assumptions behind the experi-

mentally confirmed equation

as if

they had

outsider rather than from a scientist

come from

who by

a fantasizing

then was famous. In

a

The “Very Revolutionary” Light Quanta comprehensive

article

intended for publication in

149

Germany he

first

gave Einstein the good news “that the Einstein equation accurately represents the energy of electron emission under irradiation with light,” 39

only to continue by saying that he considered “the physical

theory upon which the equation

any

rate, his result for the

was

in close

is

based to be totally untenable.” At

numerical value of the quantum of action

agreement with Planck’s, and from

this

he concluded that

were “the most direct and most striking evidence so

his findings

obtained for the physical reality of Planck’s

far

A” 40

Millikan’s measurements had confirmed Einstein’s equation for the

photoelectric effect, but by light quanta.

distinction

As

no means the

late as 1922, the

“heuristic viewpoint”

Swedish Academy emphasized

when, avoiding the suspect terminology,

Nobel Prize

when

it

this

awarded the

to Einstein solely for “the discovery of the law of the

toelectric effect.” It chose the

lowing year,

it

pho-

same cautious language again the

fol-

awarded the prize to Millikan. However, the

breakthrough occurred almost simultaneously, in 1923, when the fusion of light

on

on electrons demonstrated

dif-

that light did in fact consist

of discrete energy packets.

The

exceedingly hesitant acceptance of the light quanta

been partly due

to Einstein’s

own

language.

He

may

also

have

never actually asserted

the existence of light quanta but preferred a form of words between the conditional and unreality.

behaved hv

.

”

“as if

Such

abandon

it

Monochromatic

radiation,

he

said,

consisted of independent energy quanta of magnitude

“as if” formulations

their faith in the

were not

likely to

persuade physicists to

proven wave theory of light.

If in later years

Einstein referred to the “light quanta hypothesis” and once even to his

“theory of light quanta,” 41 these were concessions to else just stylistic slips. Basically,

—

all

of which

made

usage or

he stuck to his “heuristic viewpoint”

and even emphasized the “provisional character of cept” 42

common

this auxiliary

con-

his colleagues feel entitled to reject light

quanta. Einstein’s choice of

words had nothing to do with excessive cau-

tion, let alone insecurity;

it

was based on what he expected of a genuine

The Patent Office

150 theory. So

far,

quanta tended to highlight cracks in the established

new concept

theory rather than fitting into a

That was why Einstein stayed with

based on

first

principles.

his provisional “heuristic view-

point” even when, before the end of 1906, he presented a further,

exceedingly important, application of the quantum concept in an

one that was moreover supported by experi-

entirely different field,

mental

results.

This was the third appearance of quanta:

this

time not

in radiation but, for the first time, in the behavior of matter

theory of specific heat.

It

was the

first

quantum theory of solid

Dulong and

In 1820, two Frenchmen, Pierre

Alexis Petit,

—

in a

bodies.

had made an

interesting observation during an investigation of the thermal behavior

of solid bodies. a

The amount

body by one degree was

weight. For

many

as for sulfur,

metals,

of heat needed to raise the temperature of

virtually constant if

was related to atomic

it

from copper through nickel

to gold, as well

they invariably found the same value of “specific heat.” 43

Their surprising discoveiy indicated an atomic structure of matter and suggested that “the atoms of

simple bodies have exactly the same

all

capacity for heat.” 44 This “law of

Dulong and

Petit” did not receive

when Fudwig

theoretical foundation until half a century later,

mann,

firmly based the empirical regularity found by the two

Frenchmen on the But

as so often

kinetic theory of matter.

happens in physics, no sooner was the theory estab-

began to accumulate which would not

lished than experimental results fit

into that neat concept at

Weber, subsequently

As

all.

a

young man

and then for boron and

silicon,

the Dulong-Petit law.

Only

these three substances

“specific

through diploma

it

at

for

diamond

high temperatures did specific heat

was much too low even

it

diminished, and for

at

room temperature.

student under Weber, Einstein became familiar with this

heat anomaly,” his

first

and had found marked deviations from

agree with expectations; at lower temperatures

still a

in Berlin in 1870,

Einstein’s teacher at the Zurich Polytechnic, had

investigated specific heat at various temperatures,

While

Boltz-

fundamental “equipartition theorem” 45 of sta-

in 1876, with his

tistical physics,

its

own

thesis,

partly

through Weber’s

lectures,

partly

laboratory work, and possibly also through his

which dealt with heat conduction.

The “Very Revolutionary” Light Quanta

The

first

inspiration

had come to Einstein on

a train.

151

As he reported

to

Mileva, while traveling to see his parents in Milan in the spring of 1901, he “came up with an interesting idea.

It

seems to

me

that

not

it is

out of the question that the latent kinetic energy of heat in solids and

thought of as the energy of electrical resonators.” 46 This

liquids can be

idea

may have been

earlier,

inspired by his study of Planck’s

work of

immediately before the quantum of action. In

a

year

with his

line

microphysical concept of matter, Einstein was linking the thermal and optical properties of matter, because “if this

is

the case, then the spe-

heat and the absorption spectrum of solids would have to be

cific

related.”

He

immediately commanded

his “little devil” to

library,

because he was interested in these relations for

you can

find

some

literature

on

“See

glass:

if

this!”

may have

But whatever Mileva

go to the

discovered then

(if

anything), the

subject required a fewlnore years of “hatching” and pondering, especially

on the

basis of Planck’s radiation formula, before Einstein

able to bring

it all

together in the

fall

of 1906, under the

title

was

Planck's

Theory of Radiation and the Theory of Specific Heatd 7

In this article, Einstein again starts with a

mean energy of

new examination

Planck’s oscillator, “which clearly reveals

to molecular mechanics.”

And

its

of the

relation

again he presents a further variation of

the “Boltzmann method,” which differs from Planck’s procedure.

From

these reflections

—which

are

by no means mere preliminaries

and which actually contain an interesting mathematical innovation 48 that

would be rediscovered two decades

later

—Einstein derives

a

pro-

found transformation of mechanics in the interaction of atoms or molecules with electromagnetic radiation. This

reminder that

in the

microcosm everything

is

will

the

first

explicit

be different from

everyday experience based on the senses, and hence also from the “classical” physics based

Whereas

until

now

as subject to the

on

that everyday experience:

the molecular

same

movements had been regarded

regularities as those valid for the

of bodies in the world of our senses,

we now

motion

find ourselves

compelled ... to make the assumption that the variety of

states

The Patent Office

152

which they are capable of assuming

is

than for bodies of our

less

experience. 49

Transfer of energy proceeds not continuously, but only in discrete packets of magnitude hv. Einstein asks

to “the other oscillating systems suggested

heat,” that

to the

is,

atoms of

might perhaps apply

if this

also

by the molecular theory of His answer

solid bodies.

not long in

is

coming.

homoge-

Einstein confines his observation to a simple model: a

neous isotropic

whose atoms

crystal

about their equilibrium.

oscillate

Initially Einstein

with a single frequency

thought only of electromag-

netic forces as the cause of the oscillations, so that his

model would

represent only electrically conducting substances, whose atoms are separated into heavy ions and light electrons.

gone

He amended

because in

it,

oscillations,

radiation.

after his

his error in a “Correction,” 50

which

is

for the first time, quanta appear in purely

and thus become

Applying

paper had

he realize that there was no reason for

to the printer did

tation.

Only

totally

formula for specific heat, which, just

important

mechanical

independent of electromagnetic

quantum formulas he

his

this limi-

derives, in a

few

as it should, leads at

steps, a

high tem-

peratures to the Dulong-Petit law, and at low temperatures results in a

down

steady diminution of specific heat

to absolute zero.

The tem-

perature above which the old rule remains valid would later be called “Einstein temperature.”

It is closely

connected with the oscillation

quency of the atoms, which in turn characterizes the

fre-

optical properties

of the crystals. For light atoms such as carbon, the Einstein temperature

fairly

is

high

—

for

diamond around 1,000°

from the Dulong-Petit law already appears noble crystal on

a beauty’s

at

C — so

room

that deviation

temperature. That

neck thus displays quantum

characteristics.

Einstein compared his quantum-theoretical formula with the data

found for diamond by

ment of

his theoretical

H.

his teacher

F.

.

.

.

will

prove

its

in 1875.

graph with the measurements

worth

is

The

agree-

so excellent

it

“probable that the

new

in principle.” 51

At the same time he

real-

that Einstein felt justified in thinking

view

Weber

ized that “there can of course be “exactly matching the facts.”

He

no thought” of the new

had been using

a

theory’s

model which he

The "Very Revolutionary” Light Quanta

had too many simplifications; in particular he regarded the

realized

assumption of as

153

a single

temperature-independent oscillation frequency

“undoubtedly inadmissible.” 52 Nevertheless, the theory, quite apart

from

pioneering character, would certainly “prove

its

worth

its

in

principle.”

Unlike Einstein’s “heuristic viewpoint” on light quanta, his quantum

moved

theory of solid bodies soon

was due not to

Max

Planck,

who

into the scientific spotlight. This

quantum concept, but

application of the

new

preferred to keep silent on this to his colleague

Walther

Nernst, the professor of physical chemistry at Berlin. In 1905 Nernst

had not so much derived

as postulated a general

thermodynamic law

according to which entropy rather than energy, and in consequence also specific heat, disappears at absolute zero.

devoted himself with 'the passion of

quences of his law

thermodynamics In 1875,

—

—now

possible,

to suspend his

measurements when the snow

and even hydrogen had meanwhile

air

providing

— 273°C. Nernst had

experimental conse-

low temperatures.

thawed; but liquefaction of

become

a lover to the

raised to the status of the third law of

at really

Weber had

Henceforward Nernst

close

a

approach

absolute

to

zero,

built a plant for the liquefaction of hydrogen,

an entire army of young coworkers

were busy measuring the

at his institute

specific heat of the

and

on Bunsenstrasse

most varied substances

over wide ranges of temperature.

For

this research

program Nernst could not disregard

new quantum theory of specific lication

it

was

clear that his

heat.

quantum formula was

in describing the actual conditions;

hensive

article,

stated: “It

Three years

is

and

after Einstein’s

compre-

obvious that the observations in their

theory.” 53 After that,

of Planck’s and Einstein’s

quantum theory was no longer

excluded from discussions of the behavior of solid bodies shall see, Einstein

pub-

substantially correct

in 1911 Nernst, in a

totality provide a brilliant confirmation

quantum

Einstein’s

had gained an

influential supporter

— and,

to be as

we

and patron. But

although he was the most vigorous propagandist of quantum theory,

Nernst was never

really sure

whether

to regard Einstein’s concept as a

kind of mathematical tool or the foundation of

a totally

new

physics.

The Patent Office

154

Having

visited Einstein in Switzerland in the spring

and discussed with him

question and

this

many

break of 1910

reported to a colleague about Einstein’s theory, sounding as let

himself in for a very enticing but Einstein’s

quantum hypothesis

ever thought up. If correct, so-called ether physics will

The

it

somehow

is

did remain “a beautiful

all

it

in

false, it

times. 54

—but

it

nevertheless

for the “ether physics”

no longer had anything

and he discarded

theory of relativity.

all

at least “in principle”

had discarded the ether implicitly light quanta;

illegitimate affair:

molecular theories. If

memory.” As

tioned by Nernst, Einstein

he had

opens entirely new roads both for

and for

—

if

probably the strangest thing

remain “a beautiful memory” for

theory was correct

Nernst

others,

to

do with

March 1905 with

explicitly three

men-

that.

He

his invention of

months

later in his

CHAPTER NINE Re at I

tt

My

It happened

ve Movement:

Seven Years

Life for

about the middle of May

1905, shortly after he had

on the Brownian movement. Einstein could not

sent in his paper

remember

i

the exact date, only that

it

was

a “beautiful day.” 1

He

had

4T

visited his friend

and colleague Michele Besso

question with him.

“We

discussed every aspect of the problem,” Ein-

stein reported seventeen years later.

where the key night, with

to this

to discuss a difficult

problem

He must

lay.”

some mathematics and

“Then suddenly

a lot

I

understood

have spent an exciting

The

of concentrated thinking.

key he had found in conversation with Besso magically opened

a

door

to a

new understanding

The

following day, “without even saying hello,” Einstein pounced on

his friend

Thank

of the fundamental concepts of

all

physics.

with the explanation: you. I’ve completely solved the problem.

the concept of time was defined, and there

is

my

solution.

An

Time cannot be

analysis of

absolutely

an inseparable relation between time and

signal velocity. 2

Einstein’s analysis started off with the question of what

simultaneity in two different places.

He

friends and colleagues as he pointed to

is

meant by

was observed gesticulating to

one of Bern’s

bell

towers and

then to one in the neighboring village of Muri. Michele Besso was the first

person and Josef Sauter the second 3 to

manner

whom

he explained in

this

that the synchronization of spatially separated clocks repre-

sented a problem which, properly understood, must lead to profound

changes in the concept of time.

If the

155

customary concept of space, and

The Patent Office

156 a lot else in physics,

matter

how

had to undergo

exciting they seemed,

then these, no

a transformation,

were simply

logical consequences.

“Five or six weeks elapsed before the completion of the publication

Toward

in question.” 4

the end of June

it

was

June 30 receipt of the manuscript was recorded

on

written up, and

all

of

at the editorial office

\

The

Annalen in Berlin. later,

was

On

titled

months

thirty-page article, published three

the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies

5 .

was

It

a trea-

beyond compare and without precedent, one of the greatest scien-

tise tific

achievements in content and one of the most

course, there

some from

were

later additions,

few years theory”

later it

all

was called the “theory of

as the “special

a

theory which had

ready and complete, valid for

—not by Einstein but by others—and

became known

all

time.

after a

few more years

thrall

which had occupied him

for at least seven years:

He

was

later to declare that this

development of

him

in

the relativity principle in electro-

had been

his “life for over

seven years and this was the main thing,” 6 but he found retrace the

to

for a decade

include his schooldays in Aarau) and which had held

dynamics.

it

theory of relativity.”

fruition an intellectual adventure

we

A

relativity” or “relativity

At the age of twenty-six Einstein had successfully brought

(if

Of

some from Einstein himself and

were mere addenda to

others, but these

appeared before the world

brilliant in style.

his ideas over that period. 7

it

difficult to

These

ideas

involved a complete rethinking of the entire conceptual tradition of

modern its first

The

physics from

250

its

beginning. Let us therefore briefly consider

years.

principle of relativity had been discussed at the very beginning of

modern

science. It

Two Chief World

was formulated by Galileo

in his Dialogue on the

Systems published in 1632. Galileo gave ,

colorful setting that

was then fashionable.

On the

it

the kind of

“Second Day” of the

Dialogue Galileo’s alter ego Salviati invites his friends to assemble in a spacious

room

inside a ship, a

as well as a fish tank.

from the vessel.” 8

ceiling,

Finally,

room

containing midges and butterflies

Then comes an

instruction:

from which water drips into also

in

the

service

“Suspend

a second,

of science,

a

bucket

narrow-necked

the

friends

are

— Relative

Movement: “My

Life for

Seven Years”

instructed to leap forward and backward, and see

157

what distance they

cover.

The and

stage, of course,

a ship in

motion.

provided only

its

is

set for a

“Now let the

movement

comparison between

any of the observed phenomena.” 9

the

as before,

fish.

The

any speed whatever:

at

uniform and does not fluctuate one way

is

or the other, you will observe that there

about

move

vessel

a ship at rest

and no difference

is

not the slightest change in

The midges and

will

butterflies will fly

be noticed in the movements of

by leaping remains the same regardless

distance achieved

movement

of whether one leaps in the direction of the ship’s opposite direction. Perhaps most convincing of

all is

or in the

the fact that

all

the drops continue to be caught in the lower container with the

narrow neck: “Not one of them

many spans

the ship covers

With

this

will fall

on

while the drop

argument Galileo intended

assumption of

a revolving Earth.

entirely correctly

and

—that there

textbook

precisely, is

no way

case of two referential systems

is

its

rear part, even though

in midair.”

to dismiss objections to the

At the same time he demonstrated and not in the dry

in

of a modern

style

mechanics of distinguishing, in the

moving

and uniformly

rectilinearly

with constant velocity) relative to each other, which of them

motion and which

is

in

at rest.

Fifty years later this idea

monumental

(i.e.,

was included by Isaac Newton

Principia Mathematical the

in his

fundamental presentation of

modern mechanics.

It

appears, however, not in a prominent position as

an axiom, but only

as

an addition,

as

bodies included in a given space are the same

whether that space line

is

at rest,

position fs] of

among

themselves,

or moves uniformly forwards in a right

without any circular motion.” 10 However,

corollary that

“The

Corollary V:

Newton was not concerned with

it

is

clear

from

this

equivalent referential

systems, but that he postulated an “absolute space” relative to which the “given space” was either at rest or in motion. Moreover, the

“absolute space” in Newton’s concept, “in

its

own

nature, without

regard to any thing external remains always similar and immovable,” 11

and he needed

it

in order to explain inertia as well as the objective

character of rotational movement.

It

was

a

kind of all-embracing con-

The Patent Office

158 tainer within tial

which the privileged

status of

uniformly moving referen-

systems could be defined.

Newton’s “absolute space” was by no means accepted

uncritically,

but the overwhelming success of his mechanics eventually silenced objections, with the result that this concept

was soon elevated to

requisite of thought. In the philosophical analysis of

who a

gether

12 .

movable

which

all

immovable)

and hence

is

“The space

motion must ultimately be imagined (which therefore

is

called the pure, or also the absolute, space .” 13

and uniformly

moving

each other was not seen

relative to

principle of relativity

This

as well as philosophers, that the equiva-

lence of referential systems or “relative spaces”

it

of knowledge alto-

a prerequisite

called the material, or also the relative, space;

was so evident, to physicists

The

Immanuel Kant,

Restating Newton’s Corollary V, Kant declared:

is itself

that in is

a pre-

revered Newton, his concept of space was confirmed as “pure

priori experience”

that

all

as a

was so securely anchored

in

rectilinearly

problem

at

all.

mechanics that

did not even have a name.

However, toward the end of the nineteenth century, when

seemed advisable

it

to take a closer look at the foundations of mechanics,

referential systems

moving uniformly with regard

given their

modern name,

calculating

from one

“inertial systems ,” 14

The

were

and the simple rules for

system to another became

inertial

“Galileo transformations .” 15

to each other

known

as the

principle of relativity could therefore

be briefly formulated to the effect that the laws of physics have the

same form

in all inertial systems,

and that they must therefore be

invariant with regard to Galileo transformations.

That was evident

in mechanics, but the

emergence of the new

minology indicated enhanced awareness. This was due electrodynamic theory

as a

uniform way of describing

ter-

to the use of all electrical,

magnetic, and optical phenomena. Maxwell’s theory, however, did not satisfy the relativity principle

of mechanics, because

are clearly not Galileo-invariant.

The

its

basic equations

ether, moreover, represented a

privileged referential system.

After Einstein, the ether was so thoroughly swept out of physics that today a lot of historical

importance attached to

it

empathy

is

required to appreciate the

by nineteenth-century

physicists.

The

fact

is

Movement: “My

Relative

hundred years ago the ether was

that less than a

an ocean

Seven Years

Life for

159

as real as air, light, or

In interpreting their optical experiments even the

liner.

were

cleverest researchers felt that they

“virtually touching the ether

with their fingers.” 16

Maxwellian electrodynamics, the

finest

and most impressive contri-

bution to nineteenth-century physics, had actually the center of

Take

physical thought.

all

electricity

moved

Thus Heinrich Hertz

the ether to

observed:

out of the world, and light vanishes; take the

luminiferous ether out of the world, and electric and magnetic forces can

no longer

Electromagnetic

fields

travel

through space. 17

and waves,

as well as light

waves identified

as

such, were transversal oscillations of the ether, perpendicular to their

direction of propagation; and for Hertz and

made proper

sense only once they were reduced to mechanical models

of that medium. a

most of his colleagues they

“new kind of

When Wilhelm

Conrad Rontgen

in 1895 discovered

and theoretical physicists had an

ray,” experimental

interpretation ready: X-rays could be nothing other than the long-

suspected longitudinal oscillations of the ether, in the direction of propagation.

Ether physics 18 was fascinating and intellectually demanding, but

found

was

itself in conflict, in a variety

of ways, with the mechanics which

to continue as the foundation of

should be able to describe the ether share in the

it

all

physics and which therefore

as well.

A medium which

movement of matter and which pervaded

all

did not

space offered

and simultaneously preferred, referential system for

itself as a natural,

the propagation of light, as the only system in which the velocity of light has

its

value of 300,000 kilometers per second. 19 As the Earth

could hardly be

made

at rest in the

for the sun

—the

ether

Earth’s

—that assumption could

movement through

have to be observable through optical

around the sun of

thirty kilometers per

expected to be in the readily measurable {v

=

velocity; c

=

speed of light),

i.e.,

effects.

first

be

the ether would

At an

second these

at best

orbital speed

effects

could be

order of magnitude of v/c

one ten-thousandth; but nothing

of the sort was observed. In 1881 the

American Albert Abraham Michelson, then not yet

The Patent Office

160 thirty,

achieved

With

a fantastic increase in precision.

support of Helmholtz, he constructed in Berlin

the benevolent

two-arm

a

ometer for determining the second order of magnitude v 2 /c2

interferi.e.,

,

one

hundred-millionth. His apparatus was so sensitive that even the horse cabs passing outside the Physical Institute impaired

its

operation;

it

was therefore moved to the solitude of the Astrophysical Observatory in

Potsdam.

The outcome,

movement of the Earth

published in 1881, was disappointing: no

relative to the ether could

experiment was repeated, with

later the

Michelson and

his colleague

be proved. Six years

greater accuracy, by

still

Edward W. Morley

in Cleveland, but

merely confirmed the surprising Potsdam findings. admitted”

—Michelson consoled himself

American

to receive the

in 1907,

Nobel Prize (not

for similar optical precision

“I think

will

it

when he was

the

it

be

first

for his ether experiments but

measurements)

— “that

leading to the invention of the interferometer,

the problem, by

more than compensated

us for the fact that this particular experiment gave a negative result.” 20

But no one wanted to go back to before Copernicus, to

a geocentric

view, or conclude from the Michelson-Morley experiment that the

Earth was resting motionless in the ether. Instead,

were designed to prove that

it

relative to the ether. In these

was impossible

it

came

to observe a

insights: while

it

remained wedded

fairly close to the relativity theory.

was important because

a reconstruction

eral principles represented

movement

endeavors the theory of Hendrik An toon

Loren tz offered the most valuable to the ether,

brilliant theories

To

Einstein

it

of Lorentz’s theory from gen-

one of the touchstones of his own new con-

cept of space and time.

In 1877,

when he was not

yet twenty- five, Lorentz was invited to take

the newly created chair of theoretical physics at the University of

Leyden

in the Netherlands. In the 1890s, after fifteen years of

work, he developed a

new

hard

version of electrodynamics, his “electron

theory.” His terminology reflects the increase in knowledge during the final

decade of the nineteenth century: in 1892 he referred simply to

“charged particles”; in 1895, in his comprehensive Attempt at a Theory of Electrical and Optical Phenomena in

Moving

were

two years

called “ions”;

and

after 1899,

Bodies carriers of charge ,

after the discovery

of

Movement: "My

Relative

charged light

particles,

Life for

Seven Years

he called them “electrons.”

161

The

fields exist

independently of the charge carriers in the ether and react back on matter by exerting quently came to be a

known

theory embracing

at the time, a

on the charge

a force

carriers.

“Lorentz force.”

as

On

this basis

electromagnetic and optical

all

theory that proved

This force subse-

phenomena known

worth even with new phenomena.

its

In 1896 Lorentz’s assistant, the privatdozent Pieter

Zeemann,

ceeded in observing the splitting of spectrum lines in field

— an

had been sought

effect that

was such

a

a

suc-

magnetic

in vain since Faraday.

This

spectacular triumph for Lorentz’s theory that he and his

assistant

were honored

physics.

Even

in

in his old

1902 with the second Nobel Prize for age,

Einstein was enthusiastic whenever

Lorentz’s theory was mentioned: “It clarity,

he created

and beauty

as

is

a

work of such

consistent logic,

has been rarely achieved in a science based on

empiricism.” 21 It is

true that in Lorentz’s theory the relativity principle could not

find expression

through the “Galileo invariance” of mechanics.

of relativity principle was upheld in Galileo’s sense

—that

menters have no way of distinguishing whether they are

uniform

rectilinear motion.

problem of motion

with his theorem of “corresponding

at rest

— the

states.”

By

this

relate the electromagnetic values in

ether at

rest.

or in

relative to the ether

ingenious device

moving

inertial sys-

tems to the one system for which the Maxwellian equations are valid

experi-

But even that statement entailed consider-

able effort. Lorentz solved the

he was able to

A kind

To

that

end he invented

for the

strictly

moving

system an auxiliary construct which he called “local time,” in which “true time” appeared linked with the spatial coordinates. This was the first

bold

manipulation of the parameter of time in as

it

was, “local time” to Lorentz was

a physical theory;

no more than

a

but

mathe-

matical artifice without any consequence for the traditional under-

standing of time. After

all,

he had merely invented

a trick to

make

theory agree with observation, to “explain away” the first-order

For second-order

effects,

such

ment, Lorentz had to resort to

as the

a further

the

effects.

Michelson-Morley experi-

hypothesis, which had simul-

taneously and independently been introduced by George Fitzgerald.

According to

this

hypothesis,

the dimensions of a

body moving

The Patent Office

162

through the ether are shortened in the direction of movement by characteristic factor

dependent on

a

velocity: 1

This contraction was understood by Lorentz real

dynamic

forces, caused

by

as

an effect based on

compression (not specifiable in

a

detail)

of the charge carriers through their interaction with the ether.

Lorentz was thus able to develop netic

phenomena

—the

of light

in a system

title

theory for electromag-

a consistent

moving at any

velocity not reaching the velocity

of his comprehensive treatise of 1904, in which the

approximations of earlier versions were overcome and the theory was valid for

orders in

all

v/c.

The

success of Lorentz’s extension of

Maxwell’s theory was so impressive that physicists, especially in Ger-

many, already saw

it

as the

overthrow of traditional mechanics-based

physics. All physics, including mechanics,

was now to be rebuilt within

the framework of an “electromagnetic picture of the world.”

Henri Poincare was then the world’s most famous mathematician, with epoch-making contributions to both the fundamentals of his discipline

and

its

applications, especially in physics. Poincare

thetic to Lorentz’s theory but at the

creating

Not

more and more hypotheses

same time

for every

criticized

new

was sympaLorentz for

experimental

only did he encourage Lorentz to improve his theory

1904 Lorentz in tions 22

—but he

analysis

fact

made some allowance

himself

made

result.

—and

after

for Poincare’s objec-

substantial contributions to a critical

and mathematical structuring of the theory.

A good

opportunity was provided in

1

900 by

a Festschrift in

honor

of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Lorentz’s doctorate. Poincare in his contribution 23 showed,

among

other things, that Lorentz’s “local

time” could be interpreted as equivalent to

were synchronized by

light signals.

a

procedure whereby clocks

This interesting link between

Lorentz’s “local time” and the problem of time measurement was presented by Poincare four years later at the International Congress on the Arts and Sciences held, in true American style, the

World

Exhibition in

St.

on the occasion of

Louis in 1904. As an internationally

Movement: “My

Relative

Seven Years

Life for

acknowledged authority he was entrusted with the key Present State and the Future of Mathematical Physics

his synchronization procedure,

show

one might

call ‘local time,’

therefore

it .”

25

This

is

arranged in such

a

whether they were

the

first text in

—Poincare explained

“The

show the

so that one of

another. This does not matter much, as

mining

—the

a different time.

followed Lorentz in the concept of “true time”:

manner do not

On

along with the consequence that clocks

in different inertial systems also

nized in that

lecture,

M

In a section devoted to the relativity principle

which not only the subject but the name appears

163

them

However, he

clocks synchro-

true time, but

what

slow with regard to

is

we have no way

of deter-

hardly surprising, as everything had been shrewdly

way at rest

that experimenters could not possibly

tell

or in motion, just as was called for by the

relativity principle.

This lecture contained some other hints

at the future

development

of physics. Actual calculations and experiments showed that the mass of electrons was

apparently not

constant

—

expected as a matter of course from the time of sier

—but depended on

care

summed

their velocity.

“From

all

Newton and

Lavoi-

these results,” Poin-

up,

provided they are confirmed, an entirely arise,

would have been

as

new mechanics would

characterized mainly by the fact that no velocity can exceed

the velocity of light, just as

no temperature can drop below

absolute zero. For an observer himself in a translational motion,

which he does not suspect, no velocity whatever can any longer exceed that of light

This

is

the

first

26 .

indication that the velocity of light could play a major

role, structuring

theory not only in optics and electrodynamics but

also in mechanics.

Poincare, however,

when

made no

in the following year

use of this far-reaching assumption

he published Dynamics of the Electron

21 .

This did not go beyond Lorentz’s theory in terms of physics, but

moved

its

mathematical structure into

a

new

light.

Poincare combined

the three spatial coordinates and time into a “quadruple vector” and

operated with these structures as in conventional Euclidian geometry.

The Patent Office

164

The

transformations of Lorentz’s theory, which mediate between

“local time”

tion

and true time on the one hand, and

—between the

spond to

spatial coordinates

on the

—because of contrac-

other,

would then corre-

four-dimensional space. Poincare also proved

a rotation in a

that the transformations,

which he

called “Lorentz transformations,” s

displayed the kind of structure mathematicians call a “group,”

its

important characteristic being that two consecutive Lorentz transfor-

mations for their part represent an admissible transformation. Specifically this

means

against

that,

must not

expectation, “addition”

all

simply be performed arithmetically, but that the combination of two

produces

velocities always

a result that

smaller than the velocity of

is

light.

This was probably

as

much

Poincare for electrodynamics as theory were

now

could be achieved by Lorentz and

as

a physics

of the ether. But two types of

suddenly standing side by

side: first, the physics

of

matter, mechanics, with a powerful relativity principle, realized in

invariance toward the Galileo transformations; and second, the physics

of the ether, electrodynamics, in which the Lorentz transformations

had to be

valid in order that

ether, as the privileged

any

system

relative

movement with regard

at rest,

could not be observed. This

was certainly realized by the theoreticians, but they

conflict

ciled themselves to

it.

It

was certainly never

to the

also recon-

clearly formulated in dis-

cussions at the beginning of the century, except in a few prophetic

apergus by Henri Poincare.

The

conflict,

of the Expert

On

the

stein

III

however, was

at the center

of the scientific endeavors

Class at the Patent Office in Bern.

When

Dynamics of the Electron appeared in Paris on June

was

just getting his solutions

for the press. It

5,

Poincare’s 1905, Ein-

of this and other problems ready

was something no one had expected: the theory of

relativity.

The

axiomatic structure of Einstein’s paper betrays

lectual efforts, the roads

him

other ways

—

of the intel-

and the wrong turnings, which eventually led

to the solution. Footnotes are

among

little

in that

it

no help

here: the paper

does not contain

is

unique

a single bibliographical

Relative reference. 28

Movement: "My

The few

Seven Years

Life for

165

extant letters between 1903 and 1905 contain

nothing about the ideas that led Einstein to his

relativity theory,

means

must

that any reconstruction of his thinking

recollections of others and

papers

tific

on the equally scant

—and, of course, on

were not recorded

until very

much

later,

But

is

not the same

are colored

as the

by what

viewing angle.” 29

am

I

Two

one of fifty,

and Einstein himself,

thirty,

at present, in

weeks before

rian of science that he himself

if

man

Einstein’s recollections are

still

in his

of sixty-

other words by a deceptive

his death

he told

young

a

had “always found himself

they are not always consistent, and

scien-

or twenty. All memories

source of information concerning the genesis of his

even

own

his recollections

Nekrolog written in 1946, points out that “the present

seven

on the scant

rest

hints in his

his recollections.

which

at

own

a

histo-

very poor

ideas.” 30

But

times even contradictory,

our best and certainly our most inter-

esting source.

Einstein often described the beginning of the ten-year incubation

period

—

a

mental experiment in his schooldays in Aarau.

tured an observer running after a ray of light.

would be

He

What he would

had

pic-

perceive

similar to the impression of a surfer riding ahead of a wave,

at rest relative to the

water while between two

crests.

In the case of

light this situation corresponds to a electromagnetic field spatially

oscillating but at rest:

But such

a

thing does not seem to

exist, either

on the grounds of

experience or according to the Maxwellian equations. But intuitively

it

seemed

to

me

clear

from the outset

that,

judged by

such an observer, everything would have to unroll according to the same laws as for an observer at rest relative to the earth. For

how could is

that first observer

in a state of rapid

know, or be able to discover, that he

uniform motion? 31

This paradox clearly revealed

On

a

crack in the foundations of physics.

the one hand there was mechanics, in which an observer traveling

with the speed of light or even faster was entirely thinkable; on the other hand there was electrodynamics, according to which such an

1

The Patent Office

66

observer would have to see something that evidently does not

That was why an

observer, or indeed any material body, could never

attain the velocity of light

—which

how

any observer, no matter

fast

is

therefore a limiting velocity, for

theory was already present in that paradox

cial relativity

stated that this mental experiment like

move in any inerthe germ of the spe-

the observer might

system. In retrospect, Einstein believed “that

tial

exist.

an inner compass,

it

He

32 .

had always been with him

33 .

later

And

seems to have led the student straight to what

was “fundamentally important

” 34

During the summer vacation

after Einstein’s third year at the Poly-

in physics.

technic the old problem emerged in a letter to Mileva,

now

against the

background of his study of Helmholtz and Hertz, and with remarkable self-assurance for a

young man:

I’m more and more convinced that the electrodynamics of

moving bodies reality,

The

and that

as it

it

is

will

presented today doesn’t correspond to

be possible to present

it

in a simpler way.

introduction of the term “ether” into theories of electricity

has led to the conception of a

described without,

meaning

to

A month

believe,

I

medium whose motion can be being able to ascribe physical

it 35 .

later,

evidently in connection with Fizeau’s famous ex-

periment, Einstein “had a good idea for investigating the a

way in which

body’s relative motion with respect to the luminiferous ether affects

the velocity of the propagation of light in transparent bodies.

I

came up with

a

me .” 36

Einstein, in a

manner of

theory about

it

that seems quite plausible to

even

speaking, had imbibed the ether with his

mother’s milk, and despite his doubts that statements about

ment had any meaning, he intended,

as a

good

its

move-

empiricist, to tackle

it

with the tools of observation.

At about that time he conceived another experiment, analogous

to

the Michelson-Morley experiment though not based on any detailed

knowledge of

Weber, was

Wien

in

it ; 37

but this was not performed because the “boss,”

skeptical.

Aachen

38 .

We

Disappointed, Einstein turned to Wilhelm

do not know

if

he received

a reply,

or what

Movement: "My

Relative

came of

Seven Years

Life for

these efforts generally, but

it is

year at the Polytechnic he was very

167

obvious that during his

much concerned

last

with relative

movement.

much

After his exam, while he was job-hunting, Einstein placed

hope

completion of

in the

no idea what

a

paper on relative movement. 39

paper contained.

this

Nor do we know

We

have

anything about

another experiment which Einstein had thought up: “I have

much

method of

now

thought of

a

movement

of matter against the luminiferous ether,” he informed his

friend

very

simpler

Grossmann, “one that

is

based on ordinary interference experi-

ments. If only inexorable fate would grant necessary for them.” 40 theory: “I

am

busily at

which promises had doubted

investigating the relative

Toward

me

the time and tranquillity

the end of 1901 he was back with

work on an electrodynamics of moving

to be quite a capital piece of work.” 41

his ideas,' but

when he

bodies,

At one time he

discovered that only a “simple cal-

culation error” had slipped in and spoiled everything, he was jubilant: “I

now

them more than

believe in

what he believed

ever.” 42

But we

still

do not know

in.

Ele certainly explained his ideas to Professor Kleiner of the University

of Zurich, and this experienced physicist had liked them:

advised

me

to publish

my ideas

on the electromagnetic theory of light

of moving bodies along with the experimental method,”

summed up

the conversation for Mileva.

“He found

proposed to be the simplest and most expedient. about the success. sure.” 43

I’ll

I

the

is

how

method

he

I’ve

was quite happy

write that paper in the next few weeks for

However, he probably was,

He must have

“He

encountered

again, overoptimistic.

difficulties in

putting his ideas on paper,

because instead of publishing he decided to “get

down

to business

now

and read what Lorentz and Drude have written about the electrodynamics of moving bodies.” 44 Jakob Ehrat,

a

former fellow student and

now an assistant, “will have to get the literature how much Einstein may have read, his reading thing that went into print.

making

Versuch of 1895,

use,

now

me.” 45

No

matter

did not produce any-

A year later, by then at the Patent Office, he

was once more “engaging theory,” 46

for

in

comprehensive studies

probably not for the

available in

German.

first

in

electron

time, of Lorentz’s

The Patent Office

168

Einstein by then had totally lost his

initial belief in

the ether.

Even

as a

student he had considered the possibility that electrodynamics might

become “the theory of the movements of moving netisms in empty space.” 47 Poincare in La Science

electricities

et

Phypothese

&

mag-

—which,

according to Solovine’s account48 “for weeks on end captured and

members of

cinated” the

the

Akademie Olympia

—had

fas-

reduced the

ether to a hypothesis which was “convenient for the explanation of

phenomena” and even predicted

that “one day the ether will undoubt-

may have understood this he was himself much closer

edly be discarded as unnecessary.” 49 Einstein

programmatic

as a

invitation,

but by then

to that opinion than the great mathematician.

This must have been recognized by Josef Sauter cal ether

Annalen

am

when he wanted

own

ideas

on the mechaniin

and once more declared:

“I

50 .

Einstein was not interested at

all

His intensive study of radiation theory had convinced

“that Maxwell’s theory does not describe the microstructure of

radiation and therefore ally

to discuss his

models of Maxwellian theory, which had been published

a heretic.” 51

him

his Patent Office colleague

is

not universally tenable.” 52 This view eventu-

culminated in Einstein’s “heuristic viewpoint” on light quanta,

which no longer had any use

for the ether.

Two

months before

state

of knowledge at the time he developed his relativity theory: he

his death, Einstein replied to a question

said that in 1905 “I only

knew Lorentz’s important

treatise

on

his

of 1895,

but not Lorentz’s later work, nor Poincare’s follow-up work. In that sense

my work

in 1905

was independent.” 53 Most probably Lorentz’s

publication of 1904, which for the

first

time presented the “Lorentz

transformations” in generally valid form, was not available in Bern,

having been published in the Proceedings of the Amsterdam Academy,

which was not widely

distributed.

But he must have known

a lot

more

than only Lorentz’s Versuch of 1895. Einstein’s passionate interest in Annalen

is

unlikely to have dimin-

ished during his time in Bern, especially as he was tributor to

it.

now

a regular

con-

my free

time

Although he once complained that “during

Movement: “My

Relative the library

closed,” 54 he should have

is

with publications. His

169

had no problem keeping up

would have occasionally involved

the city and university libraries, so that, in addition to elec-

visits to

trical

official duties

Seven Years”

Life for

engineering publications, he could have studied physical jour-

nals. 55 If that

him some

was not enough, Professor Gruner would surely have lent

publication for excerpting.

therefore seems virtually impossible that Einstein could have

It

missed the seventy-five-page treatise Principles of the Dynamics of the Electron 56

by the Gottingen privatdozent

Max Abraham. He

had Abraham’s paper, published in 1904, On Radiation Pressure

own

paper.

57 ,

or at least notes on

it,

certainly

the Theory of Radiation

and

when he wrote

available

That same year Einstein would have been

his

able to read in

Annalen Wilhelm Wien’s Differential Equations of the Electrodynamics of

Moving

Bodies, 58

which contained many references

ture, as well as a

subsequent polemic between

to the latest litera-

Wien and Abraham,

in

which Wien not only quoted Lorentz’s work of the same year but actually provided an outline of

On

Annalen

59

The

Emil Cohn likewise published

retician

tions

it.

,

outstanding Strasbourg theohis

phenomenological

the Equations of the Electromagnetic Field for as

Moving

reflec-

Bodies60 in

an alternative to Lorentz’s theory.

The most important

experimental contribution of those years,

Walter Kaufmann’s measurements of the deflection of electrons electric

and magnetic

kalische Zeitschrift, 61

fields,

founded

in

appeared not in Annalen but in Physi-

in 1900,

which was

also available in Bern.

Indeed Einstein must have positively had his nose rubbed in

it

by

Abraham’s and Wien’s theoretical treatment of that question.

The text

is

only aspect of this discussion of immediate interest in

this

con-

the fact that the velocity of light was emerging as a limit for the

movement of the

electron, with

Wien,

for instance, declaring that “by

exceeding the velocity of light an infinite amount of work would be

performed.” 62

More

particularly, the

increment in the mass of the

electron at increasing velocity was seen as an indication of the electro-

magnetic origin of

all

mass, the

more

so as this view fitted well into

endeavors for an “electromagnetic world picture” physics and as an alternative to mechanics.

as the

foundation of

The Patent Office

170

Despite their physical sophistication and mathematical virtuosity, the theories put forward and discussed at the beginning of the century

must have seemed imperfect

to Einstein because of their adherence

to the ether as a referential system at rest. Also,

he had long been

unhappy about the customary view of electrodynamics, of

if

asymmetry. This concerned Michael Faraday’s

its

ment,

only because

classic experi-

simple school experiment watched by millions of students

a

much thought in them. To Einstein, however, it was of crucial importance. This we can read between the lines of the opening paragraph of one of his publications, and we know about it without setting off

from

a

manuscript, completed in 1920, for a special issue of the

English periodical Nature devoted to relativity theory.

When

ready he complained to his translator that “unfortunately so long that fact, a

very

I

much doubt

if it

it

has

it

was

grown

can be published in Nature” 63 In

greatly abridged version 64 was published, leaving out

(among

other things) some personal reminiscences which, fortunately, have

come down

to us with the thirty-one-page original version. 65

After nineteen pages of objective didactic exposition, Einstein

abandoned

his

dry

scientific style

and offered

a surprising insight into

the subjective aspects of his reflections:

In the creation of the special relativity theory the following, not

mentioned, idea about Faraday’s magnetoelectric

previously

induction played a leading role.

During the electric

circuit

induced in the is

moved or

relative

movement of a magnet with

an electric current latter. It

is,

according to Faraday,

makes no difference whether the magnet

the conductor, what matters

only. According to the

regard to an

is

the relative

movement

Maxwell-Lorentz theory, however, the

theoretical interpretation of the

phenomenon

is

very different for

the two situations. If the

magnet

is

moved,

a time-variable field exists in space,

which, according to Maxwell, gives

rise to

closed electric lines of

a physically real electric field; this electric field

force,

i.e.

sets in

motion the movable

electric

then

masses within the conductor.

Relative If,

Movement: "My

however, the magnet

moved, then no

at rest

is

electric field

Life for

is

Seven Years

and the

171

electric circuit

is

created. Instead, the current

is

caused in the conductor through the fact that the electricities

moved with

the conductor are subject, through their (mechani-

cally enforced)

motion

relative to the

magnetic

an elec-

field, to

tromotive force hypothetically introduced by Lorentz.

What

described

Einstein

Faraday in 1831

as

here had been discovered by Michael

one of the milestones on the road to

a

understanding of electricity and magnetism. Quite apart from retical

it

gave

rise to the

development of generators

an electrical current and motors to use electrical

In

electrical

it.

As

a

to

produce

youngster in the family’s

machines from

his uncle Jakob.

As

for the pitfalls of

had probably encountered those

as a stu-

Polytechnic in August Foppl’s 66 book on Maxwell’s theory.

at the

its

theo-

engineering firm, Einstein must have learned something

theoretical interpretation, he

dent

its

importance, Faraday’s demonstration had enormous practical

consequences:

about

uniform

chapter,

fifth

“The Electrodynamics of Moving Conductors,”

Foppl analyzed the arrangement of magnet and conductor in terms of relative

movement

—without, however, noting any profound

conflict

of principle. Einstein’s friend and colleague Besso believed that

it

was he who

had introduced the topic into their conversations, and “thereby having participated in the relativity theory, realizing as an electrical engineer that

what

in the

induced part

as

framework of Maxwellian theory appears

an electromotive force or

as

ing to whether the inductor of an alternator

must be viewed

in the

an electric force, accordis

at rest or in rotation”

“as a peculiar practical anticipation of the relativity

concept.” 67 Einstein, of course, had been aware of that problem since his student days, so that his talks

with Besso merely gave

it

sharper

outline.

Let us

see, then,

what conclusions Einstein drew from the asym-

metric description of Faraday’s experiment:

The to

idea that these

me.

I

were two disparate situations was intolerable

was convinced that the difference between the two was

The Patent Office

172 merely

of the station of the observer.

a difference in the choice

Viewed from the magnet there present, viewed

The

existed.

from the

certainly

electric circuit,

was no such a

electric field field certainly

existence of the electric field, therefore, was a rela-

according to the state of motion of the system of co-

tive one,

ordinates

used,

and only the

electric

and

magnetic

fields

of motion of the observer, or the —regardless of the kind of objective system of coordinates — could be adjudged state

jointly

a

This phenomenon of magnetoelectric induction com-

reality.

me

pelled

From

a

to postulate the [special] relativity theory

footnote to the above account

we may conclude

“The

difficulty to

be overcome was in the constant nature of

the velocity of light in a vacuum, which initially

This

to discard.”

that Einstein

was toying with alternatives to the Lorentz-Maxwell

for a while

theory:

68 .

is

I

thought

I

would have

one of the few indications of endeavors in the

course of which he intended to do without the universally constant velocity of light, inherent in the theory.

The velocity of light was

to be

constant only for an observer stationed next to the light source,

whereas

different value,

the source. ideas

on

moving

observers

all

relative to that source

depending on their own

That was not only

rel.

relative velocity

with regard to

he

later

theory

it

wrote of one such “emission

was

also

mine .” 69

But Einstein returned penitently to Lorentz’s theory,

by the knowledge that the independence of state

of motion of the

theory, even

if it

light’s

before. Later he

Mechanically

him back

light’s velocity

richer

from the

to the

relativity principle in

same contradictory

would sum up that dilemma all inertial

now

source must be a crucial part of any future

openly contradicted the

chanics. This brought

me-

situation as

as follows:

systems are equal. According to experi-

ence, this equality extends also to optics, or electrodynamics.

This equality, however, seemed unattainable in the theory of the latter.

due to

At an early stage a

a

plausible but also in line with Einstein’s

light quanta. In fact,

theory” that “prior to the

would measure

I

gained the conviction that this was

profound imperfection of the theoretical system.

wish to discover and to eliminate

this created in

me

The

a state

of

Movement: "My

Relative

Life for

Seven Years

173

psychological tension which, after seven years of vain searching,

was resolved by the dimension

relativization of the concepts of time

70 .

These “profound imperfections,” however, were not

to be eliminated

by the well-tested methods of “normal science,” even level

of Annalen. In this Nekrolog Einstein described

was aware of those looked for I

and

difficulties

at the exalted

how

intensely he

and in which direction he eventually

a solution:

was more and more

in despair

ering the true laws by

about the possibility of discov-

means of constructive

efforts

based on

known facts. The longer and the more desperately I tried, the more I gained the conviction that only the discovery of a general formal principle could lead us to safe

dynamics

as a

the theorem:

results. I

regarded thermo-

model. There, the general principle was stated in

The

laws of nature are of such a character that

impossible to construct a perpetuum mobile (of the

second type). But

Not

how was

until Einstein

such

a principle to

it is

first

or

be discovered ? 71

had actually discovered the principle did he

understand that his earlier efforts to resolve these painful paradoxes

had been “doomed to acter of time

failure so

long

as the

axiom of the absolute char-

and simultaneity were anchored,

the subconscious .” 72

What was

from the subconscious

it

albeit unrecognized, in

about time that Einstein had to

to the conscious

mind before he could

raise

“rela-

tivize” it?

“WTat is time?” This question was asked long ago by St. Augustine, who was not the first to find himself perplexed by it: “If no one asks me about it I know it, but if I am to explain it to a questioner I do not know it .” 73 Not so the fathers of modern physics. Newton, for one, was less

concerned about any internal experience of time than he was

impressed by the regularity of the planetary system and the logic of mechanics.

he

said,

He

“of

saw an “absolute,

itself,

and from

its

true,

and mathematical time” which,

own

nature flows equably without

regard to any thing external and by another

Newton

name

is

called duration .” 74

himself must have been aware that this explanation was

cir-

The Patent Office

174 cular

—and that

this absolute time,

unchanging and independent of the

material world, evidently could not be measured or read off anywhere.

What was measurable was something different: “relative, apparent, and common time,” which according to Newton “is some sensible and external (whether accurate or unequable measure of duration

means of motion, which an hour,

common

a day, a

is

month,

commonly used

a year.”

by the

instead of true time, such as

This distinction between absolute and

human

time was forced on Newton, not only by fluctuating

perceptions of time and by the inaccuracy of the clocks of his day,

but also by small irregularities in that best of the rotation of the Earth.

was no motion by which But

this did

Newton even thought

common

it

natural timepieces, possible that there

time could be measured accurately.

not affect the existence or unchangeability of true time;

and getting close to true time was equable, progress of absolute time

True

all

time,

though not

a

is

a task

of science: “The true, or

no change.”

liable to

substance like the ether, was regarded as

an objective “something,” present throughout space, but independent of space and of matter, or of their states of motion. If someone in Lon-

moment as “now,” then this “now” would also be valid not only for Hamburg or Beijing, but also for the moon or for Sirius. This is in line not only with human perceptions of time but also don defined

a

and more significantly for physicists

—with

Newtonian mechanics.

Gravity, according to Newton’s law of gravity, propagates instanta-

neously throughout space, so that a stone falling to the ground on

Earth must, “at the same moment,” cause effects surably small ones

—

albeit

immea-

—on the moon. That was why everybody, especially

mathematicians and physicists, had been happy for centuries with

Newtonian uniform

As time”

time. Einstein later caricatured this idea as an “eternally

tic-tac perceptible

a student Einstein

made no

only to ghosts, but to them everywhere .” 75

had already learned from Mach that “absolute

sense. In his Mechanik,

Mach

pointed out that absolute

time could not be measured anywhere and that therefore practical

and also of no

knows anything about

scientific value; it,

it

a

is

no one

to physics. But

it

“was of no

entitled to say that

he

useless ‘metaphysical’ concept .” 76

Mach’s strong language was confined to

no importance

is

it

criticism

must have been

and

initially

was of

to the taste of the

Relative rebellious student,

Movement: "My

who

Life for

Seven Years

probably remembered

175

from the

that, apart

definition of time spans with clocks of whatever kind, there

“time in

was no

itself.”

From

his study of Poincare, Einstein gathered that time should be

regarded merely

as a

convenient convention. In La Science

et

Vhypothese

Poincare not only rejected “absolute time” but widened his critique to other intuitive certainties such as simultaneity at different locations:

“Not only do we have no times, but

direct experience of the equality of

we do not even have one

two

of the simultaneity of two events

occurring in different places.” 77 For details Poincare referred to his essay The Measure of Time

,

published in 1898 in a philosophical

journal 78 not read by physicists.

Given the eagerness with which, according

members of

the

the

would be surprising Poincare concluded of

all

line

Akademie Olympia studied Poincare’s book, if

before

it

could be measured, time would

—not, however,

in an arbitrary

first

manner but

in

with the simplest possible form of the laws of nature: “Simul-

two events or

their sequence,

and the equality of two spaces

way as

to ensure the simplest possible

of time must be defined in such a

formulation of natural laws. In other words, definitions, are

merely the

fruits

power over human minds because

a

it

to enlightened

it.

—

all

these

as well

and gained such

A

good opportunity

for ele-

optimism was provided by Lorentz’s electro-

dynamics through the introduction of (t

these rules,

naive sense of time and Newton’s

theory of gravitation had converged in vating

all

of unconscious optimism.” 79

This unconscious optimism had worked

=

it

they had not also gotten hold of that essay.

that,

have to be defined

taneity of

t'

to Solovine’s account,

vx/c2 ) for referential systems

a

transformed “local time”

moving with

a velocity v relative

to the ether. Lorentz, however, clung to the idea of “true time”

regarded “local time”

A

as

merely

a

and

mathematical device.

physical interpretation of Lorentz’s local time was provided by

Poincare in his outline of a method of synchronizing clocks by light signals

—the same procedure Einstein would subsequently use

element in constructing

his relativity theory.

as a vital

This would suggest that

Poincare came very close to the relativity theory himself, but in fact he never intended any further modifications, believing with Lorentz that

The Patent Office thus regulated “show not the true time, but what could be called

.v/vKS

‘local time.’

” 80

He

thus remained within the conceptual framework of

Lorentz’s theory, and relativity theory was discovered by someone else.

Einstein’s paper of 1905 reveals nothing of the

background to

stroke of genius, and in later years he always referred to table brevity.

The

such reference was in

first

a

it

his

with regret-

major overview

article

written toward the end of 1907 for the Jahrbuch der Radioaktivitat und Elektronik 81 (to be referred to later as his “Jahrbuch article”). “It turned out, surprisingly, that

precisely

enough

to

it

was only necessary7 to define the time concept

overcome the

realization that an auxiliary

by him

called

‘local

.

.

.

needed was the

difficulty. All it

term introduced by H. A. Lorentz and

time’ could be defined as ‘time’ purely and

simply.” 82

His

comments were,

later

he wrote: “Only ficulty

after years

if

anything, even

of probing did

I

more

laconic. In

become aware

1920

that the dif-

was due to the arbitrary nature of the basic kinematic con-

cepts.” 83

And

four years

later:

“By means of a

simultaneity in a shapable form theory.” 84 Further details are genesis of the theory self “in a strangely

came up

I

revision of the concept of

arrived at the special relativity

nowhere

Whenever

to be found.

in conversation, Einstein expressed

impersonal manner.

He

the

him-

hour of birth of

called the

” 85

Thus we know that the hour of birth was that fine May evening when Einstein discussed his “difficult problem” with Besso, and we also know that Einstein found his soluthe relativity theory ‘the step.’

tion

by “an

them

analysis of the time concept.” 86

discussed, and

how

But

just

what the two of

the crucial idea emerged, and

how

immediately afterward, “completely solved” his problem

Einstein,

—

all

that

probably happened during that conversation with Besso?

It is

remains concealed in the darkness of a night in May.

What

likely that the friends

which he presented

had before them one of Poincare’s papers

his

method

for the synchronization of clocks as

being equivalent to Lorentz’s “local time” St.

—either

Louis or his contribution to the Lorentz

quoted by Einstein

a

year

in

his

Festschrift.

later, in a different context, 87

1904 lecture in

The so

it

latter

was

must have

Movement: "My

Relative

Seven Years”

Life for

177

been available to him in Bern. As for Poincare’s lecture The State and Future of Mathematical Physics Einstein could have found that either in ,

a

widely read journal 88 or in

hot off the press, of a collection of

a copy,

essays called The Value of Science

.

89 It

also

seems

versation Einstein and Besso discovered

synchronization procedure that

may

con-

likely that in their

some

aspects of Poincare’s

have escaped Poincare himself.

How would it be — the two friends, by then skeptical about “true time,” might have asked not just

a

—

if

the time defined by Poincare’s experiment was

mathematical device for Lorentz’s “local time” but in

fact

everything that a physicist could expect of a meaningful concept?

Admittedly

this

would give

a different

“time” for every inertial system,

but the constancy of the velocity of light for any observer would in that case be inherent in Poincare’s definition of simultaneity and not, as with Lorentz, have to be forcibly

brought about by

would

a laborious

adjustment to theory.

The

fruitfulness of this exceedingly daring idea

struck Einstein at

home, when he

cept,

as

—introduced an independent hypothesis — from

by Lorentz into

this

his

modified time con-

without any further assumptions, and in thus obtaining

formation of the local coordinates. As

later

succeeded in deriving the

easily

“Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction”

theory

might have

a trans-

a skilled electrodynamicist

he

would then have examined the behavior of the Maxwell-Lorentz equations

under these transformations.

When

it

emerged

his nocturnal calculations that these equations that,

moreover, the “Lorentz force,” introduced

in the course of

were invariant and as

an independent

hypothesis into electron theory, also resulted readily from the trans-

formation behavior, virtually everything was accomplished. Relativity principle and universal constancy of the velocity of light, Maxwellian

theory and Lorentz transformations: everything came together in the most wonderful way, and the following lantly

informed

his friend

morning Einstein

jubi-

Besso that he had “completely solved” the

problem.

This discovery was undoubtedly Einstein’s most intense experience.

The

happy time

five

weeks he needed to prepare

for him. In fact, he

colleague Sauter he merely said:

it

for publication

was speechless with happiness.

“My joy is

indescribable .” 90

were

To

a

his

CHAPTER TEN

The Theory

of Relativity:

“A Modification of the

Space and Time”

of

It

obvious from the

is

Theory

style

and structure of Einstein’s paper On

Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies that

author expected

its

it

only in Annalen der Physik, but also in the annals of history.

with great care, and but also

its

its

Part” which in turn

of these parts

is

a

his friend

mere

novelty

five

is

introduction

followed by the “Kinematic

is

succeeded by the “Electrodynamic Part.” Each

further subdivided into five sections. Einstein had

tain ... to interest

on

its

written

definitive character.

The programmatic

promised

to live not

It is

axiomatic structure reflects not only

the

Conrad Habicht: “the purely kinematic part

you”

1 ;

and in

two sections of that

fact the first

printed pages, contain

all

is

the essentials of the

cept of time and space. In the next three sections of the

cerpart,

new con-

first

part the

consequences affecting the kinematic space-time structure are purely deductively derived. In the second part

trodynamics are presented in their

new

some

central problems of elec-

garb, as a practical application

of what has just been set out.

The

structure of the paper, giving preference to kinematics over

dynamics, indicates that

ongoing debate, but

it

will

be not just

a revision that

a

new

contribution to an

should transform the conceptual

foundations of physics.

“Kinematics”

is

the theory of the purely geometrical

movements of

bodies without any consideration of forces; once forces are included, physicists speak of “dynamics.” Einstein’s

then

all

would

at

concentrating on dynamics;

most undergo

it

famous contemporaries were

was expected that kinematics

certain modifications through the theoretical

178

The Theory of Relativity

development of dynamics. The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies

But

content

its

is

not:

taneously obtains a

As stein

— On

the

entirely in line with that tradition.

is

by presenting

a

new

new dynamics, and

again begins with

Maxwell’s electrodynamics

moving

kinematics, Einstein simul-

thus a

a

contradiction:

—

as usually

new

physics.

is

“It

well

is

understood

at

known

present

In this

first

—when to

sentence Einstein suggests not

anything wrong with the theory, but only that

wrongly interpreted. Nevertheless,

that

seem

bodies, leads to asymmetries that do not

phenomena .” 2

attach to the that there

of Einstein’s paper

title

paper on his “heuristic viewpoint” of light quanta, Ein-

in the

applied to

—

179

this will

make

all

it

is

the difference,

because in an appropriate interpretation, he implies, the symmetry of the

phenomena would

be reflected in the theory. This

also have to

profound change in fundamental concepts.

call for a

Actually,

no one

else

had regarded these asymmetries

worth discussing, so that the opening sentence

known

as a

—beginning

problem

“It is well

—urgently needs an explanation. Einstein provides

.” .

will

.

this

by

using the example of Faraday’s induction experiment, one of the main

themes of

his years

of “pondering.” Although the magnitude and

depend

direction of the induced current

ment of conductor and magnet, present,”

makes

magnet and conductor.

solely

on the

a strict distinction

fact that Einstein

does not of course belong in

move-

the theory, “as usually understood at

between the situation of moving

stationary conductor versus stationary

The

relative

found

this

magnet and moving

asymmetry

“intolerable

”3

a scientific publication.

Einstein next establishes a surprising link between this “intolerable”

asymmetry and

a totally different

a class

problem:

Examples of a similar kind, confirm

a

of experiments which seem to represent

as well as the unsuccessful

motion of the Earth

attempts to

relative to the “light

medium,”

lead to the assumption that not only in mechanics, but also in

electrodynamics, there are no properties of the

phenomena

that

are in accordance with the concept of absolute rest.

At

first

glance, there

is

no connection between the

theoretical descrip-

tion of the induction experiment (involving conductor and magnet)

The Patent Office

180

and the experiments on ether

drift.

To

have recognized

both are connected with the problem of

how

closely

movement was

relative

a

stroke of genius. It brought together the difficulties of interpreting

Maxwellian theory and led straight to the

relativity principle as a sign-

post on the road to resolving them.

A tries

system involving absolute rest results in “intolerable” asymmeand, moreover,

is

not observable by ether-drift experiments or

any other methods. Such

a metaphysical

monster makes no physical

sense and should therefore be banished from physical theory. For that reason, Einstein continues: ... in

all

coordinate systems in which the mechanical equations

are valid, also the as has already

same electrodynamic and

optical laws are valid,

been shown for quantities of the

made

This proposal

is

Galileo’s ship,

moving uniformly and

a

kind of update,

are unable to determine

first

possible

4 .

by Poincare, of

whose occupants

rectilinearly,

whether they are

order

or in motion, no

at rest

matter what mechanical or electrodynamic-optical experiments they

may perform. Immediately afterward, Einstein compresses the entire range of his thinking

—from the mental experiment of

his schooldays in

—into

the complexities of the Maxwell-Lorentz theorytence,

which already contains

We

Aarau to

a single sen-

a hint of the solution:

(whose content

shall raise this conjecture

will

principle of relativity”) to the status of a postulate

be called “the

and

shall intro-

duce, in addition, the postulate, only seemingly incompatible

with the former one, that in empty space light gated with a definite velocity

of motion of the emitting body

The state)

which

c

is

observer

—for instance,

one

always propa-

independent of the

state

5 .

“principle of relativity” implies (though that the velocity of light

is

is

it

does not explicitly

constant not only for a single

sitting at the light source

—but

for

any

observer.

These two

postulates are mutually incompatible in

mechanics. Einstein’s main

task, therefore, will

Newtonian

be to prove that

this

The Theory incompatibility

is

of Relativity

181

only apparent. At the same time Einstein announces

firmly and bluntly that the “luminiferous ether” will “prove superfluous.”

Thus

the concept that governed throughout the nineteenth

century will be discarded.

Toward

the end of his introduction Einstein

points out that his theory will base itself

on the kinematics of

rigid

bodies, “since assertions of each and any theory concern the relations

between

rigid bodies (coordinate systems), clocks,

He

processes .” 6

and electromagnetic

thereby indicates that the “new thinking” will repre-

sent a reinterpretation of space and time in concretizing the measure-

ment of spatial and time

new

prerequisite of

No

all

distances

—

in fact, a theory of

measuring

as a

physics.

one had considered anything so elementary to be necessary or

even to make sense. Despite the complexities of Lorentz’s theory, the procedures for measuring space and time were so

much

a

matter of

course in physicists’ prescientific, unconscious “old thinking” that even Poincare, though he

made

profound critique in several directions,

a

did not achieve a decisive revision.

Before turning to Einstein’s

new

ideas of space

and time,

useful to examine the methodological status of his tions: the “principle

it

may be

two presupposi-

of relativity” and the universal constancy of the

velocity of light.

Both principles not

a direct

are,

of course, related to experience, but they are

consequence of experience.

though inherent

in mechanics,

is

The

“principle of relativity,”

not inherent in electrodynamics

based on the ether. Only with major efforts had “rescue”

it

as a generalization

For Einstein

to elevate

on philosophical

it

up

it

been possible

to magnitudes of first order in

to a general postulate, based at least as

on experience, was therefore

reflection as

to

v/c.

much

a signifi-

cant step beyond empirical knowledge. Einstein’s procedure, based

more

on postulated

clearly with his second presupposition.

of light

is

independent of the

state of

principles,

The

emerges even

fact that the velocity

motion of

its

source

is

purely

empirical and might equally well have turned out otherwise. In his

Jahrbuch

article,

this question:

two and

a half

whether or not

years later, Einstein would return to

this

presupposition

“is in fact really ful-

The Patent Office

182 filled in

nature

anything but

is

a

matter of course, though

it is

rendered

of coordinate system of — for motion — by the confirmations which Lorentz’s theory, based upon the

probable

at

least

assumption of an ether

definite

a

a

state

from experi-

at absolute rest, has received

ment.” 7 Direct experimental evidence of Einstein’s postulate was unobtainable at the beginning of the century. 8

Thus

his presupposition

does not follow inevitably from experience but can be justified only by success.

According to Einstein’s announcement, such success consists

in the fact that “these

two postulates

suffice for arriving at a simple

consistent electrodynamics of moving bodies rest.” 9 In his

theory for bodies at

two

on the

and

basis of Maxwell’s

principles, therefore, Einstein

reached that firm ground which, on the model of thermodynamics, “could lead to reliable results.” 10

Einstein’s decisive step

more

was the

accurately, his careful examination of what

intervals

means

His

in physics.

and time,

“relativization” of space

definitions,

or,

measurement of time

set

down

tion with these principles, jointly provide the foundation

in conjunc-

from which

everything comprised by the “special relativity theory” can then be derived.

The formulation in which the theory was born is actually known today. Subsequent presentations, some by Einstein placed the emphases well as the

the

somewhat

more demanding

“new thinking”

still

differently, 11

as it

is

himself,

and most textbooks,

popularizations, have followed

suit. 12

emerges more clearly than anywhere

Einstein’s paper of 1905, especially in the

“kinematic part.”

scarcely

A fairly full

first

as

But

else in

few sections of the

account of that “prelude”

is

as

tempting

indispensable, although the contents of the later sections can be

sketched out only in their essentials.

The

first

sound

section

trivial, as

Einstein had to cisely.

To

that

is

headed “Definition of Simultaneity.” This may

we all know

believe

we know what

precisely7

simultaneity means. But

and to formulate

end he proceeds from

a

“system

his definition pre-

at rest,” the

customary

three-dimensional Euclidian space with Cartesian coordinates, in

which the movement of

a

body

is

described by

its

coordinates as a

The Theory of Relativity function of time. This

why

asked themselves

so conventional that

is

physical meaning, ‘time.’

” 13

we

many

readers must have

was even mentioned. Einstein, however, con-

it

by stating that “for such

tinues

183

have to

first

Here we have

a

mathematical description to have

a

clarify

what

is

to be understood

a

by

suggestion that this has not been the case in

the past, and, evidently using Poincare’s critique of the customary

understanding of time, Einstein makes involving time

tions

events.”

To

always propositions

are

all

our proposi-

about simultaneous

ensure that no one will miss the importance of this asser-

tion, Einstein illustrates

with what

it

sentence ever printed in Annalen arrives here at 7 o’clock,’ that

small

hand of

neous

events.’

This

clear “that

it

my

:

“If,

is

perhaps the most unassuming

for example, I say that ‘the train

means more or

less, ‘the

pointing of the

clock to 7 and the arrival of the train are simulta-

” 14

sufficiently defines a “time,”

though

Anyone who has ever

tion of the clock.

initially

reflected

only for the loca-

on time, whether

a

physicist or not, will readily extend this plausible understanding of

“time” to the whole universe, in the sense that the position of the

hands of the Bern station clock shows the “true” time not only for

Geneva or Zurich, but even be correct

if

also for the

moon and

for Sirius.

This could

signals propagated instantaneously or, in other

words, at infinite velocity. Einstein,

moving

however,

concerned with the electrodynamics of

is

bodies, and that

is

—which

velocity of light

why

it

makes sense

finite.

That

is

why

in the

enormously high, but

is

it is

Einstein insists that his definition of simultaneity

valid only for the location of the clock. “It as series

overwhelming role

plays such an

Maxwell-Lorentz theory. This velocity

to introduce here the

becomes

insufficient as

is

soon

of events occurring at different locations have to be linked

temporally, or

—what amounts to the same—events occurring

at places

remote from the clock have to be evaluated temporally.” 15 This would require a definition of the assignment of times to spatially separated locations, to be effected

by

specific clocks

and

real physical processes.

Einstein accomplishes this assignment by proposing a synchronization procedure tical

which

is

exactly the

same

as Poincare’s.

clocks at spatially separated locations

A

Let two iden-

and B indicate “A time”

The Patent Office

184

and “B time.”

The

time

common to A and B

thing that exists and can has

now

by the

“B time”

2b,

B

and

are synchronous

“A time” 2a

at

arrives

back

at

tA

“A time” of a clock

at location

may be

is

reflected

is

equal to the

at rest” for

t' B

~

t

a

spatial location

(t 'a

+

B can be

tf)

which these observations were

—that the velocity of

a universal constant. Einstein thus obtained a

fered fundamentally

set to the

17

stated “in accordance with experience”

with Maxwell-Lorentz theory

A at

from B toward

A in accordance with l

it

B

A at “A time” 2'a. The two clocks

=

ts— h For the “system

,

any

this definition all clocks in

made,

A to

if16

by definition

tB~

With

physicist. It

needs to travel from B to A. For, suppose a ray of light

it

A toward

leaves

some-

be determined by establishing by definition that the

“time” needed for the light to travel from “time”

not, for Einstein,

discovered, but something that

to be appropriately established

first

can

somehow be

is

—

initially

in line

i.e.,

light in a

vacuum

time concept which

is

dif-

from that of Newtonian theory, where any “A

time,” just like any “B time,” was valid throughout the universe. This

new

definition of time

theory, with

its

ether at

would have been useful even

for Lorentz’s

ultimately equivalent to Lorentz’s local

rest, as

time. Poincare had noticed that but

had

failed to

draw the implied

conclusions. Einstein,

on the other hand, would draw important conclusions

from these seemingly pedantic

reflections

—

in the next section,

he considers rigid bodies, clocks, and observer in motion

where

relative to

each other.

At the beginning of the second

section,

sions and Times,” Einstein once

precisely as possible.

“Suppose let it

a

have

rod a

the Relativity of

more formulates

measured with

/.”

Now

a

Dimen-

two principles

his

Then, abruptly and without any

at rest;

length

“On

lead-in,

he

measuring rod likewise

suppose the rod

is

put into

as

says:

at rest;

a state

of

The Theory of Relativity

motion with

moving

the

constant velocity

a

rod, describes

how

v.

185

Einstein, asking about the length of

can be determined by two funda-

this

mentally different operations.

To

be sure, Einstein

throughout

referring,

is

using almost “prerelativist” terminology by

this section, to a

rod, either at rest or in motion,

system “at rest” in which the

—

the background of Lorentzian theory

lets

through,

reader can lose the thread. For that reason

formulation

this

motionless ether

a

which even an

also leads to complications in

it

While

observed.

is

I shall

—shine

attentive

use two referential

systems: this will deviate from Einstein’s text but will not change his

argument. In

fact, in his

next section Einstein himself goes over to this

clearer presentation.

Consider, then, two referential systems k and K, both furnished

with measuring rods and synchronized clocks,

and congruent.

The

initially at relative rest

length of the rod arranged parallel to the

of course, the same in both systems:

/.

v.

v relative to K, with the rod at rest in k but

The

length of the rod in k can

now

is,

Let the rod and system k

be accelerated until they move along the x-axis ity

.r-axis

at a

constant veloc-

moving

in

K at velocity

be “thought to be obtained by

two operations.” 18 First let an observer determine the length of the rod at rest in

k.

must be the same

as

“According to the the length

/

relativity principle” this length

of the rod at rest in K.

Any

deviation

would annul the

equivalence of the two systems and thereby violate the relativity principle. ciple

While no one

at this

—would expect anything

point

— even without the

different, the

relativity prin-

second operation immedi-

ately brings a surprise.

An

observer in system K, relative to which the rod

velocity

ends

A

v,

now

and B of the rod are

one obtains “also ” 19

This

is

principles,

This

is

a

is

at a definite

at

and

moment.

length which one might

will

it

call ‘the

moving rod

now determine

will find

If the distance

measured with the measuring rods from K,

the length tab of the

announces that he

two

moving

determines by means of the synchronized clocks where

between these two points

rod.’

is

in striking contrast to the

in system K. Einstein

this length

to be different

length of the

from

“on the

basis of

our

/.” 20

commonsense

idea

—which had

The Patent Office

186

been the well-tested

basis of physics for several centuries

length of the rod should be entirely independent of whe ther

—that the it is

at rest

or in motion relative to the observer. In his Jahrbuch article Einstein will use the at rest

term “geometric shape” for the length which an observer

next to the rod determines by the application of measuring rods;

moving rod

the length of the

is its

“kinematic shape.” “It

that an observer at rest relative to an inertial system

only the kinematic shape, related to K, of

but not

To

its

K can

body moving

a

obvious

determine

relative to K,

geometrical shape.” 21

determine the kinematic properties of the rod

moving

is

in K,

imagine clocks

A

ends

fitted to

at rest in k

but

and B of the rod, these

clocks being synchronized with those in system

K and

hence showing

the

same time

his

thought experiment, “that each clock has an observer co-moving

with

it,

as the clocks in K.

“Suppose

also,” Einstein continues

and that these observers apply to the two clocks the criterion

for synchronization formulated in §1.” 22

emitted from A; this tA- All times,

is

reflected at

B

At time

time

at

tA a

ray of light

and returns to

ts

is

A at time

Einstein points out in a footnote, are those of system K.

Allowing for the constant velocity of light in

K

,

the time differences

on

the forward and return travel are:

~ tA ) = tab + v ( tB - tA ~ tB) = tab — v it ~ tB) and hence c it t'A — tA — TAB / (c + v) + TAB / (c - v) c ( tB '

If the clocks

were synchronous

along with the rod clocks at in

k.

A and

'

B

—the equation

in k t'A

—that

~

for observers

2 tab/c

are therefore synchronous in

Einstein thereby demonstrates “that

meaning

—

tA

is,

when observed from some

apply.

The

K but not for observers

we must not

to the concept of simultaneity, instead

simultaneous

would

moving

ascribe absolute

two events that are

particular coordinate system

when observed from a system.” There are as many

can no longer be considered simultaneous system that

is

moving

relative to that

“times” as there are inertial systems:

i.e.,

an infinite number. This

the burden of Einstein’s critical reflections

on time and

also the

is

proof

of the relative nature of simultaneity. In the heading of his second section Einstein also mentions the

The Theory relativity

187

of Relativity

of dimensions, and in the text he actually proposes to deter-

mine the length

vab “and find that

discovery the reader waits in vain.

paragraph or two intended to unthinkable

let

may have been

The

lost at the

failed to

/.”

But for

this

text strongly suggests that a

proof stage. But

the reader perform that exercise

—he certainly

from

different

it is

make

if

Einstein

—which would not be

that clear.

The gap

remains

unexplained, even though after what has been said in the demonstration of the relativity of time, the relativity of dimensions

entirely

is

plausible.

In conclusion,

it

can be stated that in his

used no more “mathematics” than

The

I

first

have used in

recognition that every inertial system has

two sections Einstein this account.

its

own

time and that

kinematic dimensions in different inertial systems differ from each other cannot, of course,, benefit physics until the relationship between those times and dimensions has been discovered. This stein addresses in his third section,

Transformations.”

He

the task Ein-

is

“Theory of Coordinate and Time

presents a purely kinematic deduction, not

drawing on any other physical assumptions or theories, but based solely

on the two

principles and

on the

definition of time. This reduc-

tion of assumptions underlines Einstein’s endeavor to establish his

transformations as the structure of space and time

—and

hence

as

affecting physics as a whole, not merely as a feature of a special theory

such

as

Lorentz’s electrodynamics.

K with a thus K moves

Consider, therefore, two coordinate systems k and

common

x-axis.

Let k move

relative to

K at velocity v;

relative to k at velocity —v. In “traditional kinematics,” in line with

Galileo’s and

Newton’s ideas of space and time, the Galileo

mations would be the simple relations x nates with a prime sign

representing K. If in

K

(')

— x —

and

t'

=

t,

coordi-

representing k and coordinates without

the velocity of light has the value

according to the Galileo transformations, in k

This would be

vt

transfor-

in conflict with Einstein’s

then,

c,

has the value

c

—

v.

second principle of the uni-

—therefore,

versally constant velocity of light

it

it

other transformations

must be the correct ones. Einstein thus proceeds from the postulate that clocks synchronized

The Patent Office

188

by

light signals

cally

and

at rest in

system

K record

time

whereas identi-

t,

synchronized clocks at rest in system k record time

has therefore to be found between

and

t'

t'

A relation

and between x and

t

x.

rather lengthy derivation of the transformations (this takes

After a

up four

pages and incidentally, like the whole of the “Kinematic Part,”

man-

ages with quite elementary mathematics), Einstein obtains

x—vt

X

V

—v 2 /c2

1

and

,

These

are the relations

t—v/c2 x

_

V

—v2 /c

1

2

which Lorentz had presented

a

year earlier and

which Poincare had meanwhile named “Lorentz transformations.” 23

However, Einstein was acquainted neither with Lorentz’s paper of 1904 nor with Poincare’s of June 1905. “In that sense,” he was therefore able to claim, it

“my 1905 paper was independent.” 24 Above

was independent in

its

all else,

fundamentally different justification and

interpretation of these transformation equations.

some

Einstein must have begun with

idea of

what he wanted

to

deduce. At an opaque point in his deduction he introduces, without

any warning or explanation,

a slight

purpose becomes obvious only

if

mathematical operation whose

the desired result

is

already known. 25

This underhand device, by means of which he rather forcibly “computes his way” to the Lorentz transformations, deprives the deduction

of some of its elegance and stringency.

Thus

it is

Einstein actually arrived at his formulas in the his paper. In fact, in later years

scarcely credible that

way he

he never again used

presents

them

in

this rather

awk-

was conclusive, Einstein was

able,

ward method.

Whether or not without any

this derivation

difficulties

or tricks, to demonstrate that his equations

were the correct ones and, a constant velocity

of

particularly, that they

light.

When

were compatible with

the Lorentz transformations are

applied for time and space coordinates, an electromagnetic spherical

wave propagating from the origin of the coordinate system

in

K

is

The Theory of Relativity again a spherical wave in system k a velocity v

—propagating

—which

in

is

189

motion

in k at the velocity of light. 26

K at

relative to

He

has thereby

resolved the seeming contradiction and demonstrated “that our two

fundamental principles are compatible.” In his Jahrbuch article Einstein would proceed in the opposite direction and derive the Lorentz transformations from the postulate that a spherical

spherical

wave

wave

one

in

inertial

system invariably results in

any other

in transition to

procedure that would prevail and, within

inertial system. a

This

is

a

the

few years, would enter the

textbooks as a “classical” method.

The

transformation equation for time

t—vx/c2

V highlights

Einstein’s

1

—v 2 /c2

clearly than the equation for the spatial coordinates. Because

time with the spatial coordinates,

it is

“dimension.” Three years

“Henceforward space on

bast:

into

later, Einstein’s

Hermann Minkowski was

mere shadows, and only

serve

its

a

own and

as the fourth

former mathematics pro-

to introduce

its

it

with rather more bom-

time on

its

own

will decline

kind of union between the two will pre-

independence.” 27 Minkowski’s presentation not only

elegant but would soon also prove very useful

formulation has long been his ebullient rhetoric

common

and especially

—with the

in textbooks.

On

his reference to

is

theory

is

exceedingly complicated in

an intellectual construct

enlightenment so,

With

is

the other hand,

time

as die “fourth

required to understand

it.

rela-

mathematics, and that

so abstruse that

may take solace from the ideas much more simply.

and we

lated his

is

it

its

very

result that his

dimension” have encouraged the erroneous popular belief that tivity

links

it

the physical basis of the four-

dimensional presentation of relativity theory, with time

fessor

more

departure from Newtonian kinematics

some

special,

Needless to

fact that Einstein

the Lorentz transformations as equipment,

as

higher

say, this

is

not

himself formu-

it is

now

easy for

Einstein, in the fourth section of his paper, to deduce a few conse-

The Patent Office

190

quences “concerning moving rigid bodies and moving clocks.” For an observer “at rest,”

a

measuring rod moving

Vl-U/c

ened by the factor

2

at velocity v

in the direction of the

appears short-

movement. This

already applied in Lorentzian theory, except that there

dynamic

was

it

a

produced by interaction with the ether, so that the

effect

“Lorentz contraction” was an asymmetrical phenomenon, valid only for a

measuring rod moving

however,

it

is

relative to the ether. In Einstein’s theory,

clear “that the

same

results apply for bodies at rest

uniformly moving sys-

in a system ‘at rest,’ ”

when viewed from

tem. 28 This

for Einstein to highlight the difference be-

tween

is

enough

and Lorentz’s

his theory

—

a

a difference that

could hardly be

more fundamental.

To Einstein this a

purely kinematic

contraction has nothing to do with any forces;

consequence of the

effect, a

Moreover, the contraction

move

relative to

is

symmetrical:

if

of

finite velocity

two observers

A

each other, then the measuring rods at rest for

shortened to observer A, and the measuring rods at rest for shortened to observer B.

To

and B

B seem

A

seem

“real” or “apparent”

is

misses the point: the only thing that can be measured is

light.

that extent the question, often asked

uncomprehendingly, whether the contraction

shape, and that

it is

is

the kinematic

shortened for any measuring rod in motion relative

to an observer.

Up-to-date physicists, already familiar with the Lorentz contraction, “merely” had to get used to Einstein’s purely kinematic symmetrical interpretation; but even Einstein himself described the results

obtained for moving clocks as “peculiar.”

To

he

begin with, he found, by

simple reflection and even simpler calculation on the basis of the trans-

formation formula for time, that time measured in that time lag

Such

a

there, only

is (1

a

a

moving clock

system assumed

as

being “at

is

slow compared with

rest.”

The amount

of

— V 1 — v 2 /c 2 ).

“time dilatation” was totally alien to Lorentzian theory:

one time existed

was understood purely stein’s result,

— “true” time— and transformation of time

as a

mathematical device. That was

why

Ein-

along with his proof of the relativity of simultaneity, was

The Theory

bound

of Relativity

191

to shock, or at least surprise, his contemporaries.

To make

that

surprise complete, Einstein escalates the consequences.

Imagine

system with time defined by synchronized clocks

a

If a clock at a point

with

this

A is moved

movement

at a velocity v relative to

taking time

t,

then

no longer be synchronous with the clock

the

amount

— V 1 —v 2 /c 2 )t. As any number

produced by joining straight

which points

A

lines, all

some point

this clock after its arrival at

will

(1

at rest.

B

but will be slow by

at B,

of polygonal lines can be

way

the

B,

to a closed figure in

and B would therefore coincide, the same considera-

tions that apply to the transportation of a clock along a single straight line also

apply to transporting

it

along such

mating polygons to evenly curved

a

polygon.

By

approxi-

Einstein arrived at the

lines,

remarkable statement: “If there are two synchronous clocks in A, and

one of them until

on

it

its

is

moved along

closed curve with a constant velocity

has returned to A, which takes, say, arrival at

A

Earth’s equator

tv 2 c 2 sec.” 29

by

As

“A balance-wheel

experimental point:

tical

a

must be very

a

t

sec,

good

then

this clock will lag

physicist,

clock that

slightly slower than

is

he adds an

located at the

an absolutely iden-

clock ... at one of the Earth’s poles.” 30

Simple and convincing

as

time dilatation was for rectilinear uniform

motion, once Einstein’s definition of time and his view of the Lorentz transformations were accepted, this was not necessarily the case for closed paths.

With

a

closed path, the two clocks were evidently not

equal, because acceleration along a closed path violates the

otherwise present in relativity theory. This

symmetry

difficulty, as well as

Ein-

led to widespread controversy, not only

stein’s paradoxical

result,

among people who

refused to accept Einstein’s theory but also

among

the “relativists” themselves.

In this regard, the “twin paradox”

paradox

is

became very popular. The twin

based on the fact that biological processes, despite their

insufficient “regularity,” can be accepted as clocks in the physical

sense.

This idea was

first

mooted by Einstein

in a lecture to the

forschende Gesellschaft in Zurich on January attracted only slight attention.

Much more

16,

Natur-

1911, 31 though

it

sensational was a striking

The Patent Office

192

elaboration of Einstein’s deduction by the French physicist Paul

Langevin April 191 as

at a philosophical 1.

32

congress in Bologna a few months

Langevin discussed

whom

who was

In the audience was the famous Henri Bergson,

impressed by Einstein’s ideas a

as

later, in

he was challenged to oppose them.

thought experiment: a pair of twins, one of

remains on Earth while the other, in a Jules Verne cannonball,

goes off on a journey through the universe. At a velocity sufficiently

approaching that of aged by died

a

mere two

light, the traveling

twin might return to Earth

years, while his brother

would have long since

—two hundred years having elapsed on Earth.

The

twin paradox, running counter to our everyday concept of

time, was as difficult to grasp then as

it is

now. Small wonder that

opposition to relativity theory focused primarily on the relativization

of time

and on

its

counterintuitive

consequences

—the

more

so

because no direct experimental evidence of time dilatation was then attainable.

Half

a

century would pass before time dilatation was

observed as an isolated

elementary particles of

effect convincingly

demon-

by accurate “atomic clocks” carried by passenger

aircraft

cosmic radiation. strated

Not

effect, first in certain

was the

until 1971

around the world. 33 But by then

relativity

theory had long been

a pillar

of physics, so that no one expected anything but a confirmation that Einstein had been right in 1905.

In the

fifth

and

final section

of the “Kinematic Part” Einstein derives

the “theorem of Addition of Velocities.”

In Galilean-Newtonian

mechanics the combination of two equidirectional velocities v and

would amount tivity

to a simple arithmetical addition u

—

v

+

theory this operation must have a different form,

w.

But in

w

rela-

if

only because

of the special role played by the velocity of light. After

some simple

and transparent arguments Einstein arrives

at the

somewhat more

complicated expression

v+w 1

In a kind of consistency

+vw/c2

test, this

formula

starting concepts of the entire theory: the

now

confirms one of the

overwhelming importance

The Theory

of Relativity

193

of the velocity of light, which had been used to synchronize the clocks.

While

still

working on

his physical interpretation of the

Lorentz trans-

formations, Einstein had referred to the velocity of light as a limit that

could not be exceeded

34 .

Now

he demonstrates

and w, which are smaller than

velocities v

never be greater than

u

is

not changed

velocity. In that case, invariably,

—=

c+w

= 1

ties,

two

the relativistic “sum” u can

c,

xMoreover, the velocity of light

c.

by combination with another

Finally, Einstein

explicitly that for

c

+CIV/C1

expands the addition procedure for three veloci-

and thereby for any number of

velocities.

He

tion with an outline of a proof that, thanks to his

concludes the sec-

theorem of addition,

the transformations for spatial and time coordinates exhibit the mathematical structure of a group

Thus, on the

first

—

must .” 35

“as they indeed

sixteen pages of his treatise, Einstein derives the

essential elements of “a kinematics that corresponds to ciples ,” 36 tivity.

our two prin-

and with them the complete foundation of the theory of rela-

The

paper consists of applications showing the

rest of the

efficacy, elegance,

and profundity of the new

relativistic

viewpoint.

In the second part of his paper, the “Electrodynamic Part,” Einstein first

a

examines the transformation behavior of Maxwell’s equations for

vacuum.

To

do so he uses

of writing the formulas clear thinking

37 ;

but then

a frightful,

still

customary, way

behind the awkward notation, however,

and simple calculations. The essence of

this exercise

lie is

not only the Lorentz invariance of the equations for the electromagnetic field, but also a demonstration that a force acting

arrived at effortlessly if the field relative to the charge.

From

is

transformed into

this follows a

“Lorentz force,” postulated by Lorentz

a

on

a

charge

system

is

at rest

ready explanation of the

as

an independent axiom

added to the Maxwellian equations.

Reducing the number of axioms of

a

theory has always been con-

sidered an intellectual triumph, and Einstein savored his triumph,

though

in the restrained

developed ,” 38

as

he

now

language of calls his

a

physics paper. In the “theory

achievement,

this force

merely plays

The Patent Office

194

“the role of an auxiliary concept

cumstance that the

electric

whose introduction

is

due to the

and magnetic forces do not have an

cir-

exis-

tence independent of the state of motion of the coordinate system.” In the same breath,

duced by the

it

follows “that,

relative

motion of

a

when

considering the currents pro-

magnet and

a

conductor, the asym-

metry, mentioned in the Introduction, disappears.” For the same

reason the fiercely debated questions about the “location” of the elec-

tromotive force in unipolar machines are declared to be “irrelevant.” In the next section Einstein applies the same methods to two prob-

lems from optics: the Doppler effect and the aberration of

He

starlight.

devotes a whole section to the “Transformation of the Energy of

Light Rays”; in sure exerted

it

he simultaneously develops

on the

magnetic radiation

reflecting surface.” is

theory of “light pres-

Here the treatment of electro-

entirely “classical,” just as if his paper

quanta, completed three

months

first

new garb

example of the strength of relativity

brilliant

For

classical physics in the

light pressure acting

on

light

appearance of his rela-

theory with the “very revolutionary” light quanta. Even

triumph of

on

had never been written.

earlier,

Probably he did not wish to encumber the tivity

a

so, it is a

of relativity theory, and a as a

computational

a mirror, Einstein obtains

tool.

an expres-

sion “in agreement with experience and with other theories .” 39

The

other theories, which he neither identifies nor quotes, must have been those of Loren tz and,

Abraham. Annalen

40 ,

A

more

especially, the

year previously,

mathematical virtuoso

Abraham had unfolded

printed pages.

To

arrive at the

same

result, Einstein

the problem in

more than

using established methods and requiring

Max forty

needed not quite

three pages.

As with most of

his results

on electrodynamics, Einstein did not

claim to have discovered anything new; what was

new was

his relativist

method, whose efficiency he emphasized: “This reduces every problem in the optics of

moving bodies

bodies at rest .” 41 far

And with

this

more comprehensibly and

to a series of

problems

in the optics of

method, the problems could be treated

elegantly than had been possible so

far.

In the ninth and penultimate section Einstein sketches out the Lorentz invariance of the Alaxwellian equations with regard to

moving

charges,

The Theory

of Relativity

195

the foundation of the so-called electronic theory. This seemed

i.e.,

appropriate not only for completeness but also because the “important

proposition can be deduced” that electric charges do not change under

Lorentz transformations: their amount and sign have the same value in

any coordinate system.

This

is

an important result not only in

preliminary for the

final section,

field,

mechanics. Here Einstein makes

clumsy

Max

follow. First of

all,

velocity in such a limit:

Planck, 43 but

right,

but also as

a

it

a

thus extending relativity to slip,

which was soon

to be

does not affect the arguments which

mass and kinetic energy are found to depend on

way

that the speed of light once again

“As in our previous

sibility

own

which deals with the dynamics of the

electron 42 in the electromagnetic

corrected by

its

results,

emerges

as a

superluminal velocities have no pos-

of existence.” 44

In conclusion Einstein electron

.

.

.

lists

three “properties of the motion of the

that are accessible to experiment”: a relationship between

velocity and the ratio of electrical to magnetic deflection; a relation-

ship between velocity and voltage traversed in an electrostatic

and the radius of curvature in

a

magnetic

The

field.

field;

formulas he

arrived at are declared to be “a complete expression of the laws by

which the electron must move according

to the theory presented

here.” 45 Experiments with fast electrons had been conducted for a

number of years, and results.

Einstein must have

known

at least

In his paper, however, he ignores them.

The

some of

the

reason was

simple: they contradicted the “theory presented here.”

At the very end, there concluded his citing

treatise

—

a

is

a novelty:

an acknowledgment. Einstein

paper without bibliographical references,

no names other than those of Maxwell, Hertz, and Lorentz, and

these only as labels for theories and formulations that

“my

work on

many By

friend and colleague

M. Besso

—with the remark

steadfastly stood

the problem here discussed and ...

I

am

by

me

in

my

indebted to him for

a valuable suggestion.”

the time the foundation of relativity theory was presented to the

world of physics, in the September 28, 1905, issue of Annalen, the editors

had already received

a

supplement from Einstein. Under the

The Patent Office

196

rather unusual interrogative

title Is the

Inertia of a Body Dependent on Its

Energy Content Einstein presented what was subsequently considered his

most famous and most spectacular conclusion

He

mass and energy.

—the equivalence of

answered the question posed in the

most of his colleagues would have regarded

which

title,

as rather abstruse,

with an

enthusiastic yes. Einstein’s initial ideas

about

this

velocity-dependence of mass in the

Perhaps they did

weeks

later,

could have arisen from the

of his great

final section

treatise.

A few

but he preferred to keep silent just then.

arise,

perhaps during his reading of the proofs, the idea was fully

developed. “I have thought of yet another consequence of the electro-

dynamic paper,” he reported to

The

relativity principle in

his friend

Conrad Habicht:

connection with the basic Maxwellian

equations demands that the mass should be a direct measure of the energy contained in a body; light transfers mass.

With radium

The

there should be a noticeable diminution of mass.

amusing and enticing; but whether the Almighty and

is

leading

This was the Almighty. cally, as

me up

first

The

the garden path

but not the

reference to

last

—that

I

laughing at

is it

cannot know. 46

time that Einstein brought in the

God, meant

less

piously than metaphori-

the creator of the world more geometrico

,

whose construction

plans needed to be discovered, pleased Einstein and in

is

idea

would

later

appear

many variations.

To return

to the relation

between mass and energy,

this

was then

subject of research in the Bern Patent Office and elsewhere.

a

The

velocity-dependence of the electron’s mass, experimentally confirmed at

least

seemed

qualitatively

and integrated into the prevailing theories,

to support the idea.

Moreover, the champions of an “electro-

magnetic world picture” tried to interpret mass energy of the electron and hence

“innate

magnetic

field.

In 1904, the Vienna

a prize to Friedrich

shown

as

electromagnetic

an effect of the electro-

Academy of Sciences had awarded

Hasenohrl for research in that

that radiation enclosed in a

as

vacuum has

area.

Hasenohrl had

to be credited with an

apparent mass, proportional to the energy of the enclosed radiation.

It

The Theory is

of Relativity

would have missed HasenorhPs

scarcely credible that Einstein

winning paper, which was published not refer to

197

Annalen

in

47 ,

prize-

but he certainly did

it.

Einstein addressed the problem quite differently, and his result

much more his

elegant and of incomparably greater universal validity. In

supplement he considers any body emitting radiation conditions

site

second in

a

is

—

first in

a

system in which the body

system in which the body

is

moving

at

in

is

two oppo-

at rest,

and

constant velocity.

Referring to the formula he had derived in his treatise on the transfor-

mational characteristics of radiation energy, Einstein succeeds, in than two pages, in deducing the following theorem: “If the energy

E

form of

in the

radiation,

its

a

releases

mass decreases by E/r2 .” 48

Einstein follows this with the rather cryptic remark that is

body

less

it

“obviously

here inessential that the energy withdrawn from the body happens to

turn into radiation” in order to proceed to “the

“The mass of

sion”:

energy changes by E/c2

a

E

body

a

is

measure of

its

more

general conclu-

energy content;

if

the

then the mass changes in the same sense by

,

” 49 .

He also has an idea about the experimental implications of the formula E = me2 “Perhaps it will prove possible to test this theory using :

bodies whose energy content

is

variable to a high degree

(e.g., salts

of

radium).” Einstein, however, did not concern himself with the practicality

of such

a test for

the decay of radium. This was taken up by a

colleague the following year, with the result that the effect “for the

time being probably

To

lies

beyond the realm of possible experience.” 50

Einstein the relation between inertial mass and energy was

clearly of great importance.

His

first

follow-up paper on relativity

theory, completed in

May

of this subject. In

the “theorem of the constancy of the mass” was

understood “as year, in

May

it

1906, was devoted to the theoretical aspects

a special case

of the energy principle.” 51 After another

1907, he endeavored to test “the necessity and justifica-

tion of these assumptions [made in 1905] in a

Eventually, in the

fall

more general way.” 52

of 1907, in his extensive Jahrbuch

article,

Einstein returned in detail to the “dependence of mass on energy,” 53 calling his formula a “result of exceptional theoretical importance” and

The Patent Office

198 also

thoroughly discussing

approached

it,

its

experimental side. But whichever

way he

the requisite accuracy of measurements was “of course

impossible.”

was understandable

It

that,

given the state of knowledge at the

on

time, Einstein had focused his attention

The atomic

nucleus

made

its first

radioactive disintegration.

appearance in physics in 1911, and

the binding energy of nuclei was soon interpreted as a “mass defect.”

But

it

took

first

mass spectrometer, and next as the test

improvement of the

the invention and subsequent

—

in 1932

—the discovery of the neutron

second building block of the atomic nucleus, before

a reliable

of Einstein’s formula through nuclear binding energy became pos-

sible.

Within

a

few years,

it

was confirmed with

multitude of nuclear reactions, and by 1937

fantastic accuracy it

was regarded

by

as

a

an

empirically confirmed “fundamental law of physics.” 54

When

on August

6,

1945, Einstein learned of the destruction of the

Japanese city of Hiroshima by an atom bomb, he

reminded of what, nearly four decades Jahrbuch

well have been

he had written in

article:

However, in

earlier,

may

which

original

it is

possible that radioactive processes will be detected

a significantly

atom

will

higher percentage of the mass of the

be converted into the energy of

radiations than in the case of radium. 55

a variety

of

his

CHAPTER ELEVEN Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes

It

widely believed

is

temporaries

is

a

that remaining unrecognized

hallmark of genius, not only in the

As Alax Planck once observed: “A new

ence.

a rule prevail

because

its

arts

by one’s conbut also in

scientific truth

sci-

does not

as

opponents declare themselves persuaded or

convinced, but because the opponents gradually die out and the

younger generation

is

made

familiar with the truth

was the experience of Adax Planck,

this

from the with

a scientist

it

be true of a youthful outsider

at the

However, Einstein had no reason complain

—of any lack of response

of his annus

Of course,

mirabilis.

to or

to

a straight-

how much more

forward career within the academic establishment,

must

start.” 1 If

Patent Office in Bern?

complain

— and

never did

acknowledgment of the papers

his publications did

not exactly have

the effect of bombshells: physicists are too reserved, conservative, and skeptical for that.

But the

ered. this

genius

And

scientific

who had

siasm and others

them

of course there was opposition, some of it blink-

community on

the whole accepted the ideas of

suddenly emerged, some physicists with enthu-

more

hesitantly.

Still

others resolutely rejected

—but no one ignored them.

Einstein’s “very revolutionary” light quanta had already attracted

much

notice and discussion.

Thus

the winner of the 1905

the experimental physicist Philipp Lenard,

Nobel

Prize,

whose measurements of the

photoelectric effect had been a basis of Einstein’s “heuristic viewpoint” paper, honored the in the

unknown man

at the

Patent Office with an offprint

autumn of 1905. Einstein thanked Lenard, assuring him

199

(as

we

The Patent Office

200 saw

Chapter

earlier, in

8) that

he had studied the

article

“with the same

2 sense of admiration as your previous work.”

A tant

letter to Einstein

Max von Laue

first letter;

and

it

on the quantum problem from Planck’s

dated June

2,

assis-

1906, suggests that this was not the

seems probable that Planck had also written to Ein-

stein,

with the result that soon after the publication of his paper Ein-

stein

was in correspondence about light quanta with the most famous

experimenter and the most respected theoretician in the Germanspeaking world. As tion but

we have

seen, this earned

him sympathetic

by no means acceptance. With regard to

light

atten-

quanta,

Einstein actually stood alone for nearly two decades. His statistical interpretation of the

gained

him

Brownian movement, on the other hand, soon

the recognition of his colleagues.

What,

then,

was the

response of leading physicists to the theory of relativity?

The

cliche of the

misunderstood innovator was perpetuated by Maja

Einstein in her sketch, written two decades after the event, of her brother’s state of tivity:

mind following

“The young

scientist

the publication of his paper

had believed that

on

rela-

his publication in the

respected and widely-read journal would be noticed immediately.

But he was

The

.

.

.

bitterly disappointed. Icy silence followed the publication.

next issues of the journal did not mention his paper in a single

word.” 3 But in

fact,

the situation was quite different.

Certainly Einstein was a temperamental, impatient as a regular

young man. But

contributor to Annalen he would have realized that, given ,

the usual lapse of two

comment on

months from submission on September

his paper, published

appear before Christmas, even

if

to publication,

28, 1905, could hardly

some colleagues

did find something

to say within four weeks. Actually, only

two months

end of November, Walter Kaufmann,

in

ments with electron beams, 4

first

any

later,

toward the

an account of his experi-

mentioned Einstein’s treatise—

though not in Annalen but in the Sitzungsberichte Proceedings of the ( ) Prussian

might

Academy of

easily

Sciences in Berlin, a publication that Einstein

have missed.

We

may

also

assume that Einstein was

not immediately informed that several leading physicists were con-

Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes

201

cerning themselves intensively with his concept immediately after

its

publication.

May 1906 Einstein was able to some complacency: “My papers are meeting with

In any case, by the beginning of report, not without

much acknowledgement and Prof. Planck (Berlin) wrote

are giving rise to further investigations.

me

about

it

recently.” 5

seven months after publication. Seven years Planck, Einstein recorded his gratitude: “It

mined and

manner

cordial

in

is

That was

a

mere

in a tribute to

later,

largely due to the deter-

which he supported

this

theory that

it

among my colleagues in the field.” 6 do not know when Planck first wrote to Einstein, or what he

attracted notice so quickly

We

wrote. Einstein evidently believed that he had better things to do than

keep

letters, 7

even

if

they were from the top

men in the

field.

And most

of Einstein’s letters to Planck perished along with Planck’s house

bombs

in

doubt that Planck’s role

as

under

sive

a hail

of

World War

II.

Nevertheless, there

an advocate of relativity theory was of deci-

importance.

As the coeditor of Annalen responsible

a

key

for theory, Planck held a

position in the information network of physics.

with

no

is

He discharged his tasks

very open mind. Only rarely were submitted papers rejected;

with “established” authors

— among whom,

after five articles

and

his

refereeing for Beibldtter (the supplement to Annalen), Einstein could by

—

then count himself nonsense. 8

happened only

Thus Planck had

“heuristic” paper

own

this

concepts.

on

The

unhesitatingly

on

even though

accepted

ran counter to his

relativity received

toward the end of

June, however, was highly unusual, even in appearance: prose,

more

Einstein’s

it

light quanta, treatise

in exceptional cases of patent

many pages

suitable to a philosophical journal, including

some

of

sen-

tences of almost offensive triviality alongside ideas of staggering audacity; and finally an elegant, albeit rather opaque, exposition of

electrodynamic problems without any theory.

No

new

beyond Lorentzian

results

one could have blamed the editor

if

he had had second

thoughts.

Max

Planck’s greatness as a physicist, however,

is

reflected also in

The Patent Office

202

the fact that this paper did not in the least strain his tolerance, but instead “immediately aroused

pened

in

the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies

quium on

their doctoral theses

it

—of whom we

“There was

it.

was clear that

of 1905, the

first

Much

1 .

the

same hap-

Wilhelm Wien entered the room of the students

paper, Professor

Johann Laub

von

after the publication of Einstein’s

Wurzburg: immediately

working on

fall

When Max

was one by Planck on Einstein’s newly published

lecture he heard

On

lively attention.” 9

to Berlin as Planck’s assistant in the

Laue came

paper

my

one morning and instructed Jakob hear

shall

more

a lively discussion,”

—to

give a collo-

recalls,

“from which

later

Laub

was not too easy to get inside the new concepts of

it

time and space.” 11

Despite these

difficulties, interest in

the relativity theory spread,

but steadily and persistently.

not exactly

like

Rontgen

September 1906 honored Einstein with

offprint,

in

wildfire,

presumably because he was preparing

ment equations of

The

great

a request for

an

on the move-

a lecture

the electron. Paul Drude, the editor of Annalen

mentioned Einstein’s paper authoritative

book on

Handbuch der

Physik. In 1907

in

1906, both in a

optics and in an article

mathematics professor

at the

new

edition of his

on the same subject

Hermann Minkowski,

,

in

Einstein’s former

Polytechnic but since 1902 a professor at

Gottingen, requested an offprint because he and David Hilbert were

planning will

a

seminar on the electrodynamics of moving bodies. This,

as

be seen, was to have consequences for the mathematical formula-

tion of the theory. Einstein’s ideas also

under Planck

Breslau,

Max

formed

a circle

lively interest

among

the younger

When

Fritz Reiche, having obtained his doc-

in Berlin,

brought news of the new theory to

generation of physicists. torate

met with

Born, Rudolf Ladenburg, and Stanislas Loria there of enthusiastic young

relativists.

When Ladenburg had

asked for an offprint, Einstein was “highly delighted over your interest in that

paper and immediately sent off three copies, “one for yourself

and two for the other two gentlemen.” 12 In Munich, Arnold Sommerfeld, one of the few theoretical physics,

studied Einstein,

had likewise done

who

impresses

me

his

greatly,”

full

professors of

now

homework:

“I

he wrote to

Wien toward

have

Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes

A

the end of 1906.

203

year later his reflections had given

rise to

some

curious conclusions, which he unashamedly communicated to Lorentz:

But now we are

longing for you to

all

complex of Einstein’s this

treatises.

Works

comment on

whole

that

of genius though they are,

unconstruable and unvisualizable dogmatism seems to

contain something almost unhealthy.

me

to

An Englishman would

scarcely have produced this theory; perhaps

it

reflects, similarly as

with Cohn, the abstract-conceptual character of the Semite.

hope you

succeed in imbuing this inspired conceptual

will

skeleton with real physical

No

answer from Lorentz

good

a physicist to

I

is

life. 13

known, but Sommerfeld was much too

indulge in this attack of “sound

common

sense” for

long. In fact he seems to have written to Einstein directly a few days

and sent him some

later

offprints, naturally

without the anti-Semitic

remarks, as in January 1908 the two were keeping up a correspondence

which

in cordiality left

Perhaps

when

nothing to be desired.

this incident

had some repercussions many years

Einstein wrote about Sommerfeld “that this person, for

knows what subconscious reason, did not ring

Had Lorentz shown him Sommerfeld’s The most

Max

was

assistant geil,

Planck.

He

not only

Max von Laue

but was the

first

cept and developing

and

relativity

commended

it

it

him about

it?

theory after 1905

to the attention of his

his predoctoral student

to publish a paper linking

God

entirely true to me.” 14

letter or told

important figure in establishing

later,

Kurd von Mosen-

up with Einstein’s con-

further.

In this paper Planck proved that the “principle of least action,”

foundation of physics, remains correct in Einstein’s concept;

ensured the connection of the

relativity

tions of theoretical physics. 15

With

tial

this

a

this

theory with advanced formula-

proof Planck made

a substan-

contribution to the shaping of the theory, and his personal

engagement

greatly

enhanced

its

respectability.

Respectability was something Einstein’s theory needed, for two reasons. First,

it

did not initially differ

from Lorentzian theory

in

its

electrodynamic consequences, so that several years of explanatory

The Patent Office

204

work were needed before even well-disposed central difference

between the two views. Second, Einstein’s conclu-

movement of an

sions concerning the

mental findings

physicists could grasp the

electron ran counter to experi-

at the time.

Although Einstein,

probably every physicist, subscribed to the

like

principle that experience

some

theory, he had

the supreme judge of the usefulness of a

is

With regard

reservations.

to the relationship

between experiment and theory, he remarked in “Obvious subtle.” 16

him

as this postulate

He may have

in the

treatise

may

his Nekrolog that

at first appear, its application is

been reminded of the

very

conflict that confronted

development of relativity theory. In the

final section

of his

he had firmly declared that three formulas he had derived rep-

resented “a complete expression of the laws by which the electron

must move according

when he wrote

because

statement,

moving according

to the theory presented here.” 17

as

an assistant in Berlin, later

sacred

Newtonian

theoreticians

picture” line

fast electrons in electric

it

was

a

as a

first

privatdozent in Gottingen, and

its

velocity.

This was

a striking refutation

principle, conservation of mass;

and for many

cogent argument for an “electromagnetic world

—the more so

as

Kaufmann’s measurements were entirely

with the world picture of his Gottingen colleague

who

and mag-

Bonn. In 1902 he demonstrated that the mass

of an electron increases with a

bold

apparently

had been performed since 1897 by Walter Kaufmann,

finally as a professor in

of

electrons were

a

to entirely different laws.

Experiments on the behavior of netic fields

it,

That was

in

Max Abraham,

interpreted mass as a consequence of inherent electromagnetic

energy.

In 1904 Lorentz published his magnificent completion of his electronic theory,

which

in terms of physics differed

from Abraham’s. And

before the end of the year a third theory was put forward by Alfred

Heinrich Bucherer, representing rentz

s

ferent

and Abraham’s concepts. As laws

for

the

own

all

movement of

fascinating task of deciding

of his

kind of mediation between Lo-

a

three authors had obtained difelectrons,

between the

experiments. While he was

Kaufmann had

rival theories still

the

on the strength

engaged in delicate mea-

Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes surements

ward

at the

very limits of what was observable, Einstein put for-

his theory of relativity

which were In

205

with formulas for the tracks of electrons,

identical with those in Lorentz’s theory.

November 1905 Kaufmann

published his tensely awaited results

in a preliminary report in the Sitzungsberichte of the Prussian (this is

the paper in which Einstein’s relativity theory

up

tioned) and followed this

Annalen. l%

in

However Kaufmann

ham’s theory

January 1906 with

Kaufmann concluded

men-

first

report in

a full

interpreted his results, they

best, Bucherer’s a little less well,

stein’s theories worst.

is

Academy

fit

Abra-

and Lorentz’s and Ein-

measurements

that his

were “not compatible with the fundamental assumptions of Lorentz and Einstein.” 19

He concluded that the endeavors

to base

all

physics

on

the relativity principle had failed, and he called for further experiments to prove the existence of an ether absolutely at rest. If experiment truly the

portray

supreme judge,

it,

as empiricist

were

philosophers of science like to

both Lorentz’s and Einstein’s theories would have met

sudden end

—

at least for the

time being.

And

a

when Lorentz

in fact,

learned about Kaufmann’s experiments, he found himself compelled to give

up

his theory: “I

am

at

my

wits’ end,” 20

he wrote to Poincare,

crushed. In September 1906 the problem was

general meeting of the Stuttgart.

What

movement of

German

on the agenda of the annual

Society of Scientists and Physicians in

mattered was not

just the correct

electrons, but a decision

formulas for the

between “world

pictures”: the

“electromagnetic” picture on the one hand, and on the other a picture

based on the relativity principle. lecture analyzed

Kaufmann’s

wrong, but neither was

it

Max

data;

beyond

Planck, cautious as ever, in his

he did not find their interpretation all

doubt, and he suggested that “in

the theoretical interpretation of the magnitudes measured there

some .

.

.

substantial gap that will first have to be filled before the results

can be used for

mann

is still

a definitive decision.” 21

In the discussion, Kauf-

fundamental error in the

insisted that “unless there

is

a

observations, the Lorentzian theory

is

liquidated” 22

needless to say, Einstein’s. Planck once

more advised waiting and con-

still

— and

with

it,

tinuing research “until the experiments eventually supply the decision.” In view of

Kaufmann’s experiments

this

was

all

he could do: the

The Patent Office

206

fact that the relativity principle

tive” 23

was not

How

a sufficient

did Einstein react to this controversy?

initiative, at least

he was writing aktivitiit

him

to

his opinion;

not publicly. In the

comprehensive

his

“really

more

attrac-

argument.

was presumably never asked for

own

seemed

The Expert

nor did he offer

fall

,

Class

on

it

of 1907, however,

article for the

und Elektronik he had to declare

III

his

when

Jahrbuch der Radio-

his position,

and

this

he did

with deep-rooted self-assurance.

To

begin with, Einstein with great fairness described Kaufmann’s

experimental setup, emphasized the “admirable care” of the measure-

ments, and compared the graph obtained by Kauffnann with the conclusions of relativity theory. 24

Never having had

a

high opinion of

exaggerated accuracy, Einstein would have been inclined “to regard the agreement as sufficient”

the deviations had not been outside the

if

range of error and, moreover, systematic. situation in

ment of

much

a verdict

atic deviations are

the same

way

as Planck,

He commented

by pleading

on

this

for a postpone-

and for further experiments: “Whether the systemdue to some not yet identified source of error or to

the fact that the foundations of the relativity theory are not in line with the facts, will only be determined with certainty

experimental material

What

when

a

more copious

available.”

is

he really thought emerges between the lines of his subse-

quent assessment of the

rival theories.

He

frankly admits that “Abra-

ham’s and Bucherer’s theories of electron movement present graphs

which are considerably closer to the graph observed than

is

the graph

derived from the relativity theory.” But while the famous Lorentz was “at his wits’ end,” the

man

at the

simply ignored Abraham’s results relating to

it

theory and

—refused to be

that their theories are correct their basic assumptions

Patent Office

is

rattled:

—who

in

1905 had

Kaufmann’s experimental “However, the probability

rather small, in

my

opinion, because

concerning the dimensions of the moving elec-

tron are not suggested by theoretical systems that encompass larger

complexes of phenomena.” 25 Einstein therefore does not even attempt to offer proof (which

would scarcely be possible anyway) that Abraham’s and Bucherer’s theories are wrong.

He

simply does not consider them “probable” by

Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes metatheoretical criteria, because isolated

and

some of

207

their basic assumptions are

arbitrary. Basic assumptions,

he believes, must not be

invented ad hoc for specific cases but must cover wider areas

Only then does one encounter

physics as a whole.

ideally,

that “marvelous

complex of phenomena.” 26 In

feeling of realizing the uniformity of a

Einstein’s scientific credo this cannot be expected of ad tions; it

—

hoc assump-

can be expected only of principles.

Less than

a

year passed before Bucherer, in

a greatly

improved ver-

own

theory but the

sion of Kaufmann’s experiments, confirmed not his

formulas of Lorentz and Einstein. Bucherer wrote to Bern “that by careful experiments

I

have proved beyond any doubt the validity of the

relativity principle.” 27 Einstein

He

“friendly letter.” 28

thanked him by return of post in

unlikely to have been head over heels with

is

joy,

but he probably took satisfaction in having

was

right.

These measurements of electron a decision

tracks,

known

all

along that he

however, could not lead to

between Einstein’s and Lorentz’s

same laws of motion

a

theories,

which had the

for fast electrons. Further experiments

were

therefore needed to examine effects predicted by Einstein’s theory but

not by Lorentz’s.

One

such

possibility, as Einstein

had suggested in

“E = me2 supplement,” concerned the transformation of mass

his

into

energy in radioactive processes. Another possibility was the measure-

ment of time

dilatation, postulated

1907 Einstein published

a

only by relativity theory. In

proposal along those

course, that the differences between

moving

lines. It

March

was obvious, of

clocks could not be

mea-

sured by anything from a pocket watch to a precision chronometer.

But atoms emitting spectral

very accurate clocks and can,

lines are

moreover, be accelerated to very high

proposed experiments with then

known

as “canal rays,”

velocities. Einstein therefore

electrically

charged accelerated atoms,

whose frequencies of

oscillation should,

according to his theory, change. 29

Although canal ray experiments were then being conducted, especially

by Johannes

Stark, their accuracy

time dilatation. Einstein did not declared in 1911,

“is to

let go:

was not

sufficient to prove

“The main thing now,” he

conduct the most accurate experiments pos-

sible to test the fundamentals.

There

is

nothing

much

to be gained

The Patent Office

208

from

a lot

Not until

of pondering at the moment.” 30 But he had to be patient.

the early 1930s was the conversion of mass into energy con-

firmed in the study of nuclear reactions, and time dilatation was not directly

on the

proved until 1938. Until then any physicist choosing have opted

basis of experiment alone could

theory as for Einstein’s.

If,

as well for

a

theory

Lorentz’s

nevertheless, the theory of relativity gained

support so quickly, this was due not to conclusive experiments but to

most

the fact that

character and

its

responded to

physicists

axiomatic, fundamental

its

beauty.

There probably

is

no other theory

in

special theory of relativity,

had to wait

experimental evidence in

favor.

its

And

modern a

physics that, like the

quarter-century for direct

there

is

no other theory whose

eventual experimental confirmation was received with greater indiffer-

ence

—simply because no one had expected anything

Later in his

else.

life,

Einstein clearly formulated the difference between

on

principles” and “constructive theories.” Construc-

“theories based

“endeavor, from a relatively simple fundamental for-

tive theories

malism, to construe a picture of a more complex phenomena,” 31

as,

for

instance, the macroscopic properties of matter can be constructively

explained by assuming molecular movements. Theories of principle,

on the other hand,

are based

on “empirically found general properties

of natural processes, on principles from which mathematically formulated criteria follow,

representations,

which individual processes, or

must observe,” 32

as

is

and, of course, with relativity theory.

their theoretical

the case with thermodynamics

Each type has

its

advantages:

constructive theories are characterized by “completeness, adaptability,

and

clarity”; theories

of principle have “logical perfection and secure

foundations.” Indeed Einstein regarded constructive theories as “the

more important cations.

But

it is

ciple, in line

“sniffing out

At

this

point

category,” 33 presumably because of their

On

appli-

obvious that his great love was for theories of prin-

with his intention, dating back to his student days, of

what might lead

it

to the root of things.” 34

should be mentioned that Einstein, though he was the

creator of relativity theory, was not the creator of

paper

many

the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies

,

its

name. In

his

with which everything

— Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes

209

began (and almost reached completion) he referred only tivity principle,” It

and he kept to

was Planck who,

at the

this

to the “rela-

formulation for the next few years.

meeting in Stuttgart discussed above,

first

spoke of Relativtheorie, ls “relative theory.” With Bucherer and others, this

soon became

ments with other

Relativitdtstheorie

physicists

was progressively, and

and

his

reluctantly,

though in headlines and in the

,

“relativity theory.” In his argu-

comments on drawn into

text of his

their work, Einstein

this

own

new

terminology,

publications he con-

tinued to speak of the “relativity principle.” In 1911 he eventually gave in

and used what had meanwhile become the

first

time in

a title

—Die

tancing himself from

it

Relativitdts-Theorie 36

common

term for the

—though not without

by quotation marks. In

this

dis-

form, within quota-

tion marks, he continued his ultimately futile resistance for a few

more

years. 37

Einstein’s uneasiness with this terminology

principle in

mind

is

not

on how

any theory, something that

in line with his

own

understanding of

the methodological status of the relativity principle 38

duced

it

may provide

to find the correct theory, but certainly not the

would have been

itself. It

justified, since a

A principle is something that has to be borne

in the formulation of

a useful hint

theory

a theory.

was

if

he had intro-

in the title of his great treatise as a “heuristic principle”

except that he had already used that term in his paper on light quanta three

months

When,

earlier.

after

World War I,

Einstein’s

name and

were catapulted into the public limelight, that the theory soon relative,”

and that

litical institutions,

appeared

as

became shortened

this

theory

was probably unavoidable

to the formula “Everything

is

formula was then applied also to morals, po-

and so on.

some

it

his relativity

To

obscurantist minds, relativity theory

particularly reprehensible Jewish contribution to

social decay.

Needless to “everything

is

say,

even in physics

relative.” Indeed,

it is

Max

arrant nonsense to claim that

Planck was instantly fascinated

by Einstein’s paper because, on the contrary,

it

revealed ways of

“finding the absolute, the universally valid, the invariant” 39 in natural

laws

—such

as the universally constant velocity

of light. In Minkowski’s

“four-dimensional” representation of 1908, the invariance of natural

The Patent Office

210

laws was developed with regard to the group of Lorentz transformations,

seemed

relativity postulate”

and “the term

40 feeble ... for the postulate of an invariance.”

Minkowski “very

to

When,

in the early

1920s, nonsensical controversies broke out over relativity theory, physicists believed that they could pull

renaming that this

name would

the generally accepted therefore retained

Whether

by

describe the method, not the physical content, of

it is

its

if

the

new name was

possibly

if after

such a long time

name were now changed.” 41

Relativity theory

“would only give

it

fire

“invariance theory.” Einstein agreed only to the extent

it

the theory. But he pointed out that even better,

out of the line of

it

some

rise to

confusion

name.

a “principle” or a “theory,” relativity

is

widely believed

to represent a scientific revolution, perhaps even the scientific revolution.

Those who

very good ness.

believe this

may be

perfectly correct, and

— except that they cannot

company

As with

a great

many

call

moreover

on Einstein

other things, he had his

own

in

as a wit-

views also on

revolutions in science.

Certainly Einstein referred to revolutions, though only sparingly

and only for very significant events, such

acting at a distance to the fields of Maxwellian theory. 42

shrunk from describing

though not evidently

in print

meant

letter.

A

“revolution” in science

break with tradition and

a

Nor had he

quanta as “very revolutionary,” 43

but in a private

him

to

his light

from forces

as the transition

a radical

new

ning, such as the field concept in the nineteenth century and

begin-

quantum

physics in the twentieth.

On the other hand, that heading. In the his light

he did not see

same

letter to

relativity

Conrad Habicht

in

which he

called

quanta “very revolutionary” he characterized what would later

be called

relativity

making use of modification

theory as “an electrodynamics of moving bodies,

a modification

is

certainly

of the theory of space and time”

no revolution. In

used the term “revolutionary” or any of with his theory of

used

theory as coming under

relativity,

and

at

—and

later years, Einstein

its

synonyms

a

never

in connection

times he would laugh

when

others

it.

This was certainly not due to modesty,

a virtue

toward which Ein-

Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes

211

had no inclination anyway. Like Isaac Newton, he might have

stein

said: “If I

giants.” 44

have seen farther,

For Einstein there was development of the sciences only

in the

pulling-down. lier

by standing upon the shoulders of

it is

.

.

a building-up,

if

another.

It

would be

something

The

one

like

tyrannical

theory of relativity

is

ruler

nothing but

sad

a

me-

the relativity theory had to overthrow the earlier

chanics,

a

Unless one generation can build on what ear-

.

ones have achieved there can be no science.

thing

never

overthrowing

a further step in

the centuries-old evolution of our science, one which preserves the connections discovered in the past, deepening

them and

adding new ones. 45

When

he paid

away by instructing There has been

a

sensation-hungry public:

a false

opinion widely spread

public that the theory of relativity cally

United States he began right

his first visit to the

is

tions.

The

Newton,

contrary

is

that

it is

true.

.

dations of physics on which

.

.

the general

to be taken as differing radi-

from the previous developments

Galileo and

among

in physics

from the time of

violently opposed to their deduc-

The

I

four

men who

laid the

foun-

have been able to construct

my

theory are Galileo, Newton, Maxwell and Lorentz. 46

Against this historical background Einstein saw relativity theory as

“simply

development of the electrodynamics of Maxwell

a systematic

and Lorentz. 47 And in

his

Nobel Prize speech he described

it

as

“an

adaptation of the foundations of physics to Maxwell-Lorentzian elec-

trodynamics.” 48 There are numerous quotations along those

from The

his later years,

New

was made

York Times

minutes there

is

:

But what did

Max von visit

the

the

first

man

gets the impression that every five

somewhat

a revolution in science,

at the

like a coup

Tetat in

republics.” 49

his colleagues think?

Laue’s impression

one,

in connection with a series of articles in

“The reader

some of the smaller unstable

lines:

“This

when he was

revolutionary” was

German physicist to summer of 1907. “During

the

Patent Office during the

is a

first

two hours of our conversation he overthrew the

entire

The Patent Office

212

mechanics and electrodynamics, doing so on

statistical

grounds.” 50 In

deconstruction of the classical foundations, Einstein’s radiation

this

theory probably held center stage, and this Einstein himself regarded as

“very revolutionary.”

Soon, however, his relativity theory, too, was viewed tion.

The

conservative

Max

Planck, of

all

as a revolu-

people, set the tone in the

spring of 1908, even though he replaced the politically objectionable

German

“revolution” with a

equivalent ( Kuhnheit boldness) ,

when he

referred to Einstein’s definition of time:

In boldness

it

exceeds anything so far achieved in speculative

natural science, in philosophical cognition theory; non-Euclidian

geometry

To

is

child’s play

by comparison. 51

Planck, “the revolution in the physical world picture” brought

about by the

relativity principle

was “in extent and depth comparable

only to that caused by the introduction of the Copernican world system.”

Sometime

later, Einstein’s

old teacher and mentor, Professor

Kleiner of Zurich, evidently reflected the majority view of physicists

when,

as a

matter of course, he remarked that the relativity principle

was being “described

as revolutionary” 52

justification as Einstein’s

In

fact, relativity

1905 and, of 1915

—

is

if

a

this

view had

much

as

own.

theory

we may

—and

—both the

the general theory of relativity

anticipate,

deepening rather than

special theory of relativity of

a revolution,

and Einstein

a per-

is

fecter of “classical” physics rather than a revolutionary. Nevertheless,

the reshaping of the fundamental concepts of time and space, for centuries regarded as a priori concepts, certainly

was

a revolution,

one of

the greatest in the history of science, even according to Einstein’s

although he preferred to see

criteria,

As rapidly

as relativity

it

merely

theory became

own

as a modification.

known among

physicists

and

mathematicians and was accepted by most of them, two of the greatest figures,

men who had

analysis

contributed a good deal to the establishment and

of the relativity principle, remained aloof

—Poincare

and

Lorentz.

As

for Poincare,

one cannot even say that he rejected Einstein’s

Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes theory, because he quite simply ignored

Poincare, stein’s

who was

work

in

familiar with

Annalen

It is

scarcely credible that

German, should not have read Ein-

some time or

at

it.

213

other.

Did some of it, such

as

the synchronization of clocks by light signals or the Lorentz transfor-

mations, seem to

him too

familiar?

Was he looking for tributes in foot-

notes, and

was he put off by their absence? Did he think he had himself

presented

all

that

was necessary about the

papers of 1905 and 1906, in a elegant mathematical form?

relativity principle in his

more complete and incomparably more

Or was he not

greatly interested in

its

fur-

ther development, since he was not a physicist but a mathematician,

indeed the most famous mathematician in the world? Poincare preserved such total silence on these matters that

know nothing is

The one thing that is certain mentioning Einstein’s name whenever he had to

of his attitude or motives.

that he avoided

His

refer to relativity theory in later years.

later articles suggest that

he ignored not only Einstein’s name but also Einstein’s clung to his

more

as a

ject rather

own concept

he

of 1905, regarding the relativity principle

than as an axiom of physics generally; that he viewed the as

an independent hypothesis and not

quence derived from anything a

system

in Brussels in 1911. a success:

else

—with behind

as a

it all still

conse-

the ether,

at absolute rest.

Einstein and Poincare

not

ideas; 53 that

conclusion from electrodynamics and confined to this sub-

Lorentz contraction

and hence

we

The

met only once,

at the first

Solvay Congress

meeting, as Einstein reported to a friend, was

“Poincare was simply negative (toward the relativity

theory) and with the situation.” 54

all

showed

his perceptiveness

There was no occasion

little

understanding for

for a second meeting: Poincare

died in 1912 at the age of only fifty-eight. Just as Poincare kept silent about Einstein, so Einstein kept silent

about Poincare and about what he had read of Poincare’s work. This significant, since Einstein

care,

owed more than

just

is

one suggestion to Poin-

almost certainly including the definition of time. Did Einstein,

while formulating his relativity theory, half repress Poincare and half

overlook him, and did he later repressed Poincare altogether? stein for the first time

feel so

Long

mentioned

awkward about

this that

after Poincare’s death,

his

name,

it

was

he

when Ein-

in a different con-

The Patent Office

214

Academy of Sciences

In a lecture to the Prussian

text.

in Berlin,

Geom-

and Experience he referred to “the acute-minded and profound

etry

,

Poincare ,” 55 though he was referring not to Poincare’s synchronization of clocks but to his conventional analysis of the relationship

between physics and geometry. Not much lished

an interview pub-

Paris daily Figaro he spoke of his “great

on the front page of the

admiration for Poincare .” 56

later, in ,

Then

followed three

more decades of

silence until Einstein, in old age, in a letter containing a

thumbnail

listing

who had

of authors

mentioned Poincare along with

The

Hume

something

like

influenced his development,

and

Mach

57 .

following year there was a tempest in a teacup around the

second volume of Sir Edward Whittaker’s History of the Theories of Aether and its

Electricity

passages

tivity

on

—

in

many respects

relativity theory.

but an oddity in

a masterpiece,

Even the chapter heading “The Rela-

Theory of Poincare and Lorentz”

indicated the direction of

Whittaker’s thinking; he declared that Einstein’s contribution was marginal. land,

had

Max

Born, like Whittaker a professor at Edinburgh in Scot-

tried to talk his colleague

vain. In response to Born’s

by

a

widely respected

Myself,

I

some

this strange

it

whim, but

in

warning of what was about to be published

scientist,

Einstein reacted irritably:

have always derived satisfaction from

don’t think like

out of

sensible to defend

my

few

my

results as

but

efforts,

my

I

property,

old skinflint defending the few coins he has laboriously

scraped together. I’m not holding don’t have to read the stuff

it

against him.

.

.

.

After

all, I

58

.

Nevertheless, the episode

wrote to Bern, where

left a

mark on

a celebration

Einstein.

Four weeks

was being prepared for the

anniversary of relativity theory: “I hope

it

will

later

he

fiftieth

be ensured that the

merits of H. A. Lorentz and H. Poincare are also appropriately

acknowledged .”^ 9 After nearly half a century

this

was the

first

time that

Einstein even mentioned Poincare in connection with the special relativity theory.

T wo weeks before

his death, Einstein

spoke with

a

young

historian

of science. At one point the conversation turned to the vanity which,

Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes Einstein observed, was found “in so

many

215

You know,” he

scientists.

me

that Galilei did not acknowledge

Abraham

Pais asked Einstein’s secretary

told his visitor, “it has always hurt

work of Kepler.” 60

the

After Einstein’s death,

about

a

book he had

lent Einstein.

A

few years

earlier,

he had asked

Einstein what influence Poincare’s great treatise of 1906 on the

dynamics of the electron had had on Einstein’s own work. Einstein

had never read

and

it,

Pais,

who had found

an offprint of

this

not

readily accessible article in an antiquarian bookstore, lent Einstein his

precious copy, but

unable to find the

it

was never returned to him.

article. 61

Now the secretary was

Poincare’s paper remained

Poincare and Einstein had passed

lost.

like ships in the night,

doing

everything possible to avoid one another.

Einstein’s relativity theory

Lorentz. For

more than

a

must have been

a strange

dozen years the Dutch praeceptor physicae had

struggled to adapt electrodynamics to the fact that to the ether

experience for

was not observable.

movement

relative

Elis efforts to “save” the relativity

principle had worked, albeit at the cost of complicated arguments and a

mountain of separate hypotheses. And now

a fairly

from Bern had simply turned the problem into actually succeeded with

it.

unknown man

a principle,

In 1906 Lorentz observed, with astonish-

ment and some melancholy,

that “Einstein simply postulates

have deduced, with some difficulty and not altogether

a

what we

satisfactorily, field.” 62

from the fundamental equations of the electromagnetic however, was

and had

That,

one-sided comment, because Einstein, on the other

hand, had easily derived from his two principles

had been forced to introduce

as

much

ad hoc hypotheses

of what Lorentz

— from the Lorentz

constant to the Lorentz force. Moreover, Einstein had established the validity of the principles as a

whole

As

it

and the kinematics based on them for physics

—something Lorentz had not even attempted.

was not then possible

to decide

between the two theories by

experiment, Lorentz tended to view the choice as

“Which of be

left to

the two

him” 63

is

modes of thinking

a

how he summed up

a

matter of

person follows his

opinion

in

will

taste.

probably

the Wolfskehl

The Patent Office

216

fall

of 1910.

Max

edit these lectures for publication,

thought

this

lectures he gave in Gottingen in the

had to

Born,

who

“absurd and

reactionary.” 64

In a series of lectures in Haarlem, the Netherlands, in 1913, Lorentz was even

more

more outspoken. He found

satisfactory,

“the older presentation

according to which the ether possesses a kind of

substantiality, space

and time are

strictly separable

and simultaneity can be defined without

from each other,

restrictions.” Realizing that

absolute simultaneity would imply infinite velocity, he also criticized

“the bold assertion that super-light velocities are unobservable as a

hypothetical restriction of what

is

one that cannot be

accessible to us,

accepted without reserve.” 65

Unlike Born, Einstein showed some understanding of Lorentz.

When

Lorentz’s lectures went into print the following year, Einstein

for the first time acted as a reviewer of a

theory.

He made no

work concerning

relativity

mention of Lorentz’s observation on the

ether,

time, or the velocity of light, but found everything else “clear and well

explained.”

He

interest in the subject should

No

“No one

added the recommendation: omit reading the

little

with

a serious

book.” 66

one ever suggested that Lorentz’s unwavering loyalty to the

ether physics of the nineteenth century had anything to do with professional vanity, with obdurate pride in his

own

achievements, or with

stubbornness. Lorentz was universally admired, not only as an authority and a wise guide through the problems of theoretical physics,

but also as an integrated and harmonious personality. This also

—precisely be-

by his numerous comments on relativity theory

cause his

own view was

lationship

different.

And

it is

by the

further confirmed

shoulders he himself stood, even

he

did.

re-

between Einstein and Lorentz.

Einstein had always regarded Lorentz as one of the giants

as

proved

is

This

if

that giant

intellectual admiration

personal relationship.

When

was reluctant to see

was soon matched by

else, I

might say

a

as far

happy

the two started to correspond in 1909,

Einstein was enthusiastic even at a distance: “I admire that

than anyone

on whose

I

man more

love him.” 6 ? This boundless admiration

was soon reciprocated, confirmed, and consolidated in personal contact.

In the later phases of Einstein’s

life

Lorentz

will

time and again

Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes appear

as

kind of father figure, and as

a

a

217

splendid example of

unclouded respect despite professional disagreement.

One

of the major oddities in the customary accounts of the theory of

relativity

the assertion that

is

came

it

into being in close connection

with the empirical findings of Michelson and Morley’s ether-drift experiment.

A typical

example

an essay by Robert A. Millikan which

is

introduced the special issue of Review of Modem Physics published on Einstein’s seventieth birthday. Millikan states that the special theory of relativity

tion

may

be “looked upon

as starting essentially in a generaliza-

from Michelson’s experiment.” 68 This may not have been the

opinion of the

man whose

birthday was being celebrated, but

been the opinion of physicists generally for some time. been established with the

Max von Laue

in 191

1,

in

first

book on

It

a solid part

relativity theory, written

relativity theory” 69

and

1905 paper shows that

it

Yet

a

has since

a single glance at Einstein’s

no mention anywhere of

contains

allegedly vital experiment. This raises the question of

—

as the

of the folklore of physics.

straight to the relativity principle.

ing

it

by

argued, then, that the Michelson-Morley experiment led

is

actually

had

had clearly

which Laue described the experiment

“fundamental experiment of the

become

It

it

knew of

what

that experiment and

effect

it

this

what Einstein

had on

his think-

question not only of biographical interest but of some impor-

tance for the genesis and justification of relativity theory. In the 1950s the physicist Robert

S.

Shankland,

who thought

of

himself as a scientific heir of Michelson, asked Einstein (who was then

very old)

At

first

when

exactly he had

first

learned of Michelson’s experiment.

Einstein replied spontaneously that he had learned about

from H. A. Lorentz’s writings, but only

would have mentioned

it

in

my is

later,

my life.

I

me

guess

following

not so easy,

heard of the Michelson experiment. influenced

1905. “Otherwise

after

I

I

am

some

reflection,

not sure when

was not conscious that

directly during the seven years that relativity I just

took

it

I

paper.” 70 This information could not

have been correct, and two years qualified his answer: “This

it

for granted that

However, Einstein had learned of

it

was

he

I first it

had

had been

true.” 71

that experiment during the

first

The Patent Office

218

of those seven years, while he was

still

a student. In the

summer

Marie

tion between his third and fourth years he reported to Mileva

by Wilhelm Wien, and

72 that he had “read a very interesting paper”

this contains a list

vaca-

of thirteen experiments to prove the Earth’s motion

through the ether, including that of Michelson and Morley. In Lorentz’s Versuch of 1895, which Einstein studied carefully several times, the experiment its

consequences.

is

described in detail and discussed in terms of

and

Since Lorentz was induced by Michelson

Morley’s results to extend his electron theory by hypothesizing the contraction of dimensions, this

is

of decisive importance: a theory had

reacted directly to an experimental result, and Einstein can scarcely

have been unaware of this. But does

this

mean

that the experiment

was

therefore important also for the development of Einstein’s relativity

theory?

The

structure of Einstein’s treatise of 1905 does not suggest that

interpreting the ether-drift experiments in general or the Alichelson-

Morley experiment

in particular

had been of particular interest to him.

In setting out the problem, he extensively outlined the structural

asymmetry of the customary electrodynamic concept and followed

up with no more than

a

summary

this

reference to “the failure of attempts ”

—and

to detect a

motion of the Earth

relative to the ‘light

that

On

two arguments, he then elevated the

is all.

the basis of the

“principle of relativity”

from an assumption

medium’

to a presupposition.

of these “failed attempts” was Michelson’s, but despite racy and

its

importance to Lorentzian theory,

it

its

One

great accu-

was only one of many;

and Einstein pointed out to Shankland that the aberration of starlight and the Fizeau experiment would have been basis for his arguments.

a sufficient experimental

Both of these were well known,

like Faraday’s

induction experiment, whose interpretation had been Einstein’s

motiv in If the

his search for a

comprehensive principle.

Michelson-Morley experiment played any role

stein’s reflections, it

leit-

was only

at all in

indirectly, as part of the

Ein-

Lorentzian

theory, because Einstein was of course aware that the contraction of

dimensions must come out correctly in his

some

physicists

found

this step

own

arguments. Indeed,

of Einstein’s, from the problem to the

principle, particularly attractive: in the artificial

and contrived Lo-

”

r

Acceptance, Opposition, Tributes

219

rentzian hypothesis, contraction had been invented solely for the interpretation of the Michelson experiment; but in relativity theory

followed effortlessly from Einstein’s principles as a kinematic Einstein must have heard of

this,

because

at the

it

effect.

beginning of 1908 he

referred to the swift acceptance of his ideas and to the impression

which

his explanation of the theory

had made on

his colleagues: “If the

Michelson-Morley experiment had not brought us into serious embarrassment, no one would have regarded the relativity theory as a (halfway) redemption.” 73 This “redemption” evidently enhanced the

famous “fundamental experiment of the himself occasionally paid tribute to

though not

in

relativity theory.” Einstein

in systematic presentations, 74

it

any of his reconstructions of his mental processes. 75

Einstein’s last word, like

very precise, even though

most of his statements on

this topic,

is

not

was intended for publication:

it

4

my own

In

noteworthy

when

I

development Michelson’s part. In fact, I

was writing

explanation

is

my

cannot even

knew about

recall if I

on the subject

first treatise

that, for reasons

not play any

result did

of a general character,

The

(1905). I

had

it

a firm

idea of how this was compatible with our knowledge of electrody-

namics.

ment

It is

understandable therefore

did not play a decisive role in

why

the Michelson experi-

my personal

This was certainly an honest formulation, but failure

ment

struggle. 76

it

also testifies to a

of memory; Einstein was undoubtedly familiar with the experi-

in his youth, even if

he viewed

only

it

one element

as

whole body of confirmations that no movement

is

in the

demonstrable

rela-

tive to the ether.

It is

sometimes speculated whether

relativity

theory would have been

discovered, or

when

discovered

Einstein himself, in old age, conveyed the impression

it.

it

would have been discovered,

if

that in his youth he had merely plucked a ripe fruit

knowledge: “There

is

regarded

it

as

from the

tree of

no doubt,” he wrote two months before

death, “that the special relativity theory, in retrospect,

Einstein had not

was ripe for discovery in “not improbable that

if 1

we look

905

.

77

at its

development

As early

Mach would

his

as

1906 he

have hit upon the

The Patent Office

220 relativity

theory

if,

at the

time

when

mind was

his

still

youthfully fresh,

the question of the constancy of the velocity of light had already

engaged the attention of physicists.” 78

What

enabled Einstein, rather than anyone

sive step? If revolutionary

else, to

take this deci-

achievements in science imply independence

of the all-powerful traditions which often hold the leading figures in thrall,

then Einstein’s independence of thinking may, at the

have been due to his peripheral position

at least in part,

Patent Office.

His success certainly suggests that working on the margin of scientific

endeavor was not only no obstacle to him but perhaps

a positive

advantage. His “temporal monastery” in Bern was not intellectual isolation. It

enabled him, through intensive reading, to absorb ongoing

by academic fashions or by career

discussions, without being distracted

constraints

from developing

about Einstein also the

is

his

own

What

ideas.

is

so astonishing

not only the depth of the problems he addressed, but

width of

his interests.

Only

his

combination of breadth and

depth seems to explain his unique explosion of creativity in 1905, especially his discovery

of relativity theory.

No one else saw the structural problems of electrodynamics in such close connection with radiation theory;

and he alone, thanks to

his

“very revolutionary” paper of

March

point” on light quanta, found

easy to dispense with the idea of a sub-

stantial carrier

it

1905, on his “heuristic view-

of electromagnetic waves.

that enabled Einstein to bring together

dynamic theory, with

its

It

was

this liberating

H. A. Lorentz’s

concept of local time and

its

blow

electro-

contraction of

dimensions, the delicate status of relativity theory, and the prophetic insights of

lems into

Henri Poincare

a principle.

The

—

a stroke

of genius which turned the prob-

theory of relativity

discovery, but in 1905 only one

man was

may have been

able to discover

it.

ripe for

CHAPTER TWELVE Expert

The news that history itself.

Class

1

had been made

soon spread in professional of Bern

1

circles,

but

it

in physics in

spread

Bern

in 1905

less rapidly in the city

Apart from his colleagues Besso and Sauter, Professor

Gruner was probably the only person who

realized that Einstein had

much

accomplished quite exceptional things. In consequence, nothing

changed

in his lifestyle.

citizens,

he was

he

my

with people.”

only outward sign was

that, for the

good

now Herr Doktor. There were advantages in this, as when congratulating an acquaintance on his doctor’s

later said

degree: “In

The

experience,

it

quite considerably facilitates relations

1

Thus only his

doctorate, and not his other treatises, was referred to

in the application

which

his chief, Friedrich Haller, addressed to the

Swiss Federal Council, proposing Einstein’s long-overdue promotion.

He

had “increasingly familiarized himself with technology, so that he

now very successfully processes

quite difficult technical patent applica-

and

is

one of the most highly respected experts of the Office.” 2

On April

1,

1906, Einstein

tions

up by 600

became an Expert

II Class.

francs to 4,500 francs annually. This

lower range of

officials in his grade.

His salary went

still left

Although he

is

him

reported to have

asked jocularly on payday what on earth he was to do with

money, he was not 3

in fact satisfied with his salary

on more than one occasion Telegraph Directorate.

He

that

all

and evidently

tried

to get a better-paid job in the Post

certainly later reported with

tion that Federal Councillor

in the

Ludwig

221

some

and

satisfac-

Forrer, his friend and patron, had

The Patent Office

222

T elegraph

been “very furious” when he discovered “that the torate

me

had not wanted

an

as

official a

few years

earlier.” 4

Einstein therefore remained a “good patent slave.”

Patent Office what was due to

something to

tributed

reporting on a

drawer in

his

visit to

it,

He

and the Patent Office for

scientific

his

Direc-

its

gave the part con-

Rudolf Ladenburg,

output.

Bern, recounted that Einstein had pulled out a

desk and announced that this was his department of the-

oretical physics.

His duties

and so whenever he was

not demand

at the office did

free

he would work on his

a lot

of time,

prob-

scientific

lems. 5 Needless to say, he did not go about announcing this publicly.

Not even

his string quartet,

with

whom he met once a week during

the winter for musicmaking, had any idea

— even

though one of them was

really

was

Freies

Gymnasium

who

their second violin

a physics teacher at the

His fellow musicians remembered him

in Bern.

as

“an enthusiastic musician, a charming companion, and a modest person,” 6 but not as a

and

this

Some

new Copernicus. This was how

was how things remained

until

he

left

Bern

Einstein liked

in the

fall

people in the Patent Office, and also outside, found

unbelievable that the Expert

it,

of 1909.

it

almost

Class should have been offered a pro-

II

fessorship at the University of Zurich.

During the seven years

that Einstein spent in

seven different apartments.

un-Swiss way of

settled,

We

life,

do not know the reason

peak of

made moving

lived in

for this un-

but the fact that the Einsteins’

apartments were rented furnished probably at the

Bern he had

first

easier.

few

Even

—when the paper on the Brownian been completed — the Einsteins were on the move.

his productivity

movement had just They gave up their apartment at Kramgasse 49 in the old city center and on May 15, 1905, moved to Besenscheuerweg 28 in the Mattenhof district 7

on the

Michele Besso

outskirts.

lived

One

advantage of

this

address was that

nearby and he and Einstein were able to make the

fifteen-minute walk to their office together. After

enormously important matters

all,

the two had

to discuss during the five or six

weeks

from the idea triggered by Besso to the completion of the paper on relativity toward the end of June 1905. The memorial plaque on the arcade pillar of Kramgasse 49, to the effect that Einstein created “his

Expert

fundamental

on the

treatise

Class

II

relativity

223

theory ... in

this

house” should

therefore be treated with indulgence. “I

have moved again,” 8 Einstein reported to his friend Solovine in

the spring of 1906. As at the beginning of their married steins

were once more

in Kirchenfeld.

They rented

the Ein-

life,

the upper floor of a

small house in the typical local style, with a fine view of the Bernese

Oberland mountains. This apartment, the

first

moved

with their

own

at Aegertenstrasse 53,

remained their home

furniture,

probably

until they

to Zurich.

Einstein greatly regretted the departure of “the good Solo”: “Since

you

left I

home plaint,

haven’t been meeting anyone privately.

conversations with Besso have

perhaps

a little exaggerated,

come

was

to an

And now

the way-

end too.” 9 This com-

reaction to the cliquishness

a

of Bern society, and, no doubt, to Mileva’s marked distrust of other

home

people. But at

Hans

The

whose

Albert,

Einstein

now had

a small

companion,

his

intelligence at age three fascinated his parents.

boy had

father remarked, proudly rather than critically, that the

“already

grown

into a rather fine impertinent lad,” 10 and the

reported contentedly: just playing

son

“My husband

mother

often spends his free time at

home

with the boy.” 11

Their income was probably adequate for

a solid

bourgeois

lifestyle.

Mileva’s considerable dowry of 10,000 francs was regarded as a reserve

and not touched; when they divorced, many years

amount remained.

If the Einsteins lived a little less

later,

the

grandly than some

of his colleagues, this was because he had to support his mother,

was in

living with her sister

Hechingen,

visited their visit

who

Fanny and Fanny’s husband, Rudolf Einstein,

in the Prussian enclave of Wiirttemberg.

was enough money

full

for vacation trips. In

Even

so, there

August 1905 the Einsteins

former fellow student Helene Savic in Belgrade

may have been connected with

inquiries about Lieserl

—

their

—and sub-

sequently they spent a week with Mileva’s parents in Vojvodina. Over the following years they vacationed in the neighborhood of Bern, in resort villages, in the Simmental, the Valais, or the Bernese Oberland.

The

incredible, even

awesome, tempo with which Einstein completed

four epoch-making papers between

March and June 1905 could not

The Patent Office

224

—

one might be inclined to

last

fortunately,

work

at that intensity

continuing to

say, since

would have been bound

damage

to

his health.

But the reason was not physical exhaustion but exhaustion of subjects:

“There

is

not always

theme

a ripe

musing

for

At

over.

not one

least

that excites me.” 12 Einstein had a sure instinct for choosing not only

what problems

to address but also

what problems

would, of course, be the subject of the spectral there

is

no such thing

as a

to pass over.

lines,

but

I

“There

believe that

simple connection between these phe-

nomena and others already researched, so that the matter, for the moment, seems not too promising.” 13 That was a shrewd judgment, as atom was

the internal structure of the

still

nucleus had not yet been discovered, and

it

unknown, the atomic

was not

until 1913 that

Niels Bohr would propose a quantum-theoretical model of the atom. In 1905, at

work on

spectral lines could not have

gone beyond an attempt

phenomenological interpretation, even for Einstein.

he did not attempt

it

shows him to be

a

master of the

art

The

fact that

of the soluble,

ever searching for a “connection between phenomena.”

There was no shortage of soluble problems within the himself had opened up.

Thus

in

fields

September 1905 he published the

he

first

version of the equivalence of mass and energy as the most spectacular

consequence of the

more general

derivation of the formula

for an experiment to decide

the electron. tions,

The

The next E — me2 as

relativity principle.

between

rival theories

year would see

a

well as a proposal

of the dynamics of

proposal was solidly buttressed by theoretical reflec-

but the experimenters chose to go different ways. Einstein also

generalized and deepened his theory of the Brownian especially his “heuristic viewpoint”

eventually, another milestone

theory of

solids.

not spend

all

is

light quanta; in

was reached with

November,

his first

Mileva proudly reported that her husband

his free

to say that this

on

movement and

time playing with the boy:

by no means

his

“To

quantum

now

his credit I

only occupation outside his

did

have

official

work; the treatises written by him are piling up quite frighteningly.” 14 Six publications

1906.

—

all

—were

of them important

the rich harvest of

Expert

Such an enormous

a lot

Class

when

his creative ideas

of routine work remained to be seen

work

at the

225

output cannot have been easy, even for

scientific

genius like Einstein. Even

II

and

to,

had been developed, was on top of his

this

Patent Office. Ideas had to be arranged in

for publication, the

a

a

form

mathematics had to be tidied up, and

suitable

copy

a fair

had to be written for submission to the editor of Annalen, to be passed

on

reliable version available for

was

on his

would keep

to the printer. Cautious authors

and on

dissertation

his

probably waived

memory.

Now and

for changes

this precaution, relying

—quite certainly with molecular weight— there

from the

a

a rule,

month

or

was an opportunity for correcting mistakes, checking the

calculations,

parcel

As

editor.

however, the proofs would arrive from the printer after this

a

again

on the determination of

might be queries or requests

more;

have

checking proofs or in case the manuscript

lost in the mail. Einstein

his notes

a copy, so as to

and fnaking last-minute

would

revisions. After another

month

a

up

a

arrive with the offprints of the paper. Einstein built

own

small reference library of his

offprints, in

which he occasionally

scribbled afterthoughts or corrected printing errors. 15 His

manu-

and notes were usually thrown away once the offprints

scripts, drafts,

arrived.

These

offprints were,

edgment among draw attention

show

interest

we have

and

scientists.

still

An

are, the

currency of mutual acknowl-

author would send one to

a colleague to

to himself and his work, or a reader of a journal

might

and respect by requesting an offprint from an author. As

seen, Einstein as early as 1905

information network of physicists regularly later.

Some

inquiries

was involved

—sporadically

at

in this informal first

and more

were addressed to “Herr Professor Ein-

stein” at the University of Bern, 16

and the writers no doubt were aston-

ished to find that this author was employed not at the university but at

Some recipients of his letters, especially if they were renowned professors, may also have been taken aback to find them the Patent Office.

written on graph paper with a ragged edge, carelessly torn from

some

copybook. It

was the custom then among

dence had developed, to lend

it

a

physicists,

once

a lively

correspon-

more personal note by exchanging

The Patent Office

226 photographs. Einstein

young colleague received gentleman

in a

many

into line with this practice, 17 and

fell

a fine picture

smart check

Although most of the early

suit,

resting his

letters are lost,

a

showing an elegantly clad

arm on

a writing desk.

we may assume from

later

evidence that Einstein had always been an enthusiastic letter writer

where by

scientific topics

were concerned. Some idea of

this

is

conveyed

correspondence with Wilhelm Wien,

his partially preserved

became

1906, after the premature death of Paul Drude,

who

in

editor of

Annalen and thus one of the most influential physicists in Germany.

Throughout the summer of 1907, including mental, Einstein

with long

letters

his vacation in the

Sim-

bombarded the “highly esteemed Herr Professor” and terse postcards

me

“not to think too badly of

—so much so that he asked Wien my

because of

flooding you with

letters.” 18

This correspondence was concerned with

con-

difficult questions

cerning the interpretation of the velocity of light as a nonexceedable limit for signals. In the heat of battle Einstein occasionally tripped up,

but even

as a

young man he never

lost sleep

closer examination, unfortunately, everything cipitately in

to

in the

any transmission of

The

end

it

was perfectly

which was compatible with the

although

reported to you so pre-

my last letter has turned out to be wrong,” 19 he once wrote

Wien. But

theory,

I

“On

over his mistakes:

this did

a signal

not give

clear that the

Maxwellian

relativity principle, ruled

at a velocity

exceeding that of

out

light,

rise to a publication.

best opportunity for meeting influential professors and

maneu-

vering into position in the academic job market was provided by congresses. Einstein did

avoided

it.

not seize that opportunity, and perhaps even

Physicists then did not have conventions of their

would meet

in specialized

own

groups within the framework of the annual

general meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft der Naturforscher Arzte, the

German

Stuttgart in

but

Society of Scientists and Physicians.

Its

und

meeting in

1906 would have offered Einstein a good chance to

become acquainted with the

leaders in his field,

comparative nearness to Bern.

if

only because of

And he had no doubt

its

seen the notice in

Expert

Max

Physikalische Zeitschrift that

Kaufmann k Measurements the Electron a subject that ,

.

.

.

The stein

its

Class

227

Planck was going to speak there on

and Their

Significance for the

would have drawn attention

The Electrodynamics of Moving discussed there in

li

Bodies.

Dynamics of

to the author of

Nonetheless, Relativtheorie was

author’s absence.

following year,

when

the meeting was held in Dresden, Ein-

was again absent. In 1908, eventually, he did plan to go to

Cologne, but

this did

for recuperation. 20

not come about because he used

The two

his short leave

weeks’ annual leave from the Patent

Office to which he was entitled was certainly not very generous, but

managed

Einstein had really wanted to attend he probably could have a

few extra days. Probably he was not

university assistants’ posts had vant, 21

all

that eager.

The

if

poorly paid

attraction for a well-paid civil ser-

little

and besides he may have believed that one day the mountain

would come

to

Muhammad. And

indeed, the following year, 1909,

Einstein attended the annual meeting in Salzburg,

now

as a “guest

of

honor” entrusted with one of the keynote addresses.

We so, it

do not known whether Professor Gruner encouraged him

to

do

or perhaps even Professor Kleiner of Zurich University, or whether

was on

his

own

initiative that Einstein for a

Hahilitation as a privatdozent.

At any

rate,

second time applied for

on June

he sub-

17, 1907,

mitted an application to the director of education of the canton of Bern. 22 Enclosed with his petition were his dissertation and doctor’s

diploma, a curriculum vitae of only nine

from the It is

field

since, as

with his

dozent without writing possible,

ments.”

and “seventeen papers

of theoretical physics.”

probable that he had discussed

Gruner,

lines,

first

this step in

advance with Paul

attempt, he wanted to

become

a special Hahilitation thesis; this

under the university’s

rules, “for

a privat-

procedure was

other outstanding achieve-

No doubt Gruner would have persuaded Aime Forster,

the (by

then rather senile)

full

professor of physics, that the offprints sub-

mitted by Einstein

far

surpassed any normal Hahilitation thesis, but

once again, things did not work out. Einstein’s application ulty

was immediately circulated among the

members. By July 10 they had

all

read

it.

The

fact that

it

fac-

was not

The Patent Office

228

put on the agenda before the impending

began on July

supported

application professor,”

“in view of the important scientific

achievements of Herr Einstein, without demanding

a special Habilita-

Professor Forster, the head of the department

whose incompetence,”

—“about

Einstein later remembered, “stories were cir-

as

the younger people” 24

among

culating

unhappy

professors were

thesis.

a positive decision,

tion thesis.” 23

which

vacation,

Not until October 28 was the Only Gruner, who was no more than a “titular

about the lack of a discussed.

some of the

10, suggests that

summer

—recommended that the

appli-

cation be accepted “under the customary procedure.” It was therefore

decided, “after prolonged discussion, that the petition be refused until

Herr Einstein has submitted stein’s

a Habilitation thesis.”

second attempt to become a “great professor.”

No

railed against the “pigsty,” 25 as

doubt he again

first

attempt four years

and

also in the certain

knowledge that the

few old fogies

—

as

universities

we

after his

would not be

longer. In old age, looking back

episode, he remarked that “it a

he had

but this time with more justification,

earlier,

him much

able to ignore

ments

Thus ended Ein-

is

on

this

often the case that in small depart-

ourselves are

now

—

will stick together

and run the show.” 26

By then

the major scientific publishing houses had

Einstein.

The

in Leipzig,

first

to

whose proprietor assured him

The

in

following year the firm of

should produce “a

to notice

approach him was the renowned firm of Teubner

September 1907 that “my

presses will always be at your disposal in case plans.” 27

begun

little

monograph on

S.

the

you have any

literary

Hirzel proposed that he

more recent advances

in

physics and chemistry,” written “in an easy, not to say popular, style to

make

it

accessible to the chemist as well as the physicist.” 28

the idea appealed to

even though

I

am

mind two weeks book, because

When

I

Eilhard

initially

hoped

to “undertake the task,

seriously overloaded with work,” 29 he

later:

am

relativity theory,

him and he

“Unfortunately

I

am

changed

his

quite unable to write that

unable to find the time for

Wiedemann

Although

it.” 30

suggested that he write a book on

presumably for the publishing house of Vieweg in

Braunschweig, Einstein declined after

a

lengthy period of considera-

Expert tion

—

Class

229

time not only for reasons of time but also because of the

this

how

subject matter: “I cannot imagine sible to

II

broad

circles.

this topic

Comprehension of the

could be

subject

made

demands

acces-

a certain

schooling in abstract thought, which most people do not acquire

because they have no need of it.” 31

Even script

in later years publishers

it

difficult to extract a

from Einstein. Despite the large extent of

wrote only two books:

and

found

his publications,

He

level. 33

graph on

never wrote

at

an academic

even an authoritative mono-

a textbook, or

a particular field

about what was already

he

popularized exposition of relativity theory 32

a

reworking of four lectures on the same subject

a

manu-

of research. His interest was not in writing

common

knowledge, but in pursuing what he

himself did not yet know.

In September 1907, while his Habilitation application was at the

University of Bern, Einstein had agreed to write

sive article

on the theory of relativity. What began

as a

a

still

pending

comprehen-

commissioned

job turned into a stroke of genius, perhaps his greatest. Johannes Stark, Einstein’s senior

by only

five years

but already

professor (albeit a

a

provisional one) in Greifswald, had founded th & Jahrbuch fur Radioaktivitdt It

und Elektronik ( Yearbook of Radioactivity and

was

was to appear. Einstein

in this annual that Einstein’s article

accepted “gladly” but asked Stark to help

Electronics) in 1904.

him with

the literature, as he

was unable “to inform myself on everything that has appeared on subject, as the library

own

papers,

(1904),

I

am

is

closed during

my

acquainted only with

free time.

a

notice.” 34

paper by H. A. Lorentz

papers concerning the subject have not

Presumably Einstein was

listing

nals have

been quite

as difficult as Einstein

evidence not so

much

come

to

my

only offprints sent to him,

because he must have read a good deal more.

is

my

one by E. Cohn, one by Mosengeil, and two by Planck. Other

theoretical

fore

Apart from

this

Nor

made

can access to jour-

out.

The

list

there-

of the state of his knowledge as of his

selective treatment of literature.

Einstein had only two months to write his Jahrbuch

article. 3 '

After one

month, he informed Stark that he had “so arranged the work that

The Patent Office

230

anyone couid find theory and

its

way with comparative

He had

applications so far.” 36

clarification of the

ease into the relativity

much

devoted

care “to the

assumptions used,” and he was anxious, by means of

and simplicity of the mathematical development,” to make

“clarity

work more

“the

his

attractive.” 37 In this, despite the pressure

of time, he

succeeded superbly.

The

report,

On

the Relativity Principle

and

the Conclusions

and range of

ltd 8 gave an excellent overview of the foundations

from

Drawn

the principle for electrodynamics, mechanics, and thermodynamics.

The

advances achieved by the theory as formulated in this report were

later

most

It

strikingly

summed up by Einstein

in his

Nobel

reconciled mechanics and electrodynamics.

It

lecture:

reduced the

number of logically independent hypotheses of the last-named.

It

enforced a cognition-theoretical clarification of the basic concepts. It unified the

impulse theorem and the energy theorem;

it

proved the essential unity of mass and energy. 39

However, what would not

digm of all

physics,

fit

into the relativity principle

was the para-

Newton’s theory of gravity. There were

also a

few

other problems, predominantly having to do with cognition theory

and

aesthetics.

We

do not know

first felt

at

what point between 1905 and 1907 Einstein

that his relativity theory as formulated in

On

namics of Moving Bodies could not be the final word.

probably gave

rise to further

thought

ited to “inertial systems,” that

is,

fairly

the Electrody-

One problem

soon: the theory was lim-

to referential systems in

uniform

nonaccelerated motion relative to one another. This restriction, as he later observed,

status of

“was really more

one single

state of

than the privileged

difficult to tolerate

motion,

as

was the case

in the theory of a

resting luminiferous ether, because that theory at least proposed a real

reason for that privileged status, namely the luminiferous ether.” 40

With

the discarding of the ether, the

demand

for a

broadening of the

theory seemed to Einstein the most natural thing in the world. But

what he

called his

“need of generalization” 41 was not enough; there

was another stumbling block:

“It

was only when

I

endeavored to pre-

Expert

Class

II

231

sent gravitation in the framework of this theory that

the special theory of relativity was only the

realized that

I

step in a necessary

first

development.” 42

we do not know

when these endeavors began, or how intensive they were, but we do know when the breakthrough came in October or November 1907, when the first half of his Again,

precisely

—

Jahrbuch

article

November all;

was ready and the second remained

he was not yet sure

1

to be written. 43

On

he would deal with gravitation

if

at

otherwise, he would surely have mentioned this to his editor.

When

the article was finished on

essentially an overview,

were followed by

pages, contained entirely

Under

the heading

December

new

1,

the

first

four parts,

which, on nine

a fifth part

material.

“The

and Gravitation,”

Relativity Principle

Einstein makes a connection between the generalization to any refer4T

system on the one hand and the

ential

on the

other.

What is

—

is

treatment of gravity

developed here, on the basis of a convergence of

the two problem areas

matic

relativistic

—

a

convergence

as surprising as

it

is

enig-

not an axiomatic theory but only the outline of the begin-

ning of a lengthy development which, eight years

later,

would

the “general theory of relativity.” But the outline already

is

result in

bold, even

revolutionary. If the relativity theory of 1905 was a revolution, then this revolution

too “devours

its

children.”

The

principle of the con-

stancy of the velocity of light, only just established, in the sense that the velocity

stein

field.

While

Christmas Eve 1907 was not origin,

“modified”

were

his colleagues

new ideas he had put forward

was already marching on. That was

was of Jewish

now

and direction of propagation of light are

influenced by a gravitational struggling to assimilate the

is

his destiny

and

festive in the Einstein

still

in 1905, Einhis greatness.

household.

He

and her Serbian Orthodox Church did not

observe the birth of Christ until January. So he used the break to write letters.

article

with

“During October and November

on the

new

I

was very busy with an

relativity principle, partly reporting

matters,” he informed

Conrad Habicht.

and partly dealing

“Now

I

am

con-

cerned with another relativity-theory reflection on the law of gravitation,

by which

I

hope

to explain the

still

unexplained secular changes

232

The Patent Office

in the perihelion distance of Mercury.” 44

despite

its

He had

thus focused on what,

minuteness, was a serious stumbling block in Newton’s

theory of gravitation. In a short postscript Einstein added: far

it

doesn’t seem to

before

it

did

work out

work

out.” It

.

.

but so

would take eight laborious years

—before, on November

the general theory of relativity in front of him.

15, 1915, Einstein

had

PART

III

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

From “Bad Joke” to “Herr Professor”

“I

must confess to you

sit

in an office for eight hours a day!

This

is

that

I

was amazed to read that you have But history

is full

how Johann Jakob Laub, Wilhelm Wien’s

to

of bad jokes.”

1

collaborator in

news that the “Esteemed Herr Doktor,”

Wurzburg, reacted

to the

from whom,

beginning of 1908, he had requested an offprint

at the

and for whose sake he was willing to come to Bern for three months,

was to be found not

Much

the

at the university

same may have been

1906 Ordinarius, or

full

but

felt

at the

Patent Office.

by Arnold Sommerfeld, since

professor, of theoretical physics in

Munich. At

the beginning of January he had written a letter which had given Ein-

other physicist has yet approached

me

with such frankness and benevolence.” 2 At the same time, Einstein

felt

stein exceptional pleasure:

it

necessary to tone

“No

down Sommerfeld’s compliments: “Because

of

my

lucky idea of introducing the relativity principle into physics you (and others)

now

feel quite

Those

greatly overrate

my

scientific abilities, so

physicists

Einstein was

who had

still

felt

already seen the light about his

I

work

“quite shaken” at the thought that Albert

employed

at the

Patent Office.

earned the kind of reputation that made the offer of a

so that

shaken.”

would probably have

only

much

He

had by then

a university chair

matter of time.

Einstein himself had been thinking of a change in his career ever since the beginning of the year, and he had probably discussed the matter

with Jakob Ehrat,

who had come from Zurich 235

over Christmas and

who

The New Copernicus

236

was himself thinking of becoming Marcel Grossmann he voiced

his “sincere

my

under

private scientific activities

The

of the past three years

efforts

less

wish to be able to continue

unfavorable circumstances.” 4

—twenty-five publications, culmi-

nating in the tour de force of the Jahrbuch

growing volume of

his scientific

sented not only an intellectual but also

all

Marcel Grossmann, Einstein’s

achievement even

if

more exhausting must

Patent Office.

at the

“lifesaver,”

Zurich Polytechnic in 1907,

at the

along with the

—would have repre-

a physical

How much

been on top of his work

that have

article,

correspondence

they had been his main occupation.

To

Patent Office “expert,” 3

a

had become

a professor

after a career in the school service,

and Einstein once more turned to him for advice. Einstein was aiming not

an academic post, but, with almost touching modesty,

at

at a

teaching post at the Technical College in Winterthur, 5 the institution

where he had worked

now

spring of 1901. “I

make

a

my

how

does one go about this? Could

admirable person as

a teacher

and

Would

etc.)?

there be any point in

Wouldn’t

citizen?

I

I

my Semitic my stressing my scien-

bad impression on him (no Swiss-German

appearance, tific

ask you:

in the

on somebody and verbally convince him of the great

possibly call

worth of

two months

as a stand-in teacher for

dialect,

papers on that occasion?” 6

We

do not know

terthur, but at the

apply:

he learned

gymnasium

about the

if

salary,

Einstein actually applied for a post in

—probably from Grossmann—of

in Zurich.

found

“With reference

it

He

first

would add that

I

new vacancy

corresponded with the principal

acceptable, and

on January 20 decided

to

to the advertisement of a teaching post for

mathematics and descriptive geometry, tion. I

a

Win-

would

also

I

hereby apply for that posi-

be prepared to teach physics.” 7

enclosed his dissertation as well as “the rest of

my

scientific

He

papers

published hitherto.” There were twenty-one applicants for the job; three of them were short-listed. Einstein was not as the records

contain no assessment of him,

among the

three,

we must assume

and

that his

application was not even considered.

Meanwhile, though, Einstein had another iron Habilitation. ties

He

and had

had abandoned

now

in the fire

—

his

his earlier opposition to the formali-

prepared the prescribed

thesis.

On

February

11,

— From “Bad Joke”

you

now

friends, has

time and after

To

Bern.

end

this

in the City Library, as well as the advice of several

induced

all

237

Gruber of his change of mind: “My con-

1908, he informed Professor versation with

to “Herr Professor

my

try I

me

change

to

my

intention for the second

luck with Habilitation at the University of

have submitted

a Habilitation thesis to the

Dean.” 8

And now the proverbially slow Bernese were suddenly in a hurry. Some of the professors were probably afraid that their earlier denial of a Habilitation to the only physicist in Bern who was known beyond the borders of Switzerland might cast a bad light on the department rather

than on the candidate.

The minutes

The

procedure was

Energy Distribution

a thesis entitled Conclusions from the

Theorem of Black Body Radiation Concerning ,

“The

speedily set in motion.

of a faculty meeting on February 2 report that Einstein

had submitted

tion.

now

thesis has

the Constitution of the Radia-

been circulated among the faculty members. Herr

Prof. Forster proposes in writing that the Habilitation thesis be ac-

cepted and Herr Einstein invited for this

proposal a resolution.” 9

ture,

On

physics,

a

The

colloquium.

made

a

trial lec-

,

unanimously recom-

privatdozent for theoretical

and the following day the director of education of the canton

By

of Bern issued the appropriate document.

document, Einstein’s

He

makes

Thermodynamics was given,

faculty thereupon

that the candidate be

faculty

Thursday, February 28, the

the Limits of Validity of Classical

along with

mended

On

The

a trial lecture.

did not keep

it.

thesis

To

the

was returned to him

judge by

its title, it

same mail

as the

at Aegertenstrasse.

must have been

a prelimi-

nary study for work to be published the following year. 10

Even before the formal proceedings, Einstein had

to spend a class

to

his

to

I

on lecturing

.

.

.

will

be optimally used,

i.e. I

would

like to

run

adapted to the degree of knowledge and the interests of the stu-

dents.” 11

While the professor and

the privatdozent very quickly agreed

on the delimitation between the main this

be understood

— whose lectures own colloquia were supplement— that he was anxious that “the time that have

by Professor Gruner represent a

let it

lectures and Einstein’s class

—the

conversation taking place at the tourist cafe Chalet Bovet

“knowledge and

interests” of the

quite another question. In his

few physics students in Bern were

first class in

the

summer semester

of

The New Copernicus

238

1908 Einstein had an audience of exactly three 12

—and these were not

students but his loyal friends from the Patent Office, Michele Besso »\

and Heinrich Schenk; and Lucien Chavan from the Postal and Telegraph Administration.

On

Tuesday and Saturday of each week, they

had to get up early and climb up the Grosse Schanze, where Einstein

would begin the

morning so

class

(on “molecular theory of heat”) at seven in the

that he and his colleagues could start

Office at eight.

Chavan

at least, as

is

shown by

written in French, 13 did not miss a single

In the winter semester, Einstein

from this

six to

more

seven o’clock, his topic

his meticulous notes,

his class to the evening,

were joined by

a

genuine

Stern from Lithuania; but he was not a physicist but a

student of insurance mathematics with an interest in science.

summer

the 1909

Patent

being “radiation theory.” At

civilized time, the three friends

Max

student,

at the

class.

moved

now

work

semester, the three friends

pursue their education under Einstein,

Max

When,

no longer chose

in

to

Stern remained his only

student. Einstein thereupon canceled the class.

The

circle

of friends of the newly appointed privatdozent was soon

joined by Johann Jakob Laub,

who

arrived in

Bern

in

March 1908 and

would henceforward pride himself on being Einstein’s

t

H. December

19 19 nr. 50

€ Inzc pr9 i

Berliner

fees

28 Jafjrgang .

fj

e

f

»

ts

25 Pfg.

Jllulfrirte 3cituna

brfiVn nit&

10.

“A

New

fturfdiiiiitKH

rim>

Sen Ifrlcimutlffrii

Giant

in

uiiillfle

ti Mi's

llmumljimn itiifmr

Jleptriiltut,

‘JlnnirlH'lruditinifl

SUpIcr un&

World History

.

.

.

bcOtulv

i

".'tcwlon rtlriftnmlifl fin#.

whose researches mean

complete overthrow of our views of nature,” 1919.

a

1

1.

Lecturing

at the

College de France, Paris, 1922

12. Einstein

about 1920,

theory of relativity.

a

time of intense public interest in the

13.

With Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, who was

father figure.

Einstein’s scientific

14.

With

his

second wife, Elsa, in Berlin, 1921.

From "Bad Joke”

The

to “Herr Professor

concepts of space and time which

sprung from an experimental physical

Their tendency

by

is

a radical one.

wish to present to you have

I

soil.

Therein

lies their

Henceforward space by shadows, and only

itself will totally decline into

a

itself

strength.

and time

kind of union of

The man who

the two shall preserve independence.” 38 cally

243

so bombasti-

prepared his audience for the epoch-making significance of his

exposition

whose

was Hermann Minkowski, the famous mathematician

young Einstein had avoided

lectures at the Zurich Polytechnic

but whose

class

on

analytical

mechanics he had appreciated

theoretical lecture there. In 1902

Minkowski had been

tingen to a chair specially created for

There Minkowski subscribed

Hilbert.

masters of Gottingen mathematics

him

Got-

invited to

at the insistence

to the belief of the

only

as the

of David

two grand

— Felix Klein and Hilbert—that the

fundamentals of physics were really too

difficult for physicists

and

should be handled by mathematicians.

Such

a

mind could not long overlook

trodynamics of

Moving

Bodies. Jointly

nized a few seminars on

Einstein’s paper

On

the Elec-

with Hilbert, Minkowski orga-

new developments

in electrodynamics in

1907-1908, which were followed by a lecture in Gottingen and publications of high quality.

he observed to

As

for the paper of his erstwhile student,

Max Born: “I really wouldn’t have thought that!” 39 Max Born even reported that Minkowski

had told him of his “great shock when Einstein published

which the equivalence of relative to each other

his

paper in

different local times of observers

moving

was pronounced;

for

he had reached the same

conclusions independently but did not publish to

There

work out

is

few

his assistant

Einstein capable of

first

a

them because he wished

the mathematical structure in

no evidence

at all

all

its

splendor.” 40

of “same conclusions”; one can excuse the

statement only by Minkowski’s tendency to confuse physics with

mathemadcs. That he should have discovered anything of relativity independent of and before Einstein

is

like the

theory

very doubtful.

But there could be no doubt about the glory of the mathematical structure

which Minkowksi had found

theory of relativity and which he flood of words.

now

in

and extracted from the

presented to his audience in

Minkowski presented not only

a

new and

a

exceedingly

elegant form of Einstein’s theory, but simultaneously a highly stylized

The New Copernicus

244

among

vocabulary which would earn relativity theory special notice physicists

and more generally.

of “world points” that life

He

made up

spoke, for example of a multiplicity

the “world,” within which the “eternal

of the substantial point” formed a “world line.” Einstein’s principle

of relativity was rededicated as the “postulate of the absolute world.”

For the

first

relations

time in the context of relativity theory, he stated that “the

under review only unfold their inner being of great simplicity

in four dimensions,”

and the mystical

was heightened by the

thrill

of the “fourth dimension”

fact that in this concept,

time figures as an

imaginary coordinate.

Minkowski concluded balance sheet:

would

“The

his address

absolute validity of the world postulate

like to believe, the true

ture, first hit

his

is,

if

not

all

as I

core of an electromagnetic world pic-

by Lorentz, further carved out by Einstein, and now

exposed .” 41 Even

between

with an apodictically formulated

his listeners

fully

were able to follow what came

programmatic introduction and

his definitive conclusion,

they probably gained the impression that here a

new

physics had been

born, cerebrally, out of mathematics, without recourse to experiments

and relying

solely, as

mony between Only tivity

a

Minkowksi assured them, on

“prestabilized har-

pure mathematics and physics.”

few of Minkowski’s listeners would have realized that

theory was here running a risk of being deprived of

foundations, but

among

theory of relativity

it

physical

those few was Jakob Laub. Having studied the

at its source,

he acquainted himself, on

Wurzburg, with Minkowski’s work and was astonished siasm

its

rela-

his return to

at the

enthu-

was arousing, especially on the part of the mathematician

Matthias Cantor.

If Einstein’s

work were not

available,

he wrote to

Bern, “we would find ourselves with Minkowski’s transformation equations for time

(as far as

the physical interpretation

is

the same situation, at best, as with Lorentz’s ‘local time.’

concerned) in ” 42

Minkowski’s torrents of words and his concept of four-dimensional space-time did not, from a physical point of view, offer anything new,

compared with Treating time

as

Einstein’s

theory or indeed even with Lorentz’s.

an imaginary magnitude

is

merely

a

mathematical

device which illustrates certain analogies between the three spatial

coordinates on the one hand and time on the other, and which makes

From “Bad Joke” it

to "Herr Professor”

245

possible for the Lorentz transformations of relativity theory to

be represented in scribed with the

a

four-dimensional Euclidian space and to be de-

same mathematics developed

for rotations in a three-

dimensional space. Even Minkowski’s dramatically emphasized “union” of space and time should be “relativized” inasmuch as the transformation equations

do not allow

for confusion

between the two:

a

time

coordinate always remains recognizable as such.

When,

few months

a

later,

Einstein read Minkowski’s lecture in the

February issue of Physikalische

Zeitschrift

he was not impressed by

and he regarded the four-dimensional formulation erudition.” 43

He

it

“superfluous

credibly reported to have said with a sigh: “Since

is

the mathematicians

understand

as

it,

pounced on the

relativity

theory

no longer

I

myself.” 44 Later, he poked fun at the mystical frisson of

the “fourth dimension” as a “sensation not unlike that of a ghost in the theater.

And

familiar

world

no statement can be more banal than

yet, is

four-dimensional time-space continuum.” 45

a

Minkowski’s four-dimensional presentation had been only

If

matter of elegance,

makers

—

a

it

could have been

during his

him-

efforts, in 1912, to generalize his relativity theory.

Now

was to discover

as “superfluous erudition”

but paid tribute to the “important idea, without which the theory of relativity might have remained stuck in

was not able

months

it

for

usefulness, as Einstein

he no longer saw Minkowski’s formulations

stein

a

the tailors and shoe-

left to

dictum of Boltzmann’s often quoted by Einstein. But

combined elegance and self

that our

after the

to express his gratitude to

Cologne

its

.

.

.

general

diapers.” 46 Ein-

Minkowski

in person; four

lecture, at the age of forty-four,

Hermann

Minkowski died of appendicitis. After the Cologne meeting the question was being asked

more how much longer stein’s

the “bad joke” in Bern could continue. Ein-

former fellow student Kollros

meeting

—

in April

Rome, he was

1908

strolling

more and

—

recalls

how

even well before that

at the International Physicists’

Congress

in

through the gardens of the Villa d’Este with

Lorentz and Minkowski: “Both of them acknowledged the great importance of the ideas introduced by the twenty-six-year-old scientist.” 47

Minkowski’s lecture in Cologne made

it

even clearer that Ein-

The New Copernicus

246

than in

stein

belonged in

culty

was that there was then no vacancy for

In the still

ties

a university rather

a

patent office.

The

diffi-

a physicist in his specialty.

decade of the twentieth century theoretical physics had

first

not quite “come of age” in the academic world. 48 At most universi-

was represented by “extraordinary”

it

whose

professors,

status

they came under the

Few

modestly. fessor

(who

full

is,

nontenured

“full” professor

of physics;

professor administratively and were paid only

universities could afford, in addition to the full pro-

in that case

second, equal

was below that of a

—that

was called professor of experimental physics),

a

professor, the professor of theoretical physics. Berlin

full

and Gottingen did have such an arrangement, though,

when Arnold Sommerfeld was appointed

as did

Munich

The young

in 1906.

privat-

dozent from Bern would have been an ideal choice for one of the nontenured professorships of theoretical physics, but there were barely

two dozen such posts these were it

filled.

The

in the

German-speaking countries, and

all

of

only exception was the University of Zurich, but

had no actual vacancy; the establishment of a nontenured professor-

ship remained to be wrested

from the

authorities.

Only

after involved

arguments was the post created and Einstein invited to take

Professor Alfred Kleiner in Zurich had been trying for a

it.

number of

years to lighten his teaching load by having a theoretical physicist

appointed.

He

had met with opposition from the cantonal education

authorities; but

when Paul Gruner was

nontenured professor, Kleiner rekindled authorities in Zurich

invited to his

Bern

in

1906

hope that even the

might now see the need for

a

as a

thrifty

second professor of

physics.

What former

is

more, Kleiner already had

—

candidate for the post

his

who in the meantime had found an German Museum in Munich. Kleiner persuaded

assistant Friedrich Adler,

interesting job at the

Adler to return to Zurich and saw to tation right

lished,

a

away, in

December

it

1906. 49

that Adler obtained his Habili-

The

post was slow to be estab-

even though the Social Democrat members of the Education

Council were eager to bring Adler to the university rade.” But

when,

in the winter semester of

as its first

“com-

1908-1909, Kleiner was

From "Bad Joke” elected rector of the university,

to "Herr Professor

looked

it

as if the

247

new

professorship

would soon be authorized.

man

between becoming

many

had always

vacillated

a physicist, a philosopher, or a politician.

His father

Friedrich Adler, a

was urging him toward

of

talents,

a professorship in physics,

own

while his

nations were in the other two directions. Adler believed that

if

incli-

he was

given the professorship he would be able to follow his philosophical interests rather than physics. It

is

likely that Kleiner gradually

came

to

the conclusion that Adler might not turn out to be a fully committed

him of

physicist and would, therefore, not relieve

workload

June

he had hoped. At any

as

rate, in a

1908, recorded by Adler from

19,

much

as

of his

tortuous conversation on

memory, 50 the professor

informed Adler that he would probably not be heading the

of can-

list

didates.

possible that influential people

It is also

Kleiner that he should consider another

had

tions

lately

may have

scientist,

aroused a lot of attention. Adler

suggested to

one whose publica-

named him

in a letter

written to his father that same day:

I

who

forgot to say

who on

will

principle and

most

likely get the professorship

will,

man by

name of

it

rather than myself, and

whom

and with

I

Einstein, I

who was

is

and on the other

Germany,

Office.

.

expect,

it is

all

.

.

a fine

what one wants

a

it is felt

that a

man

it

way they

like that

thing that this

and

.

.

.

is

a

same

For the

treated

him

in the

to be a scandal, not only here but

Objectively therefore,

difficulties,

A few

he gets

of course that, on the one hand,

they have a bad conscience about the

also in

if

a student at the

attended several lectures.

people involved the situation

past,

man

apart from any awkwardness, be very pleased. This [the]

time as

a

from the point of view of the people

involved, should certainly get it I

—

if

should

sit

in the Patent

the business goes the

man

way

I

has asserted himself despite

strengthens one’s belief that one can do

to do. 51

days later Einstein’s class on “molecular theory of heat” had

fourth person in the audience, his former supervisor Professor

The New Copernicus

248 Kleiner. Kleiner had

Laub: “That day

come

I really

“to inspect the beast,” as Einstein wrote to

—partly because

did not lecture wonderfully-

I

had not prepared myself well and partly because the situation of being inspected was getting on

my

When

nerves.” 52

Kleiner

made some

remarks about Einstein’s teaching, the candidate agreed and

critical

added that irritated,

“after

all,

they need not have invited me.” 53

no longer had

The

professor,

that intention anyway; and Friedrich Adler

reported to his father that, according to Kleiner, Einstein was “a long

way from being

therefore has changed, and the Einstein business

Einstein heard about

it

The

he holds monologues.

a teacher, that

he reacted

professorship has fallen through.

stoically:

There

closed.” 54

is

“The

situation

When

business with the

enough school-

are quite

masters even without me.” 55

His stoicism, however, ended when he learned from Laub that Kleiner’s

impression

of the

through the academic grapevine:

“I

in a letter for spreading unfavorable

my

had reached Wurzburg

“visitation”

now

seriously reproached Kleiner

rumors about me, thereby making

difficult position a definitive one.

Because such

a

rumor must

kill

any hope of getting into university teaching.” 56 Kleiner meanwhile,

we know from

Friedrich Adler, had

must propose Einstein

come around

in the first place, because

to the

as

view “that he

he could only make

a

proposal that would get through, and everyone was astonished that Einstein that he

still

had no position.” 57 Kleiner therefore informed Einstein

would gladly

invite

him

to Zurich provided Einstein could first

convince him that he had some talent

On

as a teacher.

Einstein’s suggestion, therefore, a lecture

was arranged

at the

Physikalische Gesellschaft (Physics Society) in Zurich, and in mid-

February 1909 Einstein

out for

set

this

“exam.”

colleague Ehrat and Ehrat’s mother could put

“One

is

far less

He

was glad that

him up

at their

aware of one’s life-and-death situation than

if

his

home:

one has

among strangers.” 58 This time the candidate met This is how Einstein summed it up for Laub: “I was

to blunder about

with approval.

really lucky. Totally against

my usual

habit

return to Bern, he wrote to Ehrat: “There

we

will

Kleiner,

many more on

whom

I

times called

sit

I is

lectured well.” 59 After his

now

a real

prospect that

comfortably together, because the stern

on Friday, expressed himself very benevo-

From “Bad Joke”

my

lently about the result of

to “Herr Professor”

249

‘exam’ and hinted that certain things

would probably follow soon.” 60 Kleiner immediately requested riculum vitae from Einstein and inquired

a cur-

he would be able to

if

start

the following semester. Einstein said that he would, “without having officially

league

informed myself on

this point.

But

I

know

that a former col-

month after giving notice.” 61 However, the not come through in time for the 1909 summer

the Office one

left

appointment did

semester, because overcoming

all

kinds of opposition within the

Zurich bureaucracy took some time.

The stein.

“stern Kleiner” immediately

Needless to

say,

composed

he emphasized that

his assessment of Ein-

his candidate

was “one of

the most important theoretical physicists” of the day “since his treatise

on the that.”

relativity principle

More

cations, in

original

[was]

fairly universally

remarkable

and

ideas,

a

in the conception

profundity aiming at the elemental. Also

the clarity and precision of his style; in

is

as

was Kleiner’s characterization of Einstein’s publi-

which he saw “an extraordinary acuteness

and pursuit of

acknowledged

man

has created a special language, which in a

many respects he

of thirty

is

a clear sign

of independence and maturity.” 62 Only on Einstein’s ability as a teacher was Kleiner reluctant to pass a final judgment, though he

expressed the belief “that Dr. Einstein will prove his worth also as a teacher, because he

open

to advice

is

too intelligent and too conscientious not to be

whenever necessary.”

This recommendation was received by the faculty commission

up

for

set

appointment of the new Extraordinarius the nontenured pro,

The commission had nine names before it. Friedrich Adler was even considered. The commission inclined toward Walter Ritz, a

fessor.

not

privatdozent in Gottingen, “because he

is

Swiss and, in the judgment

of our colleague Kleiner, exhibits ‘an exceptional talent, bordering on genius/

” 63

Ritz,

however, had to be excluded from consideration

because he was incurably

ill

with tuberculosis. 64

Thus everything now

pointed to Einstein.

On March ence Section

4,

II

1909, a secret ballot

among

the

full

professors of Sci-

of the Department of Philosophy produced ten votes

in favor of Einstein

and one abstention.

The

result

was immediately

passed on for confirmation to the director of education of the canton

The New Copernicus

250

of Zurich, along with some remarks, evidently considered useful, on Einstein’s Jewish origin. In these, the professors revealed the

creet anti-Semitism

then typical of academic

65 ,

were evidently trying to counteract. Kleiner,

circles,

same

dis-

which they

had

in his judgment,

emphasized that “about the personal character of Dr. Einstein nothing but the best reports are

known

made by

all

who know him .” 66 He

himself had

Einstein socially for six years and was “unhesitatingly prepared

to have

him

my

as a colleague in

supplement to

immediate proximity.” As

a

kind of

this character reference, the dean, Professor Stoll,

an

anthropologist, had this to say:

The above remarks by our colleague Kleiner, based as they are on many years of personal contact, were the more valuable to the commission, and indeed to the department Dr. Einstein

is

an

Israelite,

and

as a

whole, as Herr

as the Israelites are credited

scholars with a variety of disagreeable character

traits,

among

such

as

importunateness, impertinence, a shopkeeper’s mind in their

understanding of their academic position, cases with

that

some

among the

On

justification.

etc.,

and

the other hand,

Israelites, too, there are

in

it

men without

of these unpleasant characteristics and that

it

numerous

may be even

said

a trace

would therefore not

man merely because he happens among non-Jewish scientists there

be appropriate to disqualify a to be a Jew. After

all,

are occasionally people

even

who, with regard to

a mercantile

under-

standing of their academic profession, display attitudes which one is

otherwise accustomed to regard as specifically “Jewish.”

Neither the commission, nor the department therefore thought

Semitism”

it

compatible with

as a principle

on

its

as a

whole,

dignity to write “anti-

its

banner, and the information which

our colleague Herr Kleiner was able to furnish on Herr Dr. Einstein has put

our minds completely

at rest 67 .

Despite the extremely carefully formulated proposal, there was massive opposition to Einstein in the Directorate of Education

however, because of anti-Semitism but on Social Democrats,

who

political

—

grounds.

not,

The

held the Directorate of Education in the can-

tonal administration, were bitterly disappointed that anyone other

From "Bad Joke”

to "Herr Professor”

251

than their comrade Friedrich Adler should have been proposed by the university. Adler, for his part,

was in the awkward position of being

favored by his political friends in the administration, but not by the

oscillated for

—which

we have seen) had some time between mechanics, Mach, and Marx were

professor or the faculty. His interests

(as

—

gradually turning toward Marx; and he decided to put an end to the

which had been going on over

affair,

gesture,

by

telling

He

a year.

did so with a grand

everyone that Albert Einstein from Bern was the

better physicist and therefore should get the professorship.

There remained some problems with

salary. In line

with their

custom, the Zurich authorities wanted to give the nontenured pro-

gymnasium

fessor a salary significantly lower than that of a

teacher.

This would have been about half of what Einstein had been receiving Patent Office. Einstein remained inflexible on this point, and he

at the

“My pay is roughly the same as give me a lot less, but in that

got his way:

at the Office. Initially

wanted to

case

out.” 68

hours

On a

I

they

would have bowed

the other hand, he had to undertake to teach six to eight

week, 69 although nontenured professors, according to the

Zurich education law, had to teach only four to

On May

1909, by which time the

7,

six

hours.

summer semester was

in full

swing, Einstein was appointed by the Governmental Council of the

Canton of Zurich,

for the period of six years

customary for nontenured

professors, with a salary of 4,500 francs, plus “listener” and “examina-

He

tion” fees due under the regulations.

was

to

assume

his position at

the beginning of the winter semester on October 15, 1909. “So

am

an

official

now

I

of the guild of whores” 70 was his bitter summing-up of

the prolonged and annoying stage details, his

affair. If

he had known of

all

the back-

comment would have been even more vehement.

Before Einstein took up his professorship, he received an honorary degree. This, too, did not

come

to pass without incident, but

an innocent and comical nature, later:

“One day

I

as

received a large envelope at the Patent Office, con-

some words

even believe in Latin) which seemed to

interest,

basket.” 71

and therefore landed

Only

was of

he himself recalled four decades

taining an elegant sheet of paper with (I

it

later did

at

once

he learn that

this

in picturesque print

me

impersonal and of

in

the official wastepaper

was an invitation to

little

a cele-

The New Copernicus

252 bration

on July

founding of

8 of the 350th anniversary of Calvin’s

Geneva University and

on

that,

this festive occasion,

When

awarded an honorary doctorate.

there was

he was to be

no response from

Bern, the Genevans got their fellow citizen Louis Chavan to persuade Einstein to travel to Geneva, without Einstein’s having any clear idea

of what awaited him there:

So

I left

on the proper day and already

that evening

met

Zurich professors in the restaurant of the hostelry where

accommodated. come.

When

I

.

.

.

kept

to confess that

I

Everyone explained

had not the

with me.

I

My proposal

As

it

I

was

to

march

in

only had a straw hat and an informal suit that

I

would dodge

was firmly

it

a droll

rejected,

course as far as

my

was concerned.

was raining

heavily, the festive procession

streets of the old city to the as “rather

had

I

But the others were

following day

and the ceremony accordingly took participation

what capacity they had

in

faintest idea.

The

informed and briefed me. the procession, and

we were

they put the question to me, and

silent,

few

a

Cathedral of

St.

through the narrow

Pierre struck one reporter

too quiet and like a funeral cortege,” 72 but there was no

mention of

a

man

among all the dignitaries of office, who had arrived from

in a straw hat

gowns, uniforms, and chains

in their

the four

corners of the earth. During the subsequent ceremony at Victoria Hall,

Geneva concert

the richly decorated

Neuve, there was

a kind of

hall

behind the Place

academic mass baptism, during which no

fewer than 110 honorary doctorates were handed out. thus honored were

some of

stein.

He

probably owed his

at

a certain

Goschenen

first

Ernst Zahn,

a dialect

— and of course Albert Ein-

doctorate (honoris causa) to Charles

Eugene Guye, professor of physics

in

Geneva,

who had

investigated

the velocity-dependence of beta rays and in that context had

come

those

the great figures of science, like Marie

Curie and Wilhelm Ostwald, but also poet and station restaurateur

Among

no doubt

across the theory of relativity.

Einstein described the conclusion of the day as follows:

The

celebration ended with the

have attended in

my entire

most opulent

life. I

said to a

festive repast that I

Genevan

patrician

who

From "Bad Joke”

“Do you know what

next to me:

sat

were

here?”

still

opinion,

to "Herr Professor”

When

253

Calvin would have done

if

he shook his head and asked for

he

my

“He would have built a huge stake and burnt us all gluttony.” The man did not say another word and

I said:

for our sinful

thus ends

my recollection

Immediately before

of that memorable celebration.

Geneva, on July

this short trip to

1909,

6,

Einstein had handed in his notice at the Patent Office, effective

from October

15.

Haller placed on record that the Expert

“performed highly valued

services.

However, Herr Einstein

Office.

His departure

is

a

II

Class had

loss

to the

that teaching and scientific

feels

research are his real profession, and for that reason the Director of the

made no attempt

Office

to bind

him

to the Office

by better

financial

arrangements.” 73

As

for his “real profession,”

March

the middle of

come

to

Bern

to see

a

name of Ayao Kuwaki had admittedly, from Tokyo but from

Japanese by the

him

—not,

where since 1907 he had been studying under the most famous

Berlin,

physicists.

He

did not

want

The meeting must

stein.

he must have been pleased that about

to return to Japan without having

have been

because Kuwaki’s

success,

a

journey was taking him through Paris and Einstein

met Ein-

commended him

to

the care of Solovine “in the belief that you are sure to enjoy meeting

him.” 74 Kuwaki, Einstein’s

first

a future

professor at the University of Fukuoka, was

contact with Japan, whose physicists would soon

important contributions to

relativity theory.

Although Einstein owed and

his

his professorship, his

growing reputation to

any regrets,

left it to

work with

his relativity theory,

honorary degree, he now, without

other scientists while he himself devoted

energies to radiation theory playful

make

his “little

— along

all

his

with his by no means merely

machine.”

“I

am

ceaselessly concerned

with the constitution of radiation,” 75 he wrote to Laub,

who had mean-

while joined Philipp Lenard in Heidelberg. “This quantum question is

so enormously important and difficult that everybody should

on

work

it.”

Einstein was not alone in this view. In his lecture at the International

Congress of Physicists

in

Rome

in April 1908,

Lorentz had

first

The New Copernicus

254 suggested that

it

would not be possible

formula into the Maxwellian

to integrate Planck’s radiation

field theory,

and that

“more revolutionary” than Planck would wish

number of years

to

come Planck was

it

was therefore

Although for

to admit.

a

reluctant to recognize his formula

beginning of the end of classical physics, and particularly reluc-

as the

tant to follow Einstein’s views, his conviction

began to crumble

in

1908. Nothing, or not much, of this appeared in Planck’s publications,

but

was reflected

it

correspondence with Lorentz and

in his extensive

with Wien.

From

his position at the Patent Office, Einstein

debate in a survey paper,

this

On

had taken part

the Present State of the Radiation

Problem. As soon as he received his offprints, he sent one to

Lorentz in Leyden,

as “the

modest

in

Hendrik A.

result of several years’ reflections. I

have not succeeded in penetrating to a real understanding of the matter.” 76 Unlike Planck, criticized for “finding

who “made

and

per,” 77 Lorentz

it

totally

whom

Einstein, despite his great respect,

difficult to enter into the

wrong

objections to

arguments of others”

[his]

last radiation

pa-

must have replied most sympathetically. Not only was

this the start

of an “exceedingly interesting correspondence,” 78 but

from then on,

albeit at first

only in writing, Lorentz became Einstein’s

scientific father figure. 79

All

through the summer, Einstein worked on

“You can hardly imagine,” he complained pains

the

I

have taken to think up

quantum

it.” 80

theory. So

He would

had to give

also

his first

far,

a satisfying

however,

I

to

his radiation theory.

Johannes Stark, “what

mathematical execution of

have not been successful with

have liked to produce something

definitive, as

he

major lecture in September. But even without

breakthrough in quantum theory, his appearance convention in Salzburg was

a

memorable

at the

a

Naturforscher

event, both for Einstein’s

reputation as the most important physicist of the younger generation

and for the history of physics.

Only Bern.

a

Now

handful of his younger colleagues had visited Einstein in every physicist, including the top names, had an opportu-

nity in Salzburg to “take a closer look at the beast.” Einstein in turn

was able

to

meet

his

correspondents face to

face:

the universally

respected Planck and Sommerfeld, for instance, as well as

some

From "Bad Joke” younger

scientists. 81

to “Herr Professor”

And he must have

Zeiss

Works

in Jena,

scopic methods, to

by projecting

make

on

it

was

enjoyed the deliberately crowd-

Henry

pleasing opening address, in which

Siedentopf, of the Carl

with his newly developed ultramicro-

able,

the Brownian

movement

At the center of

a wall.

255

impressively visible

interest,

“problems of radioactivity on the one hand and the

however, were

relativity principle

on the other.” 82 Einstein could very easily have allowed himself to be lionized as the

founder of the

accordance with academic

relativity principle and, in

custom, could have shown his thanks by

a

comprehensive lecture on

the subject. Indeed, Planck had probably invited intention. 83

But that was not Einstein’s

similar occasions in the future. In the

lecture

was On

tivity Principle)

the

style, either in

now left

just that

Salzburg or on

words of Max Born (whose own

Dynamics of the Electron

Einstein

him with

in the Kinematics of the Rela-

relativity “to lesser prophets.” 84

Einstein himself chose instead the theme on which, in his belief,

“everyone should work,” The Nature and Constitution of Radiation

The assembled creme

de

la

creme of scholarship, who had come

85 ,

to

hear him on the afternoon of September 21, was assured that

we

are

.

.

.

standing at the beginning of a not yet assessable

but undoubtedly most significant development. to present tions,

is

largely

confidence in

them

my own

about

personal opinion, or the result of reflec-

which have not yet been adequately

nevertheless present

other

my

What I am

here, this

views, but to

among you may be induced

is

verified

by others.

If I

due not to an excessive

my

hope that one or the

to concern himself with these

problems. 86

These words

reveal a

lot: his

typical

modesty, combined with

a

decent

reference to his scientific existence on the periphery, outside the universities,

and to the widespread disregard of his work on radiation and

quantum theory

— but

also an attempt to point his colleagues in appro-

priate directions.

Right

at the

beginning, he set out his conviction

with considerable opposition

— that

stood and described solely as

a

light could

—which

still

met

no longer be under-

wave phenomenon, but

that, at the

same time, something “It

New Copernicus

The

256

like a

granular structure must be ascribed to

cannot be denied that there

facts

which show that

exists a large

group of radiation-related fundamental properties

light possesses certain

which can much more

easily

it:

be understood from the standpoint of

Newtonian emission theory than from the standpoint of wave theory.” For the

ment

future,

he ventured to predict that “the next phase of develop-

in theoretical physics will bring us a theory of light that will be

wave theory

susceptible to being understood as a kind of fusion of the

and the emission theory of

light.”

This

announcement of the combination of ticle,

an interpretation which would

may be

light as

wave and

He

first

light as par-

developed quantum

later, in fully

mechanics, be called “complementarity.”

seen as the

saw the aim and purpose

of his lecture as the argument “that a far-reaching change in our concepts of the nature and constitution of light

Of

indispensable .” 87

course, Einstein also referred to relativity theory, but only to

the extent that the inevitable.

The

abandonment of a pure wave theory of light seemed

abolition of the ether in relativity theory had already

“changed ideas on the nature of light in so light as a

sequence of

states

rived a second

far as it

does not und erstand

of a hypothetical medium, but instead as

something existing independently,

whose

is

just like

matter .” 88 Einstein de-

argument from the equivalence of energy and mass,

relationship he once

more

briefly

developed for his

listeners, in

order to attach the conclusion that this “something existing independently like matter” shares with a “particle theory of light the characteristic

of transferring inert mass from the emitting to the absorbing

body .” 89 After these preliminaries, he turned to radiation theory proper and

demonstrated to

his

audience that a direction has to be ascribed not

only to the absorption of radiation but also to

its

emission

contradiction of the Maxwellian theory that radiation

is

—in direct

emitted as a

spherical wave. Einstein demonstrated, moreover, not only that the

concept of energy quanta made

it

possible to derive Planck’s radiation

formula, but that from the validity of that formula necessarily followed a

quantum

structure

of radiation, and that, in consequence, the

Maxwellian equations could no longer be regarded

Hardly anyone, however, was prepared

as strictly correct.

to follow Einstein this far.

From "Bad Joke”

to "Herr Professor”

257

In the discussion which followed, his only supporter was Johannes Stark. Planck, representing the majority view,

was reluctant

with the greatest respect for Einstein’s achievement light

give

—though

— “to assume the

waves themselves to be atomistically constituted, and hence to

up the Maxwellian equations. This seems

my opinion,

is

to

me

a step

which, in

not yet necessary .” 90

Even though Einstein was unable

to convince either the authorities

or his younger colleagues by his bold outline of a future radiation theory, his

first

appearance before

achievement received

scientists .” 91 stein’s

And

a

its

few decades

major audience of physicists was

Max Born

nevertheless a complete success. stein’s

a

felt

that in Salzburg “Ein-

seal before the

later, it

assembled world of

would become

clear that Ein-

Salzburg lecture, in Wolfgang Pauli’s words, could be “seen as

one of the turning points

in the evolution of theoretical physics .” 92

CHAPTER FOURTEEN Professor

in

Zurich

In mid-October, in time

for the start of the semester, Albert Ein-

stein arrived in Zurich, with

Mileva and their son Hans Albert. In the

move he had overlooked

excitement of the

army

the police and

malities associated with removal to a different canton,

for-

and he therefore

mailed his “service book” and residence permit to Lucien Chavan with a request to notify the

Bern police and the

district

army headquarters

of his change of residence. “Things have started moving here,”

wrote to

my new

his friend in Bern. “I like

position a

lot.

But

1

he it’s

exhausting work.”

The at

moved

Einsteins

to the middle floor of a three-story building

Moussonstrasse 12 on the slope of the Ziirichberg, the

looking the

was

city. It

in the

Institute of the Polytechnic

on Ramistrasse dred yards

69,

down

are

immediate neighborhood of the Physical

and also close to the university’s

which Einstein could reach by

the Glorias trasse.

surprise that the Adlers

strolling a

On moving in,

had an apartment

in the

on very good terms with Einstein, who

lives

institute

few hun-

they found to their

same building. above

a

.

.

.

Bohemian household

“We

us, and, as it

happens, we’re closer to them than any of the other academics.

run

over-

hill

They

our own],” 2 Friedrich Adler re-

[like

ported to his father. Hans Albert and the Adlers’ daughter, Assinka,

became

friends

crowd of eight too

much

and would play

garden or in the street with a

in the

to ten children of their

for the parents, they could

turbed discussions. “The more

wrote in the same

letter,

“the

I

more

own

age.

When

withdraw to an

the noise got

attic for

talk to Einstein,” Friedrich I

258

realize that

my favorable

undis-

Adler

opinion

— Professor of him was

Among today’s

justified.

Zurich

in

259

physicists his

not only one of the

is

clearest,

but also one of the most independent minds, and

selves in

agreement on questions which the majority of other

we

find ourphysicists

would not even understand.” Following his sabbatical leave during the summer semester, Adler

was standing

in for the Ordinarius the ,

head of the department,

who

in

turn was substituting for the Rektor, the principal. In consequence,

Adler gave

a

number of lucrative freshman went with them,

ratory workshops that

now

lectures, as well as the labo-

so that the

two neighbors were

also colleagues. Einstein gave a four-hour lecture, “Introduction

to Mechanics,” attended

by seventeen students;

a

two-hour

“Thermodynamics,” attended by nineteen students; and “Physical Seminar”

on

a

class,

one-hour

problems of research, attended by

topical

twelve students.

“My new Jakob Laub.

profession “I

am on

is

my liking,” he reported to with my students and hope I’ll

much

very

to

very close terms

new professor being made on me. I am

be able to give some ideas to some of them.” 3 But the also discovered that “very great

taking lot

my lectures

demands

are

very seriously, which means that

I

have to devote

a

of time to preparation. Six hours a week plus one evening seminar

may not sound

too bad, but

a lot.” 4

it is

“my

Besso in Bern he observed that

Bern. But one learns a lot doing regretfully that

expected.” 6

He

added,

“It’s

due to

To

greater

my

a

postcard to his friend

really free time

it.” 5

“my new post makes

On

less

is

than in

Sommerfeld, too, he

said

demands on me than

had

poor memory,

I

as well as to the

now I had concerned myself with my subject merely as This may have been taken as a kind of fishing for compli-

fact that until

an amateur.” ments, but

it

probably meant no more than that in the past he had

practiced physics as a hobby,

gave his

official

on December

much

inaugural lecture

1 1,

on The

At the lectern Einstein taught in Bern as

a

—

like

playing the violin. Einstein

his first

but by no means his

Role ofAtomic Theory in the

really

was

a

beginner.

privatdozent to

a

The two

He

was well aware of that, and

Physics

classes

.

he had

handful of his friends could

hardly be considered training for the demands of course.

New

last

a

major university

for this reason did not

want

to

The New Copernicus

260 write a

book about

ence so

far, it

“As

relativity theory:

I

have

would be downright irresponsible

obligations until I’ve

become more

teaching experi-

little

familiar with

to undertake further

my new profession .”

As for the time-consuming preparations mentioned by Einstein letters, his

no evidence of

students certainly saw

later recalled that “the entire

7

in his

Hans Tanner

these:

manuscript he carried with him consisted

of a scrap of paper the size of a visiting card, on which he had outlined the ground he intended to cover with us .” 8

Tanner was the only

dent to take his doctor’s degree under Einstein, and of all his lectures Actually,

at

stu-

a regular attender

Zurich University.

Tanner regarded the scanty notes

an advantage,

as

because “Einstein had to develop everything out of himself, so that gained a direct insight into his working technique. able to witness the often curious paths along

which

.

.

We were

.

we

thus

a scientific result

is

sometimes reached.” This kind of participation in the creative process of science

may not

always have been easy for students accustomed to

pedagogically structured, methodical teaching; but any problems of

comprehension were mitigated by the

what

in those days

was

a totally unprofessorial

relationship with his students

revered teacher, Sommerfeld.

—

just

Thus

as

this

and indeed informal

he had promised

we

asked a

silly

own

whenever something

academic method proved successful:

was not long,” Tanner reports, “before we abandoned case

his

Einstein encouraged his students

to ask questions at any time during his lecture,

was unclear to them, and

had

fact that Professor Einstein

all

“It

shyness in

question.”

In the audience at the thermodynamics lecture, which was intended for advanced students,

was

also

Adolf Fisch,

who had

graduated from

the cantonal school in Aarau along with Einstein, had subsequently

studied at the “Poly,” and recalls that “Einstein

now was

a teacher in

Winterthur. Fisch

took great trouble to offer the students some-

thing of substance and something new.

He

kept asking

if

he was being

understood. During the breaks he would be surrounded by

women

students anxious to ask questions, and he would patiently and

kindly try to answer them .” 9 after his

custom

men and

The atmosphere was

evening seminar. Right from the to proceed to the Terrasse cafe

first

particularly informal

semester,

it

became

his

on the Bellevue, where the

Professor

Limmat

261

Lake Zurich, and continue discussions there

leaves

closing time. Arnold

young

Zurich

in

until

Sommerfeld would have been pleased with

this

professor.

Einstein’s relations with his colleagues

He must

were

also entirely amicable.

have been relieved to find that Alfred Kleiner, formerly

his

doctoral supervisor and now, as Ordinarius his superior, was putting ,

no

difficulties in his

way. “Kleiner

is

odd but

tolerable,” 10

Besso; and to

Laub he even described Kleiner

He’s treating

me

me.” 11

Two

and

like a friend

months

later

is

I

he wrote to Laub that although the head of

a great liking.” 12

have

very nice person.

not holding anything against

the institute was “not a superb physicist, he

whom

as “a

he wrote to

is

a splendid

Having observed the

assembled in Salzburg, Einstein evidently took

person for

scientific elite

tolerant view of

a

Kleiner’s professional mediocrity: “It seems that scientific reputation

and personal

qualities

nious person

do not always go hand

in hand.

To me a harmo-

worth more than the most sophisticated formula-

is

basher or system inventor.” 13 Nevertheless, his relations with Kleiner

had

among

a professional character; his friends

came

his colleagues

from elsewhere.

There was “lifesaver”

a joyful

from

Polytechnic.

his student days

He

and

now professor

of geometry

also developed a friendship with another

cian at the “Poly,” with earlier years,

reunion with Marcel Grossmann, Einstein’s

whom

his relations

Adolf Hurwitz. As

seminars but had

a student,

tried, unsuccessfully, to

at

— and

a

native of

become

Hurwitz’s home.

Bohemia

his assistant.

Extraordinarius. Stodola had briefly

was

a

student at the Polytechnic, and

cated to

him an

as a piece in a

recalled

how

When

Now

—chamber music

And Aurel

Stodola, pro-

on steam and gas

tur-

— actually attended the lectures of the

new

into genuine friendship.

in

Einstein had cut Hurwitz’s

fessor of mechanical engineering, an authority

bines

mathemati-

had been rather cool

they were brought together by their love of music

was played on Sundays

at the

met Einstein while

now

the latter

their acquaintance ripened

Stodola retired in 1929, Einstein dedi-

extensive article in a Festschrift for the occasion, as well

Zurich daily paper. In the newspaper

“to his delight and his

article,

uncomprehending alarm

splendid figure appeared in the auditorium” to attend the

Einstein Stodola’s

new

pro-

The New Copernicus

262 fessor’s lectures

on developments

in theoretical physics, “partly for the

sake of pure knowledge and partly with a view to utilizing what he had heard.

When

the class was over, Stodola, always readily spotting the

essential point,

would ask profound questions which often contained form.” 14

justified criticism in a refreshing

was

Einstein’s closest friend, however,

Zangger. Zangger, his senior by

renown and

as

as director

medical man, Heinrich

a

five years,

had gained international

of the Forensic Medicine Institute at the university

one of the pioneers of “disaster medicine,” and

not easily be overlooked in Swiss

Zangger had met Einstein

in 1905,

his views could

and academic

political

when he had been

circles.

wrestling with

some unfamiliar mathematical problems and Aurel Stodola had suggested that he consult Einstein in Bern

—who

in fact

had been able to

help him. As dean of the medical faculty, Zangger had supported Ein-

appointment

stein’s

became

friends. Einstein later

virtually unlimited”; 15

a

who

publications. 16

after his

arrival

men

the two

recorded that “his range of interests was

he was

could also be discussed and Einstein’s

and

in Zurich,

man

whom

with

physical problems

provided an impetus for

Einstein,

moreover,

at least

credited

one of

him with

“sound judgment also with regard to persons and things on which professional knowledge was really

much

his

too meager.” This proved a

considerable advantage, as Zangger was probably Einstein’s most

com-

mitted champion in dealings with the Swiss authorities, both in Zurich

and with the federal government in Bern. Later, Mileva had parted, Zangger was

whenever they were unable

With

a patient

to resolve their

after Einstein

and

mediator between them

problems themselves.

the exception of a few physicists and mathematicians, and per-

haps Heinrich Zangger, hardly anyone would then have been aware that the

To

newly appointed professor was one of the giants

most of his colleagues, he probably appeared

student in Zurich

—

a rather

as

in his field.

he had while

awkward eccentric with

a

still

a

sharp tongue,

who

“with his somewhat shabby clothes, his too short trousers, and his

steel

watch-chain” 17 did not

fit

the accepted image of a Swiss professor.

This view was prevalent not only among the the students and the assistants.

faculty,

but also

among

— Professor

Zurich

in

263

This changed dramatically when, during the spring break

March, Einstein was entific authority,

visited

by Walther Nernst, an unchallenged

and moreover wealthy and popular

invention of the “Nernst lamp”

AEG for

Rathenau of the

working

an assistant

as

technic, recalls that

was Nernst’s

it

be

George Hevesy, then

Chemistry

visit

Institute of the Poly-

which made “Einstein famous

had come to Zurich

a clever fellow if the great

Zurich to talk to him.’

ested in

of his

as a result

Then

an unknown.

as

and people in Zurich were saying: ‘That Einstein must

arrived,

Nernst

sci-

had sold the patent to Emil

million gold-marks.

at the Physical

in his circle. Einstein

Nernst

a

—he

in

— the

first

Nernst comes

all

the

way from

Berlin to

” 18

physicist to visit Einstein in Zurich

him because he had taken

—was

inter-

seriously Einstein’s paper of 1906

on the quantum-theoretical interpretation of the

specific heat of solids.

Nernst’s theorem on the behavior of thermodynamic magnitudes

approaching absolute zero was referred to by

“my theorem” namics by

inventor simply as

but would soon be called the third law of thermody-

his colleagues,

reflections.

stein’s

its

At

and

his

it

could be put on

Physical

University, Nernst had set in

a

Chemistry

new

footing by Ein-

Institute

of Berlin

motion an extensive program

for the

experimental investigation of these relationships in which Heinrich

Rubens, professor of experimental physics, participated both with teams within the university and tute in Charlottenburg.

Einstein’s

and

had

his

When,

quantum theory of

at the

Reich Physical-Technical

in 1909,

solids best

Insti-

Nernst came to believe that fit

both the measured values

theorem, Einstein was absolutely delighted. Henceforward he

—along with

Planck,

who

especially liked his relativity theory

another champion in Nernst. Nernst admittedly did not understand

much

of relativity theory but (unlike Planck) was ready to follow Ein-

stein’s

quantum

ideas,

even though only pragmatically and in his

own

specialized field, not in radiation theory generally.

Einstein was enormously pleased with the

Nernst

left

than he informed Jakob Laub:

to specific heat ited

seems to be

brilliantly

visit.

No

sooner had

“My predictions with

confirmed. Nernst,

who

regard

just vis-

me, and Rubens are busily engaged on their experimental

verifica-

The

data for

tion, so that

we

will

soon be enlightened about them.” 19

New Copernicus

The

264

diamond had given

investigations of

good agreement, but further

a

How-

other materials soon showed that this had been an exception.

few years Nernst’s concern with

ever, over the next

into the center of scientific interest and

moved quantum theory

this “revolutionary” physics to

thereby greatly helped

That

in this field, too, Einstein

enhanced

had

laid the

not, Einstein

summer semester

been

twelve.

For

Work

up

To Sommerfeld he

a piece

Advanced Stu-

a theoretician, this

appears to have

Hans Tanner

On

“My anxieties

the other hand, he

at the

five

now had

years younger than Einstein,

petent pianist, and playing duets with

cerned

And

as

an

assis-

a

who had just and Hopf had

Naturforscher convention in Salzburg and found them-

selves in tune not only in physics but also musically

Einstein.

might blow

about the labora-

taken his Ph.D. under Sommerfeld in Munich. Einstein

met

it

that he

him of some of his workload. This was Ludwig Hopf,

Nuremberg,

native of

of apparatus for fear

complained:

tory were largely justified.” 22 tant to relieve

and in

for

nerve-racking duty: he admitted to

scarcely dared to “pick

up.” 21

a price;

of 1910, in addition to his lectures and seminars,

who numbered

a

foundation 20 further

found that teaching exacted

he was put in charge of “Daily Practical dents,”

gain acceptance.

his reputation.

Famous or the

problem

this

him was

Einstein’s musings at the time

a

.

Hopf was

a

com-

form of relaxation

were indeed

tiring,

they were exclusively with quantum theory and

its

for

con-

almost

insoluble puzzles.

“The quantum theory

is

a certainty for

lantly after Nernst’s visit. specific heat, “still

me,” 23 Einstein declared jubi-

But that was true only of solids and their

and then only with the qualification that the theory was

rather unsatisfactory” because

our mechanics, and

all

“it

presupposes the invalidity of

attempts to adapt molecular mechanics to the

imperious demands of experience have been unsuccessful.” 24 Matters

were even worse regarding the quantum theory of radiation, whose problems had concerned Einstein ever since Planck published his radiation formula at the turn of the century. “In the matter of light

quanta

I

have not yet arrived

at a solution,

though

I

have discovered

Professor

some

significant things,” 25

1909.

The

Zurich

in

he wrote to Jakob Laub on the

next sentence sounded like

I

came

a similar

New

a

egg of mine

can’t hatch this favorite

see if

265

Year’s resolution:

“I’ll

Ten weeks

later

after all.”

message: “With regard to the quanta

interesting things, but nothing that’s ready yet.” 26 esting things,” described tion,” was, as first

by Einstein

mooted

to

wave character

a

—

it

of the “inter-

for radiation. In this context Einstein in a letter

to the “Almighty”

“Can the energy quanta on

Almighty

One

corpuscular and, simultane-

the one

seems-^-managed the

and

his sophisti-

hand and Huygens’s prin-

on the other be combined? Appearances

ciple

have found some

1905 and turned over one way and

in

Sommerfeld once again referred

cation:

I

“core of the whole ques-

as the

another in 1909, the compatibility of ously, a

day of

last

are against

but the

it,

trick.” 27

Einstein was obviously delighted that Sommerfeld wanted to

him

in

Zurich

at the

end of the semester, but he did not

encouraging him: “Because

I

visit

feel like

haven’t been able to produce anything

halfway complete on the problem of the quanta.” 28 That did not put

Sommerfeld

off.

At

his institute in

Munich

his colleagues

were sur-

prised that their professor should be in such urgent need of recuperation even before the for a week. 29

The

end of the semester that he had to

nature of that recuperation

is

a real

Zurich

revealed in a letter from

Einstein to Jakob Laub: “Sommerfeld was with cuss the light

travel to

me

for a

week

to dis-

problem and some points of relativity. His presence was

pleasure to me.” 30 Einstein had

now

the matter of quanta. Quite unlike Planck,

extent associated himself with

respected ally in

Sommerfeld had “to

a great

the application of statistics.”

efforts, the

week’s discussions produced

nothing that even came near to

a

breakthrough: “I haven’t got any fur-

ther with the constitution of light. it.” 31

a

my view on

But despite their combined

mental hidden behind

gained

There

is

something very funda-

This assumption was to be confirmed over

the next fifteen years. Meanwhile, however, Einstein succeeded, jointly

with Ludwig Hopf, in producing two papers 32 which supported his thesis that a

quantum theory of radiation would

donment of

classical physics.

up, “was disappointing for

all

call for a radical

Wolfgang

“The

result,”

those

who were

still

Pauli

aban-

summed

vainly hoping that

The New Copernicus

266

Planck’s formula might be derived merely by a change in the statistical

assumptions rather than through sical ideas

in the

autumn Einstein believed he could

end of the tunnel: “At

this

see the light

moment I am very hopeful

of solving

the radiation problem, moreover without any light quanta.

curious

clas-

concerning elementary microphenomena .” 33

At one point at the

fundamental break with the

a

how

I

am

very

the business will turn out .” 34 In this not merely revolu-

tionary but downright reckless approach he even toyed with the idea of

abandoning well-tested and sacred principles of physics: “One would have to give up the energy principle in later Einstein

its

present form.” But a

characterized his strenuous efforts by invoking the

Almighty’s adversary: “Again nothing has radiation problem.

The

come of the

been fascinating to glance over a

me .” 35

his notes:

it

would have

he designed

his shoulder as

It is

a physics

modified or even abandoned energy principle.

Although he owed

his

fame and

his professorship to his relativity

theory, and although he occasionally pondered

did not publish anything in that

university but, at the beginning of

On

House

that occasion he

board with clocks, to

is

in

Zurich

Zum

May,

it

Einstein

in his lecat the

to the Naturforschende

Riiden on the

Limmat embank-

reported to have covered

illustrate the

36 ,

on the subject was not

a

Gesellschaft at the Guild

it

nor did he deal with

field,

tures or seminars. Elis only lecture

ment.

solution to the

Devil merely played a poor joke on

most regrettable that Einstein did not keep

with

week

a

small black-

concept of simultaneity, and, after

an exhausting lecture, to have asked:

“What

is

the time, actually?

I

don’t have a watch .” 37 Einstein interest even

soon discovered that

among

circles

due to Ludwig Hopf,

relativity

theory was

arousing

unconnected with physics. This was partly

who was

fascinated not only

by physics but

also

by psychoanalysis, or “depth psychology.” Immediately after his arrival in Zurich, Hopf had called on the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung and nad introduced Einstein to him. Einstein was Jung’s dinner guest on several occasions, and there also met Eugen Bleuler, the director of the internationally famous Burgholzli psychiatric institution, as well as a

number of other medical men

interested in relativity.

“He

tried,

with

Professor

more or

less success, to

recalled, “but as

to follow his ficulties

Zurich

in

267

teach us the fundamental arguments,” Jung

non-mathematicians we psychiatrists found

argument .” 38 Einstein,

for his part,

seems to have had

dif-

with the psychiatrists, and in consequence the conversations

were not continued for long. Jung’s impression of stein

difficult

it

was that one could “hardly imagine

Evidently,

while the other

is

with Ein-

between

a greater contrast

The one

the mathematical and the psychological mentality. tative in the extreme,

his talks

quanti-

is

qualitative in the extreme .” 39

Jung not only made the common mistake of regarding

mathematics

as the essential aspect

of physics but also failed to per-

ceive the intuitive content of creative natural science.

Needless to

say,

loved

machine.” Paul Habicht, the instrument manufacturer,

“little

Professor Einstein continued to care about his be-

came over from Schaffhausen “got the

little

machine to function

rad, Einstein’s friend

and by then

several times and, to Einstein’s delight,

a teacher

traveled to Zurich.

all

right .” 40 His brother

Con-

from the happy days of the Akademie Olympia of mathematics in Schier, canton Grisons, also

They both

stayed with the Einsteins, and the three

of them tinkered and experimented at the university laboratory. For the spring break Einstein “cordially invited [them] to

experiments with the It’s

got to be finished

little

at

last

you .” 41 The three worked hard and

before

someone

successfully.

applied for, and obtained, a patent for the 42 ,

the final

machine and then button up the business.

long

the paper was published

make

Einstein,

The Habicht brothers machine”; and when

“little

the initiator, renounced any

— apart from

authorship and contented himself

else gets in before

a citation

of his original

—with

notation that

publication and the obligatory acknowledgment

a

the experiments had been conducted “jointly with A. Einstein at the

Zurich University laboratory.” tions: potentials

sured with

it,

of

less

The new machine came up

than one-thousandth of

to expecta-

could be mea-

a volt

so that “a single radioactive elementary process

.

.

.

could

readily be demonstrated with the instrument .” 43

Einstein followed the further career of the

“little

machine” with

intense interest. Paul Habicht presented the perfected invention at the

Berlin Physical Society and scored a huge success.

“The

fellows nearly

New Copernicus

The

268

stood on their heads,” 44 Einstein reported to Besso. “I’m tremendously

Habicht already has quite

pleased.

accuracy

its

few orders.” 45 However, Einstein

For one

in regarding the machine’s future as secure.

was mistaken thing,

a

left

something to be desired, and for another

within a few years, rendered obsolete by the

When Paul Habicht died in

tion technique.

new

it

was,

electronic amplifica-

1948, Einstein in his letter

of condolence to Conrad included a “recollection of the old days,

when

together with your brother

machine

I

worked on the

measurement of small

for the

voltages.

little

influence

That was

fun, even

though nothing useful came of it.” 46

Compared with with the

“little

Einstein.

his reflections

machine” must have been something

Much

problems in

about the intricacies of quanta, his work

the

same was probably true of

classical physics.

why

the sky

effect,” first described in

is

when

sent through the

a

beam of

medium.

It

light of

seemed

“opalescence” must be due to scattered light, but

what the

light of the

means

silly

1869, in which a bluish “opalescent” tint

appears in a gas or a liquid

combination

—but by no

His starting point was the “Tyndall

blue.

is

paper on fluctuation

This was once more concerned with

the reality of molecules and the childlike

question of

a

like light relief for

whatever color

plausible that this

it

was not

by

clear

primary beam was scattered. Tyndall

initially

assumed that the scattering was caused by minute contaminations the

air,

in

but Lord Rayleigh subsequently demonstrated mathematically

that the light was being scattered cules of the air

itself.

by the irregularly distributed mole-

This view was accepted until 1908, when Marian

von Smoluchowski 47 showed by density fluctuations

that the scattering of the light

was caused

in the gas or liquid, provided these fluctuations

extended over minute volumes within the range of one wavelength of the light. Einstein, subtle of

who

greatly esteemed

Smoluchowski

as

one of the “most

contemporary theoreticians,” 48 intended to develop

and particularly

to obtain an exact

erally scattered light: “I

am

this idea,

formula for the intensity of the

at present writing a

lat-

paper on the opales-

cence of gases and liquids,” 49 he informed his friend Laub in the

summer

of 1910. “Quantitative implementation of Smoluchowski ’s

Professor

in

Zurich

theory. I’ve finished with the basic part. It

What

is

269 an entirely

theory.”

strict

Einstein dispatched to Annalen in October 50 was a mathemati-

cally rather

complicated derivation of

a

why

formula explaining

from the sky opalesces blue during the day and reddish

light

morning and evening. Einstein saw the “main

the

in the

result” of his investiga-

tion as the fact that his formula “permits an exact determination of the

constant N,

the absolute size of the molecules.” 51

i.e.

more suggested

a

method

Thus he once

for the experimental determination of the

Avogadro number. That he made use of the blue of the sky

to convince

the last doubters of an atomic view of matter was entirely in line with his endeavor,

formulated ten years previously, “to recognize the unity

of a complex of

phenomena which appear

as totally separate things to

[sense] perception.” 52

Smoluchowski was delighted with Einstein’s “ingenious tion” 53 and regarded his paper

forward” in science. His

own

mula proved exceedingly

on opalescence

as a “substantial step

experiments for verifying Einstein’s for-

difficult,

however, because what

volume of the atmosphere

cently visible in the vast

calcula-

is

magnifi-

is

not easily imitated

working

in a small laboratory setup. Eventually, despite the difficult

conditions at the University of I

—he

had become

a

full

Cracow

sults

which

When

.

.

.

satisfactorily agree

stein in an obituary

The sical

“strict

1913

phenomenon

War

— Smoluchowski

justifying quantita-

“Improvised photometric measurements yielded re-

Smoluchowski died

a fine, sensitive,

Poland during World

professor there in

achieved a fine demonstration of the tive statements:

in

with the theoretical formula.” 54

in 1917, at the age of only forty- five, Ein-

mourned “not only the

brilliant researcher

but also

and benign person.” 55

theory” of opalescence was Einstein’s

mechanics and simultaneously

his last

last

paper on

major publication

clas-

as Extra-

ordinarius at the University of Zurich.

Ever since April 1910 Einstein had been, Zurich. After less than

six

months

it

in a sense,

became

“on

clear that, as

call” in

had been

expected, the post of an “extraordinary” professor could only be a

halfway station for him, pending an offer of

came from

the

German

a

regular chair. This offer

University in Prague, and

if

the appointment

The New Copernicus

270

procedure 56 had not again been so protracted Einstein might have

left

Zurich after two semesters there instead of after three.

The

—

initially

prepared to

move

informal to

—inquiry

as to

Prague must have come in March 1910, because

on March 30 Friedrich Adler wrote been asked

“if

he would accept

to his father that Einstein

had

another university.” 57

On

a post at

who was

April 29 Einstein informed his mother, sister

will

and brother-in-law

in Berlin, of

probably be invited to

it

will be.” 58

“some rather interesting news.

I

with

a

Em getting now. I’m not yet allowed to

But he did

tell

Friedrich Adler, because Adler

reported to his father the same day that in Prague,

then staying with her

a great university as a full professor,

considerably bigger salary than say where

whether Einstein would be

it

and that Einstein headed the

was the German University

list

of names for the post of

professor of theoretical physics. 59

In Prague the academic procedures had begun as early as January, as Elofrat

pich, the

— an honorific in the Austrian monarchy— Ferdinand Lipincumbent of

semester of 1910.

a chair,

intended to retire in the

The department had

up

therefore set

mission, which included the mathematician

whom convention. On

summer

a small

com-

Georg Pick and met

the

experimental physicist Anton Lampa,

Einstein had

burg

April 21 the department

at the

Naturforscher

in Salz-

approved the recommendations of that commission to the effect that the chair of mathematical physics should

become

a chair of theoretical

physics, with the cabinet for mathematical physics being simultane-

ously converted into an institute of theoretical physics.

It also

proved the appointment proposal, with Einstein heading the immediately passed

it

on

authorities, the

expert opinion.

It is

and

to the Ministry of Education in Vienna. 60 In

order to lend greater weight to

and royal

list,

ap-

its

recommendation

department had asked

to the imperial

Max

Planck for an

probable that Planck described Einstein as one of

the most important physicists and the inspired inventor of relativity theory, though with regard to that he could not judge yet nately, a

quantum theory he would point out 7

,

whether Einstein was always

book by Max Planck had been published

spring of 1910, with a euphoric statement

naming

right. 61

Fortu-

just then, in the

Einstein’s relativity

theory in the same breath as Copernicus; this was bound to impress

Professor the ministers and indeed

Emperor

in

Zurich

271

Francis Joseph. This

is

what Planck

had written on the theory of relativity and the resulting revision of the concept of time: In boldness

probably surpasses anything so

it

achieved in

far

speculative natural science, and indeed in philosophical cognition

theory; non-Euclidian geometry

And

child’s play in

is

comparison.

yet the relativity principle, in contrast to non-Euclidian

geometry, which so

far has

been seriously considered only for

pure mathematics, has every right to claim real physical meaning.

This principle has brought about

a revolution in

our physical pic-

ture of the world, which, in extent and depth, can only be

com-

pared to that produced by the introduction of the Copernican

world system It is

62

r

.

probable that toward the end of April Einstein had been

informed by Anton Lampa about the main aspects of the developments in Prague.

Then,

for a while, there

from Vienna, and Sommerfeld:

Prague

“I

after that the

was no news either from Prague or

news was not good. In July he wrote

won’t get to Prague.

—has made

difficulties .” 63

The

To Laub

—

ministry

as I

to

hear from

he was more outspoken:

“I

was proposed only by the department; the ministry, however, has not accepted the proposal because of my Semitic origin .” 64

It is

impossible

now to establish the precise role played by anti-Semitism, but we do know that the ministry wished to appoint not the foreigner listed in first

place, but the

second candidate, Gustav Jaumann, professor

at the

who was Austrian. Such

disre-

Technical College in Briinn (now Brno)

gard of proposals from universities was by no means unusual in che Austrian monarchy.

Johannes

The

Stark, but the

previous year the department had favored

appointment had gone to Anton Lampa

65 ,

an

who was now championing the foreigner Einstein, though unsuccessfully. The “most humble submission of the most obedient

Austrian,

Minister of Education and Instruction, Karl Count Stiirgkh,” to His Imperial and Royal Majesty Francis Joseph contained the statement:

“Although the Collegium of Professors attaches special importance to the appointment of Professor Dr. Einstein, listed in

first

place, in

view

of his brilliant achievements in the area of modern theoretical physics,

The New Copernicus

272 I

yet believe that negotiations should

Jaumann

in Briinn, listed in

be initiated with Professor

first

second place.” 66 Here ends the

first

part of

the appointment procedure.

Although Einstein would have to wait

for

some time

for his full profes-

sorship and the “big salary,” the offer from Prague meanwhile was

him

benefiting

His students, on the

in Zurich.

Tanner, had addressed

initiative

of

Hans

with fifteen names, to the

a petition, signed

“Honorable Directorate of Education of the Canton of Zurich” questing

it

“to

do

its

utmost to preserve

teacher for our university.” 67

manner he succeeds

They

this

pointed out that “in an admirable

physics so clearly and comprehensibly that

we

would prove of great benefit

problems of theoretical

it is

moreover he manages

rapport with his listeners that

The

outstanding scientist and

in presenting the difficult

to follow his lectures;

a great

pleasure for us

to establish such perfect

are convinced that such teaching

to our university.” 68

Directorate of Education shared that opinion and within three

proposal to the Governmental Council, even

weeks submitted

a

though the

from Vienna had by then become known

refusal

“It appears,” the protocol

the threatening danger of

moment

the

of the Governmental Council

Herr Professor

feels that

in Zurich.

states, “that

Einstein’s departure has for

disappeared owing to a negative attitude by the supreme

state authorities of Austria.

sity

re-

The

Educational Council nevertheless

Herr Professor Einstein should again be

by some kind of improvement

our univer-

tied to

in his position.” 69 It

was decided,

therefore, to raise Einstein’s annual salary “in the event of his further

staying at the University of Zurich francs to 5,500 francs.” 70 this decision Einstein

son, Eduard,

The

became

raise

on October

from 4,500

15, 1910,

was well timed, for two weeks

after

His second

a father for the third time.

was born on July 28.

Although both Einstein and Mileva were fond of Zurich, he was acutely aware that as an Extraordinarius he was not an equal

the faculty.

And although

in the future, a

more

his financial situation

would be

member

of

less strained

he was clearly determined to take the next opportunity of

radical

change

in his position.

surprise turn of events in Prague.

This opportunity came with

a

Professor

in

Zurich

273

summer of 1910 Gustav Jaumann must have heard that while the ministry in Vienna wished to appoint him to the post in Prague, the faculty had listed him only in second place. To this he is Sometime

in the

reported to have angrily declared that he “would have nothing to do

with

a university that

real merit.” 71

was chasing

after

Jaumann confronted

modernity while being blind to

the ministry with exorbitant salary

demands and thus caused the breakdown of

negotiations. 72 In conse-

quence, Count Stiirgk, the minister, had no choice but to

come back to

the foreigner, Einstein.

On

September 20 Einstein received an

invitation for a discussion of

appointment terms, and on September 24 he traveled to Vienna. 73 His salary

was agreed

exchange

a little

to at 8,672 Austrian crowns, 74 at the official rate of

over 9,000 Swiss francs and thus a handsome increase

over his pay in Zurich. also have to

become

The

fact that as

a subject

not bother him unduly,

an Austrian professor he would

of His Imperial and Royal Majesty did

were prepared to overlook

as the authorities

his retention of Swiss citizenship.

More

difficult, evidently,

was the problem of

religion. In Switzer-

land Einstein had always described himself as “without religious

denomination” on

official questionnaires,

in Francis Joseph’s empire. In the

but

this

was not acceptable

view of the old monarchy

it

was

inconceivable that a person without religious denomination could

swear

a

proper oath of allegiance.

When the

Einstein, he simply declared that he

was

a

problem was explained

Jew, whereupon “Mosaic”

was entered on the form. 75 Einstein scarcely saw

this

concession to

Austrian bureaucracy as a return to the religion of his forebears.

was simply prepared,

to

in return for a full professorship, to render

He

unto

Caesar that which was Caesar’s, without feeling particularly disturbed about

it.

When

his friend Paul Ehrenfest,

as his successor in

Prague

whom

in 1912, declined to

Einstein showed no understanding: “It worries

he wished to propose

make

me

spleen of being without religious denomination; the sake of your children? Besides, once

can return to

Although

this curious all

you

this concession,

that

you have the

why not drop

it

are a professor here

for

you

hobby.” 76

obstacles had

now been removed,

the appointment

The New Copernicus

274

was some time

means

December

in coming. In

certain that

I

will get

in various places that I’ve

away from Zurich. d me,

December

far

who approved

Count it

Stiirgkh,

been stated I

was

submit the pro-

only on January

January 20 Einstein applied for release semester from his duties in Zurich.

by no

no appointment has come.” 77 Not

16 did the minister,

posal to the emperor,

it’s

“It’s

been appointed to Prague, and indeed

promised appointment. But so until

Einstein wrote:

at the

On February

6,

1911. 78

On

end of the current 10 the Governmental

Council met his request, regretting “that the university

is

losing the

outstanding scholar and that the cantonal authorities had not been given a chance to try to keep It is

not quite clear

why

for our university in the future.” 79

him

Einstein did not try to obtain in Zurich

what was being offered him

in Prague. After

all,

Prague was not

a

“great university,” as he had said to his mother, and certainly not a center of research in physics. In fact, “there

was no doubt that

at this

German University in Prague was suffering from a loss of importance among German universities.” 80 Einstein possibly believed time the

was nothing more to be gotten out of Zurich, and perhaps

that there

he was also reacting to certain “conflicts” within the department, referred to in a letter

“Einstein

knows

from Kleiner to

a colleague, to the effect that

that he cannot expect

any personal engagement on

the part of representatives of the department.” 81 At any rate, settled that Einstein

would move

to

Prague

it

was

as a full professor in the

spring.

At the beginning of

his last

semester in Zurich, while he was

waiting for confirmation from Vienna, he had a pleasant surprise. In early

November he had

received a letter from Emil Fischer, the

famous professor of chemistry in Berlin: “Your great theoretical papers in the

field

of thermodynamics,” he wrote, “have caused a sen-

sation in the world of science, and in our circle there

is

frequent talk of

them, especially since Herr Nernst has occupied himself with the experimental verification of your conclusions concerning the law of

Dulong and was acting

Petit.” 82

as a

But the

real surprise

go-between for

was very pleased “that German

a

man

was the news that Fischer

in the chemicals industry,

scientists like yourself,

who

Herr Planck,

Professor

Zurich

in

275

and Herr Nernst have taken over the leadership in feels that it is the

brilliant

work

a little

— altogether

and 1912.”

himself saw

fit; it

The

first at

in

tied to

that

to be

annual

three

once, and the other two

any obligation or

as

it

he

restriction.

German nationality fifteen years previbeing included among “German scientists”; he

given up

ously, did not object to

conveyed

promote

recipient of the donation was to use

would not be

who had

Einstein,

marks

15,000

installments of 5,000 marks each, “the in 1911

to

by material support.” This support proved

generous

exceedingly

Germany

duty of wealthy people in

and he

this field,

his sincere thanks, first to

Emil Fischer, whose

had

praise

honored and even more greatly embarrassed” him, consid-

“greatly

ering that “every day

I

am keenly aware

of how impotently

the urgent problems of our science,” 83 and also to the

pared to donate such considerable sums” and assure “that

I

will apply the

sums entrusted

to

am

man “who

whom

me

I

facing is

pre-

he wished to

as conscientiously as

possible.”

The

generous donor was Dr. Franz Oppenheim,

a

cofounder and

shareholder of the Aktiengesellschaft fur Anilinfabrikation, better

known

as Agfa,

who

lived in a princely

and could rightly regard himself served as treasurer to the

as

He

readiness to accept his

anonymous

in

Berlin-Wannsee

one of the “wealthy people.”

German Chemical

greatest benefactors. 84

Emil Fischer “not

mansion

He

Society and was one of its

was “very pleased” 85 to learn of Einstein’s

to disclose

would be more agreeable

offer.

my

He

name, because

Professor

to

requested his go-between I

believe this

way

Einstein

was

Einstein.”

delighted that “the capital promised would indeed greatly facilitate his scientific

work.” 86 There

is

no information on how the money was

used.

In January 1911 Einstein received not only the confirmation of his

appointment

in Prague, but also

from Hendrik Antoon Lorentz

an “exceedingly cordial” invitation for a lecture in

Leyden. “You can

hardly imagine,” Einstein wrote to his scientific father figure,

much

I

am

“how

looking forward to making your personal acquaintance.” 87

At the same time he thought

it

a “curious

undertaking to bring theo-

The New Copernicus

276 retical physics to

timidity, as

encounter

I

am

Leyden. And

yet, I

am

not gripped by any sense of

convinced that with you and those around you

a friendly attitude

I

will

and not severe criticism.”

As Mileva’s mother happened to be

them

visiting

Zurich and

in

looking after the two children, the Einsteins could travel together.

They boarded where

it

burns

down

their train

on Wednesday, February

8,

and from Basel,

stopped, sent a postcard to Friedrich Adler: “If the house or anything else amusing happens, please cable us c/o

H. A. Lorentz, Leyden.” 88 The following day they arrived

Prof.

Leyden, where die Lorentzes put them up.

The

lecture

in

was on Friday,

followed in the evening by long conversations with Lorentz; these

continued the next day,

such

first

in a small circle with brilliant colleagues

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and Willem Hendrik Keesom, and

as

in the evening

once more

just

On

with Lorentz.

home, they

for Antwerp, where, before returning

left

“favorite uncle” Caesar

No “Now

Sunday the Einsteins visited the

Koch.

sooner was he back in Zurich than Einstein thanked Lorentz: I

am

back here in

my

study, filled with the

memories of the wonderful days which your proximity. radiating

.

.

.

There

so

is

much

from you that throughout

my

I

kindness and stay

that kindness and honor.” 89

all

had of Lorentz was even brighter later declined

beautiful

was permitted to spend

after his

in

human warmth

was not even possible

it

for the tormenting conviction to develop that

recipient of

most

I

am

an undeserving

The image that visit, and when

Einstein

Einstein

an appointment to the University of Utrecht in the

Netherlands, he apologized to Lorentz “with a heavy heart, like one

who

has done a

wrong

Lorentz continued

to his father.” 90 Einstein’s

after Lorentz’s death.

At

profound respect for

his graveside Einstein

pointed out that “his unfailing kindness and generosity, his sense of justice,

combined with an

made him

a leader

intuitive insight into

wherever he found himself. Everyone followed him

gladly, because they felt that

he never wanted to dominate them, but

always only to serve them.” 91 recorded:

people and conditions,

“To me,

encountered during

And even

personally, he

my life.” 92

in his old age,

meant more than

ail

Einstein

the others

I

Professor

move

Before his drawers.

A few

along with

lesser papers

had to look

—who

Ludwig Hopf

as his assistant

after

was

his doctoral student,

on

right.

not been theory

Univer-

but also his

since April

1910 editor-in-chief of the Social Democrat paper Volksrecht a

last

extraordinary professorship, he had

hoped “that Adler would succeed me.” 94 Adler, however,

no more than

in

Then he

who had

first

,

accompany

assistant’s post at the

of Basel. 93 Tanner was not only Einstein’s

own

to

a subject related to the kinetic

him obtain an

doctoral student. As for his

now

—had checked and put

Hans Tanner,

of gases. Einstein helped

offered

desk

his

were completed and sent off to Annalen

able yet to complete his thesis

sity

up

whole bunch of corrections, including the big mistake

a

Prague

to

277

to Prague, Einstein wished to tidy

his doctoral thesis that

him

Zurich

in

,

had

one-hour “Cognition-Theoretical Introduc-



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27. In 1934, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Einstein

saw no

«f

*««»!

practical applications for the “energy of the atom.”

,

28. In 1938, in collaboration with

published The Evolution of Physics.

Leopold

Infeld, Einstein

29. In 1939

and again

in 1940, Einstein signed letters to President

Franklin D. Roosevelt urging quick action on the part of the administration in organizing nuclear research in the United States.

With J. Robert Oppenheimer, then

30.

director of the Institute for

Advanced Study, about 1947.

Honoring Einstein on his seventieth birthday, Princeton, 1949 (from left: H. P. Robertson, E. Wigner, H. Weyl, K. Godel, 1. 1. Rabi, Einstein, R. Ladenburg, J. R. Oppenheimer, and 3

1

.

G. M. Clemence).

32.

With

Israeli

premier David Ben-Gurion, Princeton, 1951.

next year, following

Chaim Weizmann’s

death,

The

Ben-Gurion offered

Einstein the presidency of Israel. Einstein was unable to accept.

33.

With Niels Bohr, James Franck, and

Isidor

I.

Rabi, 1954.

34.

On NBC

comments on the U.S. governhydrogen bomb, 1952.

television, Einstein

ment’s decision to develop the

Jewry, Zionism, and

Weizmann was

a

Trip to

499

older than Einstein. 36 Born in a village in

five years

had studied chemistry

Belorussia, he

America

in

Germany and

Switzerland,

taking his degree in Fribourg at the same time as Einstein

Zurich Polytechnic with University of Geneva, sity and, as a result

dent.

a

teaching diploma. After

Weizmann found

a post at

a

left

few years

of some useful patents, became financially indepen-

manufacture of explosives. At

Lord

Balfour;

Weizmann became

Office,

at the

Manchester Univer-

During the war he developed important improvements

Office under

first

when

in the

he worked for the British

on

his adviser

Palestine.

His diplomatic

1917, which assured the Jewish people of a

2,

War

Balfour took over the Foreign

masterstroke was his cooperation in the Balfour Declaration of

vember

the

No-

homeland

in

Weizmann became president of the World Zionist Organization. He was an intelligent man of worldwide interests, able to combine idealism with practical politics. Though capable of making speeches in many languages, he continued to prefer Yiddish, his Palestine. In 1920 4T

mother tongue. Shortly before his departure,

Weizmann had

received a surprising

telegram from American Zionists, advising him to jettison his promi-

nent traveling companion. Einstein’s exorbitant demands for fees from a

few universities had become known also outside academic

that he

was expected to prove of questionable value

as a fund-raiser. 37

Weizmann, who had been unaware of Einstein’s attempt nomic freedom,”

instructed his

American followers

circles, so

to

to earn “eco-

pour

oil

on the

troubled waters; on no account would he dispense with the most

famous of

all

Jews.

became apparent

as

That Weizmann had made the soon

as the

Rotterdam entered

right decision

New

York harbor.

“Einstein fever” had erupted.

An

impressive welcoming committee, with the mayor of

and the president of the

city council, awaited Einstein;

reporters, photographers, and even the sive

odd

film

New

York

but droves of

cameraman with mas-

equipment, stormed past them to board the Rotterdam in order to

be the

first

to catch sight of the strange

and wonderful

man who had

unhinged Newton’s world. Einstein proved to be an exceedingly attractive

and profitable media personality, even though he did not

Splendor and Burden of Fame

500

know any

English. At one time, in Zurich in 1913, he had

learn the language, “slowly but thoroughly,” 38 but

of

little

begun

it

to

seems to

have stuck.

The tivity

question put to

first

theory in

a

all

in fun”

explain his rela-

few sentences. Years of experience with reporters had

prepared him for

more

him was how he would

kind of opening and

this

—he had

answer ready:

his

“It

— “not too

used to be thought that

would be

things disappeared from the world, space and time

According to the

seriously and if

left.

however, space and time disappear

relativity theory,

along with the things.” 39 This kind of platitude pleased the reporters and, the following day, their readers. Actually, the only really witty

remark seems understood

to have

been made by Weizmann. Asked whether he

relativity theory,

he

is

said to

crossing Einstein explained his theory to

man

was the

every day, and on our

it.” 40

Nevertheless, Ein-

of the moment, impressing the reporters with his

“geniality, kindliness effect

me

he really understands

arrival I realized that

stein

have replied: “During our

was heightened

and interest in the as,

little

things of

to the delight of the crowds,

life.” 41

This

he walked down

the gangplank with his pipe in one hand and his violin case in the

—

other: “like an artist

a musician.”

The motorcade made Jews cheered their

for City Hall, in front of which thousands of

idol. Inside,

honorary citizenship was to have been

bestowed on Einstein, but one of the

city councilors

had developed

last-minute doubts whether this relativity business was not after

the

all,

and

it

ceremony

Warburg,

a

took

a

few days for these doubts to be assuaged and

to be restaged. Einstein

was to be looked

after

Commodore

Hotel.

One

there, to Einstein’s great delight, his schooldays in

Munich;

cessful physician in

Almost

by Felix

wealthy partner of the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb

Company, who had arranged comfortable accommodation ionable

humbug

at

as

Dr.

of the

was

first

people to

Max Talmud,

Max Talmey

his

&

at the fashcall

on him

mentor from

he had become

a suc-

New York. 42

once the fund-raising campaign began

—sometimes with

splendid dinners in exclusive hotels in a circle of wealthy Jews, but

more

often at meetings attended by the whole spectrum of American

Jews, from small storekeepers to rich bankers and fashionable doctors,

Jewry, Zionism, and

who wanted be paraded

Weizmann and

to hear

like a prize bull,

Trip to America

a

see Einstein. “I

and make

a

501

had to

thousand speeches

let

myself

at big

small meetings,” Einstein reported.

Whether he

the major meetings

Weizmann presumably had

is

questionable;

really

spoke

much

We

do have

a report

at

taken

note of Blumenfeld’s warning about Einstein’s unpredictability orator.

and

as

an

of a meeting on April 12, attended by an

audience of eight thousand: following Weizmann’s address Einstein confined himself to such a short statement that he could not possibly

make

a false step

—“Your

spoke very well for That’s

all I

all

Weizmann, has spoken, and he

leader, Dr.

of us. Follow him, and you’ll do the right thing.

have to say.” 43 At smaller meetings, especially

at students’

or medical associations, Einstein would appear on his own, particularly

when

these were concerned with donations for

Hebrew

University in

Jerusalem, a topic on which there was no dissent between Einstein and

Weizmann. Weizmann, however, had come

to the

United States not only

for

fund-raising but also in order to get the local Zionist organization to

adopt his

Jew among

the nine

Supreme Court, and leader of the American

Zionists,

political line.

justices of the

saw Jerusalem rather rather than the

For the

as Einstein did

—

first

as a cultural center

homeland of the Jewish people,

difficult negotiations

the administrative

United

Louis Brandeis, the

work

States, Einstein’s

time to give lectures

at a

let

of Jewry

alone a Jewish

state.

between Weizmann and Brandeis, or

in connection with

Keren Hajessod

for

in the

presence was not needed, and thus he found

few

universities,

now

for fees left to the dis-

cretion of his hosts.

On April

1

versity in

5

Einstein began a series of three lectures at Columbia Uni-

New

York, which had

the previous year, had awarded stein

him

lectured at City College of

invited

its

spoke in German, the lecture

week he him

first

him

in 1912

and which,

Barnard Medal. Although Ein-

hall

was packed. The following

New York—which

no doubt gave

particular pleasure, because this city institution enabled

many

impecunious Jews to study there. His lectures were translated into English paragraph by paragraph; and the young interpreter,

who

dis-

played great competence with both Einstein’s language and his mathe-

Splendor and Burden of Fame

502

matics, soon acquired the reputation of being

understood

relativity theory.

Einstein and

on

Weizmann

next traveled to Washington

—Weizmann

and Einstein because he was to speak

political business

annual convention of the National

Academy of

at the

Science. Despite the

the professor from Berlin got a rather frosty recep-

official invitation,

tion in the

one of the few who

American

capital.

The

Zionists had

an invitation to the White House, but

by President Harding.

When

hoped he would receive

this idea

had been turned down

was patiently explained that Einstein

it

had not signed the Manifesto of Ninety-three, and that he was Swiss, traveling

vanished.

on

Confederation passport, the misgivings suddenly

a Swiss

He

was even allowed to accompany representatives of the

American academy into the White House

for a reception with the

president. Nevertheless, the pattern of hospitality cally significant level

was below

and was very different from the

cumstance which, two weeks

later,

on

May

20,

a politi-

pomp and

cir-

would accompany

Marie Curie’s reception by President Harding. 44 But then Marie Curie was French.

There followed

few days

a

at

received an honorary degree

Princeton University, where Einstein

on

May

9.

The

lessons of

Washington

had been duly learned, and Einstein was introduced from the outset a Swiss,

with

a professorship in

Leyden, the Netherlands. Naturally,

his association

with Berlin could not be totally concealed, but the

cial tribute to

the

new honorary doctor u

standards, because

as

stressed his loyalty to

offi-

moral

he refused to join with others in condoning the

invasion of Belgium.” 45

John Hibben, the president of the university, hailed Einstein as a new Columbus of science, who sailed on his own through alien seas of thought.

The ceremony

suffered

and one newspaper described

Marx

Brothers:

stood, he sat

When .

having been stage-managed by the

Dr. Einstein was supposed to

.

.

steered about by

little

finally

when

sit

down he

the smiling,

tugs at his sleeve, was to

hood from President John Grier Hibben he turned the confusion upon the president.” 46

receive his doctoral

back in

as

when he should have stood and

confused scholar,

his

it

from problems with communication,

— Jewry, Zionism, and

a

That afternoon Einstein gave the

America

Trip to

first

503

of his four lectures on the

theory of relativity within the framework of the Stafford Little Lectures.

was

As expected, the lecture

filled to

hall,

one of the biggest

in the university,

bursting, not only with students and faculty

also with sensation-seekers,

many

of

Lor those unable to follow German,

ment gave an English summary just as in Berlin: for the

whom a

at the

members, but

had come from

member

far afield.

of the physics depart-

end of each

lecture.

But

was

it

second lecture, the following day, there was

plenty of room for anyone interested. These lectures were collected in a little

book, Einstein’s second, published

Press and then in England by

Methuen

by Princeton University

first

—

tribute to the desirable “concentration of

in order that

Au

ions” in

might con-

it

Leyden before

being republished in Germany. 47 4T

During

a

reception in honor of the famous visitor, a rumor sud-

denly flew through the land, repeating the

movement of

room

that Professor

Dayton C. Miller of Cleve-

Michelson-Morley experiment, had established

the earth through the ether. Publication

shortly. Miller

had constructed

Mount Wilson,

in the

would follow

a substantially larger apparatus

hope that the ether

drift

a

on

could be observed

there better than in the basement of a laboratory; and he believed he

had succeeded in proving If Miller’s result

lapse

tific

in a series of measurements in April 1921.

was correct, the whole

and Einstein’s

theory,

it,

would be

edifice of relativity

lectures, instead of dealing

just a beautiful, refuted

would

with an established

dream. For reasons of scien-

etiquette, Einstein could not very well declare Miller’s result to be

nonsense, so he produced one of his classical apergus: “The Lord is

col-

subtle, but malicious

While

Miller’s

they were wrong

he

is

not.”

measurements are now of only

mathematician Oswald Veblen,

years later,

when

historical interest

—Einstein’s remark has been carved

Einstein’s reference to

the

God

new

God

who was

present,

in stone.

The

was so impressed by

that he immediately jotted

it

down. Nine

building of the mathematics department was

completed, he recalled the words and had them engraved, in gothic script, in the

chimneypiece of the Fine Hall

common

room. Along

with Einstein’s approval, Veblen received his interpretation: “Nature conceals her secrets by exaltedness, but not by cunning.” 48

Splendor and Burden of Fame

504

The

week

relaxing and stimulating

exhausting tour with

in Princeton

Weizmann through

was followed by an

Even

the Midwest.

Einstein time for talks with colleagues. In Chicago, for the

so, it left

first

time,

he met Robert Andrews Millikan, then the foremost physicist in the

United

States, to

whom

Einstein was linked through the experimental

There was, of

side of the photoelectric effect.

lecture at the University of

course, an obligatory

Chicago and even

Yerkes

a side trip to

Observatory in Wisconsin. Cleveland was the

“new Columbus” had and

a large

two men.

last stop.

led

Weeks

most Jewish businesses

crowd had assembled

A

military

taking Einstein and

of media hype about the Jewish

at the railroad station to

band headed

Weizmann

to close for the day,

a

motorcade of two hundred

to their hotel.

Weizmann

tion of the Zionist Organization,

welcome the

At the annual conven-

succeeded, against Justice

managed

Brandeis, in getting his policy adopted. Einstein, meanwhile, to escape the turmoil

Case

Institute of

and the intrigues and

cars

visit

Professor Miller at

Technology. They spent “one and

a half

hours in

conversation about the ether drift experiments” 49 before Einstein

returned to In

New

New York. York,

at the

end of May, shortly before

Europe, Einstein, rather exhausted but

satisfied,

his departure for

drew up

a balance

sheet in a letter to Besso:

I

have two enormously tiring months behind me, but

the great satisfaction of having been of

much

I also

have

use to the Zionist

cause and of having ensured the foundation of the university. It’s a

miracle

I

stood up to

it.

But

now

it’s

done and I’m

left

.

.

.

with

the agreeable knowledge of having achieved something really

good and of having less

battled bravely for the Jewish cause, regard-

of all protests by Jews and non-Jews.

Most of our

tribal

com-

panions are more clever than courageous; that I’ve had ample opportunity to notice. 50

It

soon emerged, however, that

as a fund-raiser

Einstein had not been

quite as successful as he had assumed. Instead of the expected $4 million to $5 million, only $750,000

had come in by the end of the year. 51

Jewry, Zionism, and

Back

in Berlin, Einstein told Ehrenfest

Jewish identity: “Zionism really represents

I

505

about his newly confirmed

new Jewish

a

can give the Jewish people once more joy in glad

America

Trip to

a

existence. ...

its

one that

ideal, I

am very

complied with Weizmann’s invitation.” 52 In the journal Jiidische

Rundschau he described his strongest impression: “Not until

America did

I

discover the Jewish people.

was

in

had seen many Jews, but

I

neither in Berlin nor elsewhere in

Germany had

Jewish people. This Jewish people

saw

I

I

I

encountered the

America came from Russia,

in

from Poland, or generally from eastern Europe. These men and

women by

have preserved

isolation

sound sense of nationality, not yet destroyed

and dispersal.” 53

when he spoke

On May

a

30, Einstein

a concrete picture in

They were

gland, the country which,

on

traveling

On June

finished.

by mounting the

their

own,

as

Weiz-

8 they arrived in

En-

solar eclipse expedition,

exemplary manner met Einstein’s ideal of the interna-

tional republic of scholarship. In that spirit, he

tion

mind

and Elsa moved into their cabins aboard the

mann’s mission was not yet

in such an

had

of his “tribe.”

British steamship Celtic.

had

He now

from Manchester University

had accepted the

to give the traditional

invita-

Adamson

Lecture.

England, however, did not consist exclusively of internationally

minded,

let

alone

pacifist, scientists like

Einstein was to have received the

Eddington.

A

year earlier,

Gold Medal of the Royal Astro-

nomical Society for 1920, in accordance with

a

majority vote of the

membership. Einstein was informed of the honor and, despite some strident squabbling about the peace treaty

foreign policy, he had begun

the spring

hand and

A

I’ll

making preparations

be going to England to have

to have a look at the

few days

later,

money

regret,

award the medal it

to

Some

for his journey: “In

medal pressed into

a letter

had to cancel the

confirmation of the award had at the chauvinistic lobby.

a

involved with

my

business from the other side.” 54

though, he had received

who, with profound

hand

among people

last

from Eddington,

invitation: the board’s

moment been

sabotaged by

a

British patriots evidently preferred not to

at all, for the first

someone from the enemy’s

time in thirty years, rather than capital.

Splendor and Burden of Fame

506

Eddington asked Einstein not to take the embarrassing matter personally and regretted “that this promising beginning of a better international attitude has suffered a reverse theless certain that a better attitude

took time;

ress

it

is

from reaction.

Society, after having

simply acknowledged that England was

more

much more

than the United States. Besides, he wanted to give

Gold

been honored prestigious

Copley Medal of the Royal Society. 56 Einstein took no

this reason,

never-

finally received the

the year before, in 1925, with the incomparably

For

am

making progress.” 55 This prog-

was 1926 before Einstein

Medal of the Royal Astronomical

I

offense;

difficult

a lecture in

he

ground

London.

and because he knew virtually no English, he had

asked Erwin Freundlich, whose mother was English, to act as his guide

and interpreter. Freundlich took charge of Einstein immediately on his arrival in Liverpool. First of

by addressing

Hebrew

the

a

Einstein continued his

all,

Jewish students’ association, appealing for support for

University in Jerusalem. In the afternoon, in a festive set-

he gave the Adamson Lecture

ting,

new mission

at the

University of Manchester

and afterward received an honorary degree. Einstein spoke in German, but this failing was more than compensated for by his other qualities.

The

Manchester Guardian remarked that “the excellence of his dic-

tion, together

from

his eye

with the kindly twinkle which never ceased to shine

through the sternest arguments, did not

fail

to

make

their

impression upon the audience.” 57

For the next few days Einstein was Lord Haldane’s guest Haldane, the

Viscount Cloan,

a fascinating

man

wide

interests

London.

with exception-

—which embraced the theory of reconciliation with Germany—was undoubtedly the

ally

as

first

in

relativity as well

ideal host for

Einstein.

From sympathy

his student days in

for

Gottingen, Haldane had retained great

Germany. Despite

Fabian Society, he

first

became

his left-wing socialist links

British Secretary for

with the

War;

in this

capacity he traveled to Berlin in 1912 in a sensational but unsuccessful

mission to divert the two nations from their collision course. In 1915,

because of his association with Germany, he was no longer acceptable as

Lord Chancellor

in the

War

Cabinet, and henceforth concentrated

Jewry, Zionism, and

on

his scientific studies.

tivity.

Although

theory of

it

These

a

misunderstood the philosophical implications of the

relativity, the

book was displayed

London,

invitation to

while Einstein was in America; of the University of London.

in it

all

little

volume.

details,

its

him

10 Haldane

straight to a

Astronomical Society, the body which had its

in bookstores along with

had been arranged

included a lecture at King’s College

On June

railroad station and drove with

disallowed

507

resulted in a book, The Reign of Rela-

Einstein’s “generally comprehensible”

The

America

Trip to

first

met Einstein

meeting of the Royal

awarded him and then

Gold Medal. In an address Eddington

British contribution to the confirmation

at the

recalled the

and propagation of the gen-

eral

theory of relativity; and Einstein was able, in Burlington House, to

see

Newton’s

ber

6,

ments

portrait, in front of

which

J. J.

Thomson on Novem-

1919, had called relativity theory “one of the greatest achieve-

human thought.” Only afterward did Haldane his fine home in Queen Anne’s Gate, St. James’s

in the history of

conduct

his guest to

Park.

In the evening Haldane gave a splendid dinner in Einstein’s honor.

The former Lord

Chancellor would have liked to welcome Lloyd

George, but

as the

prime minister wished to distance himself from

Berliner, the

list

Canterbury.

Among

Laski of the

a

of prominent guests was headed by the archbishop of the intellectual luminaries present were Harold

London School of Economics and George Bernard Shaw;

and with two of the guests

North Whitehead

—Arthur

—Einstein

Stanley Eddington and Alfred

could even talk physics. However, the

conversation appears to have been dominated by the archbishop of

Canterbury, who, despite intensive reading, had been unable to discover what relationship relativity theory had to religion; as

a result,

Einstein became the victim of small talk at a level where the fourth

dimension blended into the

spiritual. 58

There were dinners with such money) and Rayleigh had met

at the

Abbey

man

lordships as Rothschild (the

of the radiation law,

whom

restful.

man

of

Einstein

Solvay Congress in Brussels).

On Monday, ster

(the

The weekend was more

accompanied by Haldane, Einstein

and, with a gift of flowers for the

paid tribute to the giant

visited

tomb of

upon whose shoulders he

Westmin-

Isaac

Newton,

stood. This gesture

Splendor and Burden of Fame

508

was duly emphasized by Haldane

when

in the afternoon,

at

King’s

College he presided over Einstein’s public lecture, in order to take the

wind out of the

of anyone

sails

The

speaker from Germany.

who might

feel hostility

toward

posters and tickets avoided any reference

academic posts,

to Professor Einstein’s origin, present residence, or

while pointing out that the proceeds would go to the Imperial Relief

Fund

a

to mitigate the deplorable plight of

these shrewd measures, not one

hand

war

stirred at the

War

victims. Despite

beginning of the

event to welcome the speaker with applause. But after his speech, given in

German with humor,

verve, and a

warm

tribute to

Newton, 59

there was a standing ovation. Haldane and Einstein could be

more

than satisfied with this step toward German-English reconciliation.

In the course of this journey of nearly three months, Einstein had

acted not only as a representative of Jewry, but also as an unofficial

Weimar

ambassador of the new

Republic. Back in Berlin, he became a

much-sought-after source of information.

June 30

at the invitation

A report which

of the president of the

he gave on

German Red

Cross, in

an exclusive setting, was attended by Reich President Ebert and several cabinet ministers. But what Einstein said and wrote

on

this

and similar

occasions was received with indignation in America and largely can^

.

celed out the success of his trip.

An

article

which Einstein wrote

for Berliner Tageblatt6 ® about his

impressions of America and which was reprinted by contained, along with enthusiastic admiration,

observations

—

for example,

many newspapers,

some

rather critical

on Prohibition, the lack of

taverns, the

overvaluing of money, and political isolationism (“not worthy of that country”). The

New

York Times regarded Einstein’s remarks as biting

the hand that had fed him; but this

American

sensitivity at

may

have been due more to

being lectured by the Old

World than

to the

—was

set off

actual content of Einstein’s article.

A

more

serious incident

by an interview with both recklessly and

a

—

Dutch

in fact, a veritable disaster

journalist, in

tactlessly. 61

Not only

which Einstein had spoken

did he

mock

the Americans’

excitement over a scientist whose work they did not understand; but he also accused

American men, even though they were hardworking, of

Jewry, Zionism, and

a

Trip to

America

509

who spend fog of extravagance .” 62 The New

being nothing but “the toy dogs of the women, .

.

.

to

wrap themselves

followed

its

in a

the

money

York Times

English version of the interview with an editorial in which

Einstein’s gaffes

were attributed to

of himself and his companion to

his

disappointment

make more than

the special mission for which they

came

to the

at “the failure

a partial success

United

States.”

of

Three

days later, after a flood of letters from outraged readers, there

came

another editorial, with the real reproof: Dr. Einstein will not be and should not be forgiven for the

they believed the guarantors of his

who honored him because greatness in his own domain.

That he

is

boorish ridicule of hospitable hosts

is

small out of that

quence, however, for cialists

of

the world

like

it is

domain

a matter of

a peculiarity shared

no great conse-

by many other spe-

eminence, and in no degree reduces their value to

63 .

Einstein immediately declared that the interview had been wrongly

reported and, by to

way of limiting

American reporters

in Berlin.

the damage, said a few pleasant things

This was

partially successful, but the

matter of the “toy dogs” was not forgiven for a long time, forgotten.

speak and

Once

how

again Einstein had been taught a lesson

to keep silent while in the spotlight.

much less on how to

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

More Hustle, Long Journeys, Lot of Politics, and

a

a Little

Physics

return from America, Einstein spent just one month in Berlin. Then he met his two sons and with them went vacationing in the small village of Wustrow on the Baltic coast, staying very modestly at the local bakery. The contrast with the grand style of his

After

his

—

—

visits to

America and England could hardly have been

stein

was happy with the simple

been

settled,

life.

now

seventeen, had

assured, intelligent, modest.” ^

Since his conflict with Mileva had

he had enjoyed the company of his sons, even

not developed entirely along the Albert,

greater, but Ein-

lines

“become

if

they had

he would have wished. Hans a

sound, independent fellow,

Tedel (Eduard), eleven years

old,

was

-

“lively, roguish”;

but both, to their father’s regret, had a “somewhat

—without metaphysical needs.”

mercantile spirit evidently did

all

three of

1

Vacationing together

them some good: “They have turned out

splendid,” he exulted to Ehrenfest, “and

we

are one heart and one

soul.” 2

In mid-August, straight from their vacation, Einstein and his sons

went to

to Kiel to

work

Hermann Anschiitz-Kaempfe

seriously

on

a technical matter, a

to sail

novel gyrocompass. Einstein

must have been concerning himself intensively with

some

time, since

on the Forde and

this

problem

by the end of 1920 Anschutz considered

worth 20,000 marks

—

in cash,

his

for

work

“because otherwise there might be

questions of a tax nature.” 3

Because

a

mechanically mounted compass has certain inherent

shortcomings, Anschutz had for some time toyed with the idea of a novel construction.

The

concept, to which Einstein contributed, was a

510

1

More Hustle, Long Journeys sphere floating on

and without field.

cushion of magnetic lines of force, without contact

a

friction,

held centered in a fixed position by the magnetic

The arrangement

tricky matter.

At

51

first

of the electromagnetic

experiments were

was

fields

made with

a ring

in itself a

of eight elec-

tromagnets grouped around the lower part of the sphere, until Einstein conceived the idea of using a single coil located within the

sphere.

A great deal of development was necessary before the new compass was ready for marketing

1925.

in

between Einstein and Anschutz,

The

as well as

extensive correspondence

Anschutz’s

staff, testifies

to

the passion with which the former Patent Office clerk involved himself

There was always

in this task.

a

room ready

for Einstein in Anschutz’s

house, so that Kiel at times became a second

home

for

him

—not only

because of the gyrocompass but because of his love of sailing and his friendship with the head of the firm. After his

first

stay in Kiel he

added the following remark to an otherwise technical wonderful days in Kiel continue to revolve in

my

“The

letter:

head.” 4

The young

Einsteins also sent Anschutz a polite thank-you letter.

In physics, too, Einstein once

more turned

He was

to experiment.

anx-

ious to resolve the fundamental question whether electromagnetic radiation ally,

from an atom propagates

in the

form of what was then

as a spherical

wave or unidirection-

called “needle radiation”

described in his

quantum theory of emission formulated

have thought of

a

—that

is,

in 1916. “I

very interesting and quite simple experiment about

the nature of light emission,” he wrote to Born. “I hope

I

can carry

out soon.” 5 Einstein believed that the propagation of light in persing media tion

as

—media

—must be different

with

a

it

dis-

frequency-dependent index of refrac-

for spherical

This difference should be observable

waves and for needle radiation. in the radiation emitted

by

fast

atoms, and should clarify the true nature of radiation.

This experiment occupied Einstein’s attention for the year, even during his travels. In

Hans

Albert.

The

Bologna, “where wretches!” 6

He

mid-October he went

rest of the

to Italy with

occasion was an invitation from the university of I

am

to give

saw Florence

my

lecture in Italian,

for the first time, but the

those poor

most important

Splendor and Burden of Fame

512

news he had

for Besso

on

light emission in progress in Berlin.” 7

Underneath he drew

minimum

at least a

went

a sketch

of

Leyden, to

dis-

of his duties as a visiting professor, but

also,

the experimental setup. Via Zurich, Einstein

charge

experiment on

a postcard was: “Interesting

to

and more importantly, to discuss with Ehrenfest the quantum problem and the experimental investigation of the nature of light. Einstein did not have to do the experiment himself. After he had

presented ber

theoretical basis to the Prussian

its

1921, 8 Emil Warburg, as

8,

its

president, put the

Physical-Technical Reich Institute, as well as ers, at

Academy on Decem-

the service of the project. Einstein

some

equipment of the

efficient research-

worked out the

of the

details

who performed the Einstein was delighted when the findings

experiment with Hans Geiger and Walther Bothe,

work swifdy and

successfully.

agreed with the calculations he had derived from the hypothesis of needle radiation. optics

was now

year.

He was

was convinced that the

finished.

no

tion field has

He

“We now have

real existence,”

traditional

definite

proof that the undula-

he informed Born

once more euphoric: “This

is

model of wave end of the

at the

my greatest scientific

expe-

rience in years.” 9

On January

19, 1922, Einstein

reported the successful outcome to

the academy, but he withheld his lecture from publication because he

had to acknowledge that objections being raised by

were

justified.

Von Laue had been making

had convincingly

time, and

set

Max von Laue

these objections for

them out the day before the

some

session of

the academy According to Laue, the experiment itself was correct, but .

it

was not conclusive, since the same

waves

as for

needle radiation.

made between again,

to

was “a

Born

classical

result

a

by one hope.” 10

But one’s got to

alone stops one from making booboos.” 11 his situation as follows: “I

a lunatic

me,

else the

asylum.

face of nature,

.

.

.

He

reported

monumental booboo (experiment about

light emission with canal rays).

to distract

be

theory and quantum theory. Einstein, once

“made

that he had

for

No distinction could, in consequence,

wiser, but the poorer

little

would be obtained

suppose

it’s

a

To

live

with

that.

Death

Ehrenfest he described

good thing that

I

have so

much

quantum problem would have long got me

How

miserable the theoretical physicist

and in the face of his students.” 12

is

into

in the

More Hustle, Long Journeys

513

Distractions, as Einstein called them, were plentiful.

once had been merely tific

and

institution

next ten years.

He

a

famous physicist was

new

a

now

The man who

a social

pattern was emerging for his

was no longer

just a physicist,

and scienover the

life

but a representative

Weimar

of science generally, as well as being a representative of the

—not necessarily

Republic and of Jewry earned him some

hostility,

in that order of priority.

This

but also a good deal of honor.

At the beginning of 1921 Einstein was accepted into the Pour

le

Merite for Science and the Arts, the exclusive Order of Merit limited to thirty holders.

Felix Klein,

Along with Einstein, the Gottingen mathematician

the painter

Hauptmann were

Max

Liebermann, and the poet Gerhart

inducted. At the age of forty- two, Einstein was by

•r

youngest

far the

a

of this august

circle.

honor and fortunately involved

a great

him

member

little

The Order

of Merit was

work, though

it

earned

reproof from Nernst because, on public occasions, Einstein

never wore his insignia.

Rather more work was involved in his membership in the senate of the Kaiser

Wilhelm

Society, to

which he belonged

until 1925. In addi-

tion there were countless commissions and boards that

of having Einstein as

a

member. Most of these

charge conscientiously, even though deep

them.

When Wilhelm

years, resigned his

Westphal,

to boast

duties he tried to dis-

down he had

who was

wanted

little

interest in

Einstein’s junior

by three

membership on the board of the Einstein Founda-

tion for professional reasons, Einstein, along with his official letter of

thanks, regretting his departure, added a few handwritten lines: “As a private individual

I

am

glad that from the sphere of cigar-smoking self-

important gods you have found your way back to the sphere of persons active in the field of science.” 13

Nevertheless,

when he was

in Berlin, Einstein conscientiously

and

regularly joined the “self-important gods” in the academy, or, by pref-

erence, the Physical Golloquium. their spurs in the exciting scientific

Young

He

win

atmosphere of Berlin, found him

practicing democrat, invariably friendly helpful.

researchers, anxious to

a

—even cordial—receptive, and

neutralized the inevitable halo of authority that sur-

rounded by him by humor and self-mockery. In the colloquium he

Spiendor and Burden of Fame

514

made no cilor.

distinction

The

between arguing with

a student

and

coun-

a privy

students liked that, though the privy councilors liked

it less.

But then the privy councilors had to deal with the students, preparing

them

him-

for a doctorate or Habilitation, while Einstein could confine

self to occasional lectures

With

and rare seminars.

moved

the same relaxed informality, Einstein also

which, even after the end of imperial Germany, were exalted.” In the case of bankers

and

called

still

“most

from

industrialists this followed

their generous patronage of the Kaiser stein Foundation.

in circles

Wilhelm Society or

With Walther Rathenau he

the Ein-

often discussed political

issues before Rathenau, in 1922,

became foreign

during his brief period in

Einstein had buried his bolshevik

ideas since the

first

office.

few months

minister, and also

war and was prepared

after the

the government of the democratic center under Chancellor

conditional confidence: “After

all,

men who now

the

of government are not responsible for the present those responsible are the very people

He

also continued his Zionist

the Soviet People’s

cherin

—who

is

Commissar

tine. 15

What

his

bear the burden

difficult conditions;

work

at the

highest level by meeting

Georgiy Chi-

for Foreign Affairs,

said to have revered Einstein “like a

Union and ways of

Wirth

who now criticize most loudly.” 14

bassy on Unter den Linden to discuss with the Soviet

to give

him

god”

—

at his

em-

the situation of Jews in

emigration to Pales-

facilitating their

Einstein learned in that conversation merely confirmed

his belief in the

need for

His colleagues,

who had been

in their profession,

Sommerfeld

Zionist

movement.

regarding Einstein as the greatest

were often aghast when they read

papers of his political

broke under that

a

activities

or views.

Some

in the

man

news-

personal relationships

strain.

in

Munich,

for instance,

was firmly convinced that an

interview with Einstein on the front page of the Paris Figaro must be “a

lie

from

start to finish”

because

it

showed such

a lack of

good

When Einstein read the article, though, he had to disappoint Sommerfeld. He had neither given nor authorized an interGerman

behavior. 16

view, but the text nevertheless was based at a

on some

table talk he

had had

party in Berlin. “I recognize our conversation in the article.

It

More Hustle, Long Journeys what

states

only illuminated by French Bengal

I said,

merfeld learned in

this

Germany and not only would remain

that he

mans had played As

defeat.

way not only why that he

a Swiss citizen,

different views

war and well deserved

a feeble

is

who

for the

comparison.

their

Sommerfeld, Einstein wrote

from one’s own.” However,

Munich, reported to Einstein: “As

bomb

1914 on the condition

respect an honest person even

merfeld did not reply, but Anschutz,

feld, a

in

left

but also his view that the Ger-

a disastrous role in the

“One should

Som-

light.” 17

Einstein had originally

had returned

a postscript in his letter to

the margin:

515

He

when he

in

holds

proved vain. Som-

this plea

always spent the winter in

way your

gave

it

to

letter hit

me

Sommer-

in utter despair,

despairing of you and of mankind.” 18 For the next few years their cor-

respondence almost ceased; the few

letters that

were exchanged were

restricted to trivialities, even in scientific matters.

On

the other hand, the Figaro interview had a positive reception in

France, and this to

renew an

may have induced

Einstein’s old friend Paul Langevin

invitation to lecture at the College de France, originally

envisaged for the autumn of 1914. Einstein had already declined invitations

from the French League

for

Human

Rights and from the

Philosophical Society, mainly in order to avoid political complications,

and thus found himself greatly embarrassed by Langevin’s friendly gesture.

He would

were very

more as a

have loved to accept

sensitive about this,

sensitive.

it,

but his

German

colleagues

and presumably the French were even

French scholars were continuing the shooting war

kind of paper war; they had not forgotten the unfortunate “Mani-

festo of the Ninety-three”

tional boycott of

German

and generally saw to scientists

it

that the interna-

and academic organizations was

maintained. In view of this unpromising situation, Einstein regretfully

had to decline the

invitation: “I can think of

that talking with yourself, Perrin, and little

room

as in the past,

Mme.

and presenting the

felt

he

nothing more beautiful Curie in relativity

a

comfortable

theory to your

students with a subjective note,” he wrote at the end of his long letter, after carefully politics

weighing the pros and cons. “But the great public and

have long since got hold of me and tried to

fit

me

to their pur-

Splendor and Burden of fame

516 poses. ...

to be asked also about

would be certain

I

concerning Franco-German relations, and wise than truthfully,

on

that

.

.

me

sympathies either

Dear Langevin,

.

cannot comply with your request, because

I

views

could not answer other-

answer would not win

or on the other side of the Rhine.

this

me

my

as I

my political

I

am

pains

it

fond of

you.” 19

However, Einstein could not get

of the feeling that, by

rid

declining the invitation, he had chosen the path of least resistance,

whereas

A

him.

French friend had taken

his

week

later

a considerable risk in inviting

he informed Langevin that he had changed his

mind, and why: “Further reflection and

Rathenau convinced

chance conversation with

that, despite all the

my

misgivings voiced in

should have accepted your invitation. In one’s efforts gradually

letter, I

to

me

a

remedy the misfortune of

petty considerations;

this

war one should not be deflected by

you and your colleagues have not allowed them

to deflect you.” 20

In a carefully formulated letter Einstein informed his colleagues in the Prussian

Academy of

induced him to accept serve

the

it,

restoration

the invitation and of the reasons which had in particular that “this event

academic

circles

would take

says, are truly dreadful,”

good a

intended to

German and French

of relations between

scholars.” 21 In spite of all his

is

intentions, though, he expected that

dim view of his

trip.

Count Kessler recorded

“These

he

circles,

“He

in his diary.

is

overcome by disgust when he thinks of them.” 22 arranged

Einstein

March

28. “I

am

not bringing

most comfortable better.” 23

Langevin

with

alone.

The

my wife,

that

he

because

I

simpler and

would

think that

less official

Other arrangements included keeping

his

quite like to have a arises;

that

is

maybe something can

after all

least,

who

we

be

will is,

the

accommodation want

the other hand,

to have I

would

politicians if the opportunity

be achieved about the misfortune

being carried into the world from your beautiful

but not again,

word with one or two

On

on

everything

secret and avoiding private invitations. “Moreover, I

absolutely nothing to do with journalists.

arrive

city.” 24

Last

he was looking forward to meeting his “good Solo”

functioned in Paris as his translator and publishing agent.

More Hustle, Long Journeys For

had “shuffled off

his sake, too, Einstein

ensure that

we have

On March

28 Einstein was met

exit, in

at the

French frontier station by

his

When

the

Gare du Nord

Nordmann. 26

in Paris, they did not take the usual

order to avoid the waiting journalists: like

they disappeared in the darkness across the tracks.

have amused Einstein, but

was

kinds of things, to

all

time for existence.” 25

a little

friend Langevin and the astronomer Charles train arrived at the

517

made

it

refused to

meet

Einstein, and in the

the subject had been ended

when

outcome of his

Academie des Sciences

thirty of

31, Einstein

visit

Physical Society had firmly

its

a

debate on

members threatened

leave the hall in protest as soon as Einstein entered

When on Friday, March

of smugglers,

The maneuver must

sense, since the

The French

entirely uncertain.

still

a trio

began

to

it.

his lectures at the

Col-

lege de France the audience had been carefully selected and limited by

way

the

tickets

who had

also

were

issued. Paul Painleve, a

been minister of war and

president of the

Chamber

renowned mathematician

now

held the high office of

of Deputies, had operated as a circumspect

controller of the admission tickets.

Madame

Curie was present,

as

were Ffenri Bergson and even the Nobel laureate Charles Guillaume,

whose objections hend.

No

to relativity theory not even Einstein could

Germans,

either

from the embassy or

invited.

Despite some misgivings

French” 27

—Einstein

—

“if

only

my

journalists,

comprehad been

beak were better suited to

lectured in the language of his hosts, with an

accent and carefully, but clearly and simply. Langevin sat next to him, to help him, like a prompter, a father

ject

when he was

searching for a word, or like

attending his son’s debut on the stage of the world.

The

sub-

matter was that of his Princeton lectures, which Solovine was

just

then translating into French but which had not yet been published. After a

weekend without public appearances, Einstein continued

his lectures at the

College de France, emerged successful from

a

debate with Guillaume, and on Thursday was the center of a discussion at the Philosophical Society. Press reports ranged from amicable to enthusiastic; attacks

by nationalist papers were isolated exceptions.

Splendor and Burden of Fame

518

As the German embassy summed was “a sensation which the

it

up

intellectual

in

its

report, Einstein simply

snobbery of the

capital

would

not do without.” 28 In the end Einstein even risked an interview.

had

also

been able to

government

With embassy

talk to politicians,

but only those

held no

office.

German

the public his visit was such a success that the felt it

had to warn Berlin not to assume that “Einstein’s suc-

cessful appearances in Paris

were proof that

mans could once more, untroubled, resume French

who

He

intellectual life

in the field of science

their

and cultivate them on

a

former relations with

personal basis.” 29 Ein-

been more optimistic.

stein himself appears to have

Ger-

To

his wife

he

reported with great satisfaction that she could “hardly imagine the

sympathy with which

I

was met here. In

political matters, too, I

and good

have

found nothing but calm consideration of

affairs

understanding, incomparably better than

had expected. Tomorrow

I

will for

we’re off by car to the war ruins.” 30 It

was Charles Nordmann who, early

April 10, picked

up the guest with

in the

a car.

morning on Monday,

Along with Nordmann,

Langevin, and Solovine, Einstein drove through a landscape laid waste, through wrecked towns and villages. Aghast, he stood in front

of the fortifications and trenches in which, a few years before, millions of

men had

lost their lives. After a

Germany in He made a detour

the train to

Anschutz in self

day of profound shock he boarded

the evening. via

Kiel,

where he successfully supported

a patent suit before the district

court and informed him-

on progress with the work on the gyrocompass. Back

wrote to Romain Rolland that he was “happy that

went so harmoniously, and having contributed a

little

I

my

in Berlin

he

stay in Paris

entertain the pleasant conviction of

to the

rapprochement of the minds.” 31

He

thanked Solovine for “unforgettable days, but damnably exhausting ones, they

When the

still

stick in

my nerves.” 32

Einstein went to the

same experience

academy meeting on April

as after his

American

trip.

20,

Most of

he had

the seats

around him remained empty, since the modest attendance enabled the privy councilors to distance themselves from him. 33

More Hustle, Long Journeys

On

the other hand, at a

German-French

519

friendship rally in the

Reichstag on June 10, 1922, Einstein was feted. This had been organized by the

German Peace

Cartel, an

amalgamation of the

A

Fatherland League with other pacifist organizations.

New

like-minded

delegation from France attended, led by Professor Victor Basch.

“The

demonstration was most impressive,” noted Count Kessler, the prin-

German

cipal speaker for the

side.

“Basch, Einstein and

reaped

I

tumultuous applause lasting several minutes.” 34

Two

weeks

later Einstein

been shot and not the

The

any longer.

in Berlin

first

killed

had to ask himself seriously

by

its

he could stay

foreign minister, Walther Rathenau, had

a reactionary in the street

incident of

if

on June

24.

This was

end of the war there had

kind. Since the

been over three hundred murders “from the right” and twenty-two left.” 35

“from the cal

To

Einstein, Rathenau’s death

was not only

a politi-

warning, but also a painful personal loss and a tragic confirmation

of his

own view

that

Rathenau should never have become foreign

minister. It

was probably

menfeld had spent

had

tried to

have been

after Einstein’s return a

long evening

at

from Paris that he and Blu-

Rathenau’s home. 36 Blumenfeld

win Rathenau over to Zionism, whereas Einstein would

satisfied if

Rathenau had given up

his ministry.

He

gave his

reasons in an obituary: “Given the attitude which a large section of the

educated strata of

Germany

adopts toward the Jews,

I

believe that

proud reserve on the part of Jews would be the natural thing life.” 37

Einstein had never followed his

own maxim, and

in public

Rathenau,

who wished to achieve great things and perhaps even become a German Disraeli, was not prepared to follow it either. “Rathenau lacked psychological understanding of his own position,” Einstein said on one occasion, explaining

his misgivings to

Blumenfeld. “If he were

offered the post of Pope he’d be quite capable of accepting. tell

you, he wouldn’t

had been

a

make

a

bad job of

good German foreign

it

either.” 38

And

Rathenau

minister, anxious to guide

let

me

in fact

Germany

back, cautiously, into the family of nations. This was denounced as the servile policy of a

Jew; hence his assassination.

Splendor and Burden of Fame

520

Einstein had reason to fear that he too was a target of the death squads.

He

therefore cut his lectures short and with his wife disappeared into

the Anschutz workshops in Kiel

anyway

39

in order to

,

Commission

Nations.

He

it

himself, as a

he had intended to do

as

an expert witness

for

political conflict.

in a

“bogeyman.”

did what he had, in vain, advised Rathenau to do

withdrew from areas of the

fact

be available to Anschutz

lawsuit, or, as Einstein put

He now

—which in

On July

—he

he resigned from

1

Cooperation of the League of

Intellectual

had been invited to join that body only in May, along

with H. A. Lorentz, Marie Curie, and Paul Painleve, and he was the sole after

member some

hesitation, for reasons

Geneva, “that

a

Jew does

would

I

all

public matters.

have no desire to represent people

I

certainly not choose

ideas ...

such,” he wrote to a friend in

is

well to practice reserve in

have to admit that

also

had accepted

which were confirmed by the murder

of Rathenau: “The situation here

I

He

of a nation excluded from the League.

me

who

and with whose

as their representative

do not agree.” 40

Next, in a letter to Planck, he canceled a firmly promised lecture at the Naturforscher convention in Leipzig at the end of September:

“The

fact

is

that

I

have been warned, by people to be taken entirely

seriously (and independently in the

immediate

future,

by

several of them), not to stay in Berlin

and especially against making

ance anywhere in Germany.” 41

He

informed Marie Curie, of “resigning

a public

appear-

even considered the idea,

my

post in the

as

Academy and

he as

Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute as unobtrusively as possible,

and to

settle

tions for this

down

as a private individual

somewhere.” 42 His prepara-

were already under way.

Anschutz thought

it

a “great sensation”

when

his guest

confronted him

with his intention of settling in Kiel and earning his livelihood, the days of the Patent Office, by practical work. “Einstein

is

Berlin and everything connected with

and

it

in terms of visits

matters, and horribile scriptu wants to go into technology.

as in

weary of

So he

official first

of

me if I had any use for him, and if he could be of any value to my firm.” To employ the world’s greatest physicist in his factory was a all

asked

— More Hustle, Long Journeys prospect which, because of

him: “after

all, it is

But

giant-eater. in his escape

I

historical dimension, “almost scared”

its

no small matter

regard

it

521

to stand before

all

the world as a

very pleasant task to support Einstein

as a

from Berlin into the

relative tranquillity here.” 43

Einstein’s ingenious idea of ensuring the frictionless rotation of a

gyrocompass by locating

sphere had been patented by

a coil inside the

the Anschutz firm 44

on February

tion to navigation.

There was therefore no question

would welcome Einstein

22, 1922,

and represents

his contribu-

that Anschutz

He

“as a very valuable collaborator.

is

so

delighted with the gyrocompass and works so enthusiastically on

all

the tricky questions involved in this bold construction that

I

could not

wish for anything better than being able to approach him with

problems

new

his

at

life:

in quietude,

any time.” 45 Einstein, for

“The prospect of

his part,

was looking forward to

downright normal human existence

a

combined with the welcome chance of

the factory, delights me.

And

my

practical

work

in

then, the wonderful scenery, sailing

enviable.” 46 Einstein had already considered buying a house, a splendid villa

—though with

a

neglected garden

—though he

quickly dropped

the idea because the Empress Auguste Viktoria had spent several years

of her childhood in that house, and he was afraid that the people of Kiel would “regard the purchase of a property with such a history by a

Jew

as

an act of provocation and take their revenge on me.” 47

But in any

case, a

few days

later his intention to

informed Anschutz that he would

move was

gone: he

He

used his

after all stay in Berlin.

wife as an excuse: she had a horror of any change and did not feel up to

running

whole house any longer. In

a

of correction, he had himself

come

ness of quietude

an

fin Kiel] is

himself better than in Berlin; in

on

fact, as

way

to the conclusion that “this busi-

illusion. a

Elsa pointed out by

small

Nowhere can he submerge

town he would be exposed

as

a platter.” 48

This hectic episode following Rathenau’s murder did have an enjoyable postscript for Einstein. Anschutz,

southern

had

a

Germany and intended

with

its

a fine

to

to be at his factory only periodically,

house built on the bank of the Schwentine, near

would occupy floor,

who was moving back

upper floor whenever he came to

his factory.

Kiel.

The

He

lower

view of the garden and the water, was equipped

as a

Splendor and Burden of Fame

522

permanent refuge

complete with

for Einstein,

a boat at the jetty out-

window, so that he might combine work on the gyrocompass

side his

with his hobby of sailing.

Meanwhile, despite the threatening

Einstein had re-

situation,

turned to Berlin about the middle of July. “Here matters are in turmoil

murder of Rathenau,” he wrote

since the hideous

being constantly warned, officially

though

absent,

my

have given up

I

am

I

really here.

am and am

to Solovine. “I

lecture course

Anti-Semitism

On

strong.” 49 His caution was not of long duration.

very

is

August

the

1,

anniversary of the outbreak of war, he took part in a great antiwar rally in the Berlin Lustgarten.

outside the

And he even

spent a marvelous

summer

just

city.

Einstein had for

some

years toyed with the idea of buying a sailing

boat and a weekend cottage somewhere on the water near Berlin. 50

Brandenburg

Sailing and the

lakes

were to him the best things about

His money would probably never be

Prussia.

house, so he pursued his dream in a

sufficient for a

country

more modest way. He rented

a

small shack in the garden settlement of Boxfelde.

To

Berliners, Boxfelde

was “out

actually in the territory of the

in the country,”

though

town of Spandau, which had

it

just

was

been

incorporated into greater Berlin. Einstein’s plot was on a picturesque

bay formed by the Havel River, called Scharfe Lanke, where he could

moor

The plot was smaller than

his sailboat.

his

drawing room

in

Haberlandstrasse, and the whole shack was barely the size of his study. 51 Einstein

was fond of retiring to

one could disturb him. The

and reside in have

much

between

him

as a

become

where no

for

no more

“The boys

are here

could bear

it

fine.

summer of

him

apartment in town and

my yacht.” 52

1922.

as his

guest in Kiel. “I oscillate

my castle,

His neighbors

He

which has proved more

in the settlement

popular and peaceable weekend

model gardener. to

castle,”

my Spandau castle,” he reported to Anschutz, who would

watertight than

ber

his sons in the

preferred to have

my

“Spandau

fact that his wife

than two days at a time suited him

Here he put up

his

visitor,

remem-

though not

as a

allowed the weeds to take over and the property

so untidy that in September 1922 the district administra-

More Hustle, Long Journeys tion

warned him

would be

that the plot

at once. 53 Einstein

relet unless

523 it

was put

in order

promised to do better and protested “that we too

continue to have the greatest interest in renting the plot.” 54

summer of

In the course of the

1922, Einstein allowed himself to be

persuaded, mainly by letters from Marie Curie and by the

visit

of

a

from the Geneva headquarters of the League of

representative

Nations, to reconsider his withdrawal from the Commission for Intellectual Cooperation. 55

meeting

stituent

Nor

association’s centenary

Max von Laue By

was to be celebrated. In

his place

gave the great keynote address on the theory of rela-

staying away, Einstein saved himself an experience of intel-

lectual poverty

years earlier,

ducted

in August.

did he go to the Naturforscher convention in Leipzig, at

which the

tivity.

But he stayed away from the organization’s con-

and malice. Unlike the Bad Nauheim meeting two

when

the dispute about relativity theory was

con-

still

of scientific etiquette, Leipzig became the scene of

at the level

gross anti-Semitic boorishness.

The

tone had been set by Philipp Lenard,

second edition of

his foolish

prefaced the

but not malicious pamphlet JJber Ather

und Urcither {On Ether and Primal Ether) with Scientists.” In this

when he

a

“Reminder

to

German

he inveighed against “the confusion of concepts,

who knew nothing about race, surrounding Herr German scientist.” He got worked up about the “well-

hidden from those Einstein as a

known Jewish

characteristic of immediately shifting factual

to the field of personal quarrel,”

“sound German

spirit.”

Then

and he called for the cultivation of

“the alien spirit will yield

the spirit which emerges everywhere as a dark clearly seen in

problems

anything that relates to the

all

by

itself,

power and which ‘relativity

is

theory.’

so ” 56

Lenard’s followers distributed appeals outside the lecture rooms in Leipzig, objecting to the fact that the

attached too

much importance

management of the congress had

to relativity theory.

They

therefore

called for a counterdemonstration.

This anti-Semitic politician

in

activity

Munich, Adolf

Volkischer Beobachter

was entirely Hitler,

in the spirit of an obscure

who

in

the

equally obscure

had ranted: “Science, once our greatest pride,

is

Splendor and Burden of Fame

524

today being taught by Hebrews, for

toward

a deliberate, systematic

whom

.

.

science

.

only

is

a

means

poisoning of our nation’s soul and thus

toward the triggering of the inner collapse of our nation.” 57 However, the fact that this lunacy

became

one to conclude that

was already playing

Weimar

the

Even

it

official

policy in 1933 should not lead

major role in physics

in

Republic of the 1920s.

Wilhelm Wien, were

far-right nationalist physicists, such as

too intelligent in their

field

to

make themselves and

Semitism look foolish by arguing against nard remained alone with

a small

That

relativity.

He

handful of quacks.

their is

anti-

why Le-

irritated

even

like-minded colleagues not only by his opposition to rela-

politically tivity

a

theory but also because he

felt

that

on the

twenty-fifth anniver-

sary of the discovery of X-rays, he should have been

honored

as their

codiscoverer.

The

organized struggle against relativity theory virtually collapsed

with the Leipzig convention. Certainly not

a single “antirelativist”

1933—-not even

appointed to any professorship of physics until

Johannes Stark, the Nobel laureate of 1919, Lenard’s only

ally

was

who was soon

to be

of any scientific repute. That the author of the

theory continued to get into conflicts was entirely due to

politics,

not

to physics.

Einstein was spared the decision of whether he should or could stay on in Berlin.

He was

to

go to Japan and would be away from Germany for

A Japanese

the best part of six months.

him

for

what would now be

publishing house had engaged

called a publicity tour. 58

The

connection

between Einstein and the Kaizosha publishing house was established, without consulting Einstein, by Bertrand Russell. In 1921 Russell was in Japan in the service of this publishing

wing alive

periodicals.

—that

is,

house and

its

Asked who were the three most

who

should be invited next

and Lenin, without offering

a third

progressive

left-

significant people

—Russell named

Einstein

name. As Lenin was otherwise

engaged, the publishing house decided to approach Einstein.

A member

of the firm,

who was

traveling in

Europe

at the time,

was immediately ordered to Berlin, where, an appointment having been made by the Japanese embassy, he called

at Haberlandstrasse.

More Hustle, Long Journeys Einstein,

who had

in

returned from America, was again astonished

just

the interest people

America he had

showed

him and

in

his theory.

felt “like a cheat, like a

the people what they expected,” 59 he told

from Japan.

He

During

his

at

triumphs

con-man, who didn’t bring

Count Kessler. Nevertheless,

September 1921, Einstein accepted the

after three conversations in

offer

525

wanted to “see East Asia while the turbulence

here continues, he might at least get something out of

it.” 60

unlikely to have regretted the fact that this trip was concerned

He

is

more

with commercial than with political aspects. In January 1922 stein

formal contract was signed, under which Ein-

a

would, during

six- week

a

popular lectures in public.

The

when £700 was deducted for an excellent deal so much

—

sojourn, give six scientific and six

fee,

£2,000, was very generous. Even

travel expenses, the

remaining £1,300 was

so that, given the shrinking value of the

mark, he could afford to ask the academy to “suspend payment of salary

from October

on

“indefinite” because

Palestine

—

this

for an indefinite period.” 61

1

his return

The

my

period was

journey he wanted to stop over in

had long been an ardent wish of

his

—and then accept

an invitation to Spain.

When Einstein and his wife left Berlin at the beginning of October, this

was seen by many

as a safety

measure following Rathenau’s

assassi-

nation.

That was not

earlier,

but Einstein was very glad “to have the opportunity of

longed absence from Germany, which removed

enhanced danger without been awkward

for

been signed

exactly true, as the contract had

my

me from

a

a

pro-

temporarily

having to do anything that might have

my German

friends

and colleagues.” 62

After a few days in Zurich and one day in Bern, the Einsteins boarded the Japanese

steamship Kitano

Maru

in

Marseilles.

pleased to find that the passengers were nearly

Japanese, “a quiet, refined company,” 63

all

who would not

Einstein was

English and disturb him.

On

the six-week voyage he had intended to read several books and do a

lot

of work, but his stomach rebelled again; despite intensive treatment

by

a

Japanese doctor,

nently cured.

Still,

a fellow

calls at

passenger, the condition was not perma-

Colombo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and

Shanghai were of great touristic charm, even though he thought the

Splendor and Burden of Fame

526

poverty appalling and travel in a rickshaw pulled by a rassing: “I felt acutely

hideous treatment of

These beggars

ashamed

human

in royal shape

man embar-

to be partly responsible for such a

beings, but could

pounce

in droves

do nothing about

on every

it.

stranger, until

how to beseech and to beg so one’s heart is wrung by them.” 64 His trip may have helped him escape the political upheavals, but not the hullabaloo. Sometimes, when the

he has surrendered to them. They know

ship entered port, his

honor

“

Deutschland Deutschland iiher Alles ” was played in ,

—the wrong thing

for a Swiss

—and often he was caught up

German associations. The most beautiful memory of the trip was Hong Kong, both

in the social events of

its

for

scenery and because of its small Jewish community. Although most

of the 120 Jews living there had immigrated from Arab countries, Einstein

immediately saw them

fairly

convinced that the J ewish race has more or

as his “tribal

companions”: less

“I

kept

am now

itself

pure

over the past 1,500 years, as the Jews from the Euphrates and Tigris countries are very similar to ours.

A sense

of belonging together also

quite strong.” 65

On November

1

7 Einstein

landed in Kobe: the next day he arrived in

Tokyo. The Kaizosha publishing house had made and had every reason to be guest. “His journey

the

reported.

in America.

such a crowd of people lessly

with the publicity value of

through Japan was

German embassy

had experienced

satisfied

The

careful preparations

like a

its

triumphal progress,” 66

enthusiasm eclipsed anything he

“At Einstein’s arrival in

at the station that the police

Tokyo

there was

could only help-

watch the dangerous throng.” 67

The

following day Einstein gave his

audience of two thousand. translator

—the

mitted the

He

in front of an

spoke in German, interrupted by the

Jun Ishiwara. In 1910, Ishiwara had subJapanese paper on relativity theory; in 1912 he had physicist

first

worked with Arnold Sommerfeld visited Einstein in Zurich.

verve, perhaps because he fee: 3

yen,

in

Munich and during

The procedure was

reported to have endured for

mous entrance

first lecture,

that time

had

slow, but Einstein

is

five

hours and to have spoken with great

knew

that his listeners had paid an enor-

enough

to

buy ten meals.

More Hustle, Long Journeys Einstein’s host, Sanchiko

527

Yamamoto, the head of

the Kaizosha

publishing house, systematically pursued his aim of turning Einstein’s visit

not only into an intellectual event but into solid

high cost of admission to the lectures; by

profits:

a special issue in

by the

December

of the popular-science journal Kaizo, which quickly sold out and was reprinted; and tions.

by increasing the press runs of the

The German ambassador

that “the entire journey of the

cuted as

The

a

recorded, not without pained surprise,

famous man has been mounted and exe-

commercial enterprise, and

contract, in so far as

a rather profitable

any terms have leaked

something humiliating for Einstein licly

firm’s other publica-

one

at that.

out, even contained

—he was not allowed

to speak

pub-

outside the scheduled lectures! His learned words, converted into

yen, flowed into

Mr. Yamamoto’s pockets.” 68 4T

Yamamoto had shown some lectures and official rest,

when

in planning Einstein’s tour, with

engagements alternating with pleasant periods of

the Einsteins, superbly cared for, could enjoy the scenery,

the culture, and the people. 69

day

skill

Thus

Imperial Academy, a

at the

kabuki theater performance.

Chrysanthemum Feast

the

first

visit to

The

lecture

was followed by

wonderful gardens, and

a a

following day, at the traditional

in the imperial gardens,

which celebrates the

union between the imperial family and the people, Einstein was not just a guest

but the center of attention. “Not the empress, not the

prince regent or the imperial princes were the ones to hold court, but, instinctively or deliberately, everything revolved

The German embassy

has

us impressive accounts of

left

approximately 3,000 participants

what the day wanted

.

signified. All eyes

at least to

around Einstein.”

.

.

“how

the

because of Einstein totally forgot

were turned on Einstein, everyone

shake hands with the most famous

man

of the pres-

ent day.” 70

This incomparable tribute was followed by the tific

lectures in

Tokyo,

series

some 120

scholars with a

knowledge of physics. Jun Ishiwara was invariably present,

who had

visited Einstein in

Meanwhile the half-true,

press

and untrue

six scien-

held, for reasons of fairness, in turn at the great

universities of the city, before an audience of

Kuwaki,

of

Bern

in

March

campaign continued

stories;

as

was Ayao

1909.

in top gear, with true,

with poetical tributes to the great

Splendor and Burden of Fame

528

many

teacher; and with

caricatures.

One

may have

factor that

con-

tributed to Einstein’s great popularity was that the Japanese characters for “relativity principle” bore great similarity to those for “love”

More serious The ministers

“sex.” 71

council.

whether

a

and

matters seem to have occupied the cabinet

of Her Imperial Majesty not only argued about

layman could hope to understand Einstein’s lectures on but even conducted a sophisticated debate on what

relativity theory,

“to understand” actually meant. 72

The two weeks to the north,

in

Tokyo were followed by

where the

was welcomed

visitor

poem, “To the Great Einstein”; and next the ancient imperial city of Kyoto.

Under

a four- week tour: first

in Sendai with a heroic

to the south, to

Nagoya and

his contract Einstein

had to

Yamamoto

give only another four lectures, but the publisher

per-

suaded him to give two more, always with the high admission fee of

yen and with

3

of publicity. At the ETiversity of Kyoto, moreover,

a lot

Einstein allowed himself to be coaxed into giving an improvised lecture,

on December

how he had come

17,

immediately before continuing his journey, on

to create the theory of relativity.

The world

has

reason to be grateful to the Kyoto professors and to his translator, Ishiwara,

who took

his

speech down, as this lecture

statements in which Einstein described,

is

one of the few

only in rough outline, not

if

only the end result, but his struggle with the problems and the back-

ground to

The

their solution.

last

stop

on the tour was

Kyushu. There he gave violin at the

home

YMCA.

in

Eukuoka, on the southern island of

his final lecture,

had

a

at

Christmas he played his

After a few relaxing days, including

of Hayashi Miyake, the doctor

ship, Einstein

and

who had

rousing sendoff on

attended

December

some

at the

him on board

29, as the “great

teacher from the west.”

Einstein was glad he had followed the “sirens of East Asia”: “Japan was

wonderful. Refined customs, lively interest in everything, intellectual naivety but good intelligence

—

a splendid

people in

a

picturesque

land.” 73 Surprisingly, the “loner” recorded that in Japan he

the

first

time seen

absorbed in

it.” 74

He

a

healthy

human

society

kept a romantically tinted

had “for

whose members

memory

are

of both the

More Hustle, Long Journeys land and

people.

its

train journey

529

was painfully reawakened on August

It

1945: his

6,

had taken him through Hiroshima.

Einstein had found Japan a fascinating experience, but primarily as a

His

tourist. a

visit to

Palestine

on the return

profoundly moving experience which marked

He

disembarked

at

Port Said on February

—present-day Lod—

train to

Lydda

founded

as recently as 1909,

old city of David. For the

on the other hand, was

trip,

a small

his future

1,

life.

1923, and traveled by

town between Tel Aviv,

and Jerusalem, the three-thousand-yearfew days the Einsteins were the guests

first

of Sir Herbert Samuel (the future Lord Samuel), the high commissioner of the British-mandated territory of Palestine. Like Lord

Haldane, Samuel belonged to the species of British “gentlemen phi4T

who had

losophers”

a passionate interest in relativity theory.

would correspond with Einstein

years to come, albeit not

At the time, Samuel was the supreme authority

frequently. estine,

many

for

Samuel

and he accorded Einstein the honors of

in Pal-

a state visitor, includ-

ing a salvo of guns to salute his arrival at the high commissioner’s residence.

The Sir

next day being the Sabbath, Einstein took a simple walk with

Herbert along the massive

city walls built in the reign of

the Magnificent, allowed the magic of the in the evening called

Prague,”

who was

Old City

on Hugo Bergmann, the

attempting to build up

to act

Suleiman

on him, and

“serious saint

a library.

Not

from

every sight

gave Einstein the same kind of pleasure, as his diary reveals: “Then

down

to the

companions

Temple Wall (Wailing

Wall), where dull-minded tribal

are praying, faces turned to the wall, rocking their bodies

forward and back.

A

pitiful sight

of

future.” 75

Orthodox Judaism with

its

remained

alien to him.

The men

men

with

fixation

a past

but without

on Talmudic

a

tradition

in their long black caftans, with

beards and sidelocks, and with their big hats, were tribal companions

— that

was beyond any doubt

them he reacted with Infinitely

more

—but

whenever he encountered

irritation.

attractive to

him were

the Jewish construction

workers, artisans, and farmers he saw over the next few days.

were

a living refutation

of his

initial

They

skepticism, expressed in Berlin,

Splendor and Burden of Fame

530

possessed those

skills

which were indispens-

able to the development of their colony.

Now

he watched Jews who,

about whether Jews

still

having come to Palestine from the ghettos of eastern Europe, without

any training

in

were handling

occupations,

practical

bricklayers’

trowels as the most natural thing in the world, or were cultivating a

made

soil

fertile

only by great

Moreover, to Einstein’s

effort.

they were practicing something like socialism

same wage It

was

this practical

came from

ment than

his visit to

One

it

“What

emotion and

more

event

intellect, his

pioneer

a

settle-

to

called

A modern Hebrew city

commercial and

incredibly active people, our Jews!” 76

The most important

of his strongest impres-

the Jews have achieved here

few years arouses the greatest admiration.

infinitely

made him

would one day become, but already

their “Little Chicago”:

Tel Aviv meant

else, that

Tel Aviv, then more of

raised out of the ground, with a lively

An

foreman earned the

work, more than anything

the great city

by the Jews in a

a

as his assistant.

believe in the future of a Jewish Palestine. sions

—

delight,

intellectual

The honorary

him than

that of

life.

citizenship of

New York.

—which for Einstein perfectly combined

Jewishness and his “scientific aspirations”

was the ceremonial inauguration of Hebrew University. The honor had been reserved for him,

as there

the greatest Jewish scientist,

who

could be no person

for

many

more

fit

than

of his “tribal companions”

was their greatest Jewish contemporary altogether. The university had

become

so dear to his heart that he had utilized the stopovers

voyage to Japan to publicize

it

among Jewish communities,

on

his

for in-

Now, on the afternoon of February 7, 1923, he on Mount Scopus, from where Alexander the Great first

stance in Singapore. 77

was standing

saw the Great Jerusalem and where Titus

rallied his

Roman legions

for

the destruction of the Temple. In a provisional hall, draped with the insignia of the British

Mandate, with

and with symbols of the twelve

flags

of the Zionist movement,

tribes of Israel, Einstein

was to give the

first lecture.

Menachem Ussishkin, the president of the Zionist Executive Council, who had been one of the party on the American trip, put the event in historic context:

More Hustle, Long Journeys

531

Three thousand years ago King Solomon built a house Lord of the world on Mount Moriah, and his first prayer house was that peoples.

Now,

should become

a

we

we pray

are building this house,

that

up on the stage which has been waiting

you these past two thousand years

There was probably no moment bitterly that, during his

it

78

in Einstein’s life

Munich

when he

it

by

Hebrew.

heart: “I, too,

whence the Torah and

He had no

am happy to

all

light

its

enlightened world, and in the house, which

of wisdom and science for

regretted

schooldays, he had, from “lazi-

to have the first sentence of his address translated into

and laboriously learn

for

.

ness and frivolity ,” 79 neglected to learn

in the country,

all

house of science for the whole world. Professor

Einstein, please step

more

in this

should become a house of prayer for

this as

to the

is

choice but

Hebrew

for

my address

read

emanated to

ready to become

the peoples of the east .” 80

him

With

the

all

a center

apologies

that he could not give his address in the language of his people, he

continued in French.

During Zionist

his

second week he toured the country in the company of schools, factories, and a congress of the His-

officials, visiting

tadrut trade union

— everywhere

hailed and revered for his proud

avowal of Judaism and his pride in the Jewish people.

He

had bound-

admiration for the kibbutzim and their struggles against hunger,

less

poverty, and malaria.

While not seeing much of a

future for the primi-

tive-communist kibbutz experiment, he believed in building up

a

Jewish society: I

greatly liked

my

tribal

workers, and as citizens. tile.

It will

become

a

companions

The

land,

in Palestine, as farmers, as

on the whole,

moral center, but

will

succeed

will

not very

fer-

not be able to

On the other hand, I am

absorb a major part of the Jewish people.

convinced that colonization

it

is

81 .

After a stop at the picturesque Lake of Genezareth he returned to

and

Jerusalem for one more day, gave

a lecture in a

found himself confronted with

question which, unuttered, had

a

crowded

accompanied him throughout Palestine: Would he come

hall,

again, this

Splendor and Burden of Fame

532 time to stay? absolutely

On

want

the final evening he recorded in his diary:

me

to have

ranks on that question.

He

Jerusalem and are assailing

My heart

never returned, not even for

Zionism

at a certain distance.

he had grown in Palestine,

no

in

if

saints described himself,

says yes, but

a visit.

He

my

in closed

reason says no !” 82

preferred to be attached to

But he readily accepted not before.

me

“They

He whose

a role into

which

people recognize

certainly with a touch of irony, as a

“Jewish saint .” 83

The voyage

continued to France.

straight to Berlin, but first

went

From

there he did not return

to Spain for

two weeks

84 .

Barcelona,

Madrid, Toledo, and Zaragoza were stages on his tour, during which academic lectures, addresses, and honors of every kind alternated in rapid succession. Einstein was admitted as a corresponding

member

of

the academy, was given an honorary degree, and was received by the

The German ambassador reported, without exaggeration, “that never in human memory has a foreign scholar met with such an enthuking.

siastic

By

and extraordinary reception in the Spanish capital .” 85 the time he returned to Berlin in the middle of March, after an

absence of just under

six

months, he had been awarded the Nobel

Prize and, as a curious consequence of that distinction, had officially

become

a

German and

a Prussian.

PART

VI

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Einstein Receives the Nobel Prize

and

Consequence

in

Becomes

In September 1922, when the

a

Prussian

tickets for the trip to

been ordered, Einstein received

Japan had long

from Svante Arrhenius,

a letter

a

4T

prominent member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Stockholm and chairman of the committee responsible Prize for Physics. Arrhenius had

come

for the

in

Nobel

to Leipzig to the Naturforscher

convention, learned there about Einstein’s travel plans, and with rather obvious hints endeavored to

make him change

his

mind:

“It will

probably be very desirable for you to come to Stockholm in Decem-

and

ber,

if at

that time

you

are in Japan that will be impossible.”

Leipzig Arrhenius had evidently informed state

of

affairs,

to reliable in

Max von Laue

1

In

about the

which Laue promptly related to Einstein: “According

news which

I

received yesterday, events

November which would make your

may be

taking place

presence in Europe in

Decem-

ber desirable.” 2 Einstein instantly realized that this concerned the awarding of the

Nobel Prize on December cryptic

10,

but even though Arrhenius, in the

manner of academy members

matters of the prize

—who are sworn to secrecy on

—hinted that Einstein’s absence might jeopardize

the vote in the academy, Einstein did not hesitate for a

my

contract irrevocably

pone the journey.”

He

ties

me

to Japan,

I

am

moment: “As

quite unable to post-

saluted his Swedish colleague “in the

the invitation envisaged for

me

will, as a result,

hope

that

only be postponed and

not canceled.” 3 His absence did not matter. While Einstein was some-

where between Hong King and Shanghai, en route

535

to Japan,

it

was

Unified Theory

536

Time Out

in a

Stockholm on November

announced

in

for Physics

had been awarded to him.

9,

of Joint

1922, that the

Nobel Prize

We do not know when Einstein was informed of this honor;

it

cer-

Nor do we know

tainly did not merit an entry in his travel diary.

his

spontaneous reaction to the apparent motivation behind the wording of the award: “in recognition of his merits for theoretical physics, more particularly for the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”

Reference to an achievement dating back to 1905 saved the Swedish

Academy from

a delicate situation;

by then the academy needed Ein-

—

more than he needed the prize except, of course, money that went with it. The members of the academy had

stein as a laureate

for the

realized for a

they were

number of years

less clear

Einstein had

to

whom

The committee

a

prize;

it for.

Nobel Prize

in 1910,

by Wil-

he had once unsuccessfully applied for an

Ostwald based

assistant’s post.

had to be given the

about what he should receive

been nominated for

first

helm Ostwald,

that Einstein

his

nomination on

for the physics prize,

whose

five

relativity theory.

members had

to

examine and evaluate the proposals before passing one of them on to

—which in turn would submit to the academy vote — recommended that Einstein’s name should be

the physical class

whole aside

for a

it

as a

set

pending experimental confirmation of his theory. 4 This was not,

at the time, unreasonable.

After 1912, Einstein’s for his

relativity

name was

repeatedly put forward, not only

theory but also for his

Brownian movement, and

statistical

work on

the

later also for the photoelectric effect. 5 After

1917 Einstein was being nominated by an ever-growing circle of those entitled to

From

make nominations, but

that year

there was

onward the nominations

no coordinated campaign.

also listed the general theory

of relativity and the perihelion of Mercury.

The for a

theory of relativity gave the committee considerable problems,

number of

reasons.

A

principle or a theory certainly

was not

a

“discovery” in the sense of Alfred Nobel’s bequest. Nobel’s directions,

and the experimental positivism of the trend-setting physicists

at the

University of Uppsala, were significant. In 1908, the committee’s pro-

Einstein Receives the Nobel Prize

Max

posal to award the prize to the theoretician

by the physical

rejected

class. 6

537 Planck had been

Because the committee was reluctant to

trigger a similar conflict again, theoretical concepts were, for a long

time, outside consideration.

the prize for 1918; those

(Not

1919 did

until

who nominated him

Planck receive

included Einstein.) Pref-

erence was given to “effects,” such as those of occasionally to practical matters such as an

Max

Zeeman

or Stark, and

improvement

in the inten-

of a lighthouse beacon (1912) or a steel alloy (1920). Besides, there

sity

was no expert on the committee

who might have

explained the impor-

tance of relativity theory to his colleagues. After the spectacular results of the solar eclipse in 1919,

would be

inevitable that relativity theory

Svante

chairman,

Arrhenius,

personally undertook

(who had

prize for chemistry for 1903), cally,

he

justly

prepare

to

though

highly

this task. Uncriti-

found in the literature

—not

entirely justified criticism but also the absurd statement

Gehrcke from Berlin

a

only

by Ernst had

that the precession of Mercury’s perihelion

long been explained independently of relativity theory. As

Nobel Prize went not

a

been honored with the

was not quite up to

listed all the objections

became

short-listed. In 1920, the

detailed expertise for the committee. But Arrhenius, intelligent physical chemist

it

a result, a

to Einstein but to Charles Guillaume, for his

stainless steel alloys.

The on

tise

following year, Allvar Gullstrand was charged with the experrelativity theory. Gullstrand

tributed so

much

was

a physiologist

to the understanding of the

human

who had

con-

eye as an optical

system that in 1910 he could have received not only the prize for medicine

—

as in fact

relativity,

he did

—but

also the prize for physics. In the theory of

however, he was no more than an eager dilettante, and

essay in consequence contained major misunderstandings. 7 mittee, confused,

recommended

his

The com-

that the awarding of the prize for

1921 be suspended until the following year. In 1922 the

number of nominations of

increase. Again, the expertise

not discharge

his task

Einstein had continued to

was performed by Gullstrand, who did

any better than the year before. However, one of

the committee members, Carl

Wilhelm Oseen, professor of physics

at

Unified Theory

538

in a

Time Out

of Joint

Uppsala, came up with the idea of basing Einstein’s nomination on his photoelectric effect, especially since Einstein’s formula had by then

been experimentally confirmed by Millikan. Oseen was therefore instructed to prepare a second expertise,

on

that subject. This turned

out to be so brilliant that the committee recommended that the prize

awarded to Albert Einstein for

for physics for 1921 be

his discovery of

The proposal was adopted first by the physical class and, on November 9, by the plenary meeting of the Swedish Academy. The prize for 1922 went to Niels Bohr, “for his the law of the photoelectric effect.

researches into the structure of atoms and the radiation emitted by

them.”

In judging the theory of relativity the committee did not exactly distin-

guish

—though fortunately no one knew that at the time.

itself

by no means

rationale for choosing Einstein was

Still, its

a mistake. Elis expla-

nation of the photoelectric effect by the “heuristic viewpoint” of light

quanta was certainly worth

a

Nobel

Prize,

and Arrhenius rightly

pointed out in his citation that “an extensive literature has sprung up in this field, testifying to the exceptional value

of this theory. Einstein’s

law has become the foundation of quantitative photochemistry, in the

way

that Faraday’s law

is

that of electrochemistry.” 8

That the rather conservative Swedish Academy should have honored Einstein for the one paper which he himself had called “very revolutionary” in an amusing, ironical touch. All the same, the

mittee did

awards to

show

a sense

Max Planck in

to Millikan in 1923

early

quantum

—

a

of historical perspective by

1918, to Einstein and

Bohr

its

com-

successive

in 1922,

and then

kind of recapitulation of the exciting story of

theory.

Bohr immediately alluded in his touchingly

to the

symbolism of this sequence when,

awkward German, he observed

in his congratulatory

—quite apart from your great input into the world of human ideas —your fundamental contribution should letter to Einstein “that

.

outwardly be acknowledged before

I

.

.

also

myself was considered for such an

honor.” 9 Einstein, on board ship returning from Japan, replied: “Dear, or rather beloved, Bohr! Your cordial letter reached

me

shortly before

Einstein Receives the Nobel Prize

my departure me

just as

from Japan.

much

I

can

say,

might have got the prize before

without exaggeration, that

Nobel

pleasure as the

me

539

Prize.

I

particularly

find

your

charming

it

gave

fear that

you

— that

real

is

Bohr.” 10

On

his return to Berlin, Einstein learned that

some

investigations

ensuing from the award of the Nobel Prize had shown that he was

German and

The

Stockholm because

arisen in at the

a Prussian.

a

question of Einstein’s citizenship had

a laureate

was always accompanied, both

presentation ceremony and at the succeeding

festivities,

diplomatic representative of his country. Indeed, should

by the be

a laureate

unable to receive the prize in person, his place would actually be taken

by

his country’s representative.

German minister claimed by the German minister, Rudolf

In Einstein’s case, both the Swiss and the that privilege. In response to inquiries

Nadolny, the Berlin Academy cabled, sure of victory: “Einstein

is

a

Reich German.” His Swiss colleague was surprised, because Einstein invariably traveled

embarrassing

on

a Swiss passport,

moment

arose when,

the Foreign Ministry in Berlin

but withdrew gracefully. 11

on the day was

German

a contradictory

after all a Swiss national.

avoid a diplomatic disaster, evidence had that the

after the presentation,

came through with

finding, to the effect that Einstein

now

An

To

to be found in Berlin

minister had in fact been Einstein’s only legitimate

representative.

The

lawyers of the Berlin

discovered that on July

1,

Academy put

later also the

Moreover, by taking up

Academy he had become an “indirect German citizen, even though he had not nationality. 12

Academy

Upon

that he

nationality,

I

oath on the Prus-

his post at the Prussian

state

and hence

official”

expressly given

a

up any other

return Einstein immediately informed the

had expressly kept another nationality when he was

invited in 1913: “As

my

his

and

1920, Einstein had taken an oath on the

Reich Constitution and nine months sian Constitution.

their heads together

I

attached importance to

made my acceptance of

dent on the fulfillment of

this condition,

no change being made

a possible invitation

which

in fact

in

depen-

was complied

540

Unified Theory

with.

I

have no doubt that

isterial files; I also

leagues

In the

know

Time Out of Joint

in a

this state

of affairs can be verified from min-

that this state of affairs

known

is

to

my

col-

Haber and Nernst.” 13 Einstein had always been regarded as a Swiss national by

fact,

German

authorities.

Thus before

appointment to the board of

his

the Physical-Technical Reich Institute the question had been raised

member

of that body, since the Reich

whether

a foreigner could

Institute

sometimes worked on confidential problems of relevance to

be

a

the military. In the petition to the Kaiser, although these misgivings

were played down, the point about a citizen

his citizenship

is

clear: “Einstein is

of Switzerland, but this fact should prove no obstacle to his

invitation to the Board.” 14

Einstein, therefore, else that

he asked for

was so certain that he was Swiss and nothing

his

medal and

scroll to

be sent to him through

the Swiss legation in Berlin. However, these had already been handed

German minister, Nadolny. The Nobel Foundation found tactful way out by having them presented to Einstein, with Nadolny’s

over to the a

agreement, by the Swedish minister in Berlin, Sten Ramel.

However,

a

prolonged search of the

files

and an extensive correspon-

dence revealed nothing about an arrangement concerning Einstein’s nationality dating to 1913 or 1914, let alone about any release

German

nationality. Clearly the authorities,

simply forgotten to resulting

from

and Einstein himself, had

settle this issue definitively.

all this

from

was explained to Einstein

The in

legal situation

June 1923 by

a

senior official of the Ministry of Education. Einstein evidently had not

given up hope that something would emerge from the

requested that his “possible Prussian nationality not be outsiders.” 15 Six

Einstein

made

for

he

public to

when nothing new had been discovered, document for the Prussian Academy dated Feb-

months

finally, in a

files,

later,

ruary 1924, declared that the relevant ministerial counselor in the

Ministry of Education “firmly holds the view that the

Academy had

entailed

nothing contradicting

this

objection to this view.” 16

acquisition

my employment

of Prussian citizenship

view emerges from the

Nor

files.

I

in as

have no

did anyone have any objection to the

Einstein Receives the Nobel Prize

541

German

fact that Einstein retained his Swiss nationality alongside his

nationality. Nevertheless, in the

wake of

was

definitively established that he

Nobel

his

German and

a

Prize

it

had been and had

a Prussian,

been so since 1914.

The medal and

scroll

of the Nobel Prize were handed to Einstein in

Berlin, but not the prize

money, which, because of the German cur-

rency restrictions, he had asked to have transferred directly to Switzer-

His only obligation under the

land.

by the laureate

in

statutes

was

be given

a lecture to

Sweden. Arrhenius suggested to Einstein that he not

wait until the following

Nobel event

in a

gloomy Swedish December,

but rather discharge his duty on the occasion of the Scandinavian Sci5

entists

Convention in Gotenborg in July. Although the

ture customarily dealt with the subject for

laureate’s lec-

which he had been honored,

Arrhenius gave Einstein freedom of choice. However, that

one would be exceedingly grateful for

a lecture

“it is

certain

on your theory of

relativity.” 17

Thus

it

happened that even

tinued to be on the move.

Leyden and went his lecture,

to

Sweden

after his return to Berlin, Einstein

He

May as a On July 1 1

spent

in July.

visiting professor in

Goteborg he gave

in

Fundamental Ideas and Problems of the Theory of Relativity to ,

an audience of two thousand which included the king. 18

have preferred to speak on his current reflections on theory, but he regretted “that gravity

and

manner.” 19

con-

my new

electromagnetism

He would

a unified field

theory on the essential unity of

cannot

be

He therefore presented unified

shaped

field

in

popular

a

theory to a small circle

of experts at the Technical University.

On

his return

journey he made

Niels Bohr. His host

met him

two were instantly engrossed

a

detour to Copenhagen to see

at the railroad station.

in talk of physics, but this time they

pletely forgot the world

around them:

“We

talked so animatedly that

we went much

too

years later.

don’t

“We

because Einstein

at

stops, but

that time

was

we rode

com-

took the streetcar and far,”

Bohr

got off and traveled back, but again

know by how many

As always, the

to

really full

related

we rode

and fro by

too

many far. I

streetcar,

of interest.

I

don’t

Unified Theory

542

remember

if his

interest

Time Out

in a

was more or

of Joint

less skeptical

rode to and fro on the streetcar, and

—but

in

any case we

can well imagine what the

I

people thought about us.” 20

of 120,000 Swedish crowns associated with the Nobel

The sum Prize

—increased by

stein to

interest accrued in the

thank Arrhenius for his

“capitalist care”

his lecture directly to Switzerland.

of

meantime, which led Ein-

What

—was transferred

should have marked the end

financial worries triggered a frightful row.

all

after

Mileva and his sons

were disappointed that the money (approximately 180,000 Swiss accordance with the divorce court ruling, was deposited in

francs), in

an inaccessible trust account, with only the interest Einstein complained that

Hans Albert had “on

at their disposal.

the occasion of the

arrangement of the N. Pr. written such an ugly and arrogant I

cannot meet with him

this year.” 21

The

letter that

embittered father could do

nothing but cancel their planned joined vacation. “And the wife also doesn’t write like

someone who knows

that at times

one has

virtually

given [her the shirt off one’s back].” 22 Sensible

men

like

Heinrich Zangger and

Hermann Anschutz

vened in these delicate family matters, acting aged

at least to settle the dispute

as mediators,

inter-

and man-

with Hans Albert. At the end of

August 1923 Einstein with both sons was Hermann Anschutz’s guest

at

Lautrach Castle in southern Germany, which Anschutz had purchased

and made habitable. Subsequently the reconciled father spent two

weeks

September with Hans Albert

in

Anschutz had provided for him

as a

in Kiel,

in the

permanent refuge.

“I

small

am

flat

again

completely reconciled with Albert,” Einstein reported from Kiel. “I

my hidey-hole

am

... in

we

are having a wonderful time, and are able to

and

here with him at the Anschutz factory, where

make music together

sail.” 23

It

took

a lot

longer for his anger with “the wife” to evaporate.

Mileva had to write to Haber repeatedly before, through his intervention, Einstein

stopped being annoyed with her. Eventually the Nobel

money was used

buy three multifamily houses on the Ziirichberg; the rent income from them was to ensure the permanent finanPrize

cial

to

security of Einstein’s

first

wife.

Einstein Receives the Nobel Prize

From

Kiel, Einstein

Bonn. This was the

went first

543

directly to the physicists’ convention in

time since the unfortunate event in Bad

Nauheim

three years earlier that he took part in a congress in Ger-

many. In

fact,

he was participating even though the convention had

been planned not purely event. Since

as a scientific

was taking place

it

meeting but

in the Rhineland, into

Ruhr) French and Belgian troops had marched 1923 to ensure

German

also as a patriotic

which

the

(like

beginning of

at the

reparation payments, the physicists intended

their convention as a demonstration against the brutal policy of “mort-

gaged production capacity.” Because of that aggressive occupation, which represented the factor in the

economic catastrophe of galloping

immediately upon

his return

from Japan, had,

resigned from the League of Nations

final

inflation, Einstein,

for the second time,

Commission

Cooperation. Risking approval by the public and by

for Intellectual

false friends

from

the right, he proclaimed his conviction “that the League of Nations

has neither the strength nor the good will to implement

its

great task.

As

it

right to be

in

a

serious-minded

pacifist I

any way connected with

As

for the Solvay

do not therefore consider

it.” 24

Conference of 1924, he did not even want to be

both because of the boycott of his

invited,

German

colleagues and

because of the occupation: “If I took part in the congress,” he wrote to

Lorentz

would

—

justifying his refusal,

in a sense aid

and abet

a

painfully feel to be an injustice.”

but surely with

a

course of action which

He

—

heavy heart I

strongly and

also believed that “the

the Belgians have over the past few years sinned so

much

“I

French and

that they

no

longer represent outraged innocence.” 25

With felt

his

tendency to sympathize with the underdog, Einstein

now

himself at one with the gagged Germans. Since he was prepared

anyway

German

to reconcile himself to the inevitable fact of his Prussian nationality,

unable to take

its

he went to the convention

at

and

Bonn; but he was

intention of being “a moral equivalent of a naval

demonstration against France” quite seriously: “The wolves cannot slough off their skins, and one’s got to howl with them in

manner. ”26

a

comradely

Unified Theory

544

in a

Time Out of Joint

Einstein had not registered to give a paper in Bonn, but he found the event “most interesting, and I’ve had discussions.” 27 His colleagues gratefully

my say now

acknowledged not only

contributions to the discussions, but even

showed by being

present.

The

more

though

I

his

so the solidarity he

political animosities

of earlier years had

vanished, and so had the scientific controversies: “I saint,

and again in the

am

treated like a

don’t feel too comfortable in that garb,” 28 he reported

before the convention was even over.

Following the meeting in Bonn, Einstein spent two weeks with Ehrenfest in Leyden. As always, this was a very stimulating time

own

not nearly long enough for his friend or for his as a visiting professor.

with a longer stay of

—but

guest performance

Soon, though, he was to meet his obligations

six

weeks, as a result of what was happening in

Berlin.

Einstein had been back in the capital for exactly three weeks received a warning that his fore,

life

was

in danger.

On November

he took to his heels and returned to Leyden.

Planck, addressed to Einstein in Leyden,

only in hints

—

for the “ghastly events”

precipitate departure.

The

is

A letter

our only source

when he 7,

there-

from

Max

—and then

which had caused Einstein’s

coincidence of the dates, however, suggests

that the threat of an attempt

on

his life

might have been connected

with the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, where Adolf Hitler hoped, by

marching on the Feldherrnhalle, to overthrow the republic. Einstein had attracted the hatred of extreme right-wing circles not

only by his fame but chiefly by his continuous commitment to the of the political spectrum.

Human

Rights,

Not only was he

active in the

which had developed from the

League

New

left

for

Fatherland

League, but in 1921 he had taken part in the foundation of a Society of Friends of the

New

Russia, even

becoming

a

member

of

its

central

committee. 29 In the autumn several newspapers reported that Einstein

was planning blatt

a trip to the Soviet

Union; 30 on October 6 Berliner Tage-

announced that he had already

ning of November there was

left for

a story that

Moscow, and

at the begin-

he had spent three days in

St.

Petersburg. 31

However, Einstein was

actually in the Netherlands

and in Berlin.

— Einstein Receives the Nobel Prize

Neither in 1923 nor preferred to

show

at

any

later date did

sympathy

his

for the

he

545

the Soviet Union; he

visit

communist experiment from

a

uncertain whether Einstein had in fact ever toved j

safe distance. It

is

with the idea of

a trip to the

workers’ paradise, or whether the news-

paper stories were based only on the hopes of Soviet institutions. False or not, these reports of Einstein’s flirtation with diabolical bolshevism

were evidently

him

sufficient for

murder of Rathenau,

to find himself once more, after the

of right-wing extremists.

a target

Planck, while disapproving of his colleague’s political activities, was nevertheless alarmed “that you’ve

come back

no wish

to

any step

now

that

He

to us.”

left

and, as your wife

tells

me, have

sincerely urged Einstein “not to take

might make your return

to Berlin impossible finally

4T

and for

all

time.

No

doubt

a lot

come your way now, because having

of tempting offers and invitations will

foreign countries have long envied us for

this precious treasure.

But please think

love and revere you, and don’t let

infamy of a vicious pack of dogs

them

also of those here

suffer too

much

for the abject

whom we must get under control.” 32

Planck involved the Berlin authorities, even initiating the

files

who

a scrutiny

of

of notorious psychopaths with an inclination to death threats,

but he was unable to discover any concrete evidence of the origin of the threat to Einstein. letters to

He

implored Einstein

Ehrenfest and Lorentz

—not

—

and through

directly

to sever his relations with the

Prussian Academy; he could do or not do whatever he thought necessary,

but he should retain his

in the life of the

academy

official

residence in Berlin and participate

to the extent of at least

one lecture each

year. 33

Einstein does not seem to have viewed the affair in quite so dra-

matic

a light as Planck.

“Your kind

deal of pleasure,” he wrote

time

now

there [has]

letter to

from Leyden on December

no longer

[been] any reason

vere in this (really quite pleasurable) exile.” 34

more

Ehrenfest gave

lectures to students in

why

I

6.

a great

“For some

should perse-

He intended

Leyden and return

me

to give a few

to Berlin shortly

before Christmas. Then, abruptly, he referred to an enclosed paper as “a sign

of

life”

—

for the Proceedings of the

Academy

whole business had indeed been nothing but

,

just as if the

a “pleasurable exile.”

Unified Theory

546

There was

clearly

no room

in a

Time Out

of Joint

makeup, and no

for fear in his personal

sooner was he back in Berlin than he wrote to Michele Besso that he

had “experienced

a

lot in the

meantime. But outward experience

remains on the surface, and the main thing

science.” 35

is

now

After three eventful and exciting years, Einstein was steer his life into calmer waters,

to reflection.

To

also

be more conducive

that end Berlin, for whatever reasons,

The

the most suitable place. to

which would

political situation in

anxious to

seemed

assets

—and

his wife’s considerable assets

least his foreign

income

in accounts in

been saved from devaluation.

him

Germany had begun

calm down. With the introduction of the Rentenmark in the

1923, and the resultant end to the inflation, his

to

fall

of

own modest monetary

—had

melted away; but

New

Leyden and

York had

The German economy showed

recovering, though the “golden 1920s” were to last

at

signs of

no more than

half

a decade.

He was unwilling to embark on foreign journeys in He

the near future.

had explained to Weizmann that he would always be ready to sup-

port the Zionist cause, and

more

especially

appeals, letters, or addresses, but only if

attend congresses. 36

He it

University, with

he did not have to

travel or

declined an invitation from Millikan, who, as

president of the California Institute of

planning to develop

Hebrew

Technology

into an elite institution.

He

in Pasadena,

was

also declined to tour

— and he declined countless invitations to attend con-

South America

ferences and give lectures in

Germany and elsewhere

in Europe.

He

confined himself to a few trips to Leyden and Switzerland, and of course to his refuge at the Anschutz factory on the Kieler Forde.

From

there he wrote in

May

1924: “Political conditions have calmed

down, and, thank God, the far-too-numerous don’t worry too much about me any longer, so that my life has become more tranquil and undisturbed.” 37

However,

at the

urging of Madame Curie and his revered H. A. Lo-

rentz he again joined the

and even attended

its

Commission

for Intellectual

Cooperation

fourth session in Geneva, where on July 25,

1924, he was introduced to the distinguished circle with a eulogy by

Henri Bergson. Einstein approached international understanding

in an

Einstein Receives the Nobel Prize entirely pragmatic

manner. His

547

concern was to standardize the

first

terminology of physics and chemistry, and he supported the creation of an international meteorological

Commission was in

better than

Geneva. “There’s hope

office.

“The League of Nations

had thought,” he wrote

I

may

after all that things

after his stay

get better in

Europe.” 38

enough stimulation

Berlin certainly had

to offer Einstein, scientific as

well as social. For several years, he had been considered an ornament to

any salon or party in the worlds of

Typical of many was

a

banquet of bankers

even though Einstein

hotel,

hundred ‘prominent < the intelligentsia,”

figures’

felt a bit

and the

politics, finance,

at Berlin’s

arts.

famous Kaiserhof

of an outsider there. “About a

from the world of

politics,

banking, and

whom

Einstein had

noted Count Kessler, with

spoken most of the time; “a mixture of capitalism and socialism, mostly

on

a Jewish basis.” 39

Einstein would often discuss political matters with Gustav Strese-

mann, the foreign

minister;

Hauptmann, the famous

he was an acquaintance of Gerhart

dramatist; he

was

a

frequent guest at the

house of Samuel Fischer, the publisher; and he indulged

music through

Many

artists

his love of

friendship with Erich Kleiber, the conductor.

a close

considered

it

a privilege to paint the

famous man’s por-

trait,

and Einstein fondly remembered

Max

Liebermann, whose incomparable sense of humor he admired

even more than his

more

like

him than

his sittings at the

skill as a portraitist: “I

like

me, but that actually improved

Unlike the picture of the old

man

at

of hair and his careless Chaplinesque attractive, impressive

found that

man, whose

apartment of

it.” 40

Princeton with his chaotic attire,

is

features, eyes, speech,

that of astonishing youthfulness,” wrote Charles

when he met Einstein

the forty-three-year-old Einstein

is

tall

on

and mere

first

impres-

Nordmann

his visit to Paris:

(about 1.70 m), with broad shoulders and

scarcely bent back. His head

—the head

mane

Einstein in midlife was an

presence aroused and indeed compelled attention. “One’s sion

was

his picture

in

a

which the science of

Unified Theory

548

in a

the world was newly created tion. ...

Time Out

—instantly

of Joint

attracts lasting atten-

A little mustache, dark and very short,

mouth, very

red, rather big, with

its

adorns a sensuous

corners betraying a perma-

nent slight smile. But the strongest impression youthfulness, very romantic and at certain

is

that of stunning

moments

irresistibly

reminiscent of the young Beethoven who, already marked by

life,

had once been handsome. And then suddenly laughter erupts and

one

is

faced with a student. 41

That such them,

a

man

impressed women, and

hardly surprising. Vera

is

crossing to America, described flirtation.” 42 Elsa Einstein

himself be impressed by

Weizmann, who met him on

him

could

let

as

still

the

“young, cheerful and given to

smile at her Alberti’s flirtations,

but in 1923, after his return from Japan, she was by no means so sure of her husband. After his stepdaughter Use’s marriage, another young

woman, Betty Neumann, had become violently in love with her. Unlike his

his secretary,

two marriages,

and Einstein

fell

this relationship

aroused emotions that profoundly touched him. Nevertheless, this great love ended at the conclusion of 1924,

when he wrote

to “dear

Betty” that he “must seek in the stars that which was denied earth.” 43

This sounds

like

grand renunciation, but

it

was merely

variant of the justification he had given at the age of eighteen,

parted from his It

folly,

first love,

him on a

when he

Marie Winteler. 44

was perhaps not only Einstein’s detached observation of human but also his renunciation of Betty

Kessler, a sensitive chronicler, to jot trait in Einstein’s facial

Neumann,

down: “The

that led

Count

ironical (narquois)

expression, the ‘Pierrot lunaire’ quality, the

smiling and doleful skepticism that plays around his eyes, emerge ever

more

strongly.” In Einstein’s features Kessler believed he could dis-

cern that the

man was

“smiling not only at the surface, but at the roots,

of human conceit.” 45

wish to put some distance between himself and his personal entanglements was a factor in Einstein’s decision to leave Berlin for

Perhaps

three

a

months and undertake

a

major

trip to

needed to do was reactivate invitations from

South America. All he

scientific organizations in

Einstein Receives the Nobel Prize

549

Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. Three years earlier he had declined

now they suited him. At the beginning of March 1925 he embarked in Hamburg for a three-week voyage. He submitted to the traditional ceremony when the ship crossed the equator; he lectured them, but

the ship’s officers on relativity theory; and every day in his cabin he

played string quartets with

some passengers and

the leader of the

ship’s band.

His reception in Buenos Aires was exceedingly

not only on

cordial,

the part of his Argentine hosts but also on the part of the colony. This surprised

him

a little, as

German

three years earlier the represen-

German colony had vigorously refused to invite or honor a “defeatist,” who during the war had “made propaganda against Germany and therefore was a traitor to the Fatherland.” 46 The fact that these people were now feting him as an “exponent of German culture” gave rise to one of his sarcastic comments: “A funny lot, these tatives

of the same

Germans.

me

To them

I

am

and yet they keep putting

a stinking flower,

into their buttonhole.” 47

Meanwhile, political

as expected, Einstein

and academic leaders of the countries he

lectures in the

now

session he was

Academy. difficult to

not

was boundlessly honored by the

“I

familiar spectacular settings,

accepted as a foreign

was asked very stupid

visited.

and

member

gave his

in a ceremonial

of the Argentine

scientific questions, so that

remain serious,” 48 he noted in

his diary.

out on this trip with any expectation of

set

He

was

it

But then he had

fruitful discussions

about physics.

He

even met

a

few

relatives

from the maternal, grain-trading

of his family, including his cousin Robert Koch,

who had

attended the

cantonal school in Aarau with him: “We’ve grown old.” 49 “tribal

companions” he

solicited donations for

Hebrew

side

Among

his

University in

Jerusalem and was enthusiastically feted by them, “because to them

Em lot

a

kind of symbol of cooperative activity

of pleasure because

I

among Jews.

It

gives

me

a

expect great things from the unification of

Jews.” 50 After three weeks in Argentina, Einstein went on to Montevideo.

Receptions by the president of the Republic of Uruguay and by notables in politics and science ensured a

full

program, which also

Unified Theory

550

in a

Time Out

of Joint

included a cheerful evening with students, “guitar and singalong,

rarely in to

my

with

finally

violin.” 51 In

my life,”

come up

so

much

for air.”

He

Uruguay he met “genuine

so that “with

land and the Netherlands

—

as

I

cordiality as

sometimes had

more human and

lot

with his sympathies for Switzer-

—he attributed

this to the country’s small

This led him to the conclusion: “The devil take the big

them

their madness. I’d cut

do

that love

found Montevideo “a

pleasant” than Buenos Aires, and

size.

all

all

me

up into small ones

if I

states

and

had the power to

it.” 52

In conclusion, there was one

Janeiro provided the customary

more “big

The German

German

German but

club Germania.

“visit

at least a

summed

it

up

as “great

has been most useful

his participation in

fun without any real

few quiet weeks during the voyage.” 54

For two months Einstein again treated

at the

of

cause.” 53 Einstein himself, returning to Berlin after a

three-month absence, interest,

circle

ministers in each of the countries he visited unani-

mously reported to Berlin that Einstein’s for the

Rio de

Brazil.

not only within the

festivities,

the Jewish community, but also at the

state,”

his colleagues in Berlin to

academy meetings, before leaving them once more

end of July to attend the League of Nations session in Geneva.

In Zurich he looked in

on Mileva and

and he

his sons;

visited his

old friend and frequent “lifesaver” Marcel Grossmann, who, he was

shocked to

had developed multiple

find,

sclerosis.

From

Switzerland

he returned straight to Kiel, where he spent August sailing on the

Forde and working on the gyrocompass

Epoch-making changes

in physics

at the

Anschutz

factory.

were by then imminent. At one

point, Einstein believed that he himself had accomplished a

forward.

On July

9,

major step

before his departure for Switzerland, he had sub-

mitted to the academy his Unified Field Theory of Gravity and Electricity convinced of having “hit on the right solution.” 55 It was not the first ,

and not the

last

theory about which he spoke with such assurance.

He

had to admit to himself that with regard to the microcosm, the difficult question remained unresolved “whether this field theory is compatible with the existence of atoms and quanta” 56 also

on the

;

still,

he

felt

sure that he was

right track to solving the riddle of the quanta.

— Einstein Receives the Nobel Prize

At about the same time,

becoming

blind alley

breakthrough toward the solution was

discernible, but along totally different

surprising lines.

revolution

a

if

551

and

—

to Einstein

The new quantum mechanics emerged:

ever there was one.

—certainly not

a

To

a scientific

Einstein’s mind, though,

theory but

a

construct

of, at

it

was

a

most, tempo-

rary validity. Einstein’s future course

is

characterized by these two great themes:

the struggle for a unified theory that would simultaneously solve the

quantum problems criticism of

quantum mechanics.

lasting successes.

with

a smile.

The

in Einstein’s sense,

and

became

It

own

never-ceasing

a lonely

road without

his

His isolation increased over the years, but he bore

Failure never

fact that Einstein

made him

pursued

it

despair.

this

road with unshakable persever-

ance and inexhaustible optimism to the end of his

life

had to do with

a

transformed concept of the cognition of nature, which evolved and

became consolidated tivity. Its

after the

triumph of the general theory of

origins can be found in wartime Berlin.

rela-

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT "The Marble Smile of Implacable Nature”:

The Search

for the

Unified Field Theory

By the time Einstein gave in

Goteborg

his

Nobel

on

lecture

relativity

theory

he had long since turned his mind to

in July 1923,

new

problems. Because of their complexity, these did not seem to him suitable for a public lecture, but he

wanted to give

small glimpse of what he was after.

“The

his

audience

at least a

intellect seeking after

an inte-

grated theory,” he declared, “cannot rest content with the assumption that there exist

two

other by their nature.”

1

independent of each

distinct fields totally

He

did not realize then that with these words

he was describing what would be his passionate

scientific quest to

the end of his days: the search for a unified field theory of gravity and

electromagnetism.

His longing was to remain flected, Einstein

he

lost

pondered

unfulfilled. Yet,

undeterred and unde-

over the years and decades

this unification;

himself in ever more abstract reflections, studied advanced

mathematics, and entangled himself in the most complex calculations.

For two decades he never doubted that the problem could be solved. Eventually a

“most of my

moment came when he had intellectual offspring

of disappointed hopes.” 2 But

still

to admit to himself that

end up very young he continued

shakable optimism, inspired by a task which had

During the

first

decade of his quest, he

his side, or at least interested colleagues;

isolation could

no longer be overlooked

persistent critique of

still

his search

become had

a

with un-

his destiny.

few

scientists

on

but with advancing age his

—and

quantum mechanics.

552

in the graveyard

it

He

was made worse by

his

was entirely aware of

“The Marble Smile of Implacable Nature this,

scoffed at himself as a “petrefact,” but never ceased to “sing his

When he realized that he had very little time left, he

lonely old song.” 3

had the

He

553

latest calculations

on the unified theory brought

died the following night.

The

to his sickbed.

unfinished task had been with

him

to

his final breath.

For most of

generation of physicists, this in

its

and even more so

his contemporaries,

work was not only unfinished

unduly

if

that the progress of physics

the indisputably greatest scientist

final three

decades of his

Of course,

he

life

would not have suffered

among them had

—roughly from 1926 on—

managed

still

spent the

sailing.

produce an occasional

to

but, at least

Even devoted admirers of Einstein

later phases, totally useless.

would not dispute

younger

for the

fine study, the

4T

kind that would have been a respectable lifework for a researcher. Equally, his critique of side in that

its

But

remained

How

did

whelming else

—

a foreign it

in his

no

result, but,

from which he never emerged?

factors

and perhaps even

—yet these

Einstein’s motives,

above

all,

no consequences.

—who, over two decades of over-

had transformed and enriched physics

middle years adopted

creative vigor

stand up to his and

body, of scarcely any importance to physics.

happen that Einstein

creativity,

it

positive

its

his great passion, his vision of a unified field

theory, produced not only It

quantum mechanics had

proponents were forced to make

similar reservations.

less inspired

a

no one

course which ended in a blind alley

It is

a

as

quite possible that a decline in

touch of old-age stubbornness were

factors are far less interesting than the question of

which guided him and focused him on

The vision which induced

his goal.

Einstein to pursue his lonely road was a fun-

damental theory for the whole of physics, based on

would not only unify the two

field theory.

This

areas but also explain the existence and

properties of elementary particles,

and

it

would

clearly

establish

natural constants such as elementary charge, velocity of light, and

quantum of

action. Ultimately,

through deduction alone,

a

quantum

theory was to emerge that would conform to Einstein’s idea of an objective description of nature.

Unified Theory

554

Time Out

in a

Einstein was thus aiming at what today everything.”

He was

loosely called a “theory of

encouraged by the spectacular success of the gen-

—

theory of relativity

eral

is

of Joint

a

powerful temptation for

a

theoretical

researcher to tackle this greatest of all tasks. His vision had taken shape

before the

as a realizable project

refused to abandon

when

it

new quantum mechanics;

the radical transformation of physics by

quantum mechanics was making

his

concept

at best questionable, if

not indeed obsolete, was seen by most of his colleagues reasons for his failure.

new

particles,

new

The

forces,

that he

as

one of the

other reason was that, ever since the 1930s,

and new

had been

fields

identified,

whose

very existence suggested that Einstein’s program was too narrowly conceived.

become

Even

if

he had been able to complete

a “theory of everything,”

and certainly not

microcosm. Einstein therefore did not achieve day

this

whether

is

it

it is

impossible to see

achievable at

The world which sented

and the

how he

gravitational.

would not have a

theory of the

his objective,

and to

could have achieved

it

or

all.

Einstein intended to

itself fairly simply.

it, it

comprehend

There were two

These were equal

theoretically pre-

fields,

the electromagnetic

in their

dependence on the

location of their potentials and in their great reach. But they were very different in

strength

—with

regard to strength, in

between them would be represented by

a

Another difference between them was the

fact that

to universally attractive gravity, electrical charges,

repel

i.e.,

fact,

the ratio

figure with forty zeros.

masses are subject

they have only one sign; whereas

being either positive or negative, both attract and

one another.

Along with the

fields,

of course, there was solid matter, whose ele-

mentary building blocks were believed to be the electron and the (roughly two thousand times heavier) proton. Both occurred in countless multiplicity,

though invariably with an absolutely

identical

mass

and charge, which called for an explanation from fundamental principles.

Atomic nuclei were then,

in the absence of other possibilities,

thought to be composed of protons and electrons, held together by strong electrical forces.

Within

this

orderly framework

it

must have seemed natural

to

"The Marble Smile of Implacable Nature begin the search for field

“theory of everything” with a search for

a

known

of which the two

was neither the

As early

first

as 1912,

nor the

when

fields

last to

Germany, made the

matter, one which

would be

a unified

specific aspects. Einstein

undertake that

task.

Einstein was deeply involved in the generaliza-

tion of his theory of relativity,

wald,

555

Gustav Mie, then

first

attempt

at a

would simultaneously

a professor in Greifs-

comprehensive theory of

establish the “unity of the

from what mathematicians

physical world picture.” Proceeding

call a

“nonlinear” extension of electrodynamics within the framework of the special theory of relativity,

would

result

from

Mie hoped

his field equations as

“thought necessities.” However, fulfilled

that the electron and the proton

when David

mathematically deducible

hope was disappointed; nor was

this

it

Hilbert, in his Fundamentals of Physics integrated ,

Mie’s theory into the general theory of relativity.

We do not know when,

despite the lack of any physical starting point,

Einstein intensively took up the problem of a unified field theory.

may

well have pondered the question in the early

He

months of 1916,

while working on his major article The Fundamentals of the General Theory of Relativity, there are so,

some

indications that he

but he certainly revealed nothing about

ever,

he must have given

it

a lot

it.

By March

his

is

a

—the

somewhat

as the

had already begun:

technical

way of saying a

tensor of the electromagnetic

that

twenty-nine and

field.

stranger to Einstein. In 1913, a

privatdozent at Gottingen,

to the Swiss Technical College in Zurich. a

was

Weyl

Does

this

mean

make

a

it?

Weyl was no

from

I

term that could be

the problem had been solved even before Einstein was able to

contribution to

,

construction of Maxwell’s equa-

had derived from the gravitational potentials understood

how-

Electricity

actually given birth to the offspring that

absolutely unable to produce

from g^y” 4 This

1918,

paper Gravity and

discloses that Einstein’s struggle for unification

tions

have done

of thought, because a letter to Her-

mann Weyl, complimenting him on “And now you have

may

when he was only

Weyl had been

invited

There he had been

able,

colleague’s proximity, to watch the genesis of the general

Unified Theory

556 theory of

relativity.

Thanks

Weyl soon succeeded

in a

Time Out of Joint

to his stupendous mathematical

in presenting Einstein’s theory

(completed in

more elegant shape than

author had, by

1916) in a mathematically

making use of a newly developed method shifts” to

skills,

its

called “infinitesimal parallel

extend Riemann’s geometry, which before long gave rise to

the mathematics of “affine connections.” In the spring of 1918 Einstein,

then sick in bed, read the galleys of Weyl’s book Space Time ,

Matter “with genuine enthusiasm.

The

concept of the work

is

It is like a

to the Prussian

it

.

.

.

magnificent.” 5

Shortly after writing this book,

theory and sent

masterful symphony.

,

Weyl had completed

to Einstein with the request that

Academy for

publication in

its

his unified

he should submit

Proceedings. Einstein

it

was

again enthusiastic, but not for long, because he soon discovered a

major

Weyl’s presentation there were no invariant linear

flaw: in

elements, which, in physical terms,

meant

that the yardsticks for

space and time depended on their earlier history. Thus, for instance,

hydrogen atoms which had traveled over different distances

would have

to exhibit shifts in their spectral lines

—

in total contrast to

observation.

Four weeks

later,

therefore, Einstein’s praise

gentle irony: “Your argument

from agreeing with pure thought.” 6

wish to

reality

it is

in

of wonderful homogeneity. Apart

is

certainly a magnificent achievement of

Weyl gloomily complained

know about

was enveloped

this business at

all.

to Einstein “that

you don’t

Naturally this worries

me

a lot,

because experience has shown that one can rely on your intuition.” 7 In fact,

Weyl

s

theory could not be developed into anything useful; on

the other hand, the “Eichin variance” he had used in

time was subsequently to prove

a

it

for the first

powerful mathematical instrument in

quantum mechanics and quantum

field theory.

Despite his reservations Einstein supported publication of Weyl’s paper, which, because of the paper shortage in the fourth year of war,

had met with some opposition from the Berlin academicians.

When

it

eventually appeared in Proceedings Einstein recorded his criticism in a ,

brief note at the end. 8 Einstein’s

first

intensive contact with unification

was thus primarily

"The Marble Smile of Implacable Nature critical.

557

Nevertheless, his examination of Weyl’s ideas

certain impressions to

which he

left

him with

However, he did not

later returned.

yet believe that natural laws could be discovered by mathematical constructs alone.

First of

could do to explain elementary particles. In the spring of

relativity

1919 he

Einstein intended to establish what the general theory of

all,

tried to

demonstrate “that there are indications to support the

idea that the building blocks of the electrical elementary structures

forming the atoms are held together by gravitational forces.” 9 These indications, however, vanished

more

All the

soon

after publication.

he took up the proposal of the

gratefully, then,

Konigsberg mathematician Theodor Kaluza that the four-dimensional world be extended by

opened up new

a

further dimension. This fifth dimension

formulation of

possibilities for the

field theory.

The

objection that this was just a mathematical fiction, devoid of any relation to space or time,

was softened by the

fact that, in the end,

it

was

once more restricted by meaningful supplementary conditions and that, in this

way, contact was smoothly reestablished with the four-

dimensional continuum of the real world. Einstein admired the formal unity achieved by this detour through the Kaluza’s paper to the Prussian lished a paper

Academy

fifth

me more

Very soon, however, he discovered

same was true of

a

theory in tions.” 11

a

way

that

in the physical sense.

who had earned of light and who now

proposal by Eddington,

skills

to

modifying and extending Weyl’s

would stand up

to “Einstein’s yardstick objec-

Soon, however, Einstein thought he saw

and, during his voyage to Japan, tried to develop

he praised the voyage

as “a

the elec-

Once more mathematics

himself undying fame by proving the deflection applied his mathematical

while he even

method too

that with this

had proved elegant but unproductive

a

of reality than any other.” 10

tron remained a foreign body in the theory.

the

and himself pub-

in 1921,

on the five-dimensional method. For

believed that this idea “smells to

Much

dimension, submitted

a solution

it.

wonderful existence for

On a

the

himself

way back

ponderer

—

just

Unified Theory

558 as in a

Time Out of Joint

in a

monastery. Plus the warmth of the Equator.

from the

lazily drips

Warm

water

spreading tranquillity and vegetation-like

sky,

twilight.” 12

What

he had put down on paper on board

General Theory of Relativity seemed to ,

at

Port Said he instantly posted

behalf submitted

This was ciple,

it

it

him

so important that

to Berlin,

to the Prussian

where

Max

on

the

arrival

Planck on his

Academy on February

15, 1923.

between Eddington’s formalism and Hamilton’s prin-

a link

of which Einstein euphorically believed that

it

“leads to a theory

almost free from arbitrary steps, one that conforms with what at

On

ship, entitled

we know

present about gravity and electricity, and which unites both types of

field in a truly perfect

academy about

lectured at the

supplemented

manner.” 13 Back in Berlin, Einstein himself

his reflections

this

concept in the spring

of. 192 3

and

with two more papers, though by then

with the sobering realization that physically interesting results were refusing to

come

taken hold

.of

up. “Generally speaking, a rather resigned

me

is

fine

and good, but Nature

dance.” Yet he would not give up. it is

has

concerning the whole problem,” he reported to

Weyl. “The mathematics

through and

mood

“The whole

of a strange beauty; above

it,

idea

is

leading us a

must be carried

however, hovers the

marble smile of implacable Nature, which has given us more longing than intellect.” 14

In the

summer

of 1922, having skeptically reviewed

all

past attempts at

a unified theory, Einstein wrote: “I believe that, in order to real progress,

one would again have to find

from Nature.” 15

He was

then

make any

a general principle

wrested

still

hoping for inspiration from physics.

At times he had even looked

for experimental approaches to the

relationship between an electromagnetic field and gravity. In Zurich in

1913, probably unaware of Faraday’s investigations

century

earlier,

more than

he had asked himself whether there could be

half a

a gravita-

was analogous to electromagnetic induction. 16 Sometime around 1922 he tried to get Walther Gerlach to take up tional effect that

experimentally the question whether moving matter produced a netic field.

“What

waterfalls.” 17

mag-

mind was measurements along currents or But Gerlach, who had just made a name for himself in I

had

in

— "The Marble Smile of Implacable Nature the discovery of directional quantization

ment”

—was unwilling

thought

a rather

559

— the “Stern-Gerlach experi-

to interrupt his academic career for

what he

vague suggestion.

Einstein’s refusal to be discouraged

was due to the

fact that

from

“wresting principles from Nature” he gradually drifted toward mathematics. This change in Einstein’s

formerly simply cognition

itself,

a

way of thinking, with mathematics

tool of the physicist

distinguishes

—becoming

more than anything

the source of

else the

going physicist of his youth from the lonely seeker of his

We

have seen that

as a

scholarship with almost

thorough-

later years.

young man Einstein viewed mathematical

amused skepticism. Not

until his generaliza-

tion of relativity theory did he acquire a proper respect for

its

sub-

fact

that

s'

tleties.

He

something

was no doubt profoundly impressed by the like a prestabilized

harmony emerged between Riemann’s

geometry, a subject originating from purely mathematical reflections,

and the laws of gravity; but

this did

not then change his pragmatic

atti-

tude to mathematics.

Whenever he had an

opportunity, he would explain to mathemati-

cians that their abstract art, unless

it

paid due regard to facts, was pure

speculation and not physics. “It seems to

me

estimate the value of formal points of view,” he

that

you greatly over-

somewhat condescend-

ingly, in 1917, lectured the Praeceptor Math ematicae at Gottingen, Felix

Klein. Klein had examined certain transformations of Maxwell’s equations,

The

which Einstein had described

as lacking

any physical meaning.

formal points of view “are of course very valuable whenever an

already discovered truth has to be definitively formulated, but they

nearly always to

Weyl

fail as a

heuristic aid.” 18 Einstein’s letters

similarly reflect a persistent belief in the

and postcards

primacy of physics

over mathematical speculation detached from experience. In 1918 Einstein vigorously rejected the suggestion that in the general

theory of relativity speculation had proved superior to empiricism.

“But

I

believe that this development contains a different lesson, almost

the opposite, namely that a theory, in order to deserve confidence,

has to be based on generalizable

facts.

.

.

.

Never has

a truly useful

19 and profound theory been discovered by pure speculation.” But by

Unified Theory

560

in a

Time Out

of Joint

1923 he was, nevertheless, about to turn toward the mathematicalspeculative approach.

was

It

Nobel

in his

lecture that Einstein first clearly proclaimed

mathematics to be the only signpost in the search for

we cannot

“Unfortunately

facts as in the derivation

tional

a unified theory:

in these efforts base ourselves

on empirical

of the theory of gravity (equality of gravita-

and inert mass), but we are limited to the criterion of mathe-

matical simplicity, which

is

not free from arbitrary aspects.” 20 By

finding the simplest differential equations that can be submitted to an affine connection,

“we may hope

gravitational equations

tromagnetic

to arrive at a generalization of the

which would include

also the laws of the elec-

field.”

Einstein even believed that the paper he had written on his return

voyage from Japan represented

partial fulfillment of that hope,

a

though he had to add the reservation that he was not yet certain “whether the formal connection thereby gained can truly be regarded as a contribution to physics so

physical connections.” 21

It

long

as

does not provide any

it

did not provide

them

new

—but Einstein was not

discouraged.

He drew

his

optimism and perseverance from

the general theory of relativity, which in his

him

as a

wrote:

his

development of

memory now

appeared to

triumph of mathematical speculation. At the age of

“The

fifty

he

success of that experiment [in deriving] subtle natural

laws from the conviction of the formal simplicity of the structure of reality,

by

a

purely mental process,

now

encourages

me

along this speculative road, the dangers of which everyone follow

it

to proceed

who

dares

should permanently keep before his eyes.” 22 Einstein’s mis-

fortune was due not so

much

to the fact that

he was not deterred by the

dangers of mathematical speculation, but that he altogether lost sight of them.

Thus

in his

Spencer Lecture, given in Oxford in 1933, he ele-

vated mathematics to the “real creative principle.” 23

he compressed tence: .

.

.

a

“Coming

A

few years

later

kind of intellectual minibiography into a single senas I did

from

the gravity problem turned

skeptical empiricism of [Mach’s] type

me

into a believing rationalist,

i.e.

into

"The Marble Smile of Implacable Nature a

person

who

561

seeks the only reliable source of truth in mathematical

simplicity.” 24

At the very beginning of natural science based on mathematical laws, Galileo

had enthusiastically declared that the “magnificent book

of the universe” was “written in mathematical language

understanding of which one stumbles about Since then

many

as in a

.

.

.

without an

dark labyrinth.” 25

researchers have experienced the well-nigh miracu-

lous relationship between mathematics and physics. Indeed, a theoretical physicist

without an awareness of that harmony or

mathematical beauty and elegance would not get

far.

In

sense of

a

fact,

many

a

magnificent discovery has been theoretically anticipated by the conviction that an elegant mathematical structure

must have

its

The most spectacular, though not the

in physical reality.

counterpart

only, instance

•r

of this

is

the theoretical postulation of “antimatter” by P. A.

But just

as the theoretical physicist

is

M.

Dirac.

helpless without mathematics,

so mathematical speculation unrelated to reality remains void. Einstein

allowed himself to be seduced into a belief that mathematical criteria

were “the only

reliable source of truth,”

he believed

said

it

and in

his

Spencer Lecture he

to be “true in a certain sense that pure thought

is

capable of comprehending reality.” 26 This indicates a reckless overesti-

mation of the matics alone

—

possibility of a

mistake he would not have been capable of in his most

productive years. Yet this tained

him

understanding nature through mathe-

faith,

sus-

for decades in his search for the unified field theory.

As Einstein’s own mathematical his

though ultimately unproductive,

skills

work on the general theory of

were not exceptional, ever since

relativity,

he had ensured that he

would have the help of an outstanding mathematician, Jakob Grommer.

Grommer

vations

27 ;

his

is first

name

his later papers,

mentioned

but most of the time

The

last

mention

January 1929, which means that

no

coworker

in Cosmological Obser-

stands alongside Einstein’s at the head of

acknowledgments. 28

for twelve years

as a

is

it

—longer than anyone

figures in the concluding

in a publication

Grommer else.

traces in Einstein’s correspondence,

some of

by Einstein of

collaborated with Einstein

But

Grommer

left virtually

and the many people

who

Unified Theory

562

knew

in a

Time Out

Einstein in Berlin never mentioned

of Joint

Grommer. There was

a

reason for his shadowy existence.

Grommer came from

Jakob Litovsk.

We

an eastern Jewish family in Brest-

do not know the date of

his birth, or

even the year.

It is

reported that he was a studious disciple in the local yeshiva, intending to

become

a rabbi.

One

of the requirements for an aspiring rabbi at the

time was that he should marry the daughter of an older rabbi. In intention

Grommer

failed,

not for any lack of Talmudic scholarship

but because of the refusal of the older rabbi’s daughter.

Grommer

that

suffered

this

from

a

The

fact

was

disease of the lymphatic system,

described picturesquely as elephantiasis because

it

leads to a shapeless

enlargement of the extremities.

The

failed rabbi,

Hebrew, turned

who

until then

to mathematics,

had spoken only Yiddish and

went

to Gottingen, and soon pro-

duced an essay which so impressed David Hilbert that he wanted to accept

it

immediately

Grommer had gymnasium).

as a doctoral thesis.

never graduated from high school

Still,

(a

a hitch,

Yeshiva was no

Grommer, and the (not exactly decided to grant him a doctorate. 29

was probably Hilbert who drew Einstein’s attention to

standingly gifted to Berlin to

this out-

young Jewish mathematician. Grommer thus moved

work with

post; Einstein

though:

Hilbert championed

liberal-minded) faculty eventually It

There was

Einstein. This

was not an

official assistant’s

took care of Grommer’s livelihood by sums from the

budget of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, from an American foundation, and eventually from a fund provided for Einstein’s researches by wealthy Berliners. 30

In 1928 fessor in

Grommer

Minsk and

Soviet Republic.

He

a

returned to his homeland.

member

of the

He became

Academy of

the Belorussian

died in 1933.

Einstein did not long remain satisfied with his theory of 1923. his

pro-

a

With

next fundamental publication on unified field theory, in the

summer of

1925, he officially announced that this theory “does not

present the true solution of the problem.” 31 But he cheerfully added

good news: “After believe

I

ceaseless searching over the past

two years

have found the true solution.” 32 This sequence

I

now

— an unsenti-

— "The Marble Smile of Implacable Nature

563

mental revocation followed by joyful announcement of the “true solution”

—would characterize Einstein’s

The

later years.

“true solution” of 1925 was also based

but

affine connections,

it

new

took

on the mathematics of

paths. Einstein sought first of

the formally simplest term for the law of the gravitational

field,

all

and

next the “most natural” generalization. In this extended framework unlike in earlier theories metrical.

—the fundamental tensor

This Einstein regarded

tensor he tried to identify its

its

is

no longer sym-

an opportunity: in dividing the

as

symmetrical component with gravity and

antisymmetrical component with the electromagnetic

tedly, the reconstruction

only by recourse to case of weak fields.

mere

six

few

a

field.

Admit-

of the Maxwellian equations was possible artifices,

That was

all

and even then only for the limiting

that this exceedingly

printed pages) had to offer

compact paper

—not much for

Unified Field Theory of Gravity and Electricity.

The

a

(a

study entitled

touchstone of the

theory was whether the existence of the elementary particles could be derived from

it;

but in this regard Einstein had to confine himself to

the statement that he had begun to address the problem in cooperation

with Jakob Grommer. Despite this shortcoming, Einstein was quite delighted with his

new theory. During a Besso that he saw in with

At

reality. ...

rectness.” 33

Only

“boring League of Nations meeting” he wrote to it

“a splendid possibility that probably conforms

macroscopic range

least in the

days

later,

don’t doubt

eight weeks later, his optimism had left him.

have again great doubts about

Two

I

nothing was

my

left:

its

cor-

“Now I

work,” he reported to Ehrenfest.

“My work

of the

last

summer

is

no

good.” 34

Nevertheless, this paper could have turned out to be one of Einstein’s

most spectacular achievements and interpreted:

it

Einstein;

it

only

it

had been correctly understood

could have provided nothing

cal basis for the existence

edge in 1925,

if

than the theoreti-

of antimatter. But given the state of knowl-

this potential discovery

actually

less

became

a

not only went unrealized by

major obstacle to him

in his further

reflections. It is

probable that in his investigations of the structure of general

Unified Theory

564 field theories

seemed

to

Time Out

of Joint

Einstein had encountered a problem which he at

ignored or pushed aside, or it

in a

endanger

of 1925 he presented Theory of Relativity

35 ,

at least did

not pursue any further because

However,

his goal of a unified theory.

in a short paper entitled Electron

it

It

first

in the

fall

and General

concerns the fundamental characteristics of

such theories under mirror images of the space and time coordinates. Einstein demonstrated that in any relativist field theory in which gravity field

is

represented by a symmetrical tensor and the electromagnetic

by an antisymmetrical tensor, the following applies because of

invariance with regard to space and time mirroring: for every possible field

corresponding to an elementary particle with positive charge

there also exists a field describing a particle with negative charge but

with identical rest mass. In later terminology

means

this

m and charge e there “antiparticle” of the same mass m but with a charge —e.

elementary particle of mass

that for every

must

exist

an

At the time, however, physicians knew of only two kinds of elementary particles

—electrons

as the carriers

as the carriers

of positive charge

—and

of negative charge and protons this

knowledge was believed

be definitive and unalterable. However, since the mass of a proton

to is

nearly two thousand times the mass of an electron, there was, in that limited framework, an

charged elementary

asymmetry between negatively and

particles.

Any theory

mass of negatively and positively charged

positively

postulating an equality of

particles

was therefore

in fla-

grant contradiction to what was then regarded as valid experience.

Resigned, Einstein concluded that “the endeavor to amalgamate elec-

trodynamics and the theory of gravity into

symmetry theorem was “no longer If only Einstein

had interpreted

a unity” in the light

of his

justified.” 36

his

theorem

to

mean

that alongside

the negative electron there must also exist an as yet undiscovered positively

dicted

charged “antielectron” of identical mass, he would have preantimatter

framework of

in

an

exceedingly elegant

“classical” physics.

the younger physicist P. A.

M.

As

it is,

Dirac,

this

who

manner within the

achievement belongs to

in 1930

deduced the

exis-

tence of antimatter by linking the special theory of relativity to the

new quantum mechanics. Two

years later,

when

antimatter was

first

"The Marble Smile of Implacable Nature"

565

observed in cosmic radiation, in the form of the positively charged antielectron, the positron, Dirac’s theory

was triumphantly confirmed.

Einstein’s paper, however, remained unnoticed, and he himself

never referred to a

it

in later years. It

may be

seen as

a typical instance

of

“premature” discovery, whose implications are not suspected even by

its

author. Instead, Einstein had to resign himself to the fact that the

unified theory had receded into the distance and

approaches. Meanwhile, the

would require new

new quantum mechanics provided

a

highly promising theory of the microcosm, but this was a theory which Einstein viewed with great skepticism on fundamental grounds.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE The Problems

of

Quantum Theory

In the summer of 1925,

a

Field Theory to the Prussian

Academy, Einstein received

Max Born

week

after

submitting his paper Unified a letter

in Gottingen, containing the first details of a

pleted study by Heisenberg: correct and profound.”

1

“looks very mystical, but

it

With

from

newly comcertainly

is

of genius the twenty- four-

this stroke

year-old Heisenberg, a student of Sommerfeld, Born, and Bohr, had

sketched out the main features of a

new quantum

theory, illustrating

it

by two simple applications. Heisenberg’s paper was the prelude to

a

time of intense, exciting creativity, which over the next two years led to the formulation of

microcosm

—the theory which has

as

it

left its

end of

Among

it (I

don’t).” 2

he did not believe in

his life

the founders of

theory of the

stamp on twentieth-century his reaction

was unambiguous: “Heisenberg has

In Gottingen they believe in to the

as a full-fledged

But when Einstein read the paper,

physics.

neous

quantum mechanics

was

laid a big

as sponta-

quantum

He persisted in his

egg.

rejection:

it.

quantum mechanics, Erwin Schrodinger

was the only one who understood Einstein’s skepticism. All the others

—Einstein’s

coevals, like

Bohr and Born;

as well as the

generation, including Heisenberg, Dirac, and Pauli face,

and eventually

live with,

new quantum mechanics more than anyone

else to

younger

—simply had

to

the fact that Einstein never accepted the

as a valid theory.

Einstein himself had done

champion the “old” quantum theory, but

in

1925 the reins were taken over by other, mostly younger, men, and

quantum mechanics were only critical. tragedy,” Max Born wrote, “for him, who now

Einstein’s contributions to

“Many

of us think

it

a

566

The Problems of Quantum Theory has to travel his path in loneliness, and for us, standard-bearer.” 3 Born, however, for

nor in

‘‘tragedy,” neither in his old age

been

just as “alone”

during the

In

all

decades of his

quantum

things concerning

years been ahead of his time

the very threshold of the still

at the

After two

more

his

younger

loneliness to be a years,

when he had

as

he would be

life.

physics, Einstein

—right up to the

new quantum

first

had for twenty

months of 1925,

to

mechanics. This had begun

Patent Office, with his concept of light quanta,

which he himself described followed two years

his

felt

with his ideas about light quanta

final three

while he was

lack the master and

his close friendship with Ein-

all

was wrong here: Einstein never

stein,

who

567

later,

as

“very revolutionary”; this concept was

by the

first

quantum theory of

solid bodies.

years, at the Naturforscher convention in Salzburg, he

surprised his colleagues with his farsighted prediction “that the next

phase of development in theoretical physics will bring us light that

may be understood

as a

theory of

a

kind of fusion of the undulation and

emission theories of light.” 4 Ele meant that light must be neither continuous waves nor discrete energy quanta, but

two

—some third form,

as yet

some

“fusion” of the

unknown. However, even the most con-

centrated reflection did not bring

him any

closer to

implementing

his

prediction.

Atomic physics entered an enormously productive phase

in 1913,

influenced by Niels Bohr and his model of the atom. Bohr’s model,

with

its

ad hoc discrete quantum

“classical” physics,

states,

ran counter to

all

ideas of

and Einstein reacted enthusiastically. Einstein was

merely an observer, though, since

just

then he was totally immersed in

the generalization of his theory of relativity.

Only when he had accom-

plished that task did he return to his other great theme.

In 1916 Einstein published papers of incomparable elegance in which

he described the emission and absorption of radiation general

quantum concepts. 5 He succeeded

quantum-governed”

justification

him was the

more important

to

propagated not

as a

wave but

producing

a

most

“totally

of Planck’s radiation formula; but

fact that

as a

in

in only the

electromagnetic radiation was

stream of aimed particles, so-called

Unified Theory

568

Time Out of Joint

in a

now

“needle radiation,” in which energy quanta were nite

momentum

—

a

second property, along with energy. As

the existence of light quanta was “as

Two

good

of quanta, even though

This situation

I

am

long

will persist so

still all

as a

a result,

as certain” 6 for Einstein.

years later he confirmed his view: “But

reality

also given a defi-

I

no longer doubt the

alone with this conviction.

mathematical theory

is

not suc-

cessfully developed.” 7

The

first

indications were that the road to a mathematical theory of

quanta would be long and

difficult,

because “chance” had for the

first

time entered the quantum processes. Direction and time of emission of a light

quantum cannot be

to itself to decide

quantum

predicted; in a sense, a light

when and

in

what direction

from an atom.

exits

it

Einstein described this as “a weakness of the theory

.

.

.

that

it

the time and direction of the elementary processes to ‘chance.’

The

discovery of what he put between quotation

is left

leaves

”8

marks— chance

had made Einstein uneasy from the outset. “Chance” undermines and thus topples the framework of

causality

classical physics. Philoso-

phers, loosely speaking, regard causality as the relationship

cause and effect; to physicists, however,

meaning.

From

unambiguous

a given initial state, a

regularity, in such a

between

has a precise pragmatic

it

system develops over time with

way

that

all

its

future states are

,

determined

as solutions

continuum.

A

light

of differential equations in the space-time

quantum whose

future state

dictably through “spontaneous” emission was

body

in

any

comes about unpre-

bound

to be a foreign

classical theory.

Einstein would have loved to be able to take back this annoying

discovery of chance and look for a causal description of processes.

1920. “Is

“The

business about causality irks

quantum

light absorption

me

a lot,”

I

must confess

most reluctant

to give

that

up

I

he wrote in

and emission ever conceivable

terms of the demand for complete causality or does

remain?

quantum

a statistical rest

lack the courage of conviction.

complete causality.” 9 In fact,

in

it

But

I

am

was not long

before he returned to a firm insistence on complete causality.

Over the next few

years, Einstein

thought

problems, but he did not really become

a great deal a

member

about quantum of the growing

—

r

The Problems of Quantum Theory group of atomic

wanted Lines

book

to write, a

and with

like

would never have

Sommerfeld’s Atomic Structure and Spectral

its

continually enlarged revisions

the headlong development of the “old”

even wish to give lectures in dents in Zurich,

Much details

that

I

“it is

as I struggled

insight.”

.

and

written, or even

published in 1919, which immediately became the bible

first

,

physicists. Einstein

569

.

.

not

with

“Besides,

I

quantum

physics.

this field, because, as

my

it,

became the chronicle

I

place to lecture

He

—of

did not

he told some stu-

on quantum theory.

hardly succeeded in achieving any real

never bothered to gather together the

many

of which the quantum theory at present consists, so

artifices

couldn’t give you a comprehensive overview.” 10

Einstein was not interested in a patchwork of details and

he was fascinated by fundamental questions, such

as

artifices;

the role of

4

“chance” and the dual wave and the corpuscular aspects of radiation.

decade after his lecture in Salzburg he was

Yet

a

this

problem;

his colleagues

all

magnetic radiation rethinking physics quanta. Indeed, the remark that

as

more and more

if a

on

his

own

with

regarded the wave theory of electro-

the final word.

Bohr amused

still

his

Even Niels Bohr, who was

radically,

would not

believe in light

growing number of followers with

telegram arrived from Einstein confirming the

existence of light quanta, he

— Bohr—would use that telegram

as the

strongest proof against them, because the information from Berlin

would have been transmitted by waves and received an antenna. affected

The

in

Copenhagen by

universal rejection of light quanta was not even

by the Nobel Prize which Einstein received

explanation of the photoelectric effect

in

1922 for his

—an explanation based on

light

quanta.

In 1921, Einstein hoped that an experiment would prove that “needle radiation” was a stream of particle-like structures. 11

admit that even with

his plan for the

“monumental booboo.” Nevertheless,

He

soon had to

experiment he had made

in the

end

it

a

was an experiment,

not any theoretical argument, that helped the quantum concept to

At Washington University physicist Arthur

in St.

Louis in 1923, the American

Holly Compton was investigating the diffraction of

Unified Theory

570

in a

Time Out

of Joint

hard X-rays on electrons. Compton’s observations were totally incom-

On

patible with the idea that X-rays

were electromagnetic waves.

other hand, his observations

perfectly into a picture of particles

bouncing off the electrons ticles

fit

like billiard balls; the deflection

was explained by the

fact that

the

of the par-

they had clearly defined energy

and momentum. Theoretically, the experiment could be interpreted entirely within the sacrosanct laws of conservation of energy

momentum. The “Compton

effect”

—the name by which the phenomenon obknown

served in this crucial experiment soon became ture

—by no means

settled the issue, though. Rather,

problem by demonstrating,

in Einstein’s words,

it

in the litera-

exacerbated the

“that not only in

regard to energy transfer, but also in regard to the impact radiation behaves as

Here we

still

and

effect, the

consisted of discrete energy projectiles.” 12

if it

have Einstein’s “as

if”

conclusion, familiar from his

“heuristic viewpoint” of March 1905.

Among physicists, about

a

change of

however, Compton’s experiment soon did bring

attitude,

and Einstein’s light quanta

respectable. In 1926, these structures

sessing energy and physicists

if.”

this belated

No

rest mass,

became

but pos-

—were named “photons.” A year

were considering photons every

without any “as basked in

momentum

—with no

at last

later,

bit as real as electrons,

one would have blamed Einstein

triumph, but that was not his

if

he had

style.

Meanwhile, Einstein was feeling exceedingly unhappy about the kind of “fusion” of the wave and particle aspects of light demanded by

quantum mechanics within Bohr’s concept of complementarity. This was not what he had expected. Ever since

his years at the Patent Office, Einstein

turbed by a duality pervading the whole of physics. All

had been

dis-

field theories

described the world as a continuum, reflected mathematically by partial

differential equations;

but

at the

atomic level both matter and

radiation consisted of discrete building blocks

tons— and of

own its

light quanta.

—electrons

and pro-

This dualism was intensified both by

his

and by the success of Bohr’s model of the atom, with discrete energy levels. In 1917, Einstein was seriously doubting that reflections

— The Problems of Quantum Theory

571

the well-tested classical tools of mathematical physics were able in the (useful),

new

i.e. if

a

situation: “If the

molecular view of matter

is

correct

portion of the world has to be represented by

a finite

number of moving particles, then

the continuum of present-day theory

He suspected

contains too great a multiplicity of possibilities.” insufficient limitation of possible solutions to the

quantum

The

theory.

to formulate statements

on

continuum (space- time).

...

a

to be

fail

in the face of

how it is

possible

discontinuum without resorting to

For that unfortunately we

How much

mathematical form.

me

question seems to

that the

continuum equations

was the reason “why our present means of description the

suit-

still

painful effort

I

still

a

lack the

have already spent

along these lines !” 13 It

way out of

seems, however, that he soon saw a

the problem

using the well-tested continuum theory he so loved. This was the idea

of “overdetermination,” a mathematical situation that arises

number of equations

is

number of

greater than the

when

the

variables. In the

general theory of relativity Einstein had found overdetermination useful at an important point: the transition

from Riemann’s geometry

to the limiting case of the Euclidian world.

For physics, the

starting

point in the ideal case would be a unified theory whose equations

included at least those for the gravitational netic field. Einstein

was hoping, on the

field

and the electromag-

basis of this

and some other

conditions, to discover a suitable “overdetermined” system of equations that

would permit only

discrete solutions,

quantum conditions and elementary

identified with

Implementation of this idea would have met plete

which could then be

comprehension of

theoretical

would have been embedded

his criteria for a

com-

Quantum phenomena

reality.

in a natural

particles.

way

in the well-tested

and

indispensable continuum theory of classical physics and would have

been deducible from

between

particles

it;

all

such calamities

as

chance and the dualism

and waves, or between continuum and discon-

tinuum, would have been merely temporary obstacles during

a transi-

tional stage of theoretical confusion.

The vision was not

of

a

attainable;

cussions, and

it

“theory of everything” through “overdetermination” it

did not play a major part in the theoreticians’ dis-

played no part at

all

in the progress of physics.

But

it is

Unified Theory

572 a

in a

Time Out

of Joint

key to Einstein’s concept of progress. Without

be

why he

understand

difficult to

felt

this vision,

it

that his stubborn search for a

quantum

unified field theory was also overwhelmingly important for

theory

—and

it

would be even more

never accepted quantum mechanics

Younger

as the last

it

was not the whim of

word.

who

pigheaded elderly

a

in reasoning that left

was an attitude rooted

him no

choice.

man

He

—

was

it

a

believed that he at least surmised the direction in which

the “promised land” should be sought; and he a

why he

understand

difficult to

physicists derided Einstein’s attitude as intransigent or

reactionary; but

visionary

would

must have regarded

it

as

kind of intellectual surrender that “chance,” which he himself hoped

to explain,

had simply been elevated into

a principle

by the champions

of quantum mechanics.

The

hint of a search for “overdetermination” appears abruptly in a

first

letter to

Max Born

in

been thinking about

must look tions

January 1920, and

this for

some

time. “I continue to believe that one

for such an overdetermination

and that the

solutions

suggests that Einstein had

it

through

no longer have continuum

how??” 14 The two question marks were certainly was for Einstein to formulate the process, just can’t

my

manage,” he complained

favorite

idea of

its

equa-

differential

character. But

justified:

easy as

it

execution evaded him. “I

a little later, “to give solid

shape to

comprehending the quantum structure from

overdetermination through differential equations.” 15 It

took almost four years before Einstein considered publishing

something on “overdetermination.”

He

eventually wrote a paper in his

“cheerful exile” in Leyden, where he had gone to escape the threats to his life in Berlin. In

Prussian

December

Academy on

1923,

his behalf.

statement of hope than a

Max

Planck submitted

However,

result, as

this

it

to the

paper was more of

was reflected

in

its title,

a

Does the

Field Theory Offer a Possibility of Solving the Quantum, Problem? 16

Einstein sets out the problem in his introduction, concluding with a rhetorical question:

can the quantum conditions of natural processes

be “adequately described by tions”? is

He

a

theory based on partial differential equa-

continues optimistically: “Quite certainly;

all

we have

to

do

‘overdetermine’ the field variables by equations.” 17 This sounds

The Problems

of

Quantum Theory

573

simple enough but becomes exceedingly complex over the next few pages, and at times even opaque. Einstein readily admits that one vital

deduction

“is

not

as

cogent

“that the equations set out

His paper, he remarks,

one might wish.” Nor does he claim

as

by

me

really

have any physical meaning.”

have achieved

will

mathematicians to cooperate and

if it

purpose

its

“if

it

induces

persuades them that the road

here embarked on can be pursued and should certainly be thought

through to the end .” 18 In

Einstein was presenting not a theory but a road

fact,

that led not so later

much

to results as to further questions.

he admitted the problems of

hopes he

still

held for

and the connection with what

ficult,

becoming

less ancfiess direct.

Yet

it is

a

road

few weeks

approach but also expressed the

his

“The mathematical

it:

A

—

is

aspect

is

enormously

accessible to experience

a logical possibility

describing reality without a sacrificium

dif-

intellectus .” 19

No

is

of accurately

one, however,

took up Einstein’s suggestion, and he himself was unable to achieve

any significant progress with

While

his

method of overdetermination.

Einstein’s endeavors with overdetermination

were being largely

ignored, Niels Bohr galvanized the world of atomic physics with the crisis of the “old”

reflections that propelled

toward his

its

Only

climax.

few weeks

a

quantum theory

after Einstein’s paper,

Bohr and

younger coworkers Hendrik Kramers and John Slater published

a

radiation theory without light quanta, in which anything concerned

with quanta was

However,

fitted into the interaction

this “rescue”

of the description of radiation in space by the

Maxwellian equations exacted energy and

momentum

of radiation and matter.

a

high price: the conservation laws for

had to be abandoned for individual processes

and were henceforth to be valid only

statistically.

As always, Einstein was intensely interested time he was not enthusiastic: “That idea mine, but

I

referring to

don’t think he

some

the Patent Office.

theory

Bohr

21 ,

is

an old acquaintance of

a real fellow ,” 20

reflections he

Now

is

in Bohr’s ideas, but this

had made, and

he wrote, presumably rejected, while

still

at

he raised “a hundred objections” to Bohr’s

most of them highly

for having prematurely

technical,

and he strongly

criticized

abandoned the laws of conservation and

574

Unified Theory

hence

causality. “I

would not

causality without a great deal far.

The

Time Out

in a

like to

of Joint

be driven into abandoning

more opposition than has been shown

idea that an electron exposed to a ray

moment and

chooses the

intolerable to me. If that

gambling casino than

by

the direction in which so, I’d rather

is

strict

be

a

its it

own free

so

decision

wants to eject

is

cobbler or a clerk in a

a physicist.” 22

Bohr’s theory of radiation without light quanta was actually only an

intermezzo;

it

came

to an early

end

as a result

of

experiment

a brilliant

by Bothe and Geiger, which proved that energy and

momentum were

conserved for each individual process. Meanwhile, Einstein had some considerable successes, moreover with papers on fact that

they were written “on the side”

focused on the unified theory23

were

his last contributions of

selves have assured

Toward

him of a

—

quantum

his

main

theory.

The

interest

was

—does not diminish their value. These

high creative power and would by them-

place in the pantheon of physics.

the end of June 1924, Einstein received a letter from a

Indian physicist, Saryendra

Dacca and had not so cations. 24 “Because

send Einstein an

far called

we

article

Einstein's ideas. Bose

without recourse to

Nat Bose, who taught

are

all

much your

at the

young

University of

attention to himself by his publidisciples,” 25

—which represented

Bose

felt entitled to

a brilliant

development of

was able to derive Planck’s radiation formula

classical

electrodynamics, by treating radiation as a

gas consisting of Einsteinian light quanta, similar to a gas consisting of

“normal” molecules but with

a

modified way of counting. In the event

that Einstein approved, Bose asked

him

to arrange for the paper to be

published in Zeitschrift fur Physik.

The editor of the Philosophical Magazine of the Royal Society London had rejected the article, though Bose did not mention this his letter. Einstein,

esting derivation” 26

by the unknown Indian, translated the

beyond the

it

—more

particularly

Bose’s novel

statistical

statistics.

article into

for publication without delay. 27 Einstein clearly

than the author himself— that

method of counting had implications

specific case of radiation. It contained the

new quantum

in

however, immediately liked the “exceedingly inter-

German, and submitted realized

in

far

foundation of

a

— The Problems of Quantum Theory

575

Ever since Boltzmann, physicists had been counting atoms

— an

illusion taken over

method put an end

Bose’s

from

daily

atoms and molecules. This

new way

this idea to material structures

“loss of individuality” called for a

of counting objects of the microcosm, one which differed

essentially a

classical physics.

and hence were devoid of

in principle,

any individuality. Einstein extended as

and from

life

to this: identical light quanta, he argued,

were not distinguishable, even

such

at

if,

they could be numbered and individually identi-

least in principle, fied

as

from the

classical

way.

It led, as

Einstein soon discovered, to

“hypothesis about an interaction between molecules of an as yet

quite mysterious nature ,” 28 with equally mysterious effects

on ob-

served phenomena. Bose’s paper was the Prussian

still

Academy

Single-Atom Gases

29 ,

in

with the printer

own

to present his

when

Einstein appeared at

paper,

Quantum Theory

of

which he applied Bose’s method to material gas

molecules, on the basis of a formal analogy between radiation and a gas. Six

months

Einstein continued this

later,

in the conviction that “the analogy lar gas

must be

a

Einstein’s

now

some

additional “reflections

as free as possible

method

equally for radiation and matter.

“Bose-Einstein is

statistics.”

What

into a

It

lowest energy

would be possible levels.

result

was

his general-

statistics valid

soon entered the

literature as

characterizes Bose-Einstein statistics

occupied by any number of particles so than

he supplied

on the quantum theory

quantum

that particles are indistinguishable and any

more

after that,

from arbitrary hypotheses .” 31

most important methodological

ization of Bose’s counting

in a Second Treatise

between quantum gas and molecu-

complete one .” 30 Three weeks

as a theoretical basis

of ideal gases,

work

32 .

quantum

level

may

be

In consequence, the particles

in classical statistics

This enabled Bose to offer

—crowd into the

a natural

explanation

of Planck’s formula for quantum gas, and Einstein supplied an equally natural interpretation of the so-called third law of thermodynamics in

an atomic or molecular gas, according to which entropy disappears

at

absolute zero.

The new

statistics

enabled Einstein to make remarkable predic-

tions concerning the behavior of matter at extremely tures,

such

as the

low tempera-

disappearance of viscosity in liquefied gases.

I

his

Unified Theory

576 “superfluidity”

Keesom

was subsequently discovered by Willem Hendrik

Leyden, in 1928.

in

Time Out of Joint

in a

The

concept of the “Bose-Einstein con-

densation” has proved useful to this day whenever matter in “degenerate” states has to be described.

From

his Second Treatise

acter

quantum

the analogy between ,

gas and molecular gas Einstein, in

drew the far-reaching conclusion

must be assigned not only

that a

wave char-

to light but also to matter, “by

assigning to the gas, in an appropriate manner, a radiation process and

by calculating tion analysis

its

was

interference oscillations.” 33 His mastery of fluctuasufficient for

him

to put forward this astonishing

claim; but for a further interpretation he ideas of Louis de Broglie, the

whom he had met at the

had to have recourse to some

younger brother of Maurice de Broglie,

Solvay conferences.

Louis de Broglie had submitted

a doctoral thesis to Einstein’s

friend Paul Langevin in Paris in the spring of 1924, a thesis

went

far

beyond the customary scope. For each material

Broglie postulated a simple relation between

its

which

particle,

de

momentum and

its

wavelength. This was something totally new, and a bold shot at the

unknown,

for until then particles

had been regarded

as

compact con-

centrations of mass, which had absolutely nothing to do with waves.

De

Broglie’s hypothesis could be justified only a posteriori, in that

it

permitted what Einstein later called a “very remarkable” 34 geometrical interpretation of Bohr’s

quantum conditions within the atom.

Langevin was so astonished stein a

at

de Broglie’s idea that he sent Ein-

carbon copy of the thesis and asked him for an unofficial second

opinion.

It

must have struck

a familiar

had discovered that relation between particle,

momentum

a

because of lack of experi-

difficulties

and

five

with the energy and

years later the

while, however, atomic physics, as if it

new

it

and wavelength of

theorem. 35 Langevin followed Einstein’s advice: de Bro-

glie received his doctorate,

a

momentum

though he had not published

mental evidence and because of

chord in Einstein: he himself

Nobel

Prize.

Mean-

were not entangled enough, had

hypothesis which would not be easily integrated.

Einstein soon turned Treatise

it

to everybody’s advantage. In his Second

he was able to show that de Broglie’s material waves corre-

— The Problems

Quantum Theory

of

sponded exactly to those which had followed from studies,

his

577

own

fluctuation

with the result that the two arguments supported each other

and jointly came close to certainty. In Einstein’s cautious formulation, “it

seems that an undulatory

field is associated

process, just as the optical undulatory field

is

with every motion

associated with the

move-

ment of light quanta.” 36 Einstein was so fascinated by material waves that at the annual

meeting of the Society of

Scientists

and Physicians

in

Innsbruck in

September 1924 he suggested that experimenters might search

phenomena

fraction and interference

however, was hopeless, because

in

for dif-

molecular beams. 37 This,

— he himself demonstrated —their wavelengths are mostly conin his

as

Second Treatise a few months later

siderably smaller than their molecular diameter, so that any such effect

would not be susceptible

to experimental verification.

On

the other

hand, prospects were more favorable for slow electrons: by the

summer first

of 1925 Walter Elsasser in Gottingen was able to show some

indications of such waves, and in 1927 the existence of material

waves was experimentally confirmed by the diffraction of electrons on crystals.

With more

his

work on the quantum theory of

led the “old”

threshold of the

quantum theory

gases, Einstein

to a peak, bringing

new quantum mechanics, and

in

some

it

close to the

respects even

beyond. Thus the road he had taken in 1905 came almost but at a

new

level

had once

full circle,

of understanding. Then, Einstein had suddenly and

unexpectedly placed his quantum hypothesis alongside the wave theory of optics. rial

Now, two

decades

corpuscles with a wave

field.

later,

The

he was able to connect mate-

fact that

immaterial light and

material corpuscles both have characteristics of particles and waves

doubt appealed to

The

no

his desire for “generalization.”

fact that particles

and waves were

nomena, however, would not have appealed

still

two separate phe-

to Einstein.

dualism of waves and particles was not resolved in the mechanics, for which in

many

instead, to his regret, duality

And

new quantum

respects Einstein had blazed the

was actually consolidated

this

trail

as a principle.

CHAPTER THIRTY Critique of

Quantum Mechanics

After a quarter-century

of improvised quantum theory, the

breakthrough to quantum mechanics and

two years represented by

a

a collective

physics, mathematics,

—

a

commentary and

for

mere

fascinating interplay of

1

it

a

intellectual effort

and cognitive theory. Here, of course,

can be presented only to the extent that Einstein’s critical

completion within

though turbulent

generation of physicists

brilliant

its

this story

provides a background for

what others saw

as his lonely

road.

We

have already seen his reaction to Heisenberg’s impressive

opening in July 1925, the “quantum egg”: unlike the physicists tingen, he did not believe in that others, too, initially

it.

had

at

Got-

Heisenberg’s concepts were so radical

difficulties

with them

—Niels Bohr,

for

one, and even Heisenberg himself. Everyone could understand that

Heisenberg had unhesitatingly rejected the disparate patchwork of existing

quantum

correct. In

its

theory, dismissing

its

models

as, at best,

place he was proposing a fundamentally

accidentally

new quantum

mechanics, which included only relations between observable magnitudes; thus there

within an atom

was no longer any

—

it

talk of the “path” of

was appropriate to speak only of frequencies and

amplitudes of radiation processes. This sounded thinking, but

it

an electron

like

good

positivist

involved opaque physics and strange mathematics.

Heisenberg’s most bizarre innovation was that the result of multiplying certain magnitudes depended on the order in which the multiplications

were performed. Nothing of the kind had existed

578

in physics

Critique of before, even in the “old”

Quantum Mechanics

quantum

579

theory; but in Heisenberg’s theory,

“noninterchangeability” was an essential element, even though he was

unable to state what mathematical structure was in fact involved.

Max

Born, a trained mathematician, soon discovered that his pupil’s strange calculation

amounted

maticians.

While Heisenberg

Copenhagen

to matrix calculation, a

in the late

his physics into correct

way

method

familiar to

mathe-

traveled to Cambridge, England, and

summer, Born and Pascual Jordan transcribed mathematics, developing his assumption

all

the

to the first appearance of the “interchangeability” relation for the

position q and the

momentum p

This “commutator” was Jordan

also

found

momentum

but for

all

qp = h/2iri.

—independently of Born

—by Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac

position and

—

of a particle: pq

at

Cambridge, not only

magnitudes which physicists

and for call

4T

“canonically conjugate.” In his presentation of

quantum mechanics,

reduced to the most abstract structures, Dirac (who was then only twenty-three) was also able to express a system’s motion equations

with

this

new

term.

Thus

the “commutator”

became the signature of

new quantum mechanics and even mathematically marked

the

break with

traditional physics.

all

Over the following months Born, Heisenberg, and Jordan oped

their

the

famous “three-man paper” on what was now

devel-

called “matrix

mechanics.” Along with an extended presentation of the foundations, it

pointed the

way

to

some noteworthy

applications.

Heisenberg pre-

sented the basic features and mathematical basis of the theory in an article

completed shortly before Christmas. Meanwhile, Wolfgang

Pauli had described the hydrogen

the delight of Niels Bohr,

with

A

this

first,

whose

atom by the new methods, much

scientific career

was closely associated

touchstone of atomic physics.

improvised conference on quantum mechanics was orga-

nized in Leyden as a sidebar event on the

H. A. Lorentz’s doctorate on December from

to

Berlin,

fiftieth

anniversary of

11, 1925. Einstein

had come

and Bohr from Copenhagen. Paul Ehrenfest, the host,

proudly presented his two young students Samuel Goudsmit and

Georg Uhlenbeck, who had

just discovered a

new property

of the elec-

Unified Theory

580

tron: torque, or “spin.” Spin

other aspects of the

For

his return trip

Time Out of Joint

was almost

understanding the electron, and as the

in a

was

it

as vital as

mass and charge to

as eagerly discussed in

Leyden

new quantum mechanics. 2

Bohr had chosen the route

via Berlin, so that

could continue his conversations with Einstein on the

To Bohr

train.

they were “a greater pleasure and more instructive than

I

he

can say.” 3

Although we know nothing about the subject matter of these discussions,

we may assume

would not have

left

that Bohr’s enthusiasm for the

Einstein unimpressed.

When

new

physics

Einstein drew up a

balance sheet for physics for 1925, he too regarded matrix mechanics as “the

most interesting thing that theory has produced

in recent

times.” His admiration, however, had a substantial admixture of mistrust:

“A

veritable witches’ multiplication table, in

which

infinite

determinants (matrices) take the place of cartesian coordinates. Exceedingly clever, and because of

its

great complexity safe against

refutation as incorrect.” 4

Nevertheless, matrix mechanics must have exerted a strange fasci-

nation over Einstein over the next few months, because he reported to

Born

in Gottingen:

“The Heisenberg-Born

breathless, gripping the thinking

ideas are keeping everyone

and pondering of everybody inter-

ested in theory. Dull resignation has been replaced in us thick-blooded creatures

by

unique tense expectation.” 5

a

leave out the question

not clear in his

He

was

whether the theory was true

own mind where

the

tactful

enough

to

—or perhaps he was

new development would

lead.

Soon Einstein met the man who had aroused this “unique tense expectation,” young Werner Heisenberg. He and Heisenberg had already exchanged

a

few

congratulated

letters.

him on

Thus Heisenberg records

his theory as early as

that Einstein

had

1925 and had suggested

a

face-to-face discussion of its foundations, in a letter signed “in genuine

admiration, yours, A. Einstein.” 6

may

Even though quantum mechanics

have rather alarmed him, Einstein remembered his

own younger

years and was fond of youthful Hotspurs with unconventional ideas.

The

opportunity for the desired conversation arose on April 28, 1926, after Heisenberg, en route to Copenhagen to assume a position as a

Dozent with Bohr, had given

a lecture in Berlin. Einstein

asked

Critique of

Quantum Mechanics

Heisenberg to accompany him to

What

the two

men had

structed by Heisenberg

more

home on

his

to say to each other

—though not

581 Haberlandstrasse.

was eventually recon-

until four decades later,

and then

in Heisenberg’s voice than that of his host. 7

“But surely you don’t seriously believe” frontal attack

on the

central

dogma

of the

—Einstein new

said,

physics

opening

his

—“that one can

include only observable quantities in a physical theory.” Heisenberg retorted, as indeed

Born and Bohr would have done,

lowed the basic idea of

relativity theory, in

that he had fol-

which “absolute” time,

because unobservable, had been replaced by time measured by actual clocks and synchronization procedures. But Einstein did not

understand

this the

way Heisenberg

did;

to

on the contrary, “Only the

theory decides what can and what cannot be observed.” 8 ally,

want

More

gener-

Einstein’s dfd not approve of Heisenberg’s talking about “what

one knows about nature, instead of what nature physical sciences can only concern themselves with

The

really does.

what nature

really

does.” 9 Einstein’s disinclination to accept Heisenberg’s arguments also have

been due to the

fact that

two weeks before

this visit,

may

he had

already formed the impression that “the Born-Heisenberg business

probably not correct.” 10

The

is

reason was that an alternative had mean-

while emerged, which was a lot closer to his

While matrix mechanics had reached

own way of thinking.

provisional goal with the

a

“three-man paper,” Erwin Schrodinger, entirely on ing for a totally different approach to the

his

own, was search-

quantum

riddle. Schro-

dinger, then thirty-eight, held the professorship in Zurich that had

begun ment,

Einstein’s academic it

career— but

had been upgraded to

a

full

for Schrodinger’s appoint-

professorship. In the past,

Schrodinger had only sporadically concerned himself with quantum theory, but this changed dramatically in

when

Einstein’s Second Treatise

1925 drew his attention to the importance of de Broglie’s material

waves. Schrodinger tivistic

later

made some

unsuccessful experiments with

a rela-

wave equation (which he ultimately rejected but which would

be rediscovered as the Klein-Gordon equation). Then, during the

Christmas vacation of 1925, he discovered

a nonrelativistic

equation

Unified Theory

582 for a material

quantum

wave

Time Out

of Joint

from which he succeeded

field,

in calculating the

of the hydrogen atom by conventional methods.

levels

On January to Annalen

in a

26, 1926, Schrodinger sent this trailblazing discovery

— and

this

was only the prelude to

a creative

resulting in five papers altogether, written at roughly vals

up

to July 21, 1926. In these papers,

pects of the title

of the

interas-

papers continued the

Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem.

Schrodinger’s

first

publication,

at

the beginning of April, was

—unlike the abstract “witches’ multipliof matrix mechanics — physicists found themselves on

received enthusiastically. cation tables”

monthly

he developed different

new wave mechanics. Three of these

first:

explosion

Here

the familiar territory of partial differential equations; the discrete

energy

levels of the

hydrogen atom emerged naturally and

inevitably,

rather like the nodes of a vibrating chord.

Max

Planck had drawn Einstein’s attention to Schrodinger’s work

“with justified enthusiasm,” 11 and Einstein studied the paper “with great interest.” In

machine, but

fact,

he found

a clear idea

—and

it a

revelation:

logical in

its

“Not such an

infernal

application.” 12

Schrodinger’s article was of major importance because, as

author noted,

it

its

offered information “on the relationship of the

Heisenberg-Born -Jordan quantum mechanics to mine.” Using modern functional analysis, he demonstrated in a mathematical tour de

two

force that the

theories, while totally different in content

and

mathematics, were nevertheless mathematically equivalent to each other, once

explained

one had got down to the fundamental structures. 13 This

why

for

all

specific

problems the two theories invariably

yielded the same results. Instead of speaking of matrix or wave

me-

chanics one could now, with every justification, speak of a single quan-

tum mechanics. Pleasing though this synthesis

odd.

may have been, it was also rather This quantum mechanics now took two shapes: one version was

based on the visually comprehensible image of real material waves, while the other proscribed

all

images, declaring

all

visualizable

models

misleading and devoid of content. Just as outspokenly as Schrodinger had criticized matrix mechanics, so

its

founders

now

reacted against wave mechanics. As for

its

alleged

Quantum Mechanics

Critique of

Heisenberg curtly remarked:

visualizability,

And

Pauli had a few strong words to say to

583

“I think

it’s

rubbish.” 14

“Dear Schrodinger” when

a

cutting reference by Schrodinger to “the local Zurich superstition”

became known. 15

The

Schrodinger’s wave functions could not

critics insisted that

possibly describe de Broglie’s material waves, because they diverged

too quickly, whereas an electron remained concentrated as point mass for

applied to anything relating to

was

clear, especially in

wave mechanics

Besides,

eternity.

all

quantum

leaps.

And

a virtual

when

failed

in formal terms

it

multielectron systems, that Schrodinger’s waves

did not even propagate in physical space, as one

would expect material

waves to do; they propagated only in the abstract structure of the configuration space. Einstein,

looked

this difficulty.

though

“We are

all

of admiration, had not over-

full

here fascinated by Schrodinger’s

new

theory of quantum levels,” he wrote in June 1926. But then he continued: “Strange as

ness of the idea

What,

quite astonishing.” 16

,

in

June 1926, Schrodinger

complex wave function

Max Born step.

to introduce a field in the q space, the useful-

anything, did Schrodinger’s calculations

if

Founh Paper

is

it is

mean? In

his

tried desperately to give his

a realistic interpretation.

Meanwhile, though,

cut the Gordian knot and advanced understanding by a vital

In a brief note, described as “provisional,”

On

the

Quantum

Mechanics of Impact Processes he considered “only one interpretation ,

possible”: that the

wave function was

finding an electron at cally

a definite level.

material waves, which

real

measure of the probability of

a

17

As

had been the starting point of

become purely

Schrodinger’s reflections, were to

de Broglie’s physi-

a result,

abstract probability

waves.

Born’s mathematics was sketchy; and the correct version

not the wave function but

its

—was added only

probability

absolute square that

at the

proof stage,

already venturing out on an even

mending

that “determination be given

Four weeks

same

title as

more up

which

in

he was

as a note. Still,

recom-

atomic world.” 18

was completed, under the

the note, with correct mathematics and

tion of the concept of probability,

it is

proportional to

significant path:

in the

later a full-length version

is

— that

a

precise defini-

quantum mechanics

differs

584

Unified Theory

meaning

substantially

from

preamble to

this paper,

and

field

Time Out of Joint

in a lottery or in classical physics. In a

Born referred

to his

famous friend and col-

up “a remark by Einstein on the relationship between

league, taking

wave

its

in a

he said something to the

light quanta;

effect that the

waves merely served to show the way to corpuscular quanta, and in context spoke of a ‘ghost

” 19

field.’

Thus

appeared in the role of midwife to the to

fact,

new

physics

—

first

time

in this case even

interpretation.

its statistical

In

Einstein for the

this

Einstein in 1924 was so impressed by light quanta that he

was inclined to assign them

a

higher degree of reality than light waves,

contrary to the overwhelming evidence in favor of the wave theory of light.

He

never published these ideas, but he discussed them exten-

sively with his colleagues.

he told Pauli that “to

For instance,

his feeling

undulatory character of

at the

something shadowy attaches to the

light”; Einstein believed that the

was “increasingly produced

acter of light

Innsbruck convention

as a

wave char-

secondary aspect and

indirectly.” 20

According to Born, Einstein to Maxwell’s

of

now downgraded

quantum, the

a light

particular path,

momentum.” rial

it

“ghost

carrier of

though the

assigned the role of “guide field” field”: “It defines

the probability

energy and momentum, adopting

field as

a

such possesses no energy and no

In view of this analogy between light quanta and mate-

particles,

thought

still

as

worked out not

least

by Einstein himself, Born

reasonable “to regard the de Broglie-Schrodinger waves as

a ‘ghost field’ or rather as a ‘guide field.’

“guide field” as causally over

probability amplitude,

a

time

” 21

—

in

Born then interpreted

this

which, while unfolding

accordance with Schrodinger’s equation

permits no more than probability statements about the future states of a system.

He summed up

this paradoxical situation in

an elegantly for-

mulated theorem of quantum mechanics: “The motion of particles lows probability laws, but probability

itself

fol-

propagates in conformity

with the law of causality.” 22 After the publication of his paper, Born reported to Einstein that

he was dinger

s

now

very happy, because

wave

field

as

a

‘ghost

“my

idea of interpreting Schrd-

field’

according to your under-

Critique of

standing” 23 was proving ever

Quantum Mechanics

more

—though of course the

useful

propagated not in ordinary space but in

interpretation:

tistical

respect.

The

“Quantum mechanics

But some inner voice

theory offers a

Man’s

secret.

throw

dice.” 24

For

lot,

my

but

tells

it

me

field

configuration space. Ein-

a

however, vigorously objected to serving

stein,

585

as a

godfather to the sta-

calls for a

that this

is

great deal of

not the true Jacob.

hardly brings us any closer to the Old

part, at least, I

am

This disclaimer of Born’s suggestion, stein’s first consistent rejection

December

in

new

of the

convinced that he doesn’t

physics.

1926, was Ein-

Of course,

his ref-

erence to an “inner voice” was no argument but more a statement of faith;

but precisely because of that

two friends did not then

it

was

a

“hard blow” 25 to Born.

was the beginning of

realize that this

The

a life-

long dispute between them on a fundamental question: what physical

knowledge actually meant and actually could achieve

in the realm of

atoms and quanta.

Quantum mechanics was soon same time

lems, but at the questions.

Thus

it

able to address and solve

gave

many prob-

new and exceedingly complex arose when an attempt was made

rise to

conflicts invariably

and

to assign to a particle, at a given point in time, a definite position q a definite

physics

momentum p. What had been

a

matter of course in

—never even questioned— developed into

the microcosm. Pauli described

it

a

in these words:

classical

stumbling block in

“One can view

world with the p eye and one can view it with the q eye, but if one to open both eyes together, one gets confused.” 26 This paradox

many others (as

in

quantum mechanics), proved impossible

had occurred several times before)

principle

—

principle,

it

the

tries (like

to resolve, and

was therefore elevated into

a

in this case Heisenberg’s “indeterminacy” or “uncertainty”

which explains why

it

is

impossible to open “both eyes

together.”

The tions

situation described

by Pauli has

its

reason in reciprocal rela-

— the mathematical core of quantum mechanics. Their

consequence

is

inevitable

that the product of the fluctuation square of

canonically conjugate variables, such as position and impulse,

is

two

always

Unified Theory

586

Time Out

in a

Ap

greater than Planck’s quantum: Aq* strated

of Joint

> h/4 tt. Heisenberg

by closely argued thought experiments that

statement describes the actual situation

mathematical

every observation or mea-

at

surement. If the position of an electron

this

demon-

is

accurately determined by

irradiation with extremely shortwave light, then the electron inevitably

undergoes

a

change in

momentum

in such a

way

that the product of

both uncertainties can never be smaller than Planck’s quantum of effect.

The

time had

now come

for

Heisenberg to draw far-reaching con-

clusions about the structure of natural laws: “In the precise formulation of the law of causality,

can calculate the future,’ the

first

one.

We

the present in

‘If

it is

we

accurately

know

we

the present, then

not the second clause that

is

wrong, but

cannot, as a matter of principle, gain knowledge of

all its

causality in whatever

determinants.”

Any hope

of restoring the law of

manner was described by Heisenberg

ductive and pointless.”

With massive

finality

as

he declared: “Because

experiments are subject to the laws of quantum mechanics invalidity of the law of causality

is

“unpro-

definitively established

.

.

.

all

the

by quantum

mechanics.” 27

—before the uncertainty of complementarity— Einstein

In February 1927 principle

principle,

and before Bohr’s

in a lecture to the

Mathe-

matical-Physical Department of Berlin University had declared that

nature demanded “not quantum theory or wave theory, but nature

demands from us

a synthesis

of the two concepts, although so far this

has exceeded the intellectual powers of physicists.” 28 This, incidentally,

was the view he had

1909. But what he

now

first

expressed at the Salzburg congress in

read about uncertainty, about Heisenberg’s

definitive dismissal of causality,

seemed to him 1909 nor In

to be neither the

and about Bohr’s complementarity “amalgamation” he had envisaged in

a synthesis.

March

1927, in an article

on the two hundredth anniversary of

Newton’s death, Einstein referred

to his

many

colleagues

who had

abandoned Newton’s foundations of classical physics by declaring that “not only the differential law, but also the law of causality

—previously

?

Critique of the basic postulate of bility

all

Quantum Mechanics

natural science

—had

587

Even the

failed.

possi-

of a space-time construct that could be unambiguously assigned

to physical events

is

being disputed.” Although Einstein conceded that

the radical champions of quantum mechanics had not set forth on their

road “without weighty arguments,” he urged them to remember their

“Who would

great forerunner:

have the temerity today to decide the

question whether the law of causality and the differential law, these

two premises of Newton’s way of looking

at nature,

must

last

definitively

be abandoned?” 29

As Einstein was unable to discover any inherent error

quantum

in

mechanics, he tried to keep the debate open by offering a causal native to the statistical interpretation.

Academy

to the Prussian

Does Schrodinger’s

a

On May

paper with

Wave Mechanics Determine

Completely or Only in a Statistical Sense

nounced

he submitted

15, 1927,

a cautiously

the

In his

alter-

questioning

title:

Motion of a System

first

paragraph he an-

would “demonstrate that Schrodinger’s wave me-

that he

chanics suggests that each solution of the wave equations should have it.”

But

this is all

was printed of Einstein’s only independent attempt

at a

quantum-

motions of the system unambiguously assigned to that

mechanical theory, because

its

author withdrew

doubt for good reasons. Only the vived in the It

files

seems that

by the horns and

a

few days

later,

no

page of the galley proof has sur-

of the academy. 30 after this fiasco Einstein

determined to take the bull

directly challenge the central statements of

mechanics, to prove that

improvement.

first

it

He

it

was only temporary and was

quantum

in

need of

evidently intended to do this at the Solvay Confer-

ence which had been called for October 1927 in Brussels.

Einstein had stayed away from the the war

—

in 1921 because of his trip to

solidarity with his

almost

a

first

German

colleagues,

two Solvay Conferences America and

who had been

in

after

1924 out of

excluded.

Now,

decade after the end of the shooting war, the “paper war” of

the scholars was also

coming

to an end.

As

a

result,

Hendrik A.

Lorentz, in his traditional role of president, was once again able to invite

German

physicists to Brussels.

The

conference was to be about

Unified Theory

588

Time Out

in a

“electrons and photons,” and the

summit of quantum-mechanics

of Joint

of participants promised

list

a

physicists.

old masters Lorentz and Planck could hardly be blamed for

The

having watched the headlong development of the past two years rather

uncomprehendingly.

The middle

generation was represented by Bohr,

Born, Ehrenfest, Einstein, and Schrodinger

— the

last

two of these

adopting a predominantly skeptical attitude. Finally, there were those

who had

earned quantum mechanics

its

reputation as “boys’ physics”:

Pauli was only twenty-seven and Dirac and Heisenberg only twentyfive,

but they were already highly experienced and highly conscious of

having created the modern physics of the twentieth century.

Madame

Einstein, along with

member

He

of the Scientific Committee.

by Lorentz

However, After

Curie and Paul Langevin, was a

on the

to deliver a report

to

and

fro

I

a report in a

state

of

affairs.

manner

The

this

the

quantum theory

purpose. This

is

in the

is

I

am not

would corre-

that

reason

been able to take such an intensive part

ment of

of quantum mechanics.

have come to the conclusion that

competent to give such spond to the actual

state

he withdrew his original acceptance:

in June 1927

much

had, moreover, been asked

that

I

have not

modern develop-

would have been necessary

as

due partly to the

fact that

my

for

receptivity

is

too small to fully follow the tempestuous development, and partly to the fact that

tation

I

do not approve of the purely

upon which these new

Nevertheless,

all

those

ward

As

to his presentation as

far as

theories are based. 31

who had

quantum mechanics through

statistical interpre-

letters

heard of Einstein’s rejection of or rumors had been looking for-

one of the highlights of the event.

can be judged from the

official

report of the proceedings,

Einstein did not take any major part in the discussions; whenever he did take part, he prefaced his remarks

by the admission that he “had

not penetrated deeply enough into the nature of quantum mechanics.” 32 But

argument was more

lively at the club

Universitaire and over meals in the hotel.

Whereas

of the Fondation

Pauli and Heisen-

berg tended to disregard Einstein’s objections, Bohr took them very

Quantum Mechanics

Critique of

589

His very thorough reconstruction of the discussions, 33

seriously.

written with profound sympathy, shows that Einstein was not only dis-

turbed by the

statistical interpretation

abandonment of

of elementary processes and the

but also worried by

causality,

a

suspicion

quantum mechanics implied some novel instantaneous remote which would be in conflict with relativity. These arguments between Bohr and Einstein have rightly,

been described

as a struggle

of Titans over the

friendliness. Ehrenfest,

and often talked to each of the two 1

a.m.

Bohr would come

until 3 o’clock”

—on

dialogues between

with ever intent

new

my room

to

his return to

account of the congress.

often,

and of

full

of good

always present

—“Each night

separately

to say just one single

Leyden gave

was wonderful for

“It

Bohr and

examples.

men

who was

effects

last riddles

the universe. For the participants, however, they were

humor, charm, and

that

word to

at

me

his students a lively

me

to be present at the

Einstein. Einstein, like a chess player,

A kind oiperpetuum mobile of the second kind,

on breaking through uncertainty. Bohr always, out of a cloud of

philosophical smoke, seeking the tools for destroying one example after another. Einstein like a jack-in-a-box,

morning. Oh,

it

contra Einstein.

was

delightful.

He now

But

I

am

popping out fresh every

almost unreservedly pro Bohr

behaves toward Bohr exactly

as the

cham-

pions of absolute simultaneity had behaved toward him.” 34

While

Einstein’s coevals

were saddened that the greatest among them

would not allow himself

to be convinced, the exponents of “boys’

physics” just shrugged their shoulders, regarding his stance as “reactionary.” 35 Einstein, however, proved his greatness, if only silently, his

by

nominations for the Nobel Prize. That he should have proposed

Louis de Broglie for his material waves in 1928, along with the Americans Davisson and

Germer

Broglie’s prediction,

surprising year’s

is

prize,

was

that in his

for the experimental confirmation of de

in line with his scientific sympathies.

nomination

letter, anticipating

What

is

the following

he suggested that the theoreticians Heisenberg and

Schrodinger be considered. After prolonged reflection he came to the conclusion that “de Broglie should have priority, because his idea certainly correct, whereas

it

is

still

problematical

how much

is

of the

Unified Theory

590

in a

Time Out of Joint

grandiosely conceived theories of the two last-named scientists will

This curiously formulated proposal of Heisenberg and

survive.” 36

Schrodinger must have had the value of rarity in Stockholm.

The development and

application of

quantum mechanics

released an

undreamed-of explosion of knowledge, but Einstein did not in

it.

When

he received the

recalled, with a

Max

Planck Medal in June 1929, he

touch of nostalgia, his unfulfilled dream of explaining

quantum conditions through overdetermination of tions in the space-time

continuum of

stands unattained, and there shares

my

participate

hope of getting

is

differential

a field theory:

equa-

“This goal

probably no expert to be found

to an understanding of reality

by

still

who this

means.” 37 Using some arbitrary terminology, he criticized the structure of the laws of to the

quantum mechanics

hope that physics would

“supercausality”

— though he

as “subcausality”

eventually,

left his

by

and clung

his road,

arrive at

audience in the dark about the

difference between this concept and ordinary causality.

Untroubled by these questions of principle, the quantum mechanics physicists were solving one problem after another, from the details of

atomic spectra to the electronic theory of metals. Naturally,

Einstein was impressed by these successes, and he publicly announced that he “greatly admired the achievements of the physicists

young generation of

grouped together under the name of quantum mechanics”

and that he believed “in the profound truth contained in except that

I

think that

its

restriction to statistical laws will

rary one.” 38 Shortly afterward, however, his harsher; he was prepared to concede to

bottom of things by

Although Einstein was

this

a

tempo-

quantum mechanics only the it

was “not possible

semiempirical means.” 39

in the minority

not entirely alone. His most prominent

who found

be

judgment again became

very inferior status “semiempirical,” insisting that to get to the

this theory,

with

ally

this

judgment, he was

was Erwin Schrodinger,

the statistical interpretation so appalling that he sometimes

regretted having created wave mechanics.

At the next Solvay Conference,

in

October 1930, Einstein was again

present, “like a jack-in-the-box,” with an exceedingly sophisticated

Critique of

Quantum Mechanics

591

thought experiment designed to refute uncertainty. Imagine

The box

with radiation.

filled

and closing after light

has a pinpoint shutter, whose opening

By weighing

controlled by a clock.

is

box

a

the box before and

emission the energy of the light could be accurately deter-

mined while the clock was accurately recording the time

—contrary

to

the principle of the uncertainty of energy and time. If Einstein

intended to throw Bohr off stride with

this

thought

experiment, he certainly succeeded, according to an eyewitness account: tion.

“To Bohr

He was

this

was

a

heavy blow. At the

extremely unhappy

all

moment he saw no

through the evening, walked from

one person to another, trying to persuade them be true, because physics.

if

that this could not

all

mean

Einstein was right this would

But he could think of no refutation.

the end of

never forget the

I will

two opponents leaving the university

sight of the

club. Einstein, a

majestic figure, walking calmly with a faint ironical smile, and trotting along

by

his side,

After a sleepless night stein’s

own weapons. The make

Bohr managed

to refute Einstein with Ein-

uncertain elevation of the clock during the

Bohr

we have no

that,

sive point.

of

all

met

energy and time. 41 Unfortu-

for

record of Einstein’s face

things,

rela-

amount necessary

the working of the clock inexact by the

for the uncertainty relation to be

nately

Bohr

extremely upset.” 40

weighing operations must, according to the general theory of tivity,

solu-

he had overlooked

when he was informed by relativity

theory on

This surprising reversal of fortune evidently

left its

a deci-

mark on

Einstein, because he never again tried to refute any statements of

quantum mechanics.

He

had even come to the conclusion that

quantum mechanics would

survive.

In

at least

above everyone

them

at the

else deserve the

top of his

Nobel Prize

list:

this

time without

a

men who I am con-

“the two

for physics.

vinced that this theory undoubtedly contains

aspects of

he again proposed

1931

Schrodinger and Heisenberg for the Nobel Prize, reservations and placing

some

piece of definitive

truth.” 42

Even though Einstein now acknowledged the exceptional Heisenberg’s achievement, this did not

peace with quantum mechanics, least of

mean all

that he had

status of

made

his

with the interpretation by

592

The

Pacifist

and the Bomb

Bohr and Heisenberg which came

to be

known

interpretation.” In the future, however, his

quantum mechanics described that

it

described

as the

argument was not that

individual processes incorrectly, but

them incompletely. The search

description of nature

“Copenhagen

would occupy him

for

to his last breath.

a

complete

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE Politics, Patents, Sickness,

and

a

"Wonderful Egg”

After the exciting and exhausting first half of the 1920s, Einstein wanted nothing more than to “be left in peace,” so he could 1

He

devote himself to physics undisturbed.

but for

a

few years,

after his return

from South America

of 1925, he got reasonably close to did not wish to give up: his versity in Jerusalem

tion of the

it.

There were two

which he

and on the Commission for Intellectual Coopera-

though, was he always

a

in

Geneva. In neither of these bodies,

comfortable partner; and he finally walked out

in protest.

Closest to his heart, undoubtedly, was

Hebrew

had inaugurated

his address

The same

summer

in the

tasks

that;

membership on the board of Hebrew Uni-

League of Nations

on both of them

never quite achieved

February 1923 with

in

University, which he

on Mount Scopus.

year, while in Berlin, he accepted the editorship of the first

volume of the new

university’s Scripta

Mathematica

contributing a paper written jointly with

He

important one. 2

also accepted

et

Grommer,

membership

in

its

Physica himself ,

albeit

not

a

very

academic council,

consisting of nine scholars, together with his Berlin colleague August

von Wassermann, the director of the cine of the Kaiser

When

in

Wilhelm

Institute for

Society.

1925 the direction of the university was entrusted to

board, Einstein was of course invited to be a at the

time of

America, and

Experimental Medi-

its

it

member

of

it.

a

However,

constituent meeting in Tel Aviv he was in South

was only

at its

second meeting,

593

in

Munich

in

Sep-

Unified Theory

594

Time Out of Joint

in a

tember 1925, that he realized that not everything

in

Jerusalem would

be going the way he had hoped. Einstein’s idea had been an academically elite institution, certainly

taking account of the special needs of the Jewish colonization of Palestine,

but autonomous and solely dedicated to the highest scientific

standards, based

on the unity of research and teaching. This view met

with only partial understanding on the part of American Jewry.

Because the right to lay

money came predominantly from them, they claimed the down the guidelines for the new university. They wanted

to content themselves with a teaching institution at college level and to

keep control of staffing positions for people

—largely with

from wealthy American Jewish

was

in

New

president of the university was a former

Judah Magnes, who was

vehement

a

champion of American

with

Munich; and although both men were

York

rabbi,

interests. Einstein

Magnes beginning with

conflict with

families,

main consideration.

scholarly achievement not always the

The

an eye to finding prestigious

the meeting in

there were exceedingly

pacifists,

angry and implacable exchanges between them, including threats by Einstein to resign. stein in Berlin

and

Chaim Weizmann

tried to mediate:

tried desperately to stop

him from

he

visited Ein-

leaving the board

on account of Magnes. Weizmann, worldly-wise, was ready 3

to settle

^

for half a university rather than

none

at

all;

Einstein, unwilling to

com-

promise, would rather have no university than half a university, or one

he regarded

as bad. 4

Einstein’s later

summary of this controversy was exceedingly bitter,

even considering his usual sharp tongue for

him something

like a

—possibly because

disappointing love

affair:

it

had been

“The bad thing

about the business was that the good Felix Warburg, thanks to his financial authority, ensured that the

was made the director of the through

romantic and incapable Magnes

institute, a failed

his dilettantic political enterprises

to his influential family in America,

him honorably

to

some

who

American

who,

had become uncomfortable

much hoped

very

exotic place. This ambitious and

surrounded himself with other morally inferior men, allow any decent person to succeed there.

rabbi,

.

.

.

to dispatch

weak person

who

did not

These people managed

and

Politics, Patents, Sickness,

a

"Wonderful Egg”

595

to poison the atmosphere there totally and to keep the level of the institution low.” 5

In 1928, Magnes’s authority, originally confined to financial and administrative matters, was officially extended to appointments as well.

At

of academic autonomy

this point, Einstein felt that his principles

had been

totally

undermined and resigned from the board

as well as

from the academic council. The only favor he was prepared

Weizmann and Hebrew

to

do

for

University was to resign quietly, without

a

public fuss. 6 In the hope of a better future he assured Selig Brodetzky, the vice-president of the board, that he would “never cease to regard

my

the fate of the Jerusalem university as a matter close to

The main

thing

university. I

that

is

hope

that

we

all

heart.

.

.

.

have the same goal, namely to serve the

my method will contribute

to that goal.” 7

4T

As

for the

League of Nations Commission, Einstein already had one

From 1924

resignation and return behind him.

attended the commission’s regular meetings, which were

tiously

always in July, even though he did not get “international person” he felt

it

better and

more

field.” 8

his

shirk,

is,

in

no matter how great

The wearying

my

his

to ensure that

conviction, a duty

which no

routine of the meetings was compensated for by

Zurich or for

a brief

all,

make

H. A. Lorentz, who

use of this opportunity

hike with his son Eduard.

Although nominated ad personam Einstein rather ,

representative of

the

achievements and in whatever

acted as chairman. Besides, he was able to

a

among

an

among nations renders disaster we have lived through.

encounters with Marie Curie and, above

for visits to

as

sincere understanding

cooperate toward that aim

one can

out of them. But

by the world war, and

impossible a repetition of the terrible

To

much

duty “to restore unity

his

nations, so boundlessly destroyed a

he conscien-

to 1927

,

felt

Germany, which had been admitted

himself to be

to the

League

of Nations only in 1926. In the flush of solidarity he even, on one occasion, publicly called

Germany “my own

fatherland.” 9 Privately,

however, he liked the French “better than our tions

between the wartime enemies, who were

he remarked that he would “probably not

lot”;

still

far

and on the

rela-

from reconciled,

live to see these different

Unified Theory

596

worlds amalgamating. But feeling that

I

in a

amuses

it

Time Out

me

to

watch them both, without

belong to the one or the other.” 10

he would occasionally get

Inevitably,

and become involved in January 1926 in

Paris,

tired of diplomatic suavity

One

fierce quarrels.

when an

When

such occasion was in

“Institute for Intellectual

tion” was established in order to provide a

commission.

of Joint

permanent base

Fascist Italy intended to delegate

education, Alfredo Rocco, to the committee of the stein insisted that

its

education, which the

even wanted to stand

new

institute,

as a

will

Ein-

individuals.

with the Fascist minister of

a “wild struggle

man

for the

minister of

its

members should be independent

Proudly Einstein reported

Coopera-

remember

as

long

he

as

lives.” 11

He

candidate against Rocco; but he was unable

to prevent Rocco’s election to the committee, because Mussolini

threatened to walk out of the League of Nations.

Even apart from

this incident Einstein

had no

illusions

about the

—unlike 1923, when he had demonstratively resigned from the commission — he praised the League of Nations “the only League. But

now

as

we have, and while we should not of it, we have no right to deny it our

great instrument for peace that

hold back with our criticism cooperation.” 12

In 1927 Einstein supplemented his League of Nations

membership

in a “consultative

committee of

work with

intellectual

workers”

under the International Labor Office in Geneva. But meanwhile he continued to be involved in something

have regarded

more

—not exclusively but predominantly

of equipment. As

many

is

mind might

a military piece

of his friends have recorded with astonish-

ment, however, Einstein possessed “the curious thing that

sensitive

incompatible with those efforts for peace. This was

as

the gyrocompass

a

gift

of shaking off any-

disagreeable to him, just like the water off a duck’s

back.” 13

Immediately sion, Einstein

went

after the sessions of the

League of Nations Commis-

had spent the whole of August 1925

in Kiel,

where he

sailing with his

son Hans Albert while supervising the gyro-

To

Anschutz he “could not be grateful enough for

compass program.

the wonderful hiding place

you have created

for

me

in Kiel.” 14 In

Politics, Patents, Sickness,

and

October 1926, when Einstein again looked

on board

tests

ority of the

a

to

on the Anschiitz

factory,

Anschutz compass over the older three-gimbal system, so

were being made

The

for serial production.

was mainly the navy that showed

seem

in

597

torpedo boat of the Reich navy had proved the superi-

that preparations it

"Wonderful Egg”

a

fact that

interest in the instrument did not

bother the pacifist Einstein any more than

bothered

it

Anschutz.

Although Anschutz had remunerated Einstein generously

gyrocompass project was now contrac-

years, Einstein’s share in the

he was to receive three percent of the

tual:

sales price

ment, and three percent of any revenues from

was not with the Kiel distribution

company founded by Anschutz

of each instru-

licenses. 15

proved so superior to

ment

for

Even the test

them

— and

British Sea

other systems that

for

many

it

it

became standard equip-

other navies, including the Japanese.

Lords and the U.S. Navy were impressed by the

tions both eventually decided firm’s chronicle recorded:

trend, and

articles.

In tests by the French and Italian navies,

all

a

German navy was being equipped

samples they had bought, although after weighing

upward

contract

primarily to evade the ban

imposed by the treaty of Versailles on exports of military the small

The

Dutch firm Giro,

firm, though, but with the

From 1927 onward, with the new compass.

in earlier

all

considera-

on domestic manufacturers. Proudly, the

“We

were

when World War

at the

II

beginning of

a

strong

broke out, the warships of

navies of any importance, except the Anglo-Saxon ones,

went

all

to sea

with Anschutz gyrocompasses.” 16 Einstein also benefited,

if

only modestly and temporarily, from

this

From 1928 onward his share was transferred to him Koopmansbank in Amsterdam: initially just under $300 a

development.

from the year,

and

1939, the Einstein,

later first

$700

to

year of

by then

$800

—not vast wealth,

World War

II,

in Princeton, sent a

the

but useful sums. In

money

reminder

did not arrive, and

in

January 1940.

He

was, however, informed that Giro had been in liquidation since 193 8. 17

The

parent firm in Kiel, whose owner had died in 1931, no longer

needed

a

Dutch branch

to

circumvent armaments controls. Einstein,

no longer receiving any payments from the German Reich, was

at least

spared any disquieting thoughts on the propriety of earning royalties

Unified Theory

598

from

device which guided

a

in a

Time Out of Joint

German U-boats and Japanese

aircraft

carriers.

No

sooner had the gyrocompass reached the stage of production than

Einstein turned to another entirely practical problem: the “perfect” in particular, the silent

the Einsteins

strasse

—

home on Haberland-

refrigerator. In their

still

used an old-fashioned icebox, possibly

because in electric refrigerators the motor and compressor both

made

of noise and because the coolant, which often leaked, was not

a lot

entirely safe.

young

Working with Leo

physicist

who had come

Szilard

—

brilliant

a

and

from Budapest and estab-

to Berlin

—Einstein

designed an

lished himself as a Dozent at the university original cally.

A

moved

pump which was

versatile

driven not mechanically but electromagneti-

liquid metal (sodium, potassium, or a mixture of the two)

to and fro in a tube

which thus functions

by an alternating electromagnetic

like a piston.

The

coolant

is

is

field,

by periodic

liquefied

decompression, and the consequent evaporation produces the desired

This elegantly conceived

cold.

moreover, In first

pump would

be inherently tight and,

silent.

November 1927

Szilard

and Einstein jointly applied for their

patent for a novel refrigerator; 18 this was followed over the next

two years by seven more patents, which concerned either

details

of the

induction motor or ever-new variants to protect the original patent. 19

The

basic idea

was

also registered in the

United

in the Netherlands, as well as at Einstein’s

States, in Britain,

and

former place of employ-

ment, the Patent Office in Bern, where his friend Michele Besso concerned himself with some “editorial criticism.” 20 Szilard meanwhile, at the research laboratory of AEG, after the realization

Not state

only did the

was looking

of this elegant idea. That cannot have been easy.

alkali

metals have to be kept in

a

permanent

liquid

through high temperatures; they were also highly reactive and

corrosive,

and therefore

difficult to handle.

Although prototypes were

constructed, 21 they did not lead to a marketable product.

The

engi-

neering was too demanding, and the market during the Great Depression was too unfavorable.

were now quieter and

Above

all,

conventional electric refrigerators

safer, so that there

was no further need

for an

and

Politics, Patents, Sickness,

a

“Wonderful Egg”

two inventors had been hoping to make

alternative. If the

They seem

they were disappointed.

599

a

fortune

to have received only small fees

from AEG. 22 until

much

pump

—not

Not Szilard

later did

an application emerge for the Einstein-

in refrigerators but in nuclear reactors.

suggestion, the electromagnetic

expense after

World War

II for

pump was

developed

At

Szilard’s

considerable

at

use in metal-cooled breeder reactors

and melted sodium reactors, though again without great success.

In 1926, Einstein’s

him

together gave

appointment. “As trial

work

a result

my

who had been

League of Nations work and for

a justification

matters in which

cannot keep up

at the

I

ending his favorite

got involved

I

have so

little

with lar

a

waiting in vain for a

more prolonged

stay

become too

and so he proposed that it

its

jocu-

‘Quite simply, Einstein becomes our emeritus pro-

Leyden.” 24 However, Einstein

actually earned

infertile

and came up

their heads together

This means: henceforward he

fessor.’

I

by Einstein,

wise decision which Ehrenfest conveyed to Einstein “in “

that

left

justified.” 23

Leyden put

professors at

formulation”:

duties,

time

position in Leyden,” he confessed to Ehrenfest,

appointment to appear

The

scientific

of the League of Nations and several indus-

the visiting professor. Einstein added: “I have also for this

his patents

by

felt

is

no longer expected

to

come

to

too young for a pension without

his salary

his presence in

be paid to him only

Leyden; otherwise,

it

if

he had

should be

“used for the benefit of the institute or of young physicists.” 25 This proposal, Ehrenfest

felt certain,

would “be received by

all

concerned

The benefit fund must have grown to a Einstein made frequent private visits and once, in

with great jubilation.” 26 respectable size.

February 1928, came

Academy

for a

commemoration of H.

age of seventy-five. But he fessor,

of the Prussian

as the official representative

A. Lorentz,

made only

who had

died at the

a single stay as a visiting

pro-

over several weeks in 1930.

Needless to

say,

Leyden was not the only place

Einstein: invitations

learned

how

were arriving

to decline,

in vast

that

was interested

in

numbers. But by then he had

and sometimes he even gave

free rein to his

600

Unified Theory

impish moods.

When it was

in a

Time Out

of Joint

suggested that he might participate in the

musical inauguration of the First International Congress for Sexual

Research by taking on one of the two violin parts in Brahms’s string sextet (Op. 18),

he replied: “Unfortunately

the strength of either

my

sexual or

my

don’t feel in a position, on

I

musical capacities, to comply

with your kind invitation.” 27

Most of the time he support an event

expressed his regrets with less humor. Asked to

at the Berlin

People’s Observatory in

he grumbled: “Can you believe that as a

I

bellwether with a halo. So count

Treptow

am tired of figuring me out.” 28 When he

Park,

everywhere received an

from Reich Chancellor Wilhelm Marx, Einstein did not

invitation

even decline in person but had his secretary write respectfully”

— “that

—admittedly, “most

Herr Professor Einstein unfortunately cannot

comply with the Herr Reich Chancellor’s

invitation for

Nov. 30

as

he

has a previous engagement for that evening.” 29 Perhaps he did not particularly like

managed

Marx,

to keep

a Catholic

Center

politician;

unwelcome interruptions

Soon, however, there came an enforced

now

but anyway he

arm’s length.

at

rest,

because of

a serious

ill-

March 1928 he had, as on a few earlier occasions, accepted an invitation from Wilhelm Meinhardt, the chairman of the board of ness. In

Osram, who had

a chalet at

Zuoz

in the Swiss Engadine. Einstein

bined duty and pleasure by delivering the inaugural address versity classes in

Davos

(also in Switzerland).

com-

at the uni-

These were intended

to

promote understanding by bringing together teachers and students from several nations. This event, the place

on March

18,

192 8. 30

To

first

congress of

its

kind, took

help fund this nonprofit enterprise

Einstein even agreed to be the violinist in a spontaneously formed string trio. 31 in

However, from what was planned

as a restful

recuperation

an Alpine winter landscape, Einstein returned to Berlin gravely

During

that time he had

one of

his

courtroom assignments

expert witness, this time in a patent suit between

before the Reich Court.

He went

by

AEG

sick.

as

an

and Siemens

train to Leipzig, submitted his

expert opinion, and at once returned to the Engadine. Arriving in

Zuoz

at night,

he trudged uphill through deep snow for several hun-

dred yards to the Meinhardt chalet, carrying

a

heavy bag. 32 This effort

Politics, Patents, Sickness,

and

"Wonderful Egg”

a

601

no doubt aggravated by years of

led to a dramatic circulatory collapse,

neglecting his health. His friend Zangger was urgently contacted, and he, as Einstein later gratefully acknowledged, “devotedly cared for

corpse

” 33

my

The when the

and arranged for careful transportation to Berlin.

patient described

what he had

danger was over: “But

I

felt like

on

that journey only

was close to croaking, which of course one

shouldn’t put off unduly .” 34

His treatment in Berlin was taken over by Janos Plesch, able physician with the patients the

title

way some people

falling sick, Einstein

who

of professor,

a fashion-

collected prominent

collect postage stamps.

Even before

had been Plesch’s most precious trophy

at his

opulent stag parties, along with Fritz Haber, the pianist Artur Schnabel, the violinist Fritz Kreisler,

The the

and the diplomat Count Rantzau

and wines served

exquisite food

menus designed by another

35 .

at these parties are reflected in

guest, the artist

Max

Slevogt.

Einstein’s medical friends, the respectable professors Moritz Katz-

enstein and Rudolf

Ehrmann, were

annoyed that he should

clearly

have entrusted himself, in his condition, to such

“Ehrmann stein all,

absolutely rejects Plesch, mainly

informed Zangger, but he defended

one

toward

isn’t all

a flashy practitioner.

on human grounds,” Ein-

his choice of a doctor: “After

such an unblemished angel oneself; therefore indulgence

other

little

pigs .” 36

Einstein was a very obedient patient, but not because of any confi-

dence in Plesch’s medical entist Einstein

skill.

On the

contrary, as an experienced sci-

informed Plesch that he “had always been convinced

that our necessarily primitive thinking

must inevitably prove inade-

quate to something as complex as a living organism, and that only patience and resignation, along with a healthy sense of indifference to one’s

He

certainly

bulletins

from

own

existence, can help at

needed these

his sickbed

qualities,

my heart,

rather troublesome. Plesch has

accumulation of

and see

if

Plesch

fluid in the is

all .” 37

because for

many weeks

now

really

despite ten weeks in bed,

is still

“I

diagnosed pericarditis, with an

pericardium.

.

.

.

We’ll wait for the result

right .” 38 In addition to strict

scribed a salt-free diet and diuretics

the

was

continued to be depressing.

feeling rather lousy, because

humor and

bed

rest,

Plesch pre-

—treatments which took time. Not

Unified Theory

602 until the

summer was

in a

Time Out of Joint

Einstein sufficiently recovered to continue his

convalescence on the Baltic.

He

where he had some-

did not return to the island of Hiddenses,

times gone in previous years, and where Berlin’s fashionable

often in the nude. Instead, he rented a

gentsia enjoyed the simple

life,

house in Scharbeutz, then

a sleepy little vacation place

Liibeck. trees

“Here

I

am

been on the

he wrote on

Baltic for

a postcard to Ehrenfest.

some months now, and

strengthening again. Only here have tence one leads in the city and solitude. It

is

realized

I

how happy one

my

“much

Spinoza’s letters with

pleasure”:

“We

have

vital spirits are

what an

idiotic exis-

can be in quietude and

He

wonderful for contemplation .” 40

also

on the bay of

forced to just laze about under splendid beech

Baltic ,” 39

on the

intelli-

“He knew

was reading

the liberating effect

of rural remoteness .” 41

But

his health continued to fluctuate. “I

he rejoiced worse:

after his arrival,

“My

heart

just before

is still

am

a lot better already ,” 42

but in September things again looked

rather slack .” 43 His wife’s worried assessment

their return

to

Berlin was:

“My husband

has gained

strength. But he has not recovered his former freshness and vigor.

He will have

.

.

.

to content himself with living at a very leisurely pace .” 44

This, however, would not have been to his taste. Besides, he had

plunged into an exciting line

now

with

a decision

scientific adventure, a

new

unified theory, in

he had made under the beeches of Scharbeutz:

“I

believe less than ever in the essentially statistical nature of events,

and have decided to use what

my own predilection,

little

energy

my

sickness

I

have

area of general relativity,” he jubilantly still

sick in bed.

viable and of long

“Whether the

life is still

new mathematics, not

as

laid a

bird hatching

itself

me .” 46 He

radical sacrifices.

from

it

will

Meanwhile

I

be

am

had thought up

a

but as part of his great objec-

unified theory of gravity and electricity.

was prepared to make

wonderful egg in the

in the lap of the gods.

an end in

me .” 45

announced toward the end of

blessing the sickness that has thus favored

tive, a

accordance with

regardless of the present bustle around

“In the tranquillity of

May, while

me in

is left

His

To

reach that goal he

earlier attempts

had been

designed so that the general theory of relativity was contained within

Politics, Patents, Sickness,

and

a

"Wonderful Egg”

the unified theory, or could be derived from

When

this criterion.

that

some

it,

but he

he believed the “bird” to be

substantial aspects of his finest theory

now

viable,

603

discarded

he declared

“must be consigned

to

the junk room, despite their successes.” 47

As Einstein was feeling too weak to attend the meetings of the

Max

Prussian Academy,

Planck submitted two papers on

his behalf: a

purely mathematical prelude on June 7 and the physical application

a

later. 48

week

Einstein’s mathematical innovation

geometry and

was an amalgam of Riemann’s

limiting case, Euclidian geometry. In Euclidian

its

geometry the concept of parallelism Riemann’s “warped” geometry

now had

distances. Einstein

it

is

defined for

distances, but in

all

makes sense only

for infinitely small

succeeded in implanting what he called

“distant parallelism” into Riemann’s geometry; this

compare the directions of finite

line

made

it

possible to

elements in curved space. 49

In this space-time continuum with distant parallelism, Einstein

obtained

new

kinds of tensors and invariants, from which he was able

to construct physical concepts; but he did not yet succeed in deriving

from

terms equations which corresponded to those for

his involved

electromagnetic to Scharbeutz

cover

a

fields

on the

and for

gravity.

Baltic in the

With

these problems, he

summer, and only there did he

dis-

promising way of deriving the equations he needed.

Back

in Berlin in the

fall,

there was a lot of work to be done before,

around the turn of the year, he was once more euphoric: “But the that

went

which

the nights,

name of

I is

pondered about and calculated nearly

now

all

ready before me, compressed into

‘unified field theory.’

colleagues will ... at

the days and half

7

pages under the

This looks old-fashioned, and

first stick

Because in these equations there

best,

my

dear

their tongues out as far as they can. is

no Planck’s

h.

But when they have

clearly reached the limits of their statistical mania, they will remorsefully return to the

space-time idea and then the equations will provide

50 a starting point.”

“He

Elsa shared his enthusiasm in an abridged form:

has lately worked magnificently and solved the problem which

has been his

On

life’s

January

again by

Max

dream

10,

it

to solve.” 51

1929, the paper was submitted to the academy,

Planck, because Einstein had every reason to avoid the

Unified Theory

604

in a

Time Out

of Joint

attention of the press. Strange things had been appearing in the newspapers, even

more

bizarre than anything that had

been reported

during the excitement over relativity after the confirmation of the deflection of light.

It

began with

November

4,

a report

from Berlin carried

in

New

The

on Verge of Great

1928, under the headline “Einstein

Discovery; Resents Intrusion.”

Whether

York Times on

the source of the story had

been Einstein himself or gossip among

acquaintances remains

his

uncertain; at any rate, though, he had learned his lesson.

Ten

days

New Work,

Will

Not

later the headline

was “Einstein Reticent on

‘Count Unlaid Eggs.’

academy on January

” 52

When

10, there

Planck presented the paper to the

was no end to the amazement that what

was popularly called the “riddle of the universe” might have been solved by Einstein in so few pages.

The

Prussian state ministry, con-

fused by the fuss in the newspapers, asked the tive

academy

for “authorita-

information” but was told that the academy was not in the habit of

commenting on

scientific

papers submitted to

grams demanding information arrived from

hundred curious

its

meetings. 53 Tele-

over the world, and a

all

—but they were

academy

journalists besieged the

told to wait for the routine publication of the paper

Wisely, the printing was set for the unusual

on January

He

had established himself comfortably

country residence,

a large

30.

number of a thousand.

During the weeks of tense anticipation Einstein was nowhere found.

all

at

to be

Janos Plesch’s

property on the west bank of the Plavel

Gatow, which Plesch had purchased from

at

manufacturer of shoe

a rich

polish. s4 In addition to the impressive villa (after

the residence of the British city later stayed there

pavilion,

during her

where Einstein could

World War II it was commandant, and Queen Elizabeth II

visits to Berlin),

live

there was also a neat

whenever he chose. There he was

own throughout the winter, cooking for himself— “like the hermits of old. And to one’s surprise one notices how delightfully long the day is and how unnecessary a large part of all that busy and idle on

his

activity.” 55

That stein’s

activity

article

peaked on January 30.

were instantly sold

out.

The thousand

New

copies of Ein-

printings were hastily

— Politics, Patents, Sickness,

made

—three

of them, at

and

"Wonderful Egg”

a

thousand copies each,

a

record for the

a

academy’s Proceedings. This had nothing to do with the

window of

London department

a

scientific

Eddington reported that one copy had fetched up

interest of the paper. in the

605

store, all six

pages pasted up

next to each other, with “big crowds of people pushing forward to read it.” 56

On

February

the

1

New

of Einstein’s paper on the

comprehensible to the account of

York Herald Tribune printed

last

page of

section.

More

new theory itself, no

readers than the

its

its first

a translation

readily

doubt, was

transmission by telex, which was described as a great

its

achievement. Because telex channels were restricted to

technical

sequences of numbers and

letters,

the Tribune' s Berlin correspondent

had arranged with some physicists of Columbia University

to

encode

the formulas. Einstein’s text, complete with the coded equations, was

keyed into the machine, in Berlin, and then the experts in

New

York

decoded the chains of symbols and reconstructed the formulas

one can judge.

correctly, as far as

Einstein could not understand the hullabaloo, and indeed got angry

any of

if

his friends

became involved

in

Hans Reichenbach, who had reported on Vossische

it

—such

as the

“Einstein’s

philospher

New Theory”

in

Zeitung on January 25. 57 Meanwhile Einstein was himself

writing a popular

article,

though not for the German papers.

appeared in the Sunday edition of The

New

York Times on February

1929, and the following day in The Times of London. 58

was partly due to

No

doubt

attractive fees, but also partly to Einstein’s

relaxed attitude toward any fuss

made

It 3,

this

more

across the water.

Before the publication of his paper, Einstein had given his only

new theory

interview on his Its

to an English paper, the Daily Chronicle.

readers thus learned firsthand:

moves electrons

the force which

atoms

is

the

make

the

is

life

more than premature.

We

upon

teapot

—

it

was

just a little

this planet.” 59

do not “know”

time, viewed dispassionately, the a

in its annual course

same force which brings

possible

that

about the nuclei of

in their ellipses

same force which moves our earth

about the sun, and heat which

“Now, but only now, we know

to us the light and

This statement was

to this day; and even at the

new theory was not even

breeze that soon died down.

a

tempest in

606

Unified Theory

in a

Time Out

of Joint

In his unified field theory Einstein had developed a set of equations

which he was convinced correctly described the electromagnetic and gravitational fields.

knowledge but

However, any connection not only with empirical

theory of relativity, was

something for the distant

still

thorough examination of the

Riemann metric

the

own

also with accepted theory, including his

future:

“A more

show whether

equations will have to

field

general

in conjunction with distant parallelism really

supplies an adequate interpretation of the physical qualities of space.” 60

In the ficulties:

fall

of 1929, he believed he had dealt with the remaining dif-

“The

latest results are so beautiful that I

dence in having found the natural

But he

field

completed the marvelous theory, to the

my

December

lively mistrust

colleagues in the field.” 62 This was

when he submitted

12,

a variety.” 61

equations of such

he was alone in that confidence:

also realized that

rejection of

have every confi-

“I

have

now

and passionate

still

the case on

the “beautiful results” to the

academy. 63 In 1925,

when

Einstein

attempted

first

“affine connections,” his colleagues

tion

—regarded

— according

his “objective as attainable

This time, they reacted

first

a unified

to Born’s recollec-

and highly important.” 64

and then

skeptically

theory based on

—not only

critically

because Planck’s quantum of effect was missing but also because Einstein

was abandoning several achievements of the general theory of

relativity.

Wolfgang

Pauli,

whom

Ehrenfest called the “scourge of

God” because

of his sharp tongue, lived up to this

Einstein. Pauli

reminded Einstein of his own interpretation of the pre-

title

in a letter to

cession of Mercury’s perihelion and of the deflection of light by the sun: “All this

would seem

to be lost in

general theory of relativity. But

I

your extensive demolition of the

stick to that fine theory,

being betrayed by you. With your remark that you are

even

still

far

if it is

from

being able to assert the physical validity of the derived equations you

have in effect silenced your to

them now

is

critics

to congratulate

among

you

(or

the physicists! All that

had

I

is left

better say: express their

condolences?) on your having gone over to the pure mathematicians.”

The

letter

continued in

this tone,

and Pauli concluded by betting Ein-

stein that “within a year, if not before,

you

will

have given up that

Politics, Patents, Sickness,

whole

and

a

distant parallelism, just as earlier

"Wonderful Egg”

607

on you gave up the

affine

theory.” 65

Einstein thought this forceful letter “quite amusing

Avoiding

superficial.”

all

a

man who

is

certain that he

unity of natural forces from the correct viewpoint

you

did. I don’t

maintain

the correct one. But

at all that the

road

do maintain that

I

natural road that has so far

come

to

my

.

.

is

is

said,

had

justified to

entitled to write as

have taken

I

intellectually

is

judge them dismissively.

come down from

And

opinion.

months have

the

when,

up

in

you

most

the

it is

.

moon and

it is

by no

Forget what you have

.

still

a

mind

as if

had to form

it

you

a fresh

until at least three

elapsed.” 66

would have

wrong but because of his time

all,

.

then' don’t say anything about

Incidentally, Pauli

to give

necessarily

knowledge. Until the mathe-

and immerse yourself in the problem with such just

a little

viewing the

matical consequences have been correctly thought through

means

but

he reproved Pauli with

specific questions,

Olympian kindness: “Only

.

lost his bet

limit. It actually

his distant parallelism.

—not because

he was

took Einstein two years

He made no

excuses for himself

January 1932, he admitted to Pauli: “So you were right

rascal.” 67

after

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO Public and Private Affairs

Public excitement over

merged smoothly

March

.

The newspapers

14.

on

into the excitement over his fiftieth birthday,

published enthusiastic tributes from

These included the communists

sides. .

Einstein’s unified theory in January 1929

—the “revolutionary

all

proletariat

salutes the great revolutionary of the natural sciences as a fellow

.

fighter against the dark forces of ignorance, barbarism

tion”

1

— and

the popular bourgeois writer Emil Ludwig,

“He

claimed:

is

and reac-

who

pro-

magician and what hangs about him seems

like a

magic .” 2

There was even copies, containing this

a

in a limited edition of eight

hundred

some of the doggerel Einstein was fond of writing;

a vignette of Einstein’s portrait,

Isenstein, a sculptor, in bronze.

tion and

Tower

—

as

It

was

designed by Harald

also created a portrait bust of him, cast

C. H. Becker, the minister of culture, informed Einstein

as “a lasting

On his birthday, at his

who had

3 .

This bust was purchased by the Prussian Ministry of Educa-

“state telegram”

was

volume

was published by the Society of Friends of the Jewish Book

adorned with

by

slim

on

—was to be erected

his birthday

at the Einstein

symbol of your great achievements .” 4 however, Einstein had disappeared. Once again he

comfortable hideout in Plesch’s pavilion.

He had

left to

Elsa

the task of receiving well-wishers and dealing with basketfuls of mail, telegrams, and presents.

from the Berlin

city

There were countless

government which

the millennia be listed

among

one

name “would

over

said that his

those immortals

608

eulogies, like the

upon whose

scientific

Public and Private Affairs

mankind has of the universe

discoveries rests the concept that

rounding

He

it .”

thanked most of his well-wishers with verses

—which he seemed

easily than his formulas.

—copied photo-

to be able to shake out of his sleeve

To

who had

his colleagues,

missed him

weekly Colloquia, he added: “Relying on the saying that you

at the

can’t keep a

may hope

weed down,

I

have slowly recovered to the point where

to take part again in our

Among

his personal letters of thanks, the

“happy one.” Einstein asked Freud:

my case?

You,

who

most interesting

the

many

comedy of

errors.

is

the

for being a

“Why do you emphasize happiness

got into the skin of so

of humanity, have had no opportunity to

Among

I

Wednesday mysteries .” 6

one to Sigmund Freud, who had congratulated Einstein

in

sur-

5

graphically

more

609

many

slip into

people, and indeed

mine .” 7

presents was one which gave rise to a grotesque

The

well-connected Janos Plesch

quainted with Gustav Boss, the mayor of Berlin

—who

was

ac-

—had suggested that

the city of Berlin might give Einstein great pleasure by the gift of a

house on the water. Plesch,

as

he himself pointed out, had acted

“behind Einstein’s back .” 8 Boss, however, approval.

He

first

made

sure of Einstein’s

then got the approval of the city government, and he

even believed he knew the exact property, presumably again through Plesch.

Near

chased the

Plesch’s country residence the city had recently pur-

Neu Cladow estate on

the Havel, with a small chateau and a

large park. In the park, near the riverbank,

was an elegant “nobleman’s

residence,” and this jewel was to be given to Einstein. Although Einstein

would not

actually

own

it,

he would have

dence. This was a generous birthday present

a lifelong right

—and

of resi-

an unusual one,

without precedent in republican Berlin.

But when Elsa turned up to inspect the property, she was informed

by an

aristocratic

gentleman that “she had no business on the

The gentleman was

entirely right:

when

the previous owners sold the

property they had, in the contract, reserved for themselves right of residence.

which

it

The

may have owned

city,

therefore,

but which

it

estate .” 9

a

long-term

had given away something

had no right to dispose

of.

An

610

Unified Theory

alternative

would be

in a

was proposed, by which

Time Out of Joint grounds

a substantial part of the

sliced off the estate, but this too failed in the face of the

contract.

While the newspapers were publishing

sarcastic

commentaries on

public incompetence, other properties were hurriedly proposed,

them

unsuitable.

estate,

One was

situated behind the stables of the

had no access to the water, and,

and

flies.” 10

Another was next to

a terminal

direction with noisy screeching. Eventually stein should find a plot of land himself,

present to it

him

of

Gatow

as the journalists quickly dis-

moment because

covered, “cannot be used at the

all

of a plague of midges

where it

streetcars reversed

was suggested that Ein-

which the

city

—but that he would then have to have

would buy and

a

house

built

on

and pay for that himself.

The newspapers sequence

it

came

got hold of this compromise proposal, and in con-

knowledge of some acquaintances of Ein-

to the

stein’s, a

family called Stern,

Potsdam

at the

who

lived in

Caputh,

south of

a village

meeting point of Lakes Templin and Schwielow.

Sterns were prepared to

sell

The

Einstein an unused part of their property,

about one-third of an acre, on Waldstrasse. This was three minutes’

walk from the water, but forest,

it

was on

edge of the

a slight elevation at the

with a distant view of the Brandenburg lake scenery. Einstein

knew Caputh from Meanwhile, the entitled to give

sailing,

city

away

and he was agreeable.

government had discovered that

a right of residence,

it

was perhaps

but not to make

a

purchase

followed by a donation. In order to meet the budget requirements, therefore, a proposal was

made

at the city deputies’

24 that “for the purpose of the donation of gift to

a

property in Caputh

honor Prof. Einstein on the occasion of

approximately 20,000 marks be the land acquisition fund.” 11 As

the political arena, and there

it

made

available

a result,

meeting on April as a

his fiftieth birthday,

from the resources of

the project had

moved

into

got stuck.

After Einstein had already applied to the Prussian Forestry

Admin-

istration for the purchase of an adjoining strip of land, in order to

round off the property to be given him

as a gift,

and indeed had sub-

mitted his building plans for the house in Caputh, the

German

Nationalist opposition in the city parliament exploited the situation to

Public and Private Affairs attack the Social-Democrat majority, insisted

a

announced under

14, the Berliner Tageblatt

“Public Disgrace Complete

The

on

1

debate from which

would be excluded, and delayed the decision

the public

May

61

a

—

on

until,

banner headline

—Einstein Declines.” on matters concerning Ein-

Tageblatt usually well informed ,

reported that in a letter to the mayor of Berlin, Einstein had

stein,

“with gentle sarcasm pointed out that the affair of this gift to honor

man

for

him now

possible that Einstein had meanwhile

realized that the gift of a plot of land

republic, especially for a

was much too short and that

him had gone on too long

it.” 12 It is

to be able to accept

life

with

would seem rather strange

The

socialist leanings.

in a

plan was

strongly reminiscent of gifts of land by emperors and kings, even

though

it

was on

a

considerably

more modest

scale than, for instance,

Bismarck’s estate, Sachsenwald. At any rate, Einstein decided to build his

house on

mind on

a plot paid for

by himself, and he refused

change

his

this point.

During the search

for a plot, a

young

architect,

had attached himself to Einstein, hoping to

Wachsmann was employed by

fame.

to

a

Konrad Wachsmann,

profit

from

his client’s

timber construction firm in the

Lausitz region; on the basis of its prefabrication methods he designed a

country house with clean style.

but

13

it

somewhat suggesting the Bauhaus

lines,

Except for the foundations,

it

was to be

built entirely of

wood,

was to be winter-proof and equipped with central heating.

While

was being

it

Caputh, in

a

Einsteins spent their

first

summer

in

rented and very sparsely furnished old house in an over-

grown garden by the Einstein’s

built, the

most

of his friends.

water, with

its

own mooring. Tied up

beautiful birthday present, paid for jointly

It

(Porpoise), a fine,

was

a

to

by

it

was

group

a

215-square-foot dinghy cruiser, the Tiimmler

comfortable mahogany-fitted vessel “given to

me by

high finance.” 14 While Elsa, supervising the construction of the house,

was getting on the

architect’s

and the workers’ nerves, Einstein

enjoyed himself sailing on the Havel lakes and pondering the unified theory.

Rural

improving:

almost

life

“My

pleased

him enormously, and

heart isn’t bothering

as before.” 15 In

me

his

anymore, so that

August he even traveled to Zurich

was

health

for a

I

feel

week

Unified Theory

612

Time Out of Joint

in a

—

for the

World

fallen

eighteen months previously.

ill

Zionist Congress

his first

moved

In September 1929 the Einsteins

described

it

large living

“very

as

artistic,

major

he had

into their house. Elsa

very modern! Only four bedrooms, a very7

room, maid’s room, and bathroom. The most modern cen-

heating system and hot water in every corner.” 16 This modernity,

tral

however, did not extend to the furnishings. suaded the famous Bauhaus ture a

trip since

—

at a special price,

good advertisement

artist

Wachsmann had

Marcel Breuer to design the furni-

of course, since such a famous client would be

for the Bauhaus.

But when Einstein saw some of

the designs, he protested that he was “not going to

me

continually reminds

had to watch

a

number of

his creation

idea; instead,

at a

into the house

time

on furniture

Wachsmann

elegant and efficient fittings

when much of the

Einsteins’ savings

—although naturally only from the account

disharmony in the interior decoration. In

had the conservative

—who —now

on Haberlandstrasse. This

tastes

artistic

had gone in Berlin,

not from accounts abroad. Besides, Einstein was not in the ried about

that

being completed by whatever pieces of furni-

ture could be spared from the apartment

reduced costs

sit

of a machine shop or a hospital operating

room.” 17 So nothing came of that

was responsible for

per-

least

wor-

matters he

of any average middle-class person; the

avant-garde had never appealed to him.

Once they had moved resented exceeded

all

in, his

new property and

the lifestyle

I

am

broke

rep-

new

little

as a result.

The

his expectations: “I like living in the

wooden house enormously. Even though

it

sailing boat, the distant view, the solitary fall walks, the relative quiet; it is

a paradise.” 18 Ele left his refuge

Prussian Academy, and

evening

I

now and

must radio Edison

only for some meetings of the

then for some public occasion: “This

direct to

America on

his birthday

—

beanfeast for the journalists. I’m going to Berlin specially.” 19

The

official

reason for Einstein’s trip to Paris was that he was being

awarded an honorary doctoral degree by the Sorbonne. The situation had changed since his last visit eight years previously. There were no

more

political

dated at the

problems; Einstein did not even mind being

German embassy

accommo-

in the splendid Palais Beauharnais

Public and Private Affairs

which made him something of

On

Republic.

to physicists less to say

a

613

representative

the day after his arrival he gave the

and mathematicians

about his

met with Maurice

new

at the Institut

Weimar

of the

first

of two lectures

Henri Poincare, need-

unified field theory; 20 and in the evening he

Solovine, his old friend from his days in Bern.

On November

9

came the solemn inauguration of the new

when traditionally the honorary German ambassador reported, Einstein

semester in the Aula of the Sorbonne, degrees were presented. As the

“was honored by ovations lasting several minutes, which clearly characterized his rank with regard to the other honorary doctors, as well as

The

the unique esteem he enjoys in the French world of science.” 21

solemn ceremony

at the

Sorbonne was followed by meetings of the

Societe Frangaise de Philosophic and the Academie des Sciences.

“Everywhere he was met with the greatest warmth and the most natural respect, and a conversation with as a great

honor.” 22 Apart from the

him was

official

events there were conversa-

and Paul Fangevin,

tions with Eouis de Broglie

universally regarded

maticians Elie Cartan and Jacques Hadamard.

as well as the

mathe-

Only Marie Curie was

missing: she was in America.

The newspapers had

already reported that Einstein would be

accepted into the Academie des Sciences as an

circumstances during his

there

visits

all

associe

etranger

,

and

suggested that this was in-

tended. 23 Einstein, however, objected to the fact that his friend Paul

Langevin had

still

not been elected. Langevin had long been

of the Royal Society and of

he had succeeded Lorentz Solvay and hence

many

other learned societies; and recently

of the Institut Physique de

as president

as the chief

a fellow

organizer of European physics.

Out of

loyalty to Langevin, then, Einstein initially declined this honor: “It to

me

not

a

would be exceedingly painful revered friend Langevin

is

to be elected to this

member

understand the feeling that motivates

The week’s visit ended with German ambassador, to which had been derful,

ego can

invited.

Back in

even though still

it

a

me

of

it.

I

am

body while sure

will

in this request.” 24

formal dinner at the residence of the

the cream of the French intelligentsia

Berlin, Einstein

found

his stay in Paris

“won-

my

shaky

represented the extreme stress that

stand up to.” 25

you

my

Months

later

he

still

recalled “the beautiful

614

Unified Theory

days in Paris, though

I

am

in a

Time Out

happier with

my

of Joint

relatively quiet existence

here.” 26

In April 1930 Einstein

moved back to

his

house in the country, accom-

panied by his wife and the indispensable maid.

Helen Dukas, came over from

tary,

Now and

again a secre-

had been keeping

Berlin; she

Einstein’s papers and correspondence in order since April 1928 and

had almost become

a

member

of the family. Helen Dukas, like Elsa,

had been born in Hechingen; and Elsa had personally selected

young woman and had made

The

sure she was reliable in every respect.

family also included Elsa’s daughters,

who had

husband, Rudolf Kayser,

Caputh and thus were

Then

their

able to spend

Margot and

own rooms

Ilse,

in the

weeks and even months

and Use’s house

at

there.

there was Dr. Walther Mayer, called “the calculator,” a

mathematician from Vienna and the author of geometry,

this

a

book on

whom Einstein had brought to Berlin as his

differential

assistant

toward

the end of 1929. Their collaboration started promisingly and produced a joint

paper 27 submitted to the Prussian Academy. Einstein greatly

appreciated Mayer, describing

him

have long had

he were not

in

Caputh

To

a professorship if

off and

Berliners,

on

—not

as “a splendid fellow

in Einstein’s

Caputh was

a

Jew.” 28 Mayer also lived

house but nearby. back of beyond”

really “at the

reached by train to Potsdam and from there by bus

— and

who would

a

—

it

was

rather infrequent

Einstein did not even have a telephone installed there.

summer while the house The happy homeowner had been

Nevertheless, the quiet rustic existence of the

was being

built did

not

last

long.

rather too generous with his invitations, and everyone came: his sister

Maja, his son Eduard, other

relatives, friends, fellow physicists

from

Berlin and abroad, and a parade of prominent figures, from the cele-

brated poet Gerhart

Hauptmann

to the

famous Indian poet and

philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, an apostle of the mystical wisdom of the East.

Tagore, then on

a

world tour, did not want to miss visiting Ein-

stein,

but the villagers of Caputh must have been surprised to see him

arrive

—on July

14,

1930

—

in a flowing

gown and with

a large en-

Public and Private Affairs tourage.

The

down what

stein’s terrace.

Einstein’s

and

A few weeks

fruit

his host later, it

from the

busily wrote

had to say to each other on Ein-

appeared in print

29 ;

but there was

wisdom

tree of eastern or western

—hence

comment: “The verbal dialogue with Tagore was

because of communication

failure

who

entourage included two secretaries

their master

no wonderful

615

and should of course

difficulties,

never have been published .” 30 Despite

this,

a total

was reprinted many

it

times.

Einstein was so fond of his rural existence that he stayed away from the physics Colloquium and even the weekly meetings of the academy,

turning up only

when Planck

or he himself submitted

a

paper

now

neither of these was a frequent event. “Apart from the

tors

who come and

go, life

idyllic,” Elsa said

is

of a

— and by

many visihappy summer in

Caputh. She was even enthusiastic about her husband’s energy: “Albert

working

is

as

he has hardly ever worked before. Has thought up

the most wonderful theory.

only

it

It’s

getting

more

beautiful every day. If

proves to be true ///” 31 But her loyalty was of no use; the theory

of distant parallelism had nothing more to yield, and even Einstein’s

Mayer produced nothing

collaboration with Walther

further that was

suitable for publication.

To

the Berliners Einstein was

became the

subject of

was responsible for

still

the world’s greatest scientist, and he

numerous anecdotes. For example, Janos Plesch

a story

about something that occurred when he

and Gustav Boss, the mayor of Berlin, were with Einstein country house.

from

a

When

at his

the wind brought the pungent smell of sewage

nearby sewage treatment plant, the mayor

felt

somewhat

responsible for this unpleasantness and put the embarrassed question to Einstein

whether

this did

country. Einstein’s answer

ment” 32

— “Now

—soon made the rounds

“He was not

when he was

not annoy him

and again

in Berlin;

afraid of lasciviousness.

One

I

return the compli-

and Plesch

is

staying in the

at ease

said of Einstein,

with him .” 33

Einstein was not only the subject of countless anecdotes but also an object of humor.

These jokes were inspired

in part

by

his increasingly

conspicuous appearance. Comedians in nightclubs and cabarets often

Unified Theory

616

made cheap

Time Out

of Joint

jokes about the supposedly unworldly professor,

mane of hair and musician than

As

in a

violin case

made him look more

like a

down-at-heels

a scientist.

a violinist Einstein

was greatly feared. “Einstein’s bowing was

that of a lumberjack,” a professional violinist recalled. 34

had long ago given up regular practicing. have his playing

who

Fischer,

whose

Still,

No

doubt he

he could not bear to

daughter of the publisher Samuel

criticized, as the

him

frequently accompanied

at the piano,

informs

us.

She herself witnessed repeated outbursts of anger: once, playing the

Bach concerto

Hauptmann poet

—

for

two

good

a

violins,

he suddenly shouted

violinist

who was

at his partner,

Eva

the daughter-in-law of the

— “Don’t play so loud!” According to Tutti Fischer, Einstein got

a lot Still,

more

excited over musical disputes than scientific disputes. 35

he actually performed publicly in the second movement of the

Bach concerto,

at a

But

a benefit concert for the welfare

as this

was

concert in the Oranienburger Strasse synagogue. 36

and youth department

of the Jewish community, perhaps the beauty of his tone was not very important.

Despite the relaxed atmosphere in Caputh and in the Einsteins’ town apartment, their guests did not always feel comfortable. hardly miss the fact “that relations between inexplicably cool. there.” 37

The

magnet

acts

mann, he had

— among others—had observed, acted on women

on iron

clearly

filings” 38

and did not find

this effect in the

breaking off his relationship with Betty

not contented himself,

with seeking his happiness in the

stars.

as

ization that he

Although he remained married

company of

was not suited to the role of a

fall

husband.

woman, not much younger than

widow, elegant and exceedingly

large villa

faithful

his real-

of 1925, Einstein had frequently been seen in the

a beautiful

had an exquisite

Neu-

he then wrote to her,

he confronted her, with characteristic directness, with

Since the

were

atmospheric disturbances were due to the fact that Ein-

least disagreeable. After

to Elsa,

his wife

could

Frau Einstein was there, and yet she was not

stein, as his architect

“as a

him and

They

lifestyle,

attractive.

keeping

on the Wannsee. 39

It

a car

himself, a

This woman, Toni Mendel,

and chauffeur, and living in

a

had become Einstein’s custom to

Public and Private Affairs

many

spend

a

day and many

night there, at one time even mooring

a

on the Wannsee. Einstein never made

his sailboat

extended family, even Einstein showed

if

arrived to pick

him up

On

Einstein was not a for

many

at the theater,

for an evening at the theater, there

man

to

worry about such

years remained his regular

and even

sailing at

there was

women. He had

all

came

to

could not bear at

scenes, and so

companion

affect his relationship

left

at concerts

with Toni

friend, again with limou-

who owned

there was Margarete Lenbach,

all.

Toni

Berlin in 1932.

“the Austrian,” a very pretty, youngish blond, stein’s wife

let

to be seen in public with

sine and chauffeur, Estella Katzenellenbogen,

shops. But above

—Elsa would not

Herr Professor was “fond of

By then he had long had another woman florist

noisy

Caputh. But she was not the only

no shortage of pretty women eager

Mendel, though, even when she

a

weakness for pretty women.” 41 And

a

This did not seem to

a genius.

was

for his night out. 40

one; as the housemaid recalled, the at pretty

his

one occasion when Toni Mendel

apartment while the car waited below

in the

looking

this rela-

diplomacy in standing up to her husband;

little

him have the necessary petty cash

and

of

she was only just tolerated by his wife. Elsa

instead, she tried to bully him.

Mendel

a secret

and Toni Mendel seemed somehow to belong to

tionship,

row

617

a

chain of

known

as

whose presence Ein-

Despite Elsa’s attitude, “the Austrian”

Caputh regularly once

week, and, again according to the

a

housemaid’s recollection, the Frau Professor on those days had no choice but to clear out and travel to Berlin early in the morning to do

some shopping. 42 Although Einstein cared

little

about the gossip in Berlin, and

about the outrage of the villagers

whom

at the

he would go sailing or drop anchor

less

female companions with

among

the reeds, he was

anxious about his reputation with posterity. All the letters between

him and Toni Mendel, even those first in

Zurich and then,

request. 43

From none

in later years

like himself, in

of the

when

America, were destroyed

women, not even from

shadows of history.

like his

at his

“the Austrian,”

have any written traces of affection been preserved for intended these women,

she was living

us.

He

clearly

daughter, Lieserl, to vanish in the

618

Unified Theory

Time Out of Joint

in a

KB Einstein’s desire to keep his private

who hoped

to write about

him

life

private

—most of

all

was clear to everyone

his stepson-in-law

Kayser, an editor of Neue Rundschau and an advisor to the

Rudolf Fischer

S.

publishing house. Kayser was planning to publish a biography in con-

nection with Einstein’s

The arguments

fiftieth birthday.

used by Einstein to dissuade Kayser were probably

same which he used on David Reichinstein, another prospective

the

biographer,

some time

later.

Einstein thought

“in

it

bad

biographies or autobiographies published of persons the most he

taste to

have

living.”

still

would accept accounts “which relegate personal aspects

the background.”

And

finally,

no doubt remembering the

fuss

They

me

regard

to

about

my

per-

as vain

and

Moszkowski’s book in 1921, he pointed out that “people of sonal circle are alienated as a result.

At

Even though such views do

publicity-seeking, and quite naturally so.

not in themselves greatly concern me, they yet considerably complicate

my

whereas

life,

I

as

you can well imagine, and create

love a harmonious one

Having forbidden

atmosphere,

a tense

more than anything.” 44

his son-in-law to publish in

Germany, but not

having ruled out publication abroad, Einstein suggested the same to Reichinstein. Although this was

“in

still

bad

taste,”

“the authors really needed, or rather need, to

they cannot be expected to wait until

I

am

he conceded that

make money, and

dead.” 45 However,

that

when he

had read parts of Reichinstein’s manuscript he wrote to the author that

“my good script

will

is

now

anywhere and

definitively at

an end.

If

you publish

any manner, then everything

in

will

between us forever.” 46 The book nevertheless appeared 1934,

much

manu-

be finished

in

Prague

in

to Einstein’s displeasure. 47

Kayser’s biographical sketch appeared in a

this

pseudonym, 48 but with

a short

New York in

1930 under

(and no doubt promotional) foreword

by Einstein himself, confirming that the author was well acquainted with him. But Einstein’s assertion that he had read the book and found all

the facts accurate cannot be true, in view of several bad mistakes.

Einstein probably avoided this book, as he did

about him, following “a rule to which

I

have

all

subsequent books

strictly

adhered ever since

Public and Private Affairs

my

newspaper fame. In

this

way one

619

doesn’t get spoiled by praise or

depressed by blame.” 49

Einstein himself often used the device he had suggested to his biogra-

When

phers: publishing abroad.

appeared in The

German

New

—but

Field Theory

only have been his fee

regarded in

a

newspaper

Germany

as a

—

in hard

article

on

his

breach of scien-

etiquette.

He

chose

written in

method

this

Berlin

also for a very personal text,

which he had

1920 but allowed to be published only in

in

America. 50 Under the

title

thoughts on the

his

may not

concern that writing

also his

own work might have been tific

New

York Times and The Times of London, but in no

paper, the reason

currency

The

his article

The World

“existential

as I See It Einstein sketched out ,

of us

situation

derived, at times even to the choice of words,

earth-dwellers,”

from Schopenhauer.

He

listed his ideals as

“goodness, beauty and truth” and praised “the mys-

terious ... as the

most

beautiful thing

not profound or original insights, and all, it is

if

experience.”

These

are

they have any significance

at

only that Einstein did not shrink from perpetuating the cul-

tural values of a bourgeoisie that

new

we can

culture.

These cozy

ideas

was scarcely capable of creating any

might have been

set

down by any

pro-

fessor or schoolmaster.

Einstein’s resolute championship of social justice and democracy, especially the

demic

American version, would have been more unusual

Now

circles.

and again, though,

a

very

in aca-

German and

very

romantic cult of genius shows through. Einstein describes “personality” as the “really valuable quality: it

alone creates things noble and

sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.”

This kind of elitist contempt for the

common man

been voiced, or even written, by any reactionary academic

could have

—but not so

the harsh words which Einstein had for the military: “If anyone can take pleasure in marching to music in line, dressed by the right, then

1

already despise him; he only received his brain in error, as his spine

would be quite many, where

sufficient for him.” If this

a field

had been printed

in

Ger-

marshal had for the second time been elected

Unified Theory

620

president, Einstein

in a

Time Out

of Joint

might well have found himself facing

a criminal

charge.

In a revealing and very intimate passage, which sees the

how he

world but about

ambivalence:

“passionate

his

sense

not about

he explores

of social justice”

marked lack of

“strangely contrasted with a

a

never belonged wholeheartedly to the

my own

a

how he

source of

had always

need to attach himself

human communities.” He

either to individuals or to

who

sees himself,

is

state,

is

a real “loner,

my

the homeland,

family, but experienced with regard

circle

of friends, or even

to

these ties a never abating feeling of outsiderness and a need for

all

solitude.

.

.

.

One

experiences clearly, but without regret, the limit of

communication and consonance with other people.”

When freely ...

and

he was directly,

less

more

steeped in Schopenhauer and speaking

he described

an unattached person,

his life in Berlin as that of “a

who was fond

of everything.” 51 This sounds

of looking at the comical side

bombastic, but

less

Gypsy

it

describes only one

aspect of Einstein’s fluctuation between his loner’s need for indepen-

dence and his growing urge to intervene in social and matters

—such

as his pacifism

and

political

his appeals for resisting the draft.

Einstein had always been a pacifist, virtually by nature; but his

tude during

World War

I

was

and did not go beyond that of

The

fact that in the late

due to

his

essentially that of a private individual a small circle

at the failure

enforce disarmament and proscribe war.

To me

gas, Einstein

a call for the refusal

try to

of the League of Nations to

When

the League achieved

successes, such as codifying the rules of warfare

ning the use of poison cism and

of like-minded people.

1920s he turned into a militant pacifist was

disappointment

some minor

impose certain

quite pointless.

atti-

War

responded with

fierce public criti-

of any kind of war service:

rules

and restrictions on war seems to

simply

is

no game and cannot be con-

ducted according to the rules of a game. such, and this can be done

and ban-

most

War must be

effectively

opposed

as

by the masses through

an organized wholesale refusal of military service already in peacetime. 52

Public and Private Affairs

This

first

621

declaration, at the beginning of 1928,

by greetings and messages

flood of statements, and pacifist organizations,

was followed by

a

members of

to

with the result that Einstein soon rose to be the

hero of militant international pacifism.

He

was

aware that with regard to

fully

my

were “stronger than

problem

this

reason.” 53 His words, moreover, were often

aggressive, implacable, and anything but peaceful. cult

problem of

a “just

his feelings

For him, the

diffi-

war,” discussed by international lawyers and

philosophers from Grotius to Kant, was settled: military service,

without exception, was preparation for organized murder. This

is

what

he wrote in the “Golden Book of Peace” of the World Peace League

in

Geneva:

No

person has the right to

long

as

he

is

in systematic

prepared, at the

murder or

call

himself a Christian or a Jew so

command

of an authority, to engage

to allow himself to be misused in any

way

whatever in the service of such an enterprise or the preparation for

it.

54

Asked what should be done “I

if war

would absolutely refuse any

endeavor to induce regardless of the

my

direct or indirect

friends to adopt the

broad cross-section of situation changed,

fist

less

commitments,

was soon forced to

quantity of

“I

and

for

human

would have no objection

i.e.,

the courts.

human

life.” 56

I

I

especially shocking

who was

am

against

appreciate

life.

among

a

had nothing

“In principle,” he

to the killing of worthit

only because

more

is

I

do not

the quality than the

This assessment of human

viewpoint of quality and quantity

self,

moreover

revise his views.

Einstein’s rigid pacifism, they

or even harmful individuals;

it is

and

connection with the death sentence, in the midst of his paci-

trust people,

and

attitude,

be, regarded as scandalous

still

do with unconditional respect in

service

nations. Einstein himself, as the political

all

Whatever the roots of wrote

same

war

judgment on the causes of war.” 55 Such statements

were, and no doubt would

to

came, he had an unequivocal answer:

life

from the

the jargon of the “master race,”

coming from someone who regarded him-

regarded by others,

as a

humanitarian

pacifist.

But

Unified Theory

622

in a

Time Out of Joint

anyone examining Einstein’s attitudes

time and again

will

come up

against glaring contradictions. Einstein evidently was able to live with

them, possibly because he did not even notice them.

Germany

In

all

military matters continued to enjoy great respect,

despite the horrors of the world war; but Einstein’s call for a refusal of military service was largely academic there, since under the treaty of

Germany had only a small army and no conscription. Still, wherever a young man was arraigned in court for refusing to serve

Versailles,

whether

in Finland or in

Poland 57

—Einstein would

writing to ministers and to military courts.

compromise: even the

militia

On

raise his voice,

this issue

system of Switzerland

—

a

he made no

country quite

incapable of aggression, and a system to which he had paid his personal tribute ever since his forty-second birthday

did not

now

when, in 1929, the

principles

He

escape his condemnation. 58 security,

by paying

his

army

even stuck to his

tax

pacifist

and perhaps the very existence,

of his “tribal companions” in Palestine was endangered.

Despite his ambivalent attitude toward Zionism and his anger

way Hebrew

at the

University was developing, Einstein attended the six-

teenth Zionist Congress in Zurich in August 1929. This event was the

crowning culmination of Weizmann’s

efforts to unite all organizations

involved in building up a Jewish Palestine under an umbrella Jewish

Agency—-regardless of any naturally under his

The

own

political differences

between them, and

presidency.

speakers at the opening session

—on

Sunday, August 11

included the most prominent advocates of a Jewish homeland in Pales-

such

tine,

as Felix

Warburg and Lord Samuel (former

British governor

of Palestine), and of course also Albert Einstein. Typically, he sin-

welcomed

cerely

those rest

who .” 59

.

.

call

“the

courageous

and

efficient

minority

themselves Zionists” and then continued: “But we, the

The demonstration

unimpressed. In the evening

of Jewish unity did not leave Einstein

at the

Grand Hotel Dolder he wrote on

the hotel’s elegant notepaper: “This day the seed of Herzl and

mann

of

has ripened in a wonderful way.

Not one

Weiz-

of those present

remained unmoved.” Weizmann wrote below, “Mille amities. Je t’embrasse,” 60 and kept this precious document to the end of his life. Soon,

Public and Private Affairs

men were

however, both

623 had ripened on con-

to discover that the seed

tended ground.

No

sooner had Einstein returned to Berlin than the newspapers

reported serious attacks by Arabs on Jews in the Old City of Jerusalem. Excesses spread across Palestine like wildfire; hundreds of Jews were brutally British

done

to death in

Elebron and Safad before the troops of the

Mandate succeeded

had for

in quelling the revolt. Einstein

a

long time ignored the conflict between the long-settled Arabs and the

Jewish immigrants, and he had underestimated

even after the out-

it

break of the revolt. Misreading the actual state of to hold Britain’s policy of “divide

affairs,

he tended

and rule” responsible for

all

the

problems. In a statement published

first

in

England and then worldwide, Ein-

4T

stein sharply

British

condemned

the Arab marauders and the failure of the

Mandate; but unlike most Zionists, he

action but for a fair settlement based

not wish to

live in

British bayonets.

When

a

on everyone’s

interests:

“Jews do

the land of their fathers under the protection of

They come

speaker at

called not for punitive

a

as friends

of the kindred Arab nation.” 61

meeting in Berlin demanded that the Arabs be

punished according to the law, Einstein reproached him for having “spoken like Mussolini” and ciliation.” 62

When,

shown

finally, several

murder had been sentenced

“a lack of the spirit of con-

Arabs

who were found

guilty of

to death, Einstein, jointly with the Inter-

nationale of Military Service Refusers, approached the high commissioner of Palestine with a request for the sentences to be

commuted

to

imprisonment. Einstein also appealed to

Weizmann

to seek

ways of “peaceful

cooperation” with the Arabs; otherwise “we would have learned

nothing from our 2000 years of suffering.” 63 In an exchange of with the editor of an Arab journal in

Jaffa, Einstein reiterated his

conviction that “the two great Semitic peoples

.

.

.

have

mon

future” 64

trust

through sensible cooperation. His suggestion of

if

only they could find

letters

a

way

a great

com-

to abolish mutual misa secret

council

of four Jews and four Arabs to represent and harmonize their interests vis-a-vis the British

unrealistic.

Mandate was, of

course, both arbitrary and

Unified Theory

624

An

important scientist

in a

who had

expected by his colleagues not so

Time Out

of Joint

passed his

much

fiftieth

birthday was

to produce exciting

new

dis-

coveries as to be a dignified representative of their discipline and a wise

organizer of research. Einstein had persistently evaded this second role

while giving a dazzling performance in the

as a representative

first:

of physics for the public. Newsreels suggest that he derived a good deal of pleasure

from

this role

—for instance,

in

August 1930, when

he opened the Seventh German Broadcast and Phono Exhibition of the radio tower in Berlin. Wearing an elegant

at the foot

mane of prematurely gray

hair

blown by the wind, he stepped up

microphone-studded rostrum and,

to the

carried by

all

German

suit, his

as his address

was being

radio stations, began “Dear present and absent

listeners.” 65

He

did not overlook the opportunity to urge his audience of mil-

lions to

show

greater respect for science and technology:

listen to the radio, give a

thought also to

how men came

“When you

to possess this

wonderful instrument of information. Because the prime source of technical achievement

is

the divine curiosity and the playful urge of

the tinkering and pondering researcher, just as tive fantasy

much

as the construc-

of the technical inventor.” Citing a chain of scientific

ancestors, he paid tribute to Oersted, Maxwell,

and Hertz, and among

the technological pioneers to Reis and Bell; but he also rated the

all

commemo-

“army of anonymous technicians, who so simplified the

instruments of radio communications and adapted them to mass

manufacture that they have become accessible to everybody.” C. P.

Snow would

later describe as the

problem of the “two cultures”

Einstein dealt with in a single brief remark:

ashamed, those

who

thoughtlessly

What

“They should

make use of the

all

be

miracles of science

and technology, without understanding any more of them than the

cow does of the botany of the

plants

his expectation that broadcasting

it

eats

with enjoyment.” However,

would perform

a

unique function “in

the sense of international conciliation” was not fulfilled; and less than

three years later

propaganda.

it

was being used in Germany

as a tool of the vilest

Public and Private Affairs

625

Since 1923 Einstein had not exercised his right to lecture at the uni-

Thus

versity.

interest

was

the greater

all

sional lecture, not only because of his

“Among

an orator.

to a wider audience”: this

a

did give an occa-

fame but because of his

the 60 colleagues in the

due preparation, convey

can, after

when he

more or

talents as

Academy most of them less laborious instruction

was how Fritz Haber characterized the

average level of academic rhetoric

when he thanked

Einstein for

having undertaken a public lecture. “But the combination of professional ability, skill of presentation,

needed

for shaking such a

and personal freshness which

is

—that

is

performance out of one’s sleeve

found in you alone.” 66 In consequence, the hall was invariably crowded

no matter whether he spoke

tured,

Working Group of just

under

a

when

to the Mathematical-Physical

the university in Hall

No.

122,

accommodating

thousand, on Theoretical and Experimental Aspects of the

Wilhelm Society

Question of the Generation of Light, 61 or to the Kaiser

Goethe Hall of the Harnack House

in the

Einstein lec-

in

Dahlem, with

of 450, on Physical Space and the Ether Problem

6%

For

stein did not use prepared manuscripts; at most,

a capacity

his lectures Ein-

he referred to

a

few

notes on a scrap of paper.

A magnificent and well-documented instance of Einstein’s skill as a speaker was his address in June 1920 at a festive meeting of the

German

Planck’s doctorate the time,

way

to Planck himself

first

which Einstein

in

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Max Max Planck Medal was presented for the first

Physical Society.

and then, by Planck, to Einstein. 69 The

in his acceptance speech paid tribute to the

achievements of his “revered master”

development, the way he opposed

as the basis

of his

own

with the quantum

his struggle

riddles to the already established statistical interpretation,

he

and for setting an example of achievement of oratory that Plesch

is

back of

and the way

thanked Planck for stimulating and supporting his

finally

is

—

scientific integrity

a

shoemaker’s

bill

all

this

rarely found in science. 70

to be believed, Einstein

had jotted down

just before the

scientific

a

own work marks an

And

if

Janos

few words on the

meeting, and then only

Unified Theory

626

in a

Time Out

of Joint

because he feared that he might be overcome by this tribute to his great father figure. 71

Einstein’s admiration of the “master,” however, stopped short of will-

become

ingness to

enough,

this

Planck’s successor at the university. Naturally

most prestigious position had

to be offered to Einstein

because of his “unique position”; but “a confidential inquiry has

first,

revealed that

Herr Einstein does not wish

to see

any change

in his pre-

sent relationship with the faculty, which fully satisfied him.” 72 His

comment on the prolonged search for “Thank God I am aloof and don’t have to

a successor to

participate

to in this race of the intellects. Participation in

it

Planck was:

more than I want

has always seemed to

me a bad kind of slavery, no less than a hunger for money or power.” 73 What mattered to him most was preserving his own independence. By then one could hardly have visualized him in the

strict

routine of fac-

ulty meetings and classroom teaching.

When

Erwin Schrodinger was eventually appointed, Einstein had

new colleague

not only a

he

felt

trian

in

In

—

common with

—than with the stiff-necked Prussians.

While

his

work

physics, Einstein self

more

that he had

many respects Schrodinger who was Aus-

new friend.

but, soon, also a

in Berlin represented an

enormous enrichment of

had always been rather reluctant to concern him-

with organizational matters. Throughout the two decades of his

directorship

helm

no

start

was made on the construction of the Kaiser Wil-

Institute for Physics (the institute

money from

era,

with

this

was largely due to

As early

as 1914,

built only during the

Nazi

the Rockefeller Foundation in America), and his

when

own

—

lack of interest.

in connection with his

—the foundation of

Academy

Prussian

was

a

Kaiser

appointment to the

Wilhelm

Institute for

Physics under his directorship was being considered, Einstein had

wanted

his salary to

stitute. It

be settled independent of the Kaiser Wilhelm In-

might well turn

out,

he

said, “that I

for the directorship of the institute

so that

I

might

and

... the

find myself induced to lay

am

not the right person

work connected with

down

it,

that office.” 74 Because

Public and Private Affairs

627

of the war, the institute was not actually founded until 1917, and then

only

as a provisional expedient,

existed only in the attic of

without

its

own

director, Einstein,

its

building or

though

it

staff. It

did have a

fund for financing physical research. After his trip to Japan, Einstein delegated

von Laue, and he wanted

this

proper institute was set up:

K.W.

he wrote to

Institute,”

“Then

turing.”

according to

“I

I

its

management

to

Max

arrangement to continue even when

would

like it best if

his colleague,

a

you were given the

who was

tired of “lec-

would enjoy going there myself and taking part

my abilities.” 75

But Einstein did nothing toward the

real-

ization of such an institute.

Not

until

March 1929

did Einstein, jointly with colleagues from

the board, submit a proposal for an institute of theoretical physics.

This would concern in

itself also

with topical experimental problems and

consequence would be rather expensive.

would be more than gone

justified

expenditure, however,

because “theoretical physics has under-

development unprecedented

a

The

in the history of the discipline, a

development so powerful and successful that we are almost embarrassed

when looking

science. It

for anything

would be no exaggeration

has over the past quarter-century

most

light

fields.” 76

Institute

comparable in the entire history of to say that theoretical physics

become

.

.

.

the center from which the

and the strongest inspirations radiate for

activity in other

The following day the scientific staff of the Kaiser Wilhelm in Dahlem were emboldened to propose to the president the

establishment of an Institute for Theoretical Physics, in order to

remedy the

“lack of an intellectual center.” 77

Implementation of these plans was of money. This was remedied a year

at first

prevented by

later, in

April 1930,

Rockefeller Foundation provided the colossal

sum

a shortage

when

the

of $655,000 for

building an Institute of Cell Physiology and an Institute for Physics. 78

The

Institute of Cell Physiology,

directorship,

was inaugurated

Physics did not even have

The

Americans,

director,

were

its

who had

under Otto Warburg’s energetic

as early as 1931;

but the Institute for

questions of staffing settled by then. largely relied

bitterly disappointed

on

Einstein’s prestige as

when they

visited Berlin

its

toward

Unified Theory

628

in a

the end of 1930. Einstein had just a

rumor

Time Out

left for

of Joint

America, and there was even

that he had accepted a position at the California Institute of

Technology. Friedrich Glum, the administrator of the Kaiser Wilhelm

was able to refute

Society, with the title of director-general,

this

rumor, though he admitted that Einstein was “erratic in his decisions”

and

a “difficult” personality,

for anything.”

Glum was

and that “with him one has to be prepared

not even able to provide any information on

Einstein’s position in the institute: “Einstein could very well

the institute and find

it

but

a suitable place for his activities,

would prefer

possible that he

move

into also

it is

own home and do

to stay in his

his

thinking there.” 79 Einstein in fact did prefer to do his thinking at home, so that Planck,

who had become some

nack’s death, had

president of the society after xAdolf von Har-

difficulty

establishing the Institute.

applying the Rockefeller

The American

a

While

his friends,

Institute

when

Einstein had long

and maybe he himself, believed that with the acqui-

country house the “Gypsy” had settled down, Einstein was

getting ready for another journey.

the

Wilhelm

Germany.

sition of his

way

Kaiser

into being in 1936, under the director-

ship of Peter Debye, but this was at a time since left

promise, even after the

its

National Socialist seizure of power, and so

come

money and

foundation, despite consider-

able misgivings, did not wish to revoke

for Physics eventually did

Max

to California

—

Mount Wilson

and using

a giant

stars

were showing him the

in an entirely scientific sense.

The

astronomers of

observatory, financed by the Carnegie Foundation

hundred-inch reflector telescope, come up with sen-

sational observations

and discoveries that cast

ture of the universe. Moreover, that wonderful

The

a

new light on

the struc-

one of the guests in Caputb during

summer of 1930 had been Aj-thur Fleming,

the board of the California Institute of

Technology

president of

in Pasadena,

which, under Millikan’s presidency, had developed into a top-ranking university.

When

Fleming renewed Millikan’s

invitations, Einstein

now showed

Wilson observatory and the discoveries

by the

earlier unsuccessful

great interest, because of the

theoretical processing of

fine physicists

its

Mount

astronomical

of Caltech, such as Richard Chase

Public and Private Affairs

Tolman and Paul

To

Epstein.

629

cooperate with them, not just

as a “table

ornament,” was so tempting to Einstein that he declared himself ready to spend the first

A

fee of $7,000

A

professor.

two months of 1931 there

was agreed on;

more permanent

this

as a “research associate.” 80

was the annual salary of

a senior

association at an even higher fee was

being considered. Einstein’s ready acceptance of this offer

was connected with the

universe, and possibly also with a probing search for a

new

orientation,

but probably not with this earthly vale of tears or the political situation in

Germany. Admittedly, the economic

ther deteriorated since the

fall

ment. tists

who,

down

in the

economy measures of Heinrich

The growing army for lack of

of unemployed included

money, had

its

Young

Plan, and

Briining’s govern-

many young

scien-

But no one, not even

lost their jobs.

the politically attentive Einstein, suspected that the

was nearing

fur-

of 1929, because of the worldwide

depression, the reparation payments laid the consequential

Germany had

situation in

Weimar Republic

end.

mar

Einstein certainly did not allow politics to

his

summer. In

the Reichstag elections of September 14, a previously unimportant splinter group, the National Socialists

Hitler

—received over

six

But

their “Fiihrer,”

Adolf

million votes; and in consequence the worst

kind of anti-Semitism established force.

—under

itself in

in reply to a worried inquiry

the parliament as a political

from the Berlin

Jewish Telegraph Agency “whether united Jewry

is

office of the

necessary for

defense,” Einstein confidently replied:

For the time being a

I

see the National Socialist

movement only

as

consequence of the momentarily desperate economic situation

and

as a childish disease

believe,

is

always called

tion results

of the Republic. Solidarity of Jews,

for,

I

but any special reaction to the elec-

would be quite inappropriate. 81

For one more year he would

still

than some others, he realized that

Before his trip to America’s

be able to

feel

secure

Germany was on

West Coast

—

until,

sooner

a fatal course.

Einstein spent a few weeks

traveling through Europe. First he took part in the Solvay Conference

Unified Theory

630 in Brussels

from October 20

to

Time Out

in a

October

netic properties of matter, attracted

him

of Joint

25. Its real subject, the less

mag-

than did the continuation

of the debate on quantum mechanics, although he was unable to convert anyone to his point of view. 82

This was followed by three days in London. Einstein had promised to participate in an event staged

by two organizations dedicated

alleviating the hardships of eastern

to

European Jews. Herbert Samuel,

who had been Einstein’s host as high commissioner of Palestine, was now England’s postmaster general. He had invited Einstein to stay at home, and Einstein had accepted with “great

his

made

the business of a Jewish saint will not only be will

become

a

joy”: “In this

easier for

manner me, but

downright pleasure.” 83

Sir Herbert,

whom

with

Einstein conversed mainly in French,

arranged some pleasant dinner parties for him and conducted him to the Strangers’ Gallery of the

House of Commons. Even

the charity

dinner at the elegant Savoy Hotel, presided over by Lord Rothschild, turned out to be an agreeable occasion, especially thanks to George

who was

Bernard Shaw. Shaw,

then seventy-four,

made

a spirited

speech in front of the microphones and film cameras in honor of Einstein, praising

him

in the

same breath

creator of universes. 84 Yet there were his address to

make

as

Ptolemy and Copernicus

as a

enough sparks of malicious wit

the guest of honor, as

shown

in

in the film clips,

laugh heartily.

The still

following day,

amused about the

when he was Weizmann’s guest, Einstein was “monkey comedy” at the Savoy, when most of

the guests were unsure

whose hand they should shake

Rothschild’s or the “Jewish saint’s.” 85 stein

told his host,

dreamed

that he

Sir

come

such matters: “Je ne suis pas

From London

the

He

to England. ‘practical.’

was not

really suited to

” 86

Einstein traveled to Zurich, but with a stopover in

Laeken Palace. The previous

year, while visiting his favorite uncle Caesar

on

to the station Ein-

in the kind of public events for the

Brussels in order to visit the “royals” at

stein had,

way

—Lord

Herbert, that in younger years he never

would take part

sake of which he had

On

first

May 20,

Koch

in

Antwerp, Ein-

1929, been invited to the palace by

Queen

Eliza-

Public and Private Affairs

beth of Belgium. Elizabeth,

member

a

631

of the former Bavarian royal

family of Wittelsbach, was musically minded; and Einstein had played

with her and

a trio

a lady-in-waiting,

taken tea with her, and tried to

explain his physics to her. 87 At that time the king had been trip,

but he was

now

received with touching cordiality. purity and goodness that

Then came

trios (there

was

Then everyone

—no

potatoes, just that. ... is

seldom to be found.

an English lady musician and

and very cheerfully.

the feeling

is

where

These two simple people First

we

we

left

and

I

liked

it

was

are of a

chatted for an

few more hours,

was alone with the

servants, vegetarian, spinach with fried I

I

played quartets or

also a musical lady-in-waiting) for a

Royals for dinner

a

present. This second visit was described by Ein-

stein in a lively letter: “I drove to the Royals at 3 o’clock,

hour.

away on

there enormously and

I

am

egg and

sure that

mutual.” 88

His impression was correct.

between Einstein and the

An

“royals,”

unusual friendship developed

which was

part at certain turning points in his relationship had nothing in

crowned heads occasionally

common

life.

to play an important

From

the very start this

with the familiar convention of

cultivating intellectual giants.

A

shared

view of the world war, during which King Albert had manfully stood

by

his tortured people, while Albert Einstein in Berlin

distanced himself from

and

scholarship

—

all

German this

had manfully

chauvinism, a shared interest in music

undoubtedly promoted

mutual

under-

standing. But the friendship between Einstein and the “royals” far

beyond

a

harmony of interests. The

Queen”

the “Dear

to the

touching testimony to

a

end of

letters

his life

went

which Einstein wrote

—the king died

in

1934

to

— are

deep and enduring sympathy.

In Zurich Einstein was the guest of honor at the celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the foundation of

University.

The honorary

doctoral

ETH,

degree,

the Swiss Technical

awarded to the man

rejected for an assistant’s post years earlier, probably

him than

his

count.

He

Besso

visit

many

home

at Mileva’s

leagues in Zurich.

to

other doctorates, which he had long ceased to

stayed at the

him

meant more

The

of his “past one,” 89 had his old friend

apartment, and enjoyed seeing his col-

only shadow cast on his stay was concern about

Unified Theory

632

who was

son Eduard,

his

and had musical

in a

Time Out

of Joint

studying medicine, was highly intelligent,

but was showing serious symptoms of mental

talent,

instability.

Back

had three weeks

in Berlin, Einstein

left

before his voyage to

The trip to America was to have been a working visit, without much public fuss but Einstein himself saw to it that the opposite happened. He could by now shrug off the excessive interest California.

—

the press solo.” 90

showed

But

I

make becomes

not stop him from sounding

this did

This was

self.

“Any squeak

in him:

a lengthy article called Religion

a

a

trumpet

vigorous solo him-

and

Science

,

which on

New

York

common among

edu-

cated freethinkers, but then emphasized a higher level of “cosmic

reli-

Sunday,

November

9,

took up the

first

four pages of The

Times Magazine. Einstein reproduced the critique of religion

giosity,”

devoid of

all

anthropocentric echoes and based on “the

miraculous order that manifests of ideas.”

From

this

strongest

Between the

lines,

but that the

was

latter

scientific

research.” 91

was deeply

this article

religious.

remained deservedly unnoticed when it

it

in Ein-

— Reform Jews, enlightened Protestants, Unitarians — the orthodox of regarded

“cosmic religiosity”

Quakers, and

all

faiths

it

atheism or “the sheerest kind of stupidity and nonsense.” 93 At any Einstein had again

become

a topic

number of telegraphed

vast

which arrived

Haberlandstrasse from America

would be

at

a hectic trip.

as

rate,

of interest in America at the right

moment, and the

this

was

triggered violent controversies in Ameri-

Although there were many who recognized themselves

stein’s

in fact

but not to be overlooked, was a statement that, in

republished in Germany, 92 ca.

religiosity,

and noblest mainspring of

this sense, Einstein

Whereas

nature as well as in the world

he concluded not only that there was no conflict

between science and cosmic “the

itself in

invitations

made

and proposals it

likely that

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Farewell to Berlin

The long voyage to California ber

1930,

2,

on board the Belgenland

Einstein was to travel several

started in

Belgian steamship on which

a

,

Antwerp on Decem-

more times over

the next few years. His

party included his wife; his secretary, Helen Dukas, as “girl Friday”;

and the “calculator,” Walther Mayer, because Einstein intended to

work during

the voyage. In his luxury suite on the upper deck he

“uncomfortable, like a con the elegantly restrained

man and

indirect exploiter”;

demeanor of the

staff,

he

felt

felt

compared with “odd with

his

peasant manners,” and he invariably “dressed negligently, even for the sacred sacrament of dinner.” During the stopover at Southampton, he 1

had an opportunity to admire the

results of British education: “In

gland even the reporters are restrained. single ‘No’

is

Honor where honor

is

En-

A New

due.

enough.” 2 This would be very different in the

World. Originally, Einstein had not intended to go ashore during the five

days

when

attention.

the Belgenland was in

But The

New

New

York harbor,

in order to avoid

York Times had already decided that

it

would

be impossible for him to avoid the press, unless of course he had himself

locked up in the purser’s

photos

—of the

safe,

“and even then there would be

safe.”

As the Belgenland approached

New

York, there were “countless

telegrams, so that the ship’s radio operators were sweating,” 3 a foretaste

of what was to come.

The

the most fantastic expectation.

Long

Island, as well as the

arrival in

New

York was “worse than

Hordes of reporters came on board

German Consul 633

with his

at

fat assistant

634

Unified Theory

Time Out

in a

who pounced on me

Schwartz. Plus an army of photographers

hungry wolves. The reporters asked which

ceived.” 4 Everything

more

possibly even

was

just as

on

enthusiastically re-

his first visit ten years earlier,

but

frenzied.

As Einstein was

still

not familiar with the English language, he

spoke only German, even for his casting companies transmitted live

he greeted American if

like

exquisitely stupid questions, to

which were

replied with cheap jokes,

I

of Joint

soil

greetings,

first

which two broad-

from aboard. The manner

in

which

and the American people 5 was almost papal

popes had then ever gone on tour. In

sario,

hullabaloo Einstein’s wife proved a circumspect impre-

all this

organizing the professor’s appointments and making sure that

photograph and every interview

for every

a small fee

was paid

—not

into Einstein’s pocket, but for the poor in Berlin and for draff refusers all

over the world. In this respect he had every reason to be

“Thanks box.

to Elsa’s

shrewd management

By midday I was

Contrary to days in

all

New

earned $1,000 for the charity

I

dead.” 6

plans, then, there

were

five exciting

York while the Belgenland

handed from one event as

to another

Rabindranath Tagore

elite

of the city as well

—both of whom he already knew— and Arturo

whom

he

now shook hands

for the first time.

He

was

tympanum of Riverside

Church above the Hudson, which was adorned with them.

was

such as Fritz Kreisler and

even able to see himself hewn in stone on the

figures in

and exhausting

lay at anchor, Einstein

and met the

other celebrities passing through,

Toscanini, with

satisfied:

statues of great

world history, Einstein being the only living person among

Some

grotesque situations inevitably arose, on the lines of “Ein-

stein escaping

from reporters”; and

night that he found any rest

it

was only

—the approach

in his stateroom at

to his cabin

was guarded

by policemen. In a festive ceremony with speeches by the

mayor and

the president

of Columbia University, Nicholas Murray Butler, Einstein was

an honorary citizen of New York City.

Hanukkah

celebration in

claimed by the Zionists

as

He

made

himself made a speech at

a

Madison Square Garden, where he was one of

their

own. 7 His most controversial

Farewell to Berlin

635

New

speech, however, was to a smaller audience at a meeting of the

History Society

Ritz-Carlton Hotel on

at the

December

14.

This was

devoted to his great political passion, pacifism. In his message of greeting from on board ship, Einstein had said

Americans had the strength “to overcome the threatening

that the

He now

specter of our era, militarism.” 8

defined his

own

position and

deplored the fact that “under the present military system any person

name of his

can be compelled to commit murder in the also

knew what was

tion”

—

is,

done about

it:

He

“uncompromising opposi-

refusal of military service. “If even

up declare that they

called

that

that

to be

country.”

two percent of those

not serve, and simultaneously demand

will

international conflicts be settled in a peaceful manner, govern-

all

ments would be powerless.” 9

Finally,

he called for the “creation of an

international organization and of an international pacifist fund” to

who found

help those

refusing to serve in the

For

a

themselves in difficulties as a consequence of

armed

number of years

this

forces.

“two percent” speech became something

Magna Carta of militant pacifism. It was extensively reprinted: in The New York Times for example, and also excerpted in Germany. An abridged version appeared under an outraged headline, “Einstein of a

—

—

Begging

for

Publicity

Methods

Planck

helm

Military

as president

Objectors

Service

in America”;

and

Glum

and

this

—

Scientist’s

was sent by the ministry

as director-general

Society, with a request for information

Wilhelm

Prof. Einstein adopts in the Kaiser States, the

Unbelievable to

of the Kaiser Wil-

on “what

Herr

attitude

Society.” 10 In the United

speech did not meet with unanimous applause, but Einstein

would have been pleased

to note that

many young Americans

in the

streets

and on campuses were wearing buttons with the provocative

slogan

“Two

By stein

Percent”

— and everybody knew what that meant.

the time the Belgenland

left

had had “to stand up to

love,” 11 but

gone so

New

a trying

he was probably highly

York, on December

amount of

satisfied

16,

his fellow

with the way his

Ein-

men’s

visit

had

far.

The voyage

Panama Canal provided Einstein impressions of scenery and with some amusing

south and through the

with unforgettable

Unified Theory

636

in a

Time Out of Joint

American revolutions, which took place harmlessly

folklore of Central

but probably confirmed him in his dislike of using the term “revolu-

Havana they were

tion” in connection with science: “In

of having a revolution while after

we were

there,

and

in the process

Panama

in

shortly

our departure. Their president, a former fellow student from the

Zurich Polytechnic, was deposed on

He

this occasion.” 12

of his fellow passengers with black humor.

interest

bore the

“Passengers

becoming more importunate. Perpetual photographing,” he noted

“The

his diary.

They have gone ended

by

in

crazy about me.

San Diego on December

new

step onto the shore of a

most garish American

him

evidently gave arrival

immersed

Hedwig Born, with flower

Columbus was about

There was

Back home,

faintly irritated,

you

a

—feared

that

—watching

he

was

knows what he

outside, I

is

To

see

it

his

“totally

you (San Diego) presented

aspects.

still

Even though

The world

these things look

have the feeling that the good Lord

moved

into a “small gingerbread cottage” in

immediate neighborhood of the Caltech campus. “Here like Paradise,”

it is

“Always sunshine and clear

and friendly people his first

who

Western Front

,

a

air,

gardens with palms and pepper trees

smile at one and ask for autographs.” 16

week, the famous

film

in

he delightedly reported back to Berlin.

Hollywood, where he watched

because of its

it

doing.” 15

In Pasadena, the Einsteins

During

to

was “great fun to

and beautiful mermaids, and suchlike!

some amusing

meshugge from

Pasadena

.

four-hour show

his friends

wrote to him that

in the newsreel.

floats

certainly has

the

,

The voyage

end?”

it all

.

kind, with speeches and interviews, but

newsreels

in

booming.

the hullabaloo and razzmatazz of the Americans.” 14

in

see and hear

will

is

where the docking was attended

30,

continent. 13

pleasure.

California

in

How

autographs

suggesting that a reincarnated

a spectacle

of the

my

charity business with

in

man was immediately

a special

invited to

screening of All Quiet on the

made from Erich Maria Remarque’s

realistic portrayal

of men dying during

novel;

World War

I,

the

was banned in Germany. Einstein declared the ban to be “a diplomatic defeat for our government.” 17 He was the guest of Charlie film

Farewell to Berlin Chaplin,

“who had

up

set

in his

home

a

637

Japanese theater, with genuine

Japanese dances being performed by genuine Japanese

an enchanting person, Einstein

met the

just as in his film parts.”

social critic

Upton

Sinclair:

On

“He

is

girls.

Chaplin

is

several occasions in the

doghouse

here because he relentlessly lights up the dark side of the American bustle.” 18

know

Over the next two months, though, Einstein

came

to

the pleasant side of the American bustle, with brief excursions to

Palm

fashionable places like Santa Barbara and invited

him

to

go

sailing

Science, too, had

dinner

tive

also

its

at the

on the

Springs; and Millikan

Pacific.

ceremonies.

On January

Athenaeum, the elegant

15,

Millikan gave

a fes-

faculty club of Caltech. 19

Two

hundred rich patrons of Caltech,

tions,

were invited to eat with the legendary Einstein, though he him-

self

in recognition of their

dona-

was more interested in talking to the physicists and astronomers

who were

present. In a brief after-dinner speech he thanked his col-

leagues for their work, without which his theory of relativity would

“today be scarcely more than an interesting speculation”: William

Wallace Campbell, for

his

the sun’s gravitational

field;

efforts to

prove the red

For the

first

determination of the deflection of light in

and Charles Edward

and only time, Einstein

in this

ment “when

who

I

was

same after-dinner still

led physicists onto

a little boy,

new

It

was

a pretty

also ill.

met Albert Abraham

Einstein paid tribute to

address, for his

famous experi-

hardly three feet high.

It

was you

paths and by your wonderful experimental

work even then prepared the road theory.” 20

John, for his

shift.

Michelson, then seventy-nine and gravely

Michelson

St.

for the

development of the

relativity

compliment, although Einstein avoided any

reference to the part Michelson’s experiment might have played, or

not played, in the development of his Einstein also paid tribute to “the tory,”

which had been

tion to Pasadena:

it

a

own

work of your wonderful observa-

major reason for

had “led to

structure of the universe, for

a

concepts.

his acceptance of the invita-

dynamic concept of the

spatial

which [Richard Chace] Tolman’s work

has provided an original and exceedingly clear theoretical expression.”

Unified Theory

638

As

in a

Time Out

Mount Wilson,

of that wonderful observatory on

a result

ture of the universe

mapped out by

now

of Joint

the struc-

looked entirely different from what had been

Einstein in his pioneering cosmological study thir-

teen years earlier. Within the framework of the general theory of relativity,

he had then described the universe

space, with a constant

mean

as

an unbounded but

distribution of masses,

time, and, in retrospect, positively minute.

finite

unchanging over

Astronomers then knew of

own Milky Way, and even that not very well. Eindescription had been made possible only by his use of a “cosmo-

only one galaxy, our stein’s

logical constant” in his equations, but

physically consistent it

model of the

was nevertheless the

it

first

universe, and for the next five years

had been almost the only one. 21

The

first

rizing. In

change in cosmology came through mathematical theo-

1922 the brilliant Alexander Friedmann in

demonstrated that Einstein’s

field

St.

Petersburg

equations could be solved even

without the “cosmological constant”; these solutions would be consistent with a universe with a spatially

homogeneous

distribution of

masses, except that this universe would not be static but would change

over time and space, either expanding or contracting. 22

had been visualized by Einstein

Friedmann now gave stein initially

it

as

without

something

like

a

The

universe

beginning or an end; but

dynamics and

a history.

Ein-

thought he could prove that Friedmann had made

mathematical mistake, 23 but he soon discovered

a

mistake in his

a

own

objections, retracted his criticism, and described Friedmann’s paper as “clarifying.” 24

alternative

All this

There was then no question of deciding between the concepts by astronomical observations. changed

1920s, thanks to

Edwin

Hubble’s persistent work with his hundred-inch reflector on

Mount

Wilson. This

in the course of the

new wonder

of the world had been completed in 1919

and throughout three decades remained the most powerful telescope anywhere. For our knowledge of the universe, it had a significance comparable to that of Galileo’s telescope for our knowledge of the solar system. Small patches of “nebulae” in the sky

were resolved into

individual stars and revealed themselves as galaxies similar to the

Way. Hubble determined

Milky

the distance of the nearer galaxies and esti-

Farewell to Berlin

mated the distance of the more remote

He

of millions of light-years.

also

galaxies, obtaining

despite the use of the

very

much

stein

from the equivalence

By

shift.

had to be interpreted

same term,

Hubble had

light

from

According to Doppler’s as

an “escape velocity”;

should not be confused with the

it

smaller red shift in a gravitational

1922,

magnitudes

measured the spectra of

these distant worlds, in particular the red principle, the red shift

639

field, as

derived by Ein-

principle.

collected sufficient data to venture

what was

probably the most important astronomical assertion of the twentieth

moving away from each other with escape

century: that the galaxies are velocities

which increase with

expanding. 25

A simple

distance. In other words, the universe

is

calculation backward to the start of this expan-

sion gave the age of the universe as approximately ten billion years.

The expanding stein’s static

universe was evidently

cosmology, though

it

no longer described by Ein-

was possibly described by Fried-

mann’s solutions. Einstein, then deeply engrossed in “distant parallelism” as his

variant of a unified theory, was reluctant to be distracted by cosmological

models and

merely took note of these sensational

Soon, however, they seemed important enough for him to

results.

inspect

initially

them

in person.

He

therefore often had himself driven up the

twenty miles of hairpin turns to

Nevada. eras,

On

one occasion

Mount Wilson, on

at least

a

spur of the Sierra

he was accompanied by movie cam-

which recorded him riding up the elevator

to the observation

platform and, for the benefit of the viewers, looking into something like

an eyepiece.

Hubble and

his colleague

Milton L.

spectroscopic measurements

Humason

—showed

—who refined Hubble’s

their guest

around their cathe-

dral of astronomy, explaining their high-resolution spectrographs

and

presenting their evidence that the universe was expanding. Einstein

was clearly impressed: he declared that the “cosmological constant” he had invented thirteen years

earlier

was superfluous and that

a

model

of the universe based on Friedmann’s solutions was appropriate.

Despite intensive discussions with the theoretician the

new

Tolman on how

discoveries could best be represented through the general

theory of relativity, no contribution to

this set

of problems came about

Unified Theory

640 in California.

of Relativity

26 ,

Time Out

in a

of Joint

A paper, On the Cosmological Problem of the General Theory submitted by Einstein to the Prussian

Academy

after his

The

return to Berlin, hardly went beyond a report on the situation.

only paper he wrote in Pasadena, jointly with Tolman, was devoted to his

hobbyhorse, the unanswered problems of quantum mechanics. 27

Millikan, Einstein’s host, had reacted with raised eyebrows to Ein-

“two percent” speech in

stein’s

exercised

some moderation

New

York. Thereafter, Einstein had

in political matters

—not only because of

Millikan’s conservatism but also in order not to

annoy the wealthy

patrons on whose favor Caltech depended. Millikan therefore must

have been rather irritated by an interview between Einstein and Upton Sinclair in a socialist weekly, stein

made

to students

and even more

irritated

by

a

speech Ein-

on the Caltech campus.

Einstein chose this stronghold of technological knowledge as a place to question the use of technology not only in peace, because technology had “turned chine.”

He

bility that

men

war but

ma-

into slaves of the

urged the students not to forget that they had

went beyond

also in

their specialized fields:

a responsi-

“Concern

man

for

himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors, concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods

—

in order that the creations

of our minds shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.” 28

guage sounded very

Such

socialistic to conservative Californians.

could hardly have found

it

Millikan

helpful to his efforts to raise Caltech to the

top of American science by associating Einstein permanently with

After two contrasts

head.

it.

months Einstein had temporarily had enough of “this land of and surprises, where one in turns admires and shakes one’s

One

feels that

and hardships, and

began by

lan-

rail,

is

one

is

attached to the old Europe with

glad to return there.” 29

across the continent.

On

The homeward

a visit to

its

pains

journey

an Indian reservation

near the Grand Canyon on February 28 Einstein received from the

Hopi not only

a rich

headdress but an amusingly punning

Great Relative.” In Chicago, where

his train

title,

“the

stopped for two hours,

— Farewell to Berlin

641

he was met by several hundred supporters of peace; to their great delight, he treated

them

to an abridged version of his

“two percent”

speech. 30

The

following morning,

when

where the steamship Deutschland was to

more broke eral

New York,

the night train arrived in sail at

loose, for the next sixteen hours.

midnight,

all

The German

hell

once

consul gen-

recorded that “Einstein’s personality, without any clearly recog-

nizable reason, triggers outbursts of a kind of mass hysteria, not only

among

specially thus inclined groups of ‘friends of peace’ and the

romantic dreamers of newly founded mystical religious communities,

among

but also

relatively levelheaded circles, such as the

American

supporters of the Palestine program.” 31 Pacifist organizations

in

New

claimed their hero immediately on his arrival

York. Einstein invited them on board the Deutschland to

meeting restricted to four hundred persons and called for action:

“The

because

it

our oppo-

will create a conflict that will directly challenge

numerous persons

man had

radical

struggle against militarism will have a dramatic effect

These words

nents.” 32

a

set off

such “a delirium of enthusiasm that

kissed Einstein’s hands and clothing, and the poor

eventually to be forcibly taken to his cabin in order to put an

end to these demonstrations.” 33 For the afternoon Einstein moved into a hotel,

where he had

visitors,

and admirers.

The

to deal with an

unending stream of journalists,

evening had been reserved for Einstein’s other passion

Jewish development in Palestine. With funds running low,

had implored Einstein

as early as the

Weizmann

beginning of February to make

himself available for an urgently needed fund-raising drive. 34 This was a

request Einstein could not deny, and so he agreed to be the guest of

honor and speaker

Campaign

at the

at a great

banquet given by the American Palestine

Astor Hotel on the evening of his departure.

guests had to pay $100 each, but despite this high fee

the Depression

wanted

to see

—

in the

The

midst of

— the target figure of one thousand participants who

and hear Einstein was actually exceeded.

He

was

cele-

brated as a “prince of the intellect,” and the applause became an ovation

when

a

certainly had

telegram from President Hoover was read out. Hoover

no sympathy

for pacifism or socialism, but he could not

Unified Theory

642

been

model of the Swiss

fists

On

that your visit to the

as

it

and pleaded for an arrangement on the

pier; as the ship pulled

is

to view his return with

rocking,

away, they chanted in

forever.”

the stormy voyage, Einstein learned

thing

has been gratifying to the

Einstein returned to his ship shortly before midnight, paci-

“No war

Germany

much worse

mixed

enough about conditions

feelings. “In

Republic

at least, the

very shaky

Germany

than on this ship. But one

and one cuts one’s clothes according to one’s cloth

moment,

United

constitution. 36

were again lining the

unison,

is

his address, Einstein again appealed to the Jews

to cooperate with the Arabs

When

you

as satisfying to

American people.” 35 In

Time Out of Joint

“My hope

avoid saluting the visitor: States has

in a

still

stands.” 37

But

is

every-

used to

at the time. it

in

it

For the

was standing on

feet.

In any case, Einstein did not intend to stay in Berlin long. In April

he presented two papers to the Prussian Academy: his report on the cosmological problem; 38 and a paper written jointly with Walther

Mayer during

on

the crossing,

revealed that he would

Then he took

a

his “distant parallelism” theory, 39

come no nearer

to his great goal

by

this

which

means.

month’s leave to go to England, to give the Rhodes

Lectures at Oxford.

This honor, accompanied by stein in 1927,

on the

initiative

a fat fee,

had

first

been offered to Ein-

of Frederick Lindemann, director of the

Clarendon Laboratory. For lack of time and because of ness,

he had to decline the invitation

sisted,

and in February he

Pasadena. 40

month

in

It

was

Oxford

a

in

finally

good

May.

at that time.

obtained Einstein’s acceptance, from

decision, because Einstein spent a restful

He

enjoyed the monastic

—and even that was interpreted

life

lectures

he gave

at

in Christ

available for him. loosely-

participation in “the holy sacrament of the ‘High Table.’ ” also the ceremonial

ill-

But Lindemann per-

Church College, where Lindemann had made rooms His only obligation

a serious

—was

his

There was

awarding of an honorary doctorate, and the three

Rhodes House. 41 At these

the hall was overcrowded, but since

lectures, to

begin with,

some of the audience could not

Farewell to Berlin

643

cope with Einstein’s mathematics and others could not cope with

German, soon there remained only

his

small core of experts.

a

English reserve, as well as the fact that Oxford was used to eccentric geniuses,

taste

allowed Einstein to conduct his

and tempo, always discreetly looked

demann’s servant and general factotum. fact that Einstein

met frequently with

he discussed “the spread and

effect of

representatives of the Internationale

none of

this

was

at the

life

after

No

according to his

own

by Lindemann and Lin-

one was bothered by the groups or that

pacifist student

my speeches in America” 42 with of War Service Refusers. And

expense of physics, so Lindemann was more

than content with his guest.

“He threw

himself into

all

the activities of

Oxford science, attended the Colloquiums and meetings

for discussion

and proved so stimulating and thought-provoking that

I

visit will leave a

permanent mark on the progress of our

Lindemann soon got

month

in

am

subject.” 43

spend

his college to invite Einstein to

Oxford every year

sure his

a

—the quaint termi-

as a “research student”

nology Christ Church uses for what other colleges

call a “fellow.” 44

Einstein accepted the five-year contract at an annual stipend of £400,

not only because of his pleasant memories of his because the situation in

Germany was becoming

For the summer of 1931, Einstein again country retreat letters

that

at

Caputh, but not

forces. 46

ization that

With

a vast

number of

campaign, reiterating

his pacifist

war could be prevented only by organized

armed

exacerbated. 45

installed himself in his

as a hermit.

and statements he continued

but also

first visit,

refusal to serve in the

This commitment was in no way affected by

Germany was on

the

way

to

becoming

his real-

a dictatorship.

Par-

liament had been dissolved, and the Briining cabinet, governing by

emergency decrees, already represented

nomic

a quasi-dictatorship.

disaster, the Nazis’ street fighting,

democratic parties boded

ill

The

eco-

and the weakness of the

for the future.

In this uncertain situation Einstein intended to ask Planck “to see to

it

that

my German

citizenship

many people dependent on me, dence, compels

was found,

in

me

its

is

rescinded.

.

as well as a certain

to take this step.” 47

envelope,

.

among

This

letter

.

Concern need

for the

for indepen-

was never

sent;

it

Einstein’s papers after his death.

Unified Theory

644 Nevertheless,

it

shows that

in a

Time Out

of Joint

summer of 1931

in the

Einstein was begin-

ning to accustom himself to the idea that before long he would sever his ties

with Germany.

If Einstein

saw any hope of a turn for the

better,

he saw

it

on the

the political spectrum. His sympathies were with the Social crats,

but he was not afraid of contact with the communists.

signed appeals by the Rote Arbeiterhilfe (Workers’

He

of

Demoreadily

Red Help) and

allowed himself to be used for propaganda purposes by the

Commu-

Comintern. 48 In the Marxist Workers’ College

nist International, the

“Masch,” managed by the Communist Party, he gave

What

left

Know

a Worker Should

major problem of the

49 of the Theory of Relativity

class struggle.

a lecture

on

—not exactly

But he was not

a

a

dependable

fellow traveler, because, for one thing, he urged that Stalin’s mortal

enemy Trotsky be given asylum ticipate in

in

Germany. 50

He

also refused to par-

peace congresses because of their preponderance of Soviet

and communist supporters. 51 Einstein’s vacillation

between “pink” and “red”

testifies to his

con-

fusion in political matters. In 1930, he had signed an appeal against the Stalinist

show

trials in

the Soviet Union.

He

saw the absurd charges

against the “forty-eight vermin” as “either an act of desperation of a

regime driven into two. ...

I

am

a corner,

very sad that

or a mass psychosis, or a mixture of the this

watching with hopeful eyes, has

But

a year later

some pro-Soviet

development, which

now

led to such atrocious events.” 52

friends, of

whom

he had many, con-

vinced him of the legitimacy and necessity of these result that a

communist propaganda sheet was

recantation:

“Today

ture,

views.

because

Then

I

I

have

most deeply regret that

now

me, are

Dimitri Marianoff

Union

with the

able to print Einstein’s I

my signacorrectness of my

then added

confidence in the

things are possible that, in the circumstances

totally unthinkable.” 53

— a journalist attached

undefined responsibilities, stepdaughter,

lost

trials,

did not sufficiently realize that under the special condi-

tions of the Soviet familiar to

I

we had been

Margot

who was

Whether

it

was instigated by

to the Soviet

embassy with

married to Einstein’s younger

—or by Willi Miinzenberg, the

sinister

propa-

Farewell to Berlin

who had

ganda chief of the Comintern 54

645

converted him, Einstein’s

statement reflects the limitations of his political judgment. Einstein, incidentally, stuck to his view of the

As

Stalin’s reign

wrote:

executed Jews, his “tribal companions,” stopped him

to justify the trials.

“Indications

stupid reactionary

is

who

At the peak of the

a

he

terror, in 1937,

increasing that the Russian

are

swindle, but that there

I

trials.

of terror got worse, not even his solidarity with the

many accused and from trying

Moscow show

no

are

trials

conspiracy of those in whose eyes Stalin

betrayed the idea of the Revolution. ... At

is

a

first

too was firmly convinced that these were instances of a dictator’s

arbitrary actions based

on

lies

and swindle, but that was

Einstein had returned to a threatened that he

would always have an acceptable

position in Califofnia. official in

When

Germany

a deception.” 55

in the

knowledge

—and superbly paid—

in April 1931

he approached

fallback

a senior

the Prussian Ministry of Education with a request to estab-

an extraordinary professorship for his collaborator Walther

lish

Mayer, he frightened the

with the disclosure that he himself

official

had received an offer from Pasadena, Unless

a satisfactory solution

at

an annual salary of $35,000.

was found for Mayer, who by then was

forty-five, Einstein threatened,

he “would otherwise have to go to

Pasadena, because there the remuneration of Dr.

Mayer would be no

problem.” 56 In

fact,

whatever had been discussed in Pasadena, there can have

been no firm contract but only an

Fleming, the chairman of the Caltech board,

on

his

by Arthur

oral statement of intent

who was

inclined to act

own. Over the summer, there had been exchanges of letters and

telegrams between Pasadena and Berlin, but the figure mentioned in

them was $20,000

for a

ten-week stay

at Caltech. 57

waiting for the contract to be mailed to

on

a trip to

Europe, visited him

$7,000 for his next

visit,

with

a

at

him

While Einstein was

for his signature, Millikan,

Caputh and offered him

permanent arrangement

a salary

of

to be settled

the following year.

Einstein was irritated by this confusion in California and to give a lecture in Vienna, cial

reserve because he

is

a

first

went

where Austrian officialdom “observed spe-

Jew and

believed to be

on the

left politi-

Unified Theory

646 cally.” 58 After

thinking the Pasadena offer over for a week, he wrote a

grand refusal on October

informing both Fleming and Millikan

19,

would take

that over the winter he tions

Time Out ofjoint

in a

a rest

from these tiresome negotia-

and seek out the sun of southern Europe.

Berlin in any case.

He

informed

He

intended to leave

would

friend Besso that he

his

probably come to Switzerland in the winter “because things are getting

uncomfortably hot for

Then,

in a

A

Pasadena.

here.” 59

sudden change of mind, the reasons for which we do not

know, Einstein likan’s terms;

me

after all accepted the offer

on November

week

he

later,

14,

from California on Mil-

he sent the signed contract back to

left Berlin,

accompanied by

He

his wife.

spent a few days in Belgium and Holland before embarking on the

four-week voyage on December ship San Francisco

which took him

,

the stress of a stopover in

When

the ship had

time on the American steam-

direct to California, sparing

left

the coast of Europe behind, Einstein noted

resolved in essence to give

my

always on the wing.

They are

life!

importance for his future

my Berlin

up

bird for the rest of

Seagulls are said to

my new colleagues,

position. still

are

me.” 6C

He remained silent about his reasons,

and Oxford. As

if

mind

in

a

it

migrating

efficient

and also about

shuttling

won’t stick in

ship,

than

his specific

between Pasadena

to confirm the seriousness of his decision,

“I’m also learning English, but

“Today

us as far as the Azores.

Heaven knows, more

but,

Presumably he had

Hence

life:

accompanying the

come with

These

intentions.

him

New York.

in his diary a decision of crucial I

2, this

he added:

my elderly braincase.”

Einstein arrived in Los Angeles shortly before the end of the year.

This time, unlike the previous year,

his arrival

was almost normal. As

a

small compensation for the financial confusion, Einstein was able to

move

into Arthur Fleming’s splendid

naeum. de

Among

Sitter, the

the colleagues with

Leyden astronomer

himself a visiting

scientist. Jointly

accommodation

whom

and especially on

Athe-

he met to work was Willem

—an expert on

relativity,

and

like

they produced a paper on an aspect

of the expanding universe. 61 Einstein gave logical problems,

at the

a

a

few lectures on cosmo-

new variant of the

unified theory,

which he had worked out with Mayer. 62 But he did not give up

his

Farewell to Berlin pacifist

much

sermons; and,

meddled

in

647

to the displeasure of Millikan, he also

American domestic problems such

Einstein’s

as racial discrimination.

most important meeting, the one with the most

Abraham

reaching consequences, was with

Flexner had

scientific administrator.

Flexner, a highly regarded

of

a lot

far-

money and

a

vague

idea.

Since the beginning of the century, he had exerted a major influence

on academic teaching

in America.

Having

colleges and then of medical schools, he

first

was

introduced a reform of

able, as secretary for

fif-

teen years of the Rockefeller Foundation’s “general education” board, to

endow

universities to the tune of

to a point, to shape

excellence.

The

them

more than $500

million

—and, up

in accordance with his criteria of

culmination of his career, thanks to

a

academic

philanthropic

donation of $5 million, was to be the establishment of an institute of higher or advanced study, where scholars, freed from university routine

and

duties,

were to

live solely for their research.

to Pasadena to consult Millikan

Millikan in turn referred

When

him

on the form of such an

to his

Flexner and Einstein

it

who

it

met

new

its

come and

institution,

guest.

at the

Athenaeum, only two

institution: at the

was to be located somewhere

Jersey; and in view of finances,

famous

first

conditions were attached to the

donor family

Flexner had

substantial but

wish of the

in the state of

New

by no means unlimited

should concentrate on theoretical disciplines. Einstein,

believed that scientific progress

came from

creative individuals

rather than from organizational matters, supported Flexner’s intention that, in contrast to the

normal academic hustle and

enclave of scholars should be created

bustle, an informal

— an ivory tower.

63

According to

Flexner’s records, nothing was said about Einstein’s participation in

the enterprise; but

when

the two

men

agreed to continue their talks in

Oxford the following spring, both of them presumably entertained such an expectation.

When cisco

Einstein, in early

to return to

March, once more boarded the San Fran-

Europe, he knew that he would return to Caltech the

following year. But no permanent arrangements had yet been agreed on, and the idea of a

appeal to

permanent move

him anyway. As he explained

had asked him to look out for

a

to

America did not greatly

to his friend Ehrenfest,

possible position for him: “I

who

must

tell

Unified Theory

648

you quite frankly

in a

term

that in the long

rather than in America, and that to regret a change. Apart

Time Out

am

I

I

of Joint

would prefer

Holland

to be in

convinced that you would come

from the handful of really

fine scholars,

it is a

boring and barren society that would soon make you shiver.” 64

Back

once went to the weekly meeting of the

in Berlin, Einstein at

Prussian Academy, as he was anxious to submit a supplement to the

paper whose

first

part he had submitted in October, before his depar-

ture for the United States. It again bore a promising

Theory of Gravitation and Electricity

do with distant

summer of

parallelism,

1931. As he later

esting theory

.

.

—but

which he had

summed

me

— Unified

no longer had anything finally

abandoned

a description

with certainty,

field. It

because

was so fascinated by the naturalness of the theory.” 65

He

I

did not

a

long time to realize

mourn long over

tant parallelism. Soon, he

this

his three years of vain efforts

became

in the

of the electro-

magnetic

took

to

up, that “formerly rather inter-

simply does not lead to

.

it

title

with

dis-

fascinated with a five-dimensional

formalism “which psychologically links up with Kaluza’s well-known theory, while at the

same time avoiding the extension of the physical

continuum into one of

five

dimensions.” 66 Each point of the four-

dimensional space-time continuum was linked to five-dimensional vectors,

by means of which

a “fiver curvature”

was achieved, from which

the equations for the gravitational and the electromagnetic field derive

through “rejuvenation.” As stein

was

enthusiastic;

at the

he wrote to Ehrenfest that

viction definitively solves the

new

beginning of every

problem

this

theory, Ein-

one “in

my con-

in the microscopic area.” 67

For

the microscopic and atomic areas he already saw “an indication of a natural supplement that will perhaps supply the

His colleagues, however, were not ones kept

silent;

quantum

laws.” 68

at all enthusiastic.

the younger ones were beginning to

make

The

older

jokes about

Einstein.

After barely two weeks in Berlin, Einstein departed for England.

He went

first

to Eddington,

to

Cambridge, where he gave

and then to Oxford for

a

few lectures 69 and talked

his sinecure as a “research stu-

dent.” Shortly before leaving Oxford, he was visited

by Abraham

Flexner, as had been arranged in Pasadena. Flexner’s plan to locate the

Farewell to Berlin

new

649

by agreement with but

institute at Princeton,

independent

totally

of the university there, no doubt aroused Einstein’s personal interest,

which Flexner cannot have

failed to notice.

During

a

long walk in the

grounds of the college, they again discovered that their ideas on the

new

character of the

summoned up stein, I

his

facilities

were largely

courage to put the

would not presume

come

but should you

own

institution

which you

to offer

vital question:

you

“Professor Ein-

a position in the

to the conclusion that

and Flexner

identical,

it

new

could offer you those

you would be welcome

treasure, then

institute,

—on your

terms.” 70

No sooner was Einstein back at his country retreat of Caputh, an appearance

at the “Joint

after

Peace Council” in Geneva toward the end

of May, 71 than Flexner again appeared on the scene, on June

4.

Now

concrete terms were being discussed, such as a six-month stay each year,

from the

fall

until

roughly April;

a position for

independent of Einstein’s; and Einstein’s

Asked about gested $3,000.

“Or could

I

own

Walther Mayer,

salary and pension. 72

his expectations for his salary, Einstein at first sug-

When

he saw Flexner’s puzzled expression, he added,

manage on

less?” 73 Flexner,

enced administrator, took

this as the

modesty of

told the story in that sense. Actually, stein’s part to lure

although he was an experi-

it

was

a

a great scientist

and

shrewd move on Ein-

Flexner into making an optimal offer without

seeming greedy himself. The resulting offer was $10,000, with the institute

paying Einstein’s taxes and also Elsa’s travel expenses

bad deal for

five

months. 74 Thus Einstein’s idea of existence

migratory bird had assumed solid shape, in

a

few days

as a

his diary six

months

the rain, he saw his visitor to the last bus just before

midnight, he assured Flexner: “I

A

a

way he could not have

imagined when he had jotted down the idea in earlier. As, despite

—not

later,

when

am

full

of enthusiasm for

it.” 75

Flexner had confirmed the oral agreement

in writing, Einstein cordially

thanked him for the generous terms;

indeed, he found the figures suggested for his and his wife’s pension

too high and proposed a reduction.

On

the other hand, he insisted that

“Herr Mayer’s appointment should be independent of mine. Otherwise

He

I

would

feel that

he would become unemployed on

my

concluded his written acceptance to come to Princeton

in

death.”

6

October

Unified Theory

650

am

1933 with the assurance: “I

you

Time Out of Joint

in a

wonderful purpose and

in such a

be associated with

really delighted to

am

we

convinced that

shall

be

happy with each other.” 77

As

political

stein

developments in Germany went from bad to worse, Ein-

must have frequently thought of

Although election,

in the spring

more than

contract with Flexner.

his

Hindenburg once more won the

presidential

thirteen million votes had been cast for Hitler.

“He

Nevertheless, Einstein for the time being wanted to stay in Berlin.

has wholly adapted to Caputh,” his wife reported, “and keeps telling

me

that

no one

is

going to make him leave.

Elsa was worried and urged

him “not

to live solely for his problems.

want

me, then

to have

I

just

He

to sign

He knows no

fear.”

any appeals anymore and

answered that ...

if I

were

as

you

wouldn’t be Albert Einstein.” 78

Casting aside his wife’s anxieties, Einstein, along with the

Kathe Kollwitz and the writer Heinrich Mann,

we

Reichstag elections in July, warned “that frightful

But

danger of [becoming

fascist]

.

in a manifesto

artist

on the

are heading for the

This danger, in our opinion, can

be removed only by the [cooperation] of the two great workers’ parties in the electoral

name headed

campaign.” 79 During the campaign his

the posters calling for a united antifascist front between the Social

Democrat and the Communist

parties. 80

However,

about, and in the July elections the Nazis

with 37 percent of the vote.

governed with

army

a “cabinet

this did

not come

became the strongest

The new Reich

chancellor,

party,

von Papen,

of barons,” dissolved the Reichstag, had the

drive Prussia’s Social

Democrat government from

office,

and

appointed himself Reich commissioner for Prussia.

While many

new manner

citizens

were hoping that von Papen’s “fundamentally

of government” would restore public order and,

especially, provide a shield against the

revealed his

gloomy expectations

believe that a

National

revolution of the National Socialists.

ernment suppresses the

will

Socialists, Einstein

to his colleagues: “I certainly

government by military force

On

do not

will prevent the corning

the contrary, military gov-

of the people.

revolution from the right to protect

more

The

them

people will look to

a

against the rule of the

Junkers [the Prussian landed gentry] and army officers.” 81

— Farewell to Berlin

During

summer

that

numerous

political actions

even though

these,

of political

it

Einstein was involved in

crisis,

and discussions.

remained

651

The most

virtually unnoticed,

impressive of

was

public

a

exchange of letters on the causes of war and on ways to prevent

by the

tiated

mund Freud

it,

ini-

Institute for Intellectual Cooperation. Einstein chose Sigas his

correspondent.

Freud and Einstein had repeatedly been bracketed when the most

They

important living Jews were named.

Freud spent Christmas and

his wife visited

in Berlin with his son Ernst.

as

in

when

1926,

There Einstein

him. Describing the meeting and their two hours

of conversation, Freud recorded:

understands

met

first

much

“He

is

of psychology as

I

serene, assured and courteous,

do of physics, and so we had

a

S'

very pleasant chat.” 82 Einstein appreciated Freud more for his descriptive

powers than for

his psychoanalytical constructs,

and preferred to

“remain in the darkness of not-having-been-analyzed.” 83

When

Einstein congratulated Freud on his seventy-fifth birthday,

he added that every Tuesday evening, along with

presumably Toni Mendel sufficiently

there

is,

—he

female friend

read Freud’s writings and could not

admire their “beauty and

for

a

clarity.

Except for Schopenhauer

me, no one who can or could write

like that.”

“pachyderm,” he nevertheless veered between “belief and

A year later he

thanked Freud “for

to the reading of

many

a beautiful

hour which

your works,” and then continued:

with regard to your teachings, offer such

your ideas that they actually think and speak

moment

they

let

in

as a

disbelief.” 84 I

owe

“I always find

amusing to observe that even people who regard themselves lievers’

But

little

as

it

‘unbe-

resistance to

your concepts the

themselves go.” 85

In his open letter to Freud, Einstein did not invoke pacifism but instead, as “an individual free

from emotions of

mapped out an order founded on between

means

states

by an

freedom of there

peaceful arbitration of

institution that

to enforce this ideal of justice.

rity lies via the

is

86 a national nature,”

would have

“The road

all

conflicts

at its disposal the

to international secu-

unconditional surrender by states of some of their

action, or sovereignty,

no other road

and

to such security.”

it

seems unquestionable that

Unified Theory

652

in a

Time Out of Joint

Einstein had kept quiet about his obligation to spend half the year in

Academy were

America; the authorities in Berlin and the Prussian

taken by surprise by newspaper reports, at the end of August, 87 that the Institute for

the

Advanced Study

in Princeton

of 1933 and that Einstein was

fall

Only

would

start

most prominent

its

in September, in response to a query,

inclined to inform the

academy of

functioning in

his

acquisition.

did Einstein feel

arrangement with Flexner,

although he pointed out that he had already talked to Planck about Nonchalantly, he

is

at all possible,

to ensure that Einstein

summer istry a

his

a continuation of

on

leave

his

own

initiative

—

reduction by half of his annual salary

had not previously made. 90

proposed to the min-

a gesture

which, despite

abroad over the past few years, he

visits

When

at least for the

it

was reported that he would move

United States altogether, he corrected the reports:

Germany.

at the

or desirable.” 89 Planck probably intervened

prolonged and well-paid

to the

my employment

was saved for the academy

semester. Einstein

88

the Ministry of Education to decide “if

left it to

under these new conditions

Academy

it.

My permanent place

“I will

not

of residence will continue to be

Berlin.” 91

The

California Institute of Technology,

on the other hand, was

immediately informed of Einstein’s association with Flexner’s institute. In the circumstances, Einstein

now do

without his agreed

visit

new

expected that Caltech would

to Pasadena during the

coming

winter. 92 Millikan was disappointed, believing that he had a right to Einstein’s presence exclusively at Caltech, even

offered Einstein a long-term contract.

without the famous

man and

though he

still

had not

However, he did not wish

to

do

therefore confirmed his invitation for

the winter. Millikan was hoping that Einstein might, in the future, di-

vide his left

this

rejected

Much

America between Pasadena and Princeton. Einstein

visits to

open it.

as

a

vague

possibility,

but Flexner condescendingly

93

was in demand, both Millikan and Flexner were continually worried about his political activity, which they not only peras Einstein

”

Farewell to Berlin

653

sonally disapproved of but had to defend, halfheartedly, to their

wealthy patrons. Since Einstein’s triumphal

December about

arrival

in

America

1930, irritation had been growing in the conservative

this strange professor,

who

in

camp

did not confine himself to report-

ing amazing things about the universe but was raising his voice in paci-

and

fist

socialist

American

—

When

speeches on very terrestrial

— and,

issues.

Flexner proudly announced that he was about to inaugurate

his Institute for

Advanced Study with Einstein

member, some conservative groups believed “National Patriotic Council”

“German

opinions; and

addressed

a

that this questionable for-

on

correct

necessary to issue

The board a

of

a

warning against

bolshevist” with his dubious theories and scandalous

female branch, the American

its

Women’s

League,

formal petition to the visa section of the State Depart-

ment. 94 These patriotic ties

felt it

most prominent

as its

eigner represented a danger to the United States.

this

worse, domestic

sixteen pages,

women condemned complaining

—and

Einstein’s pacifist activi-

here they were factually

—that he supported communist associations such

as the Inter-

national Workers’ Help, which was an organ of the Comintern. This,

how

along with some rank nonsense about

undermine the church, the

state,

theory would

relativity

and science, culminated in

that Einstein should be prohibited

a

from entering the United

demand States of

America.

The

State

Department sent the pamphlet of the

patriotic

women

to

the United States consulate in Berlin, where Einstein had in the past

always received his visa without any problems, but where he was if

they

in?” Einstein scoffed to the Berlin reporter of The

New And

to be questioned

me

didn’t let

York Times. to

make

on the complaints. “Wouldn’t

“The whole world would be laughing

sure there

a sarcastic

would be something

comment

it

at

be funny

America.

to laugh about,

95

he improvised

for the press:

Never before have if this

now

I

been spurned so vigorously by the

did ever happen, then not by so

they right, those vigilant

women

many

citizens?

at a time.

fair sex,

or

But aren’t

Why should one admit

654 a

Unified Theory

who

person

devours hard-boiled

toothsome Greek

who moreover

and

virgins,

capitalists

Minotaur monster

appetite and pleasure as the

reject

Time Out of Joint

in a

in Crete is

wife? Listen therefore to your clever patriotic that the Capitol of

mighty

devoured

mean enough to war with one’s own

any kind of war, except the inevitable

remember

with the same

women

little

Rome was

and

once saved by

the chatter of its loyal geese. 96

The American consul, however, amusing and summoned Einstein for had cautiously worked stein

was

a

—

all

When

he

a talk

way around

communist or an

in the press

demanded

his

did not find the conflict at

on December

lost his patience and, in the

a visa,

whether Ein-

to the question

anarchist, Einstein

5.

— according to reports

form of an ultimatum,

which was promptly provided the following day. 97

According to recently released American government papers, how-

something

ever, Einstein did

manded of him, confirming organization. 98

Thus

different.

that he

there was

He

signed the declaration de-

was not

a

member

no further obstacle

of any radical

to his departure for

California.

Nothing about

Einstein’s preparations for the journey

gested a final farewell, and he had told the

academy and

had sug-

his friends that

he would be back in Berlin in April. 99 But he was haunted by dark premonitions. “Take

very good look

a

they locked up their it

villa in

Caputh

at it,”

he said calmly to his wife

for the winter.

“You

as

will

never see

a ship in

Antwerp,

again.” 100

On December

10, Einstein

and

which would again take them

Panama

Canal.

To

his wife

boarded

directly to

California through the

Millikan’s relief, nothing spectacular accompanied

their arrival in the port of Los Angeles. Einstein

had evidently resolved

to restrain his political impulses, possibly out of consideration for his hosts, but possibly also because his experience at the consulate in

Berlin was giving served,

meeting with

guest’s remarks,

who

him

pause. After Einstein’s

journalists, Millikan

first,

exceedingly re-

was very pleased with

which “supplied no additional ammunition

are spreading grotesque

and

silly stories

about

his

for those

his links

with

groups aiming to subvert American institutions and ideals.” 101 Besides,

Farewell to Berlin

655

the president of Caltech was anxious to shield his guest from the

public

— and perhaps to

Through an

his

he succeeded in doing

German

would make

American-German

had

this

from the Oberlaender Trust

foundation of a family of Einstein

surprise,

ironical turn of fate, Millikan

Einstein’s fee of $7,000

that

own

a

extraction,

and

relations,” 102

to

time acquired

in Philadelphia, a

in return

speech that would

so.

be

had agreed “helpful

to

be broadcast by the National

Broadcasting Corporation on January 23.

That evening Millikan gave

moved

afterward, the guests

a

formal dinner

in procession to the

at the

Athenaeum;

Pasadena Civic Audi-

torium, where Einstein was to speak at a symposium on “America and the World.” In the pleasant style of an after-dinner

poked gentle fun

at social taboos,

talk,

Einstein

beginning with dress, and criticized

the use of negative labels such as “communist” in America, “Jew”

among

Union. Millikan was The

Germany, and “bourgeois”

the right wing in

New

satisfied

in the Soviet

with those irrelevant remarks, but not so

York Times which observed that Einstein’s speech “had not ,

thrown any new Meanwhile,

light

on

a

in Berlin,

the government, and a

dark situation.”

Adolf Hitler was getting ready to take over

week

Einstein’s premonitions

later

he was appointed Reich chancellor.

had not deceived him.

He

was not to see

house in the country ever again, or Berlin, or Germany.

his

%

PART

TH

VII

E

PAC FIST I

THE

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR Exile as Liberation

Exactly when Einstein, seizure of

power on January

On

cult to establish.

secretariat of the

30, 1933, or

February

he was

2,

academy, about

nothing had happened and

learned about Hitler’s

California,

in

a

how he still

reacted to

—

reduction of his salary

his return in April

Tolman lin.

.

was

a

his daily

just as if

matter of course.

no mention of

is

program: “Afternoon rays.

Evening Chap-

Played Mozart quartets there. Fat lady whose occupation consists

of making friends with

all

However, four weeks weeks before

his

own

celebrities.”

evitable: “In

to

assumption of power and two

departure from Pasadena, Einstein had learned

view of Hitler

on February 27

1

after Hitler’s

enough about the changes I

in

Germany

for his decision to be in-

don’t dare step on

Margarete Lebach

German

soil,”

he wrote

—whom he referred to

—

as “the

woman” in Berlin. “I have already canceled my lecture Prussian Academy of Sciences.” The next day the Reichstag was

Austrian the

on

about experimental work on cosmic

.

.

are only notes

diffi-

writing to Berlin, to the

In his diary, which he kept only sporadically, there

Germany; there

it, is

2

flames, and then

came the

first

wave of

brutal

at

in

Nazi terrorism against

left-wing politicians, intellectuals, and journalists.

The day before his departure, Einstein justified his decision not to return to Germany in a public statement that was widely reported: “As long

have any choice in the matter,

as I

where

civil liberty, .

time.” 3

The

.

.

shall live

tolerance, and equality of

These conditions do not

prevail.

I

journalist to

whom

exist in

all

a

country

citizens before the law

Germany

he had handed

659

only in

this

at the

present

statement and

Pacifist and the

The

660 defended

campus

watched him walk across the Caltech

in an interview

it

Bomb

Suddenly the ground shook under

after a seminar.

Angeles was experiencing the worst earthquake in reporter saw if

him walk calmly

to his quarters at the

its

his feet:

The

history.

Athenaeum,

Los

just as

nothing had happened. 4

On March now

and

11, Einstein

his wife left

Pasadena by

They

familiar route across the continent.

along the

train,

spent

March 14

in

Chicago, where, in honor of his fifty-fourth birthday and for the

Hebrew

benefit of

University in Jerusalem, a banquet had been

arranged, at which eminent scientists the governor of the state of Illinois

The

New

next stop was

—such

as

Arthur

Compton and

—made speeches.

York, with receptions,

rallies,

and formal

dinners every day, arranged by pacifist organizations to launch a

volume of Einstein’s

Hebrew

pacifist

speeches and writings, 5 and by friends of

University to collect donations. His views on the situation in

Germany, which he expressed sions,

were snatched up by the press and disseminated.

condemned to the

in speeches or interviews

Hitler’s

German

government but was restrained

He

people.

called

on the

civilized

on these occa-

He

resolutely

in his references

world to practice

“moral intervention” against Nazism, in the hope that the

German

people would not be able to disregard foreign disapproval of the

shameful treatment of erals

—but

“it

pacifists, socialists,

would be

a great

German agitation.” 6 When, on the day of his

communists, and even

lib-

mistake to indulge in general anti-

New York,

departure from

the newspapers

reported that the Nazis, searching for weapons or other evidence, had

broken into

his

house in Caputh, he described

this action as “the result

of the sudden takeover of police powers by the rabid militia.” 7 false, 8

Even when he subsequently learned

mob

of Nazi

that these reports

were

they confirmed him in abandoning any thought of returning to

Germany. In the meantime he had spent

met Oswald Veblen, Institute for

day in Princeton, where he

mathematician and

a future colleague at the

Advanced Study, and had looked around

probably already with

During

a

a

his

a

permanent residence

crossing on

the

familiar

in

for a

house

mind.

Belgenland

,

Einstein had

Exile as Liberation

decided to sever his diately sels,

on

and

ties

his arrival in

at the

Germany

with

661

finally

and completely. Imme-

Antwerp, he had himself driven by car to Brus-

German

legation there he

handed

in his passport

and

citizenship. 9 Before that, he

had

declared his renunciation of

German

sent a letter to the Prussian

Academy, the

bitter necessity for

which

was beyond question but which must nevertheless have been painful for

him

to write:

The conditions at present prevailing in Germany induce me to lay down herewith my position in the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Throughout 19 years the Academy provided me with the opportunity to devote myself to scientific work, free from any professional obligations.

owe

to

It is

it.

the great measure of gratitude

I realize

with reluctance that

I

leave

its circle,

I

also because

of the stimulation and the beautiful personal relations which,

during that long period of my membership, greatly appreciated.

my

present circumstances,

hoped by

this

this

enjoyed and always

However, dependence on the Prussian gov-

ernment, entailed by

Although

I

position,

I feel

is

something

that,

under the

to be intolerable. 10

may not have been

his

main consideration, Einstein

statement to save his colleagues in Berlin from running

into problems with their

new political

masters. In this, however, he did

not succeed. His departure from the Prussian Academy was to have

a

macabre epilogue.

For the Nazis, Einstein had always been one of ures. After their seizure of

him with no holds

barred. It

Beobachter published the

Nobel Prize

power, the

most

laureates Philipp

the time had

come

idea of creating a

is

German

their

hardly surprising that Volkischer

vile attacks

on him, or even

—He

Is

physics.”

Not Coming

Einstein’s remarks in

hatred.

that the

Lenard and Johannes Stark now thought and their crazy

But even reputable papers were

vying with each other to display their Nazi credentials. of Einstein

fig-

press was free to attack

for their distasteful anti-Semitism

“German

most hated

“Good News

Back!” wrote one of them, 11 with

America providing the background

for tirades of

Pacifist and the

The

662

Max

how

Planck, uncertain

stein of his

emerged

to react,

“profound distress” over

in this unquiet

and

it

exceedingly difficult for

up

I

all

on March 19 informed Einkinds of rumors which have

time about your public and pri-

difficult

vate statements of a political nature.

importance. But one thing

“all

Bomb

I

am

in

see very clearly

those

no position

—that these reports make

who esteem and

for you.” In a grotesque reversal of cause

and

revere you to stand

way made

your

tribal

companions and

easier but in fact

he held Ein-

effect,

stein responsible for the fact “that as a result, the

situation of

to judge their

anyway

co-religionists here

made even more

difficult is

in

no

oppressed.” 12 But there

was worse to come.

On March

23,

the parties in the Reichstag, except the Social

all

—the Communist deputies had already been taken confavor of an centration camps or had gone underground — had voted Democrats

to

in

“empowering law” and thereby, within the meaning of the German constitution, legitimately installed Hitler’s dictatorship.

new

ized, the

rulers apparently

instruct the Prussian

Academy

Thus

legal-

had nothing more urgent to do than

to start formal disciplinary proceedings

against Einstein, naturally with the objective of expelling him. 13

Planck was on vacation when he learned of

this intention, simulta-

neously learning from a newspaper report that Einstein had renounced his citizenship in Brussels

and was resigning from the academy. With

an obvious sense of relief he immediately wrote to Einstein tered letter to Ehrenfest’s address in

seems to

me

the only

way

that

Leyden

would ensure

—“that

for

—by

this idea

regis-

of yours

you an honorable

sev-

erance of your relations with the Academy, and at the same time save

your friends from an immeasurable amount of grief and pain.” 14 This advice was not entirely unselfish: Planck was worried not so

about Einstein

as

much

about the reputation of the academy. That same day

he wrote to the acting secretary in Berlin that “starting formal exclusion procedures against Einstein flicts

me

into the gravest con-

of conscience. Even though in political matters a deep gulf

divides

me from

him,

I

am, on the other hand, absolutely certain that

in the history of centuries to as

would bring

one of the brightest

When

come

Einstein’s

stars that ever

name

will

be celebrated

shone in our Academy.” 15

Einstein’s letter of resignation

was received by the academy

Exile as Liberation

663

on March 30 and read into the minutes

at its

expulsion could have been settled, had

not been for the Nazis and

their

need

them by

The

for revenge.

his resignation

least that

was

now

“The

fury in the Ministry that he anticipated

was indescribable,” 16

Max von Laue

recalled.

being demanded of the academy was

statement against Einstein, to be issued

was that for that day,

it

meeting, the issue of

a Saturday, the

at once,

by April

1

.

Nazi leadership had

a

The

sharp

reason

called for a

“boycott of Jews,” and having Einstein kicked out of the academy

would have gone well with the posting of storm-trooper side Jewish shops.

dents, assistants, their

IDs and

The a

At the university and the

sentries out-

state library,

Jewish stu-

and Dozenten were prevented from entering and had

readers’ tickets confiscated.

only secretary of the academy then in Berlin, Ernst Heymann,

lawyer and Nazi' sympathizer,

felt

that he

had to add to these

shameful excesses against Jewish citizens by issuing

a

statement on

behalf of the academy, accusing Einstein of “atrocity propaganda” and concluding: “For this reason [the academy] has no cause to regret Einstein’s resignation.” 17

Max von Laue

was outraged

an extraordinary

at this insult and, at

plenary meeting, attempted to get the academy to disavow Heymann’s

unauthorized action. However, that meeting of April

6,

my

1933, was for

Not one motion; even Haber, who twenty

Laue “one of the most horrible experiences of voice was raised in support of his

life.” 18

years previously had passionately argued for Einstein’s appointment to

Heymann’s formulation and, along with

the academy, approved

colleagues, expressed his “thanks to

The academy, which had

him

for his appropriate action.” 19

included only one

and only one Nazi sympathizer, by

this

his

member

vote Nazified

of the Nazi Party itself

even before

the government resorted to coercion.

Einstein was unwilling to

let

the libelous accusation of “atrocity propa-

ganda” become attached to him; but, in an involved correspondence after his resignation,

he was unable to induce his former colleagues to

change their minds. They were loyally supporting the

Nazi regime had come exception

to

power

state,

and

as the

lawfully, they were, with only

—Max von Laue —not even capable of opposition

one

in spirit. 20

664

The

Pacifist

and the Bomb

In a personal letter to Planck, Einstein stated his view of his former colleagues’ behavior:

In particular

I

In favor of the

did not participate in any “atrocity propaganda.”

Academy

I

assume that

it

made such

a libelous

statement only under external pressure. But even in that case will scarcely

redound to

its

credit,

probably already ashamed of it. I

.

.

and many of the better

all

promoted Germany’s reputation, and

—

men are

.

should also point out that over

that

it

these years that

especially over the past few years

have only

never bothered

I

—the

I

right-wing press

systematically agitated against me, without anyone bothering to

stand up for me. But

now

the

Jewish brethren has compelled

war of extermination against

me

to

throw the influence

world into the balance in their favor

in the

I

my

have

2 .

In his reply, Planck deplorably equated terror and persecution of

wing sympathizers and Jews on the one hand with on the here.

I

“Two

other:

ideologies,

which cannot

left-

Einstein’s pacifism

coexist,

have clashed

have no sympathy with the one or with the other. Yours, too,

alien to

me,

as

you

will

remember from our conversations about

refusal of military service propagated

is

the

by you .” 22 By the time Planck

.

wrote these

lines,

also a “law

on the

there had been not only the “boycott of Jews” but reinstallation of a professional civil service,”

which

excluded Jews from state posts— and hence also from the universities

and other research institutions such

The

as the

Kaiser

Wilhelm

Society.

sharp differences between Einstein and Planck were no longer

solely political but touched

achievement of European

upon human

rights as the

most valuable

civilization. Nevertheless, this did

their personal relationship. Planck

not affect

had expressed the confident hope

“that despite the deep gulf that divides our political opinions, our per-

sonal amicable relations will never undergo any change .” 23 stein assured his father figure

death

—of

am happy

his

—the only one he had

undying loyalty and reverence: “In

that

you have met me

left after

And

Ein-

Lorentz’s

spite of everything I

in old friendship

and that even the

greatest stresses have failed to cloud our mutual relations.

These con-

tinue in their ancient beauty and purity, regardless of what, in a

665

Exile as Liberation

manner of

speaking,

speaking to someone

he criticized Planck,

else,

Kaiser

If occasionally,

his criticism

Goy I wouldn’t have remained

rather mild: “Even as a

Academy and of the

happening farther below .” 24

is

was always

President of the

Wilhelm Society under such conditions .” 25

Planck had stayed on in his posts in order to preserve the

scientific

On

and steer them through the hazards of the moment.

institutions

the issue of Einstein, he was already thinking of future generations

when he had

the following read into the academy’s record:

Herr Einstein

but Herr Einstein lished in our

among many outstanding

not just one

is

the physicist through whose essays, pub-

is

Academy, physical knowledge

been deepened in

physicists,

in this century has

manner whose importance can only be mea-

a

sured against the achievements of Johannes Kepler or Isaac

Newton. I feel it

incumbent on

me

to say this, lest future generations

should ever think that Herr Einstein’s professional colleagues

were unable It

fully to

would have been

comprehend

fine if

his

importance to science.

Planck had stopped there

—but he added

a

badly conceived sentence, a semiofficial Nazi interpretation which

undid

his earlier efforts:

It is

therefore

through

.

.

greatly to be regretted that

in the

Academy impossible

Herr Einstein

rendered his continued

his political behavior himself

membership

On the

.

26 .

eve of this declaration, books had been piled up and burned

opposite the university and within view of the academy. Writings

by Sigmund Freud, Lion Feuchtwanger, Heinrich Mann, Kurt Tucholsky, and spectacle

27 .

many

others were consigned to the flames in a satanic

But not even

of the academy see that

this

was not Einstein’s behavior but the terror

it

Germany that had made

macabre auto-da-fe made the mandarins

his parting

in

with the academy inevitable.

As Einstein had belonged not only

to the Prussian

Academy, but

to

countless scientific societies and associations, he requested his reliable friend

Max von Laue

“to see to

of these organizations.

.

.

.

it

This

that

is

my name is deleted

from the

lists

probably the right way to avoid new

The

666

Pacifist and the

theatrical effects.” 28 Particularly,

German

the

On

his arrival in

gian colleagues,

he no longer wished to belong to

whose president he had once been, or

Physical Society,

to the civil division of the

Bomb

famous Pour

le

Merite Order.

Antwerp, Einstein had been welcomed by some Bel-

who

offered

him accommodations

house in the neighborhood. But

as

in an old country

he intended to stay in Belgium for

the time being, he soon rented a vacation house, the Villa Savoyard, in

the small seaside resort of

modest than the dunes

his

—an

Le Coq

sur

Mer, near Ostend.

It

was more

house in Caputh, but magnificently situated among

ideal refuge for

him

to think about the future

and about

his plans.

There, during the

bank accounts loss

in Berlin

taken.

had been confiscated.

wicked beast in Germany and

to the

But

He

him

that his

did not regard this

now been promy money has been

him by

provision.” 30 in

He

Dutch

his

He

had always deposited

was not

more or

it

would soon have

did not need to accept the financial help offered

colleagues, “because

New York,

sonally, I

all

console myself with the thought that

I

gone anyway.” 29

are

days of April, news reached

of 30,000 marks as tragic for very long: “I have

moted

and

first

I

have been careful and made

his foreign earnings in

so that, at least materially, he had really

less close to

caught out, but practically

no

all

Leyden

worries: “Per-

those were

who

me.” 31

His secretary, Helen Dukas, and Walther Mayer, “the calculator,” arrived in

Le Coq

in April, thus

completing the household-in-exile.

His stepdaughter Margot and her husband Dimitri Marianoff had

fled

to Paris at the beginning of April, so that a search of Einstein’s apart-

ment on Haberlandstrasse, intended results. 12 Only his other stepdaughter, Kayser, were

still

May

a

Ilse,

produced no

and her husband, Rudolf

hanging on in Berlin, trying to save Einstein’s

papers, library, and furniture

the end of

for Marianoff,

from being seized by the Nazis. Toward

squad of brownshirt storm troopers ransacked the

apartment, picking up rugs, paintings, and a few other valuables. 33

Whatever was

left,

in particular his papers,

was brought to Lrance by

sealed diplomatic bag, thanks to the help of the

Andre Lrangois-Poncet, and from there shipped

Lrench ambassador

to America.

667

Exile as Liberation

As Einstein had

Germany, the was

tion,”

some time expected

for

made

decision,

in the

end

a

German

his

robbed of his childhood paradise

no longer wished

would have

in

to leave

by Hitler’s “national revolu-

kind of liberation. This was not the

had stripped off

that he

inevitable

that he

nationality.

He

Munich, when he

recalled being first

decided he

German, and he remembered “Papa” Win-

to be a

“Once

mistrust of Switzerland’s “large canton” in the north:

teler’s

Germans

again the

time

first

are paying for Bismarck’s disastrous educational

efforts.” 34

In 1914 he had returned to the land of his birth with mixed feelings,

not wishing to become

a

German

citizen for a

second time. That

he became one nevertheless was due to bureaucratic accidents, but Einstein accepted racy.

because he placed some hope in the

it'

new democ-

But even during the best periods of the Weimar Republic, he was

aware of

his precarious situation

among Germans: “To them

stinking flower, and yet they put

me

I

am

in their buttonhole time

a

and

again.” 35

In contrast to his the

Germans more

comments

—

sharply

in

America

albeit, to

in

March, he now judged

avoid endangering his friends,

only in private statements. His anger was directed mainly of the educated eign

classes, especially the professors.

members of German

He

at the failure

called

on the

for-

learned institutions “not to go along with

the fact that these societies accept without opposition the mortal struggle against liberal and Jewish intellectual workers. If appeals

remain tions

fruitless, I believe that

would be

Writing to

another rupture of international rela-

entirely justified.” 36

Max

Born, Einstein

said:

thought too favorably about the Germans sense).

But

I

“You know (in

— and

their cowardice.” 37 (Born,

served at the

it

may

its

even sympathy for them:

me by

be noted, could

— there was an exemption veterans dubious front— but he rejected for

this

Although Einstein realized that

government and

never

the political and moral

have retained his professorship

their

I

have to confess that they did somewhat surprise

their brutality

who had

that

a lot

of

favor.)

Germans were ashamed of

criminal actions, he ruled out any pity or “I

was there when for many years they nur-

The

668

tured the viper in their bosom, and

mouse

But they

holes.

Bomb

Pacifist and the

will

soon

when

hell erupted they hid in their

on

feel

their

own

skins the conse-

quences of their lack of a sense of duty.” 38 Fritz Haber, the baptized, overassimilated

Jew (who,

like

Born, had

served at the front), initially intended to stay. But in the end he could

not find

it

in his heart to sack Jewish colleagues

know

.

cooled

.

off.

up here cause.”

in exile, not without

Who

as the

would have thought that

“I

am

delighted to

my

dear Haber would turn

champion of the Jewish, and indeed the

Palestinian,

As Einstein was well aware of Haber’s deep attachment to any-

made

thing German, he tonia”

some mockery:

your former love for the blond beast has somewhat

that

.

did not enjoy his

he considered going to Jerusalem. Einstein wel-

privileges; in fact,

comed him

who

it

clear that there

for honest people,

departure: “Surely there that lies

on

its

is

no future

working

in

common

“Teuhis

for an intelligentsia

some

criminals and even, to

extent, sympathizes with those criminals. I

left in

and that Haber should not regret

belly before

appoint, because

was no place

Me, they were unable

to dis-

never had any respect or sympathy for them

except for a few fine personalities (Planck 60 percent noble and Laue

100 percent).” 39

A

few months

Reich had

after the Nazis’ seizure

begun

just

to reveal

and when many people after

all,

still

its

of power,

when

the Third

perverse and diabolical character,

thought that things might not be too bad

Einstein had concluded the second

German

chapter of his

biography, and this time for good: “I probably won’t see the country of

my birth

again.” 40 His parting

was without nostalgia; and

his solidarity

henceforth was with the persecuted and expelled, particularly his “tribal

companions”: “[To me] the best thing always

few fine Jews.

A few millennia

of a civilized past

is

contact with a

mean something

after

all.” 41

had needed any consolation during the first few weeks of he could have found it in a multitude of well-intentioned

If Einstein

his exile, offers.

He was

asked to give some lectures in Brussels. In Oxford, Lin-

demann wanted ship.

to convert his “research studentship” into a professor-

From Madrid he had

a prestigious invitation for the

summer of

Exile as Liberation

1934, which he accepted.

He

669

from the College

also accepted an offer

de France in Paris, which Langevin had arranged. Soon he complained: “I have

The

brain. his

more

done

this for a

Abraham

year

obligation, in Princeton, he feared:

pouring in to Einstein, his institution

for

may have been concerned

He

whole academic

Walther Mayer.

While Einstein

realized that

“My

famous:

first aid for

hood

in

to set

year. 44

outside

For

Institute

a

time Einstein

terms in Pasadena for

famous refugees such

as

Max Born would

somewhere, he worried about the plight of the

heart bleeds

when

I

Jewish university teachers,

Germany, Einstein wanted

up

ornament of

he did not wish to give up Europe altogether

his “calculator”

less

have

he come to Princeton not

partly, perhaps, to ensure the best possible

find suitable positions

I

therefore not only offered Einstein whatever

for the winter but for the hesitated, partly because

that the

and neglect the

his energies

assistance he needed, but also proposed that

and

“When

learned from the press of the offers that were

would squander

Advanced Study.

my

be dead.” 43

I’ll

who

Flexner,

have useful ideas in

I

on the big numbers.” 42 And when he thought of

devil shits

most important

professorships than

think of the young ones.” 45 As

who had no

chance of

a liveli-

“to try, together with a few friends,

Jewish guest university for Jewish Dozenten and professors

a

Germany

(England?), to meet at least the most urgent require-

ments and provide

a

kind of intellectual asylum.” 46 His liaison in En-

gland was Leo Szilard, who, immediately on his arrival there, had involved himself in organized assistance efforts. Szilard that an

It

was partly due

Academic Assistance Council was soon

to

able to mitigate

the worst hardships.

Over the

first

weeks of

his exile, Einstein

pursued his project of

refugee university with great zeal; he intended to “use

money, the residence permits

to raise the location.

would

.

.

.

This

is

the only

few weeks “that the

in a dignified

and

manner.

Germans.” 47 However,

his

a It

com-

his organizational skills,

he had to admit

difficulties are insuperable,

and that such an

mitment being greater than after a

his influence

for those concerned,

way of helping

also be a living disgrace for the

all

a

The

670

would impair the

enterprise tries.” 48

In

fact,

more

rably

Pacifist and the

men

like

efforts

Bomb

being made in the individual coun-

Lindemann and Rutherford were incompa-

efficient in organizing the

Academic Assistance Council

than Einstein could ever have been with his “refugee university.”

One problem

with the idea of

a “refugee university”

was the

fact that

there already was a Jewish university, the one in Jerusalem, which

claimed to be for

all

Jews.

mann, therefore believed

Many

that

it

Chaim Weiz-

Zionists, especially

was Einstein’s duty to go to Jerusalem.

But ten years previously Einstein had noted, with regard to moving to Palestine, that while his heart said yes, his reason said no. 49 Besides,

there was his conflict with the administration of Hebrew University.

March 1933, Einstein had brusquely declined an invitafrom Weizmann. Even though, at Weizmann’s request, he had

As early tion

as

rejoined the university’s board in 1932 and had again raised it

him was

in America, the university to

but charlatanism.” 50 Without vise

was

a

still

—nothing

“a real pigsty

“thorough purge” one could “not ad-

any decent person to go there.” 51 Whether such justified

is

money for

an open question; but there

is

fierce criticism

no question

while calling for Jewish solidarity, was jeopardizing

it.

To

that Einstein,

Ehrenfest he

reported that he was fighting for reform of the university “with a brutality that

not so

would amaze you.” 52

much amazed

Many

of his “tribal companions” were

as appalled.

In the past, Einstein had voiced his criticism of

only privately, but he abandoned

He

fixed, is

first

board

University

spring of 1933.

upon which such

great

unable to play the role in satisfying intellectual

needs that should be expected of the

this restraint in the

regretted publicly that “this university,

hopes were

Hebrew

it

at this critical period.” 53 Also, for

time he publicly announced that he had resigned from the

five years previously.

Although Weizmann was shocked by Einstein’s behavior, he still wanted to lure the “Jewish saint” to Jerusalem. He again promised the reform demanded by Einstein, and even the establishment of rate research institute.

When

Einstein got

a

news agency

a

sepa-

to inform

Weizmann publicly that the latter knew very well “under what circumstances I am prepared to work for the Hebrew University,” 54 Weiz-

Exile as Liberation

mann

twisted this statement around to

mean

671

that Einstein

accept a professorship in Jerusalem. This was not so

“He

complete

much diplomacy

and Einstein complained about Weizmann, though not

as blackmail,

publicly:

was ready to

an intelligent and charming man, but unfortunately

is

liar (a

Jewish Alcibiades ).” 55

Weizmann

a

for his part felt that

Einstein was “acquiring the psychology of a ‘prima donna’

who

is

be-

ginning to lose her voice .” 56

One

result of this

polemic was that the board and

a

commission

thoroughly examined the university. After two years of investigations

and consultations, the responsibilities of Judah Magnes, stein tions.

saw

root of

as the

all evil,

Academic matters and

were now the business of a

Hugo Bergmann was

knew Bergmann from Prague and esteemed him

Thus Hebrew University had put Einstein’s loyalty to the

schizophrenia.

He

out on a

new

Germany about

fact that his

appointed. Einstein as a “serious saint”;

course which no longer

the Nazi terror, Einstein

younger son, Eduard, had developed

therefore decided to postpone his trip to Oxford,

originally planned for the in

set

rector,

test.

In addition to the news from

had to face the

Ein-

were reduced to representative func-

staffing

or principal, a post to which

whom

end of May:

“I

wouldn’t have

a quiet

minute

England,” he apologized to Lindemann. “Although you are not

father yourself,

I

am

sure

you

understand .” 57

will

He

first

a

had to give

three lectures promised to the Belgian Franqui Foundation in Brussels

before traveling through France to Zurich to see his son It is

commonplace

a

envied; and

mark on

it is

—because of the be which they are subjected — are not

that sons of

attention and expectations to

58 .

famous

men

to

also accepted that conflicts

their children. Einstein,

who,

between parents leave

in spite of

being

a “loner,”

greatly attached to his sons, had tried hard, after his separation

a

was

from

Mileva, to perform his role as father. This had not always been easy for

him, because ofMileva’s “Medea syndrome” and because of the loyalty his sons

had

who would forcibly to

to their

mother. Moreover, he had been

stay out of touch for

impose

his will

on

a difficult father,

months on end and then would

try

his sons.

His older son, Hans Albert, had

a taste

of that

when he intended

to

672

The

Pacifist

and the Bomb

way

that far

own mother had made about

Mileva.

get married. Einstein opposed the marriage in a brutal

surpassed the scenes which his

Not only did he Hans

dissuade

mobilize his friends, such as Anschutz and Zangger, to

Albert; he also had the medical history of the

unwanted daughter-in-law investigated

his

had

—

hard

after a

mother of

life,

she had

one time undergone psychiatric treatment. Einstein was

at

as

firmly convinced of the hereditary nature of mental illness as he was of his unified field theory; for this reason,

and because

of Mileva’s

a sister

had developed schizophrenia, he was greatly worried about the of mental illness on both sides of the family. 59

who was soon his

as

own

feet.

Two years

as

ETH diploma exam and was able to stand on

later Einstein

“very disrespectfully promoted tions

Albert, however,

mind, married his fiancee

his father’s equal in strength of

he had passed the

Hans

effect

between father and son,

him

if

reported that his older son had

to grandfather.” 60 After that, rela-

not excessively warm, were free from

conflict.

Eduard, the younger son, seems to have been Albert. After a childhood

less

marked by frequent

robust than

Hans

including

illnesses,

tuberculosis at the age of thirteen, he developed into a sensitive boy, a

good student, with considerable

tainly superior to his father as a poet. 61

fascinated

mined

While

by Sigmund Freud’s writings, and

to study medicine.

in Berlin

and musical

literary

—

September

As

for example, in

in

a

fall

first

at

school he was

after graduation

he deter-

student he repeatedly visited his father

March 1930 on Haberlandstrasse and

Caputh. “Albert

is

happy with him,” recorded

Soon, however, signs of serious mental

were

still

and cer-

talent,

illness

in

Elsa. 62

appeared. His studies

neglected and subsequently became impossible, and in the

of 1932 he had a major episode of schizophrenia and had to be

taken to the Burgholzli psychiatric hospital. Zangger and Besso

informed Einstein of this tragic development, urging him to look his threatened

after

son and take care of him: “That would be best for

both.” 63 Einstein, however, viewed his son’s condition as

more or

less

incurable and due to heredity on the boy’s mother’s side: “Everything

unfortunately indicates that the grave heredity will [have] effect [on] him. I

have seen

it

coming, slowly but

its

irresistibly,

decisive

ever since

Exile as Liberation

Tedel’s youth.

The

role in such cases

get at.” 64

And

Zangger

external occasions and influences play only a slight

compared went

off he

initially

and continue

thought that Eduard might make

the spring of 1933.

when he

but

this

hope did not

a full

man

There

recovery

materialize. After

which tested Mileva almost beyond the

endurance, the young

ings

which no one can

to the secretory causes,

to Pasadena.

his studies,

painful months,

673

limits of her

again had to be admitted to Burgholzli in

is

visited his son.

no written evidence about

No

Einstein’s feel-

doubt he was profoundly shaken, and

he certainly determined to make sure his son’s future was financially

Beyond

secure.

he

this,

may have

when

expressed to his friend Ehrenfest,

had

Down

on

acted

a

view which he had once

Ehrenfest’s son Vassik (who

syndrome) had to be placed in an

individuals

must not be

instance.” 65

When Einstein left Eduard,

institution: “Valuable

sacrificed to hopeless things, it

was

not even in

this

a final farewell.

From Zurich Einstein went straight to England, where he arrived on June 1. The day after his arrival he was enthusiastically feted as the guest of honor at Lord Rutherford’s Robert Boyle Memorial Lecture

—now not only

as the greatest physicist since

Newton

but also as

a

symbol of moral integrity and opposition to dictatorship. With Rutherford, and particularly with

many

in April

researchers

to

Lindemann

—who had toured Ger-

inform himself on the situation of discharged

and recruit the best of the young physicists for

—Einstein discussed ways and means of

Clarendon Laboratory tance.

But he avoided public

political statements, realizing

his

assis-

by then

that

they would only provoke the Nazis. Besides, in the atmosphere of creative quiet at Christ

Church College, he wanted

to prepare a few

lectures.

On Jane House,

a

10, Einstein

gave the Herbert Spencer Lecture

largely comprehensible

Methods of Theoretical

Physics. 66

exposition of his views:

For the

first

although he was reading his lecture from

German

text.

More

at

it

On

the

time he spoke in English,

a written translation

significant than this linguistic premiere

explanation of his research procedure, as

Rhodes

of his

was the

had matured over the past

674

The

Bomb

Pacifist and the

no

logical road

to theoretical conceptual systems,

he explained

ten years and hardened into a credo. As there exists

from statements of fact

to his audience that “the axiomatic foundation of physics cannot be

derived from experience, but must be freely invented.” Such invention

must be guided by confidence the simplest that

is

“that nature represents the realization of

mathematically thinkable,” and by the hope that

through pure mathematical construction “pure thought

comprehending

reality.” Actually,

hope

this

is

capable of

vastly overrates “pure

thought” in matters of cognition of nature, but Einstein adhered to despite

numerous disappointments,

Two

days later he gave the

and aided by

to the

Deneke Lecture,

few scraps of notes.

just a

prepare this lecture

end of his

He

it,

life.

this

German

time in

could not be persuaded to

—on the structure of physics—

for publication.

His

next lecture, the George Gibson Lecture given at the University of

Glasgow on June

him

20,

was

a fully

worked-out

to illustrate an important phase of his

complied with

a

fine

text.

own

His hosts had asked scientific

work; he

reconstruction of his greatest triumph, the

genesis of the general theory of relativity. 67

Back not,

at his refuge in

Le Coq,

was once more caught up by

Einstein,

whether he wanted

politics, this

it

or

time on the issue of his

pacifism.

At the beginning of July Einstein was notified that “the husband of the second

violinist

obvious that

would

this

like to talk to

you on an urgent matter.” 68

meant King Albert, and

cerned two young Belgians

who were

was

that the “urgent matter” con-

in prison for refusing to serve in

the army. Pacifist sympathizers expected Einstein to intervene behalf,

It

and the king wished to prevent

that.

on

their

A conversation in the gar-

dens of Laeken Palace resulted in agreement between the two

men on

the essential aspects, as Einstein confirmed to the king in writing: for

one thing,

view of developments in Germany, Belgium’s army was purely an instrument of defense, and indeed was necessary for defense; in

for another, a foreigner enjoying the hospitality of a country should

not intervene in matters such

former

pacifist fervor

now

as refusal

of military service. Einstein’s

resulted merely in a request to the king to

675

Exile as Liberation

create alternative service for conscientious objectors instead of labeling

them

criminals. 69

But Einstein was being pressed to defend the two imprisoned men, and he could no longer avoid mind.

He

working

a public

statement on his change of

provided one without delay. As

Germany was

“obviously

out toward war,” France and Belgium in particular were

all

“in grave danger

and absolutely dependent on their armed forces,” he

stated in a letter to be disseminated

among

Moreover, he

pacifists.

declared that although barely three years before he would “rather have

been cut to pieces” than serve if I it

were

a Belgian, I

upon me

When

in the in

in the forces,

“under today’s conditions,

would not refuse military

service,

knowledge of serving European

August 1933

this

civilization.” 70

statement appeared in the papers in

France, and subsequently in England and America, a

bombshell among

bitter

“The

had the

effect of

Some were disappointed and others volte-face, which many called an unscrupulous

antimilitarists are falling

gade,” Einstein said,

it

pacifists.

about Einstein’s

betrayal.

but gladly take

summing up

on me

as

on

their reactions.

wicked rene-

a

“Those fellows

simply wear blinders and refuse to acknowledge the expulsion from ‘Paradise.’

” 71

Over the next few months and

pion of militant pacifism would have to do

years, the

a lot

former cham-

of explaining to his

former comrades. In countless statements Einstein argued that

it

was not that he had

betrayed his convictions, but rather that the political situation had

changed. “I

am

the same ardent pacifist as before,” he insisted. “But

I

believe that the instrument of refusing military service can only be

advocated again in Europe

when

the military threat to the democratic

countries from the aggressively-minded dictatorships has ceased to exist.” 72

More

sensitive criticism

change of opinion

was directed not so much

as at the absolute assurance

proclaimed his present views consider the possibility of

as the

with which he always

only correct ones. “Did he never

a situation like today’s,

when implementa-

tion of refusal to serve, as propagated by him, could

gerous?” asked

Romain

at Einstein’s

become dan-

Rolland, who, like Einstein, abhorred war but

The

676

who had

Pacifist and the

always regarded Einstein’s

and dangerous. For Rolland

tive

in science, field.

.

.

.

two percent” argument

now seemed

as

decep-

that “Einstein, a genius

weak, indecisive, and contradictory outside his

is

Elis

it

a

Bomb

own

continuous change of opinion and the hesitation and dis-

crepancy in his actions are worse than the inflexible obstinacy of declared enemy.” 73 Rolland’s diagnosis proved did not change his

German

the

mind

again:

wrong

he would continue to

a

in that Einstein

insist that, against

aggressor, military strength had to be the

supreme law of

“the nations which have stayed normal.”

Much

Le Coq may have been

as Einstein’s stay in

Belgian seaside resort had one major disadvantage

Germany.

It

would have been foolhardy

Nazis were out for the

on

his head. 74

The

—

it

to ignore

of their hated exile and

life

like a vacation, the

was too close to

rumors that the

had even put

a price

Belgian government had therefore detailed two

police agents to protect the eminent guest, but Einstein found his continual supervision

both comical and annoying, and hardly

efficient.

Although the inhabitants of Le Coq had been asked to pretend ignorance

way

when questioned about

to the Villa Savoyard

Einstein, any stranger asking the

was readily directed

two detectives had no idea how

there. Naturally, the

sightseers and legitimate visitors, with the result

guest of the Einsteins was in a

permanent

state

pretending not to be

first

among harmless that many a genuine

to spot an assassin

detained in the dunes. 75 Elsa was living

of excitement, so that Einstein, though at least afraid,

leave the idyllic spot and the

decided at the beginning of September to

European continent

altogether. Possibly,

he was also reacting to the assassination of Theodor Lessing by Nazi agents in Marienbad (Marianske Lazne) in Czechoslovakia on August 30, 1933.

On

September

8,

Einstein took the ferry to England.

A few months

he had accepted an invitation from

Commander Oliver LockerLampson, an officer, barrister, journalist, and member of Parliament. In this last capacity Locker-Lampson had induced the House of Comearlier

mons

to offer Einstein British nationality. In July, Einstein

had already

been Locker-Lampson’s guest and, accompanied by him, had called on Winston Churchill, Austen Chamberlain, and Lloyd George. With

677

Exile as Liberation

Churchill in particular he found agreement on the danger represented

by Germany: “This

is

that these people have

an eminently clever man, and

made good

fully realized

I

preparations and will act resolutely

and soon.” 76

Einstein spent the

last

four weeks before his departure for America in

“cheerful exile” at a vacation

home belonging

the Norfolk coast, to the north of London. controversies, but there was

When

he declared

to

He

Locker-Lampson on

kept away from public

one important event he could not avoid.

his readiness to speak at a joint public rally of the

Academic Assistance Council, the Refugee Assistance Council, and other such organizations, the event was arranged in the Albert Hall,

London’s huge

circular

concert hall on the edge of Kensington

Gardens.

On

the evening of October

crowded into the rotunda.

On

3,

an audience of some ten thousand

the dais sat the great scholars

—Lord

Rutherford; Sir James Jeans, the physicist; and Sir William Beveridge, director of the

ent had

but with

come a

London School of Economics. But most of those

He

to hear Einstein.

spoke in English, in

a clear

pres-

voice

strong accent. Without naming Germany, he depicted the

danger emanating from that country; he thanked the English for having remained loyal to their tradition of justice and tolerance, and voiced the hope that

it

would be

freedom and honor of

this

said in the future “that in

continent was saved by

nations.” 77 In conclusion, he perplexed his listeners

pensive quiet of lighthouses and lightships: to

fill

such posts with young people

its

western

by referring

“Would

who wish

our day the

not be possible

it

ponder

to

to the

scientific

problems, especially those of a mathematical or physical nature?” 78 Einstein

made an overwhelming

The

impression.

hailed the charismatic scientist as a “double symbol

mind

traveling in the cold regions of space, and a

week

later,

in

a

symbol of the

symbol of the brave

and generous outcast, but pure in heart and cheerful

A

—

British press

Southampton, Einstein boarded

79 in spirit.”

a

steamship from

Antwerp. His wife and Helen Dukas were already on board, and the party also included Walther Mayer. Einstein and his entourage were

678

The

traveling

month

on

Pacifist and the

visitors’ visas

stay at Princeton.

Bomb

because the plan was

The

still

for only a six-

following spring Einstein intended to be

back in Europe. As the Westemland sailed down the Channel toward the Atlantic, he did not

know

World

He was never to

for the last time.

that he

was seeing the shores of the Old return.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE Princeton

Einstein’s arrival in America

(after a crossing that

was some-

times rough) had been organized by Flexner not as a triumphal progress but as

New

clandestine operation. As the Westemland approached

a

York harbor,

launch came alongside. Einstein and his party

a

were taken to the Battery, on the southern

of Manhattan, for

tip

speedy immigration processing, and he was then taken over by trustee of the Institute for

York was parade

still

at

Advanced Study. While the mayor of New

waiting to welcome the world’s most famous Jew with a

Twenty- third

the

Street pier

because the election campaign was in

Jewish vote

For the

a

full

—Einstein had arrived by car

entirely unselfishly,

swing and he needed the

in Princeton.

few days, rooms had been booked

first

Peacock Inn, where curiosity than

—not

it

it

at a small hotel, the

was easier to shield Einstein from importunate

would have been

elegant Nassau Inn, the

at the

leading hotel in town. Within a few days Elsa had found an apartment in

one of the houses, near the campus and opposite the Theological

Seminary, which formed an elegant residential area of wandering as that

would be

“Princeton

is

a

a refugee,

his

Einstein once

refuge

for

the

more had

final

1 .

After six

home,

a

at the

town

in a

two decades of

wonderful piece of earth and

months

his

life.

same time an

exceedingly amusing ceremonial backwater of tiny spindle-shanked

semigods,” he wrote, describing his experiences of the

during which he had already found sible,

a

by offending against the bon

rhythm ton

splendid undisturbed existence, and that

679

,

for his

first

life:

four weeks,

“But

it is

to ensure for oneself is

what

I

am

doing .” 2

pos-

some

680

The

Among America’s

and the Bomb

Pacifist

elite universities,

of an academic ivory tower in

its

Princeton represents the dream

purest form

—insulated from the

of America, snobbish, arrogant, and with restrained wealth. is

rest

The town

grouped around the all-dominating campus, and apart from the uni-

versity there

is

virtually only the small trade associated with

houses of affluent

citizens,

mater, but making their elsewhere.

The many

money

in

New

scholars expelled

Princeton in the 1930s

made

most of them alumni

may have found

York,

closely at the imitations of English

and the alma

loyal to their

miles distant, or

fifty

from Germany who came that their acclimatization

by reminders of Europe; and

easier

it,

if

to

was

they did not look too

Gothic and other

they might

styles,

almost think themselves in Oxford or Cambridge.

The

many decades, a favorite for the educagentlemen,” who were interested less in intellectual

college was once, for

tion of “southern

brilliance than in acquiring social polish.

century

it

But around the turn of the

developed an ambition to surpass the Old

World even

academic standards; and thereafter Princeton established

— and

citadel of learning a

world leader. All

when he

this

in

some

disciplines,

Advanced Study

some misgivings about

the university, despite its

as

itself as a

mathematics,

at Princeton,

this

was offered hospitality

exclusive rival,

at

the

the institute’s school of mathematics university’s

Fine Hall.

Fine Hall

belonged to the department of mathematics, inaugurated only it

was here that Einstein’s remark, from

1921, was written on the chimneypiece:

malicious he

is

on the second institute, all

not.” Einstein floor,

“The Ford God

was assigned an

of whom were mathematicians

brilliant

Berlin. In

John von Neumann,

January 1934

this

Hermann Weyl. Weyl had institute,

cessor

—

hoping

few

his visit in

is

subtle, but

attractive corner

who had been

initially

as dean;

whom

high-powered

to continue the

until Hitler

a

room

next to the rooms of his few colleagues at the

by Princeton University— Oswald Veblen, and the

and

birth.

With no premises of its own,

years previously;

as

had been taken into consideration by Flexner

established his Institute for

readily assisted with

such

in

James Alexander;

Einstein

circle

snatched up

knew from

was augmented by

declined an invitation from the

Gottingen tradition

as Hilbert’s suc-

quashed that hope. Weyl by then had given up

his

Princeton

681

more

excursions into theoretical physics and was concentrating once

on pure mathematics. In consequence, “without prejudice

to our con-

tinuing cordial personal relations,” 3 there was no scientific link be-

tween him and Einstein. In addition to the four professors, the institute had over a dozen

younger

“workers,”

scientists, called

who were hoping

temporary collaboration with the

this

to benefit

from

Walther Mayer,

“illustrious.”

thanks to Einstein’s perseverance, had the exceptional status of an “associate.”

At the

university,

moreover, Einstein met

few acquain-

a

tances from Berlin, such as Professor Rudolf Ladenburg and the theoretician arrived,

the

Eugene Wigner. In March 1934 Erwin Schrodinger

one of the few non-Jewish professors to have

summer of

1933.

The

hope of

him

university offered

sorship, but, having just received a in the

young

a better-paid

Nobel

left

Germany

in

a prestigious profes-

Prize, Schrodinger declined,

post at the institute. That, however, was

not offered him, and in April he therefore returned to Europe. 4 Einstein

would have

liked to have Schrodinger as a colleague

tried to speak for him, but

he had

lost all influence

and even

with Flexner

result of a fierce conflict with him, culminating in a threat

as a

by Einstein

to leave the institute.

What

led to the controversy

like a guardian,

his

own

he

felt it his

licity,

desires

and to

justified.

was Flexner’s attempt to exert control,

over his prominent employee’s

and partly through those of

Thus he had

tried,

by telegram,

part in the rally at Albert Hall in

informed Einstein of

On

this

his arrival, Flexner

gangs in rity in

Partly through

his conservative patrons,

members from pubend every means, however dubious, seemed to him

duty to shield the institute and this

affairs.

this country,” to

its

to forbid Einstein to take

London, but Locker-Lampson had

only just before his departure for America. 5

warned Einstein against “irreponsible Nazi add weight to his urgent advice: “Your secu-

America depends on your silence and the rejection of

all

public

appearances.” 6

Although Einstein himself felt was unwilling to cut himself off curtailed

by someone

else.

a

need for

totally, let

Even on such

a quiet

and retired

life,

he

alone to have his freedom

a trivial public occasion as a

The

682

Pacifist and the

Bomb

conversation with representatives of a student newspaper, Flexner

When New York

intervened like an angry governess.

Einstein was to appear as a

violinist at a charity concert in

for the benefit of refugees,

Flexner tried to

foil

the arrangement by

to the organizers, telling

regarded stein

it

as entirely

them he would

The arrival

White House, and had been

invitation

by

a friend

Flexner also

“fire” Einstein.

behalf—he even declined an

his this

proved to be the immediately

initiated

of his, Rabbi Stephen Wise in

meeting between the famous

that a

calls

normal to withhold any mail addressed to Ein-

and to decline invitations on

invitation to the

making vicious telephone

exile

last straw.

Einstein’s

after

New York.

was

It

felt

and President Franklin

Delano Roosevelt would draw attention to the plight of Jewish refugees from

Germany. However, when the

institute at the

beginning of November, Flexner opened the

invitation arrived at the letter and,

without consulting Einstein, informed the president “that Professor

come

Einstein had entific

work

to Princeton for the purpose of carrying

in seclusion

and that

it

on

was absolutely impossible

his sci-

to

make

an exception which would inevitably bring him into public notice .” 7 Flexner added

a

reference to “irresponsible groups” and an assertion

that he had, in agreement with Einstein, declined invitations even

from

scientific societies “in

whose work he

is

really interested.”

No

doubt the White House was meant to conclude that Einstein was not really interested in the

When

work of the

Einstein learned from

president.

Washington 8

that an invitation had

been issued by the White House but had not reached him, the reason was obvious, and he did three things.

He

immediately assured Eleanor

Roosevelt of his keen interest “in meeting the

man who

is

addressing

the greatest and most difficult problems of our era with gigantic

energy .” 9

He

vented his fury

at

Flexner in a letter to Rabbi Wise,

written from “Concentration camp, Princeton .” 10 institute’s trustees a

long

list

him

sent to the

of Flexner’s arbitrary and tactless actions

and gross misjudgments, concluding with for

And he

a request that

they ensure

“security for undisturbed and dignified work, in such a

that there

is

no interference

at

every step of a kind that no

way self-

respecting person can tolerate. If this were to be considered impracticable, I

would propose

that

I

discuss with

you ways and means of

Princeton

my relations with your Institute in

severing

683

manner.” 11 The

a dignified

threat was sufficient; after a “storm in the ivory tower,” Flexner had to leave Einstein alone. Einstein was once

country, but

more

now without any influence on

a free

professor in a free

the running of the Institute

Advanced Study.

for

This bizarre episode was eventually followed by dent.

On

the evening of January 24, 1934, Einstein and his wife dined

with the Roosevelts Franklin

a visit to the presi-

Room.

No

at the

White House and spent

the night in the

record exists of the conversation on that evening.

Germany preferred more

Einstein no doubt pointed to the danger emanating from

and to the plight of Jewish refugees, but the president

harmless subjects like sailing and their acquaintance with the Belgian

monarchs

—about which The

doggerel. 12

rhymed

Einstein reported to the queen in

visit certainly

had no

effect

on bringing the

fate

of

silent

on

persecuted Jews to public attention.

“As

far as possible I

though not from concern about

political matters,

but because

I

have followed the amicable advice to keep

saw no chance of achieving anything

one way Einstein

many years, and

as a

“as a

Jew and

German

This was

a

resident and state employee for

person robbed by the Nazis of his pos-

would not be an objective judge

I

useful.” 13

corpse

justified his relative restraint in public statements.

Another reason was that

sessions,

my worn-out

in the eyes of the public.

Altogether, in this struggle Jews should emerge as

little as

possible in

Germany might be He may also have consid-

public, because otherwise opposition to Hitlerite

labeled a Jewish affair and thus weakened.” 14

ered that Americans, for to be lectured

by

guests,

Nevertheless, he rise

his

of Hitler.

He

still

all

their

open-mindedness, were not inclined

no matter how famous, had some lessons for

still felt

close to the

in their

pacifists,

own

country.

even after the

American Friends of Peace, but

emphasis had shifted toward what was to become his passion in

later years

—“world government.” Increasingly, he argued

his

in favor of

ensuring peace “through the creation of an international organization

embracing

power

all

major

states

.

.

.

with

at its disposal.” 15 In cautiously

a sufficiently

strong executive

formulated statements he tried to

persuade the Americans to give up their traditional isolationism and

Pacifist and the

The

684

Bomb

“to support in the near future the realization of an efficient interna-

The

tional central power.

pursuit of international solidarity

today

is

the best defense against fascism, which represents such a grave threat to our cultural life.” 16

Within

a

month of arriving

at Princeton, Einstein

was thinking about

He suggested to LinI am hardly justified in

severing his only contractual link with Europe.

demann

“that under the present circumstances

Church College

accepting a payment from Christ years.” Instead he

proposed that “some other colleague in the fine facility.” 17

might benefit from that get

him

to visit Oxford, Einstein

end of March 1934: “If it

is

America over the summer. like relative quiet

once in

ill

in Paris. In

York harbor and

possible

when

his stepdaughter Ilse fell seri-

—were

August the ashes of

Kayser was compiling in

The World as I See

become an American

on the coast of Rhode

citizen

was by then running

summer, remote a radiologist

Bucky had

New World

he

worked together on

gadgets.

from

sailing

yacht, a compensation for his “fat boat” in Caputh,

on

the nation and the state.

The

a

twenty-foot

which had already

been confiscated and resold by the German authorities

tides, forceful

a spacious,

Island.

In the

closer friends; they also

Einstein’s health benefited greatly

enemy of

who

even before Hitler’s seizure of power and

a profitable practice.

became one of Einstein’s

of his

It).

Along with Walter Bucky,

beautifully situated house

where

German under

in

had treated Einstein’s stepdaughters in Berlin, he rented

of an

New

—who had

a collection

Amsterdam

('

sailing.

Ilse

interred in the Netherlands,

Einstein meanwhile had found a refuge for the

some patentable

in

guy have something

his wife to the Belgenland in

which appeared

Weltbild

and suitable for

plans by the

a while?” 18

living.

father-in-law’s essays,

Mein

tried to

her travel to Europe on her own. Elsa was only

been only thirty-seven

title

summer

Why shouldn’t an old

able to watch her daughter die. In

the

his

field

go into hiding somewhere

I will

mid-May he saw

let

Rudolf Kayser was

Although Lindemann

had made

Einstein stuck to that plan even

ously

number of

for a

as the

property

Atlantic coast, with

winds, and massive waves, was considerably

its

more dan-

Princeton gerous than the Havel lakes, and

685

probably suited him; he was, in

this

a

romantic way, fond of experiencing the play of primal elements when out

sailing.

safety; as

or

He

cheerfully dismissed other people’s concerns about his

he had done in Berlin, he refused to carry an auxiliary engine

life jackets:

“If I have to

drown, then

be honestly.”

let it

When Elsa

returned from Europe, distressed and exhausted, she found her hus-

band

“in excellent shape.

Nothing

happy position of being able

work

so well.” 19

October,

as the

He

tragic really gets to him,

to shuffle

it off.

That

also

is

he

is

in the

why he

can

did not return to Princeton until the beginning of

second working period was starting

at the institute.

The art historian Erwin Panofsky, who came from Aby Warburg’s 20 Hamburg school and was one of the founding members of the institute’s school

of humanities, attributed the legendary reputation of the

institute to the fact that “its

openly and their teaching contrary

is

true of

many

members conduct

activities, as it

their research activities

were, secretly, whereas the

other learned institutions.” 21

researchers, regarding teaching and feedback

from

Many renowned their students as

indispensable, declined invitations to the institute; but this “ivory

tower” setup was entirely to Einstein’s

even in to

do

secret.

What

taste.

He

did not wish to teach,

he needed was time to think

— and

a collaborator

his calculations.

His “calculator,” Walther Mayer, however, sadly disappointed him.

As

late as the

autumn of 1932 they had published

a joint

paper in the

which they examined the spinors

Proceedings of the Prussian Academy, in

found by Dirac in terms of their usefulness for

22 a unified theory.

were continued amid the dunes of Le Coq and pub-

These

reflections

lished

by the Amsterdam Academy. 23 In Princeton, however, Mayer

participated in only one other paper

covering that he was not, after

all,

problems. Although he remained

pendent research

in

on the same subject 24 before

dis-

the right “calculator” for Einstein’s at the institute,

he turned to inde-

pure mathematics. Flexner and Veblen continued

to hold Einstein responsible for his “calculator,” with the result that for

some

ever,

years he was not allowed to

employ another

he found some younger collaborators

“workers,”

who worked

assistant.

among

with him with great dedication.

How-

the institute’s

The

686

and the Bomb

Pacifist

In spite of some squabbles, the Institute for

Advanced Study proved

an ideal workplace for Einstein. His contract, originally for five-month

had been converted to that of

stays over a period of five years,

professor,” with a salary matching that of

“full

Oswald Veblen: $16,000

annually. This was about twice the salary of a professor at the university;

indeed, Flexner’s creation was said to be not only an institute for

“advanced study” but also one for “advanced

on

ized that he could not have hit

whatever years were

my

the rest of ries

—some me

life” 25

beautiful,

“Sometimes tempt

left to

to

I

him

a better post

and prepared to spend

The “migrating bird for Europe now was only memo-

in Princeton.

had come to

some

salaries.” Einstein real-

rest.

terrible.

think back nostalgically to beautiful past hours; they

make

a

journey to Europe,” he admitted to the queen of

the Belgians in 1935, immediately noting one reason against

many

obligations

me

would await

there that

courage for such an undertaking.” 26

come

canceling Christ Church: “If I

and Madrid. But to undertake

He

cannot

I

“But so

summon

the

offered a similar reason for

must

to Oxford, I

all this I

it:

also

lack the courage

go to Paris

— and so

I’ll

probably remain sitting here.” 27 Naturally, he would also have had to

go to Zurich

—

to his sick son

and to Mileva

—and no doubt he lacked

the courage for that too.

He

wasted no nostalgia on Germany, which in any case he would

not have been able to enter. Although he wrote to his “dear old comrade” Laue “that the small circle of persons that used to be harmonically linked

was

scarcely ever be encountered

shed no tears for the wider

by

in his “small circle”

He

again,” he also admitted “that

did not specify

German

rest of the world.” 29

the

for war,

Western nations doing

who was

business

.

.

.

[was]

now only as

a

That danger he saw approaching was convinced that

and he was astonished and

little

included

Schrodinger, and Planck.

ineluctably. Since Hitler’s rise to power, Einstein

Germany was heading

I

was amusing for the unconcerned

—probably only Laue,

his “interest in the

danger to the

me

circle; it

observer rather than lovable.” 28

Otherwise

and in such human purity would

really unique,

to avert that danger.

bitter to see

— 687

Princeton

Having decided

to stay in Princeton, Einstein thought

become an American. As he had

on

arrived

best to

it

a visitor’s visa,

and

an

as

application for immigration could be filed only at a consulate abroad,

Einstein

made

—with

his wife, his stepdaughter

Bermuda

a sea trip to

excursion was to be his

Summer spent

1935. This brief and enjoyable

outside the United States.

hot, sultry, and

is

humid. Einstein therefore

Old Lyme on the estuary of the Connecticut

in

it

last stav

in Princeton

May

in

Margot, and Helen Dukas

River,

where

he indulged in veritable luxury. Proudly his wife described the rented vacation residence with “20 acres of land, meadows,

summer

glories, tennis court,

we

for the first ten days

ate

swimming

our meals

pool. ... It

husband was

a sailboat in

is

with

because

More important

which he made extensive

the

all

so elegant that

at the servants’ table,

too grand in the grand dining room.” 30

felt

fields,

we

to her

trips in the

wide

estuary funnel of the Connecticut.

That August an opportunity arose

buy

to

a

house in Princeton,

diagonally across the street from their apartment.

New England

the restrained in front this

and

house

a

at

style,

long narrow garden

was clapboard

narrow-fronted with at the back.

a small

in

garden

Inconspicuous and cozy,

112 Mercer Street differed in no

way from

residences of the neighborhood, but because of

one of the best-known addresses

It

its

the average

owner

it

became

in the world.

money left for renovation by Elsa, who shuttled for the

Einstein paid in cash and had enough

and conversions. These were supervised

summer between Princeton and

rest of the

Connecticut. While Einstein went floor of the Princeton

not exactly in

style,

decades

it

back wall of the upper a large picture

window,

but giving almost an effect of living outdoors;

wooded parkland

room became

to the

Graduate College in

Einstein’s study, and for the next

two

was the place where he spent most of his time and where he

happiest.

felt

sailing, a

house was replaced by

there was a view across the distance. This

the elegant country seat in

The

other rooms were largely furnished with pieces

saved from Berlin, including the grand piano.

As soon enjoy their eye,

and

it

as

they

moved

new home

in,

Elsa had a foreboding that she

for long.

was diagnosed

A bad

as a sign

would not

swelling had appeared near one

of serious circulatory and kidney

The Pacifist and the Bomb

688

problems. There followed a long winter of pain and medical treatments. Even a long

summer

vacation in the mild climate of the

Adirondacks, at Saranac Lake in southern Elsa only moderate

New

York

During the next few months

relief.

brought

State,

in Princeton

Einstein was so worried about his wife that, as Elsa herself reported,

“he went around miserable and depressed.

never thought he was so

I

She died

attached to me. That, too, helps.” 31

in

house in

their

Princeton on December 20, 1936.

The man whom

Elsa had looked

“Alberti” adjusted quickly to the

extremely well to

more

at

home

life

here,

new

two decades

situation.

my varied

“I

my

bear in

I live like a

than ever before in

for

after

life,”

her

as

have got used

den, and really feel

he wrote

after a

few

weeks of being alone. “This bearishness has been further enhanced by the death of

than

my woman

comrade,

who was

better with other people

am.” 32 But of course he was not alone in his house. Helen Dukas

I

took care not only of his mail and correspondence, his

visitors

and

appointments, but also of the kitchen and household. Also living in the

house was

his stepdaughter

divorce. But the

image of

Margot,

a bear

who had meanwhile

gotten a

was appropriate, because Einstein’s

deep-rooted sense of alienation became even more marked in Prince-

am not really becoming part of the human world here,

ton: “I

was too old when

I

arrived,

Berlin or in Switzerland.

and in point of

One

is

born

for that

was no different

fact it

a loner.” 33

I

in

This attitude was

probably intensified by the language problem. Although he wished to

become an American, he never of his

new

really

came

to grips with the language

country.

Einstein by then could read and understand English without culty,

but he found writing and speaking very

matter

at the institute, as

tors there

many

colleagues and

diffi-

difficult.

This did not

most of

his collabora-

had come from German-speaking countries, some of them

without any knowledge of English. With the others,

like the British-

born Banesh Hoffmann, Einstein would speak English, but with strong accent and a curious stress. 34

in

—because

German

—word

order and

This did not improve over the years. After more than

America he confessed to

Max

Born,

who

a

refused to use

a

decade

German

Princeton

during the war: “But

When

orthography.

what It

looks like

it

I I

689

cannot write English because of the insidious read

I

hear the word, but

cannot remember

I

on paper .” 35

was not quite

bad

as

He was

as that.

able to write simple notes in

English, but he continued to write in

German anything

important to him and,

translated.

German

to read

if

necessary, had

it

He

was

that

also preferred

rather than English and was astonished by the “funny

thing that everything seems

more

and

plastic

alive

when

it

appears in

the old language .” 36

Even though Germany had degenerated

“Barbaria,” he

home

felt at

into

only in German: he could formulate his

ideas and express his feelings only in the

words familiar to him from

childhood, with the result that in the “daily struggle with English”

only “the

German stepmother-tongue

is

left as practicable, to

my

sin-

cere regret .” 37

If Einstein felt fortunate “living

tiny ,” 38 this

was largely due to the

need for

his

solitude.

settled in their little

tion

by

Of

town

wisdom about

his

statements

here in Princeton in an island of des-

of white hair

—

this

genius

the universe and by his controversial political

Only from

(in the

when Einstein who had drawn so much atten-

course they were interested

—but snobbishness

cessive curiosity.

fact that the Prince tonians respected

as well as

a distance

good manners ruled out

were they amused by

his

ex-

mane

land of the crew cut); and from a distance they

chuckled discreetly over his habit of licking an ice cream on Nassau

way home from Fine Hall and were

Street

on

utterly

un-American long walks through the

his

Perhaps to bridge that remoteness,

a

streets of Princeton.

whole collection of harmless

anecdotes grew up around the famous man.

man who knew

so

walking through

number, only was

unlisted.

way

It

was amusing that the

the universe should lose his

and then forget

Princeton

to have Information refuse to give

The many stories

truth, but they

the

much about

probably said

astonished by his

own

his it

to

of this kind 39 probably

less

way while telephone

him because

all

had

a

it

grain ol

about Einstein than they did about

the citizens of Princeton reacted to the eccentric genius in

their midst.

Einstein also led a rather marginal existence with regard to the

Pacifist and the

The

690

He

growing colony of European refugees. mann’s splendid

parties,

Bomb

where science and

Neu-

avoided John von

were discussed into

politics

the small hours while liveried footmen served champagne, cocktails,

—

and whiskey of

just as

he avoided the informal gatherings

Hermann Weyl. With Thomas Mann, who was

versity in 1938 as a visiting professor for

he did with tie

all

The Manns

in a

grand house with servants, but

lect

was no more

of the house:

invited to the uni-

he shared

years,

(as

few blocks away,

lived only a

this patrician setting for

to Einstein’s taste than

“He was very

house

Nazi Germany, but no closer

refugees) a revulsion for

developed between them.

two

at the

he was to the

the intel-

taste of the lady

pleasant but not particularly stimulating.

Einstein had something childlike about him, such big goggle-eyes.

Really an enormous specialized talent, but in ordinary

life

.

.

he was not

.

a

very impressive person.” 40 In

New York he had

enough

—above

who had

practical matters,

were

less

whom

Leon Watters; and

initially

he was stimulating

smoothed

economist

the

Einstein’s

way

had advised him on finances, and

Dukas) had been chosen tacts

of friends to

the physician Gustav Bucky; the wealthy pharma-

manufacturer

ceuticals

Nathan,

all

a circle

Otto

in Princeton in

(jointly

with Helen

In Princeton Einstein’s con-

as his executor.

with the academic establishment than with outsiders,

such as the philosopher Franz Oppenheim, the historian Erich von Kahler, and the Austrian poet

Hermann

Broch.

Some

of these, like

Broch, he had helped to escape the Nazi terror. Einstein was continuously aware of the plight of the exiles and of

conditions in Germany, often in a family context. in

America he had made arrangements

relatives,

Soon

after his arrival

for the admission of his wife’s

and in 1937 Hans Albert arrived in the United States with

wife and son.

Two years later Einstein’s sister, Maja,

Her husband, Paul

and remained

into the house

in

Geneva with the

on Mercer Street

Bessos; but

in 1939.

In the course of helping his family, Einstein discovered cult

immigration had become.

An American

how

diffi-

consul would accept only

an immigrant whose national quota was not yet tion,

Italy.

Winteler, was refused entry to the United States

for reasons of health

Maja moved

had to leave

his

filled

and who, in addi-

could produce an affidavit by a resident of the United States

Princeton

691

guaranteeing that the immigrant would not become

As

Germany, Einstein again

in

“The main tragedy

is

public charge.

criticized the lack of Jewish solidarity:

that the sated

German Jews once

are, just as the

a

Jews

in the countries so far spared

were, indulging in the foolish hope

of being able to achieve their safety by silence or by patriotic gestures.

For that reason they now sabotage the acceptance of German

Jews, just as these previously sabotaged that of the Eastern Jews.” 41

American consuls saw

Besides, the

to

it

that immigration

was kept

within limits. Einstein did his best to help, with affidavits, loans

for

expenses

travel

—sometimes

gifts

of money, and

For

without being asked.

example, in 1935 a young violinist in Berlin, Boris Schwarz, with

whom

made

Einstein had

music, received an inquiry from “Elsa

Alberti” about whether he wanted to

was

stein’s affidavit

to

New

come

to America.

at the Berlin consulate: Boris

Soon Ein-

Schwarz could

travel

York. There he was accommodated by Einstein in a Jewish

home and

refugee

given

some

fatherly advice

on

his first steps in this

strange country. 42 Einstein also helped the children of his family

physician in Berlin, Otto Juliusburger.

thanks to Einstein’s

affidavits;

and

The

at the

children

very

last

came

to America,

moment, the aged

doctor and his wife were also able to leave Germany, again with Einstein’s help.

After the annexation of Austria in

March

1938, and the great waves of

emigration which followed, the limitations of private help became obvious. Einstein therefore took the initiative and tried to start a pro-

gram by which ties,

large organizations, such as the churches, the universi-

and the Red Cross, would appeal to the “conscience of

disposed people.”

No

state

is

He

open

well

drafted a proclamation:

entitled to physically annihilate a section of

lation living within

all

its

frontiers.

its

popu-

We are determined, in every way

to us, to prevent innocent people being driven to their

death, either by bilities

weapons or by systematic deprivation of all

of livelihood.

By

its

inhuman measures

against

possi-

German

and Austrian Jews Germany has embarked on that road of annihi-

692

The and

lation

using

is

toward the small

Bomb

Pacifist and the

its

military, political,

and economic power

of eastern Europe to annihilate their

states

Jewish populations in the same way. 43

no

In spite of Einstein’s prominence, though, this enterprise produced results.

Referring to his personal assistance efforts, he reported in the

summer

of 1938 “that

have

I

intellectual eccentrics,

and

I

a contact

agency for persecuted

can assure you that business

fantastically.” 44 Ele believed that the

—but not the problem of employment

ings were

still

after the

men. Einstein

would be

a

country in

Job open-

Great Depression; there was anti-Semitism

felt

driven to bitter sarcasm:

generous attempt to feed our a

in America.

and there was considerable reluctance to employ

in the universities;

elderly

booming

problems of immigration could be

overcome

few

is

as well as

exiles

over

“The

fifty in

best thing

some cheap

kind of ‘concentration camp.’ But even that will remain a

pious hope.” 45 In practical terms he had to point out that his

were

limited.

Although

known as a multicolored dog, I live no human connections.” 46 Soon, also,

were exhausted:

“I

can give no more

and would only jeopardize those already given wrote

who

money

are also extended to the limit.

from the poor people over there face of so

if I

issued

new

affidavits,

ones,” he

occupation of Prague. “The few people

after Hitler’s

have

opportunities

“as well

very quietly and have virtually his financial resources

own

much misery and

is

The

I

know

pressure on us

such that one almost despairs in the

the slight possibilities of helping.” 47

He

saw no end to the misery; he only saw worse things approaching. wouldn’t

like to live if I didn’t

As

it

in the past,

ever, “I

young

as

am

working

colleagues.

declined.” 49

had become an outsider and mainly “highly

an ancient labeled still

I

my work.” 48

was physics that sustained him, even though he

realized that in his field he

esteemed

have

“I

can

museum

steadily, still

piece and curiosity.” 48

How-

supported by a few adventurous

think,

but

my

working energy has

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX Physical Reality and

a

Paradox,

Relativity and Unified Theory

Einstein was not alone

in his

mocking description of Princeton

as

an “amusing ceremonial backwater of tiny spindle-shanked semigods”; but very soon he wa-s included by others ivory tower. “Princeton J.

is

among

madhouse,” observed the highly

a

Robert Oppenheimer about the

Institute for

January 1935, with the self-assurance of youth then thirty-one.

“Its

Oppenheimer

—who,

house” twelve years reflects

the

fact

mechanics and

is

that

—Oppenheimer 1

became the

—makes

no claim

Einstein’s

stubborn

later

Advanced Study

completely cuckoo.” In

incidentally,

this

to fairness, but criticism

In 1932 the positron

was

“madstill

it

of quantum

were getting on

the nerves of the younger creative physicists. This was

nomena which opened undreamed-of new

in

judgment,

director of that

his castle in the air, his unified theory,

true because Einstein refused to be diverted

gifted

shining in separate and

solipsistic luminaries

helpless desolation. Einstein

the curiosities of the

all

the

more

by newly discovered phe-

regions in physics. 2

— the “antiparticle” of the electron—had been

detected in cosmic radiation; this was the

first

representative of “anti-

matter.” Precision measurements of radioactive decay inspired Wolf-

gang Pauli

whose tions.

to postulate an entirely novel particle, the neutrino, with

aid Enrico

The

Fermi developed an

effective theory of weak interac-

discovery of the neutron as another building block of the

atom opened the door, both

theoretically

and experimentally, to what

for the first time could be called nuclear physics.

And

Einstein’s

former collaborator in Prague and Zurich, Otto Stern (before he had to

abandon

his chair in

Hamburg

in 1933

693

and emigrate to the United

694

The

Bomb

Pacifist and the

—by measuring the anomaly of the magnetic momentum of the proton— that even the nuclear building blocks must demonstrated

States),

have an internal structure.

What

only sporadically, and

He

cerned with.

by: he

whole profession passed Einstein

excited the

it

was not unaware of this

situation. In a

he saw these

on

ideas inevitably imposes

difficulties as a

moving obitu-

who committed

September 1933, Einstein described “the increased

new

man

a

were

suicide in

difficulty that

of

fifty.”

major reason for Ehrenfest’s

Suicidal thoughts, needless to say,

Indeed,

suicide. 3

alien to Einstein; with his

robust psychological constitution he merely flung back at the

quantum

mechanists the accusation of reactionary unteachability: “The point that

all

facts,

it

did not influence the problems he was con-

ary for his close friend Paul Ehrenfest,

adaptation to

noted

is

those fellows do not view the theory on the strength of the

but the

facts

on the strength of the theory

only; they cannot

escape from the conceptual net they have accepted, but can only daintily

wriggle in

tion that the

it.” 4

new

Einstein drew strength from his unshakable convicideas and discoveries

were only provisional and did

not affect the search for the fundamental laws of physics:

“I

can derive

only small pleasure from the great discoveries, because for the time

being they do not seem to

facilitate for

me

an understanding of the

foundations,” he said, in summary, after his

Princeton efforts.

the

—not

first

without being somewhat ironical about his

“In consequence

I feel

like a kid

who

ABCs, even though, strangely enough,

hope. After

all,

working period

one

is

can’t get the I

still

in

own

hang of

don’t abandon

dealing here with a sphinx, not with a willing

streetwalker.” 5

If Einstein

was the

was chasing

a sphinx,

ideal place for him.

had been

then the Institute for Advanced Study

Anyone of renown

a guest at the institute for a

in

few months.

mathematics was or

The

mathematicians

were setting the tone, and they intended physics, even in its mathematical and theoretical aspects, to remain a marginal area. In consequence, for institute.

establish

five years

Einstein was the only professor in his field at the

But he did not regret

this state

of

affairs,

nor did he try to

any close contacts with the physicists of the university.

Physical Reality and

On leagues

a

Paradox

695

when he gave a seminar lecture, his colwere amazed by his style. Young John Archibald Wheeler, who the rare occasions

was acquainted with the customary physicists

—solving one equation how one

stein “for the first time

“retail”

procedure of theoretical

another

after

—experienced with Ein-

can handle equations ‘wholesale.’

One

counted the number of unknown quantities and the number of mar-

and then compared these with the number of degrees

ginal conditions,

of freedom.

was not so much

It

a case

of solving the equations

as

of

deciding whether they even had a solution and whether that solution

was the only possible one.” Wheeler’s lasting impression was “that

way unwaveringly,

Einstein went his

unaffected by the great interest in

nuclear physics that was then predominating in the United States.” 6

Despite the general shaking of heads over Einstein’s obsession with

were

a unified theory, there

younger members of the

a

number of good

institute

physicists

among

the

who, unlike Oppenheimer, sought

out and appreciated proximity to the great man: “The nice thing here is

that

fact,

I

can work with young colleagues in the

field.” 7

Nowhere,

in

did the “loner” Einstein have such regular and intensive contact

with younger colleagues

as in

Princeton.

but came to him of their

assistants

own

accepted advice that for career reasons

with Einstein.” 8 Although

among

position

with him.

It is

morning

would be better not

to

a

to

work

as

a

it

none of them obtained

a

permanent post

either

or at the university (Einstein blamed this on the dis-

creet anti-Semitism in Princeton), but

Before long

accord, ignoring the widely

—more of monument than signpost, put — none of them regretted having worked

true that

at the institute

“it

not, formally, his

this advice did reflect Einstein’s strange

physicists

Oppenheimer used

They were

of them became professors.

routine developed for this cooperation. In the

a

—not too

room (Room 209

all

— Einstein would meet

early

in Fine Hall)

his

coworkers in

his

and discuss with them physical struc-

tures and mathematical approaches, the kind of thing

described as “wholesale” physics.

They

Wheeler had

separated about lunchtime.

After lunch his collaborators engaged in the “retail” work, whose results

stein

noon

would then be

was

jointly discussed the following

in the habit, after

in his

lunch and

a siesta,

morning. Ein-

of spending the after-

cozy study on Mercer Street, where, with Helen Dukas’s

The

696

Pacifist

and the Bomb

help, he dealt with his extensive correspondence, received occasional visitors,

The

and mainly pursued

own

thoughts.

no mathematics, but

its

content

quantum mechanics and had the

effect of

joint publication required

first

was provocative. a

his

It

dealt with

bombshell, whose smoke has not entirely dispersed to this day.

problem raised dox,”

some

known

it,

as the

“Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen para-

being intensively discussed. 9 Actually,

is still

paradox

in

quantum mechanics. The

peculiarities of

from Einstein but from Nathan Rosen,

who had come

can

to the institute in

with Einstein. Boris Podolsky,

had worked

Einstein, first

“For

who was

linguistic reasons the

really

I

main thing

is,

on

Ameri-

1934 and had chosen to work only seven years younger than

men had

at the institute.

paper was written by Podolsky, after pro-

longed discussions,” Einstein drawbacks. “But what

a

came not

a twenty-five-year-old

Caltech in Pasadena (where the two

at

much

a spotlight

original idea

met) and in 1934 was one of the few physicists

instead, the

not so

it is

impeccable conclusion which casts

as a logically

The

as

said,

reporting on

its

genesis and

wanted to say hasn’t come out so

it

its

well;

were, buried under learning.” 10 Subse-

quently he returned to the “main thing” repeatedly on his own, and in

German.

1

The argument does not aim tions in

proving mistakes or inner contradic-

quantum mechanics. By 1931,

accepted the

new theory

even credited

it

behind the

title

as efficient

if

not before, Einstein had

and free from contradictions, and

with “undoubtedly a piece of definitive truth” 12

not the whole truth,

let

—but

alone the definitive truth. Instead, hidden

of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paper, Can the

Quantum Mechanical plete ?, is

at

Description of Physical Reality

Be Regarded as Com-

an attempt to demonstrate that quantum mechanics repre-

sents only an incomplete description of physical reality and therefore

is

unable to get beyond the formulation of statistical regularities.

The

rather vague concepts in the

opening paragraphs.

title

are precisely defined in the

A “complete theory” would have to satisfy the fol-

lowing condition: “Each element of physical reality must have

spondence in physical theory.” Physical pragmatic criterion:

“If,

reality

is

a corre-

defined by a similarly

without disturbing the system in any way,

we

Physical Reality and

Paradox

a

697

can predict the value of a physical magnitude with certainty probability of

1),

then an element of physical reality

with

(i.e.,

a

exists that corre-

sponds to that physical magnitude.” 13 These preliminaries are intended to show, by means of

simple mental experiment, that the

a

quantum mechanics

description of physical reality by

The thought experiment Assume

When

runs something like

two electrons Ei and

that

E2

is

measured;

incomplete.

this:

have collided and flown apart.

they are very distant from each other, the

tron Ei

is

momentum

of elec-

because of the conservation law, simultane-

this,

—

momentum of E2 without any disturbance to the E2 system at the moment of measurement, even if the two electrons are light-years apart. Thus the momentum of E2 qualifies as an element of physical reality. But instead of measuring the momentum ously establishes the

—

of Ei one can measure

E2

position of

E2

location, thereby obtaining the position of

been determined without any disturbance of

as this has

;

its

E2

,

the

has therefore been established as a further element of

physical reality.

The

point

mechanics,

if

of this

the

argument

momentum

is

according

that

of a particle

is

quantum

to

known, then

its

position

is

necessarily uncertain, and hence not part of physical reality. This

means

E2

is

that the reality of the

“dependent on

no way

a

momentum

measuring process

interferes with the second system. this.” 14

Hence

and the position of electron at the first system,

No

which

in

reasonable definition of

quantum mechanical

reality

should permit

tion

incomplete, and a search for a complete description of physical

is

reality

descrip-

necessary and justified.

is

No sooner had May

the

the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paper been published, in

1935, than alarm bells were ringing

quantum mechanics

among

the mandarins of

—not because they regarded the EPR paradox

as a

threat to their views but because of their irritation with Einstein. In

Zurich,

Wolfgang

out with

a

public

Pauli was furious: “Einstein has once again

comment on quantum mechanics.

known, each time he does him, though, that tions to

me,

I

if a

that

is

a disaster. ... I

...

As

is

come well

would concede

to

student in an early semester raised such objec-

would regard him

as quite intelligent

and promising.”

The

698

To

among

prevent confusion

less intelligent colleagues, Pauli

Werner Heisenberg,

gested that

He

publish a rejoinder.

and the Bomb

Pacifist

the target of the

ERP

paper, should

also considered, for “educational’' reasons,

“squandering paper and ink in order to formulate those

manded by quantum theory which tual difficulties .” 15

He

sug-

de-

facts

cause Einstein particular intellec-

Bohr had

did not, though, do so, because Niels

already taken up the matter.

Copenhagen

In

the

EPR

publication seemed like “a bolt from the

blue.”

When

stein’s

arguments, “we dropped everything;

Bohr’s collaborator

misunderstanding

at once.

began dictating the

work before

.

.

Leon Rosenfeld reported on Ein-

we had

the rejoinder was ready

and

a

Bohr, in great excitement, instantly

.

draft of a rejoinder .” 16

take, because there was,

up such

to clear

17 .

But

it

took

weeks of

six

This did not try to prove

a

mis-

nothing wrong with the situation

is,

set

out by EPR. Instead, Bohr focused on imprecisions in the use of terms

such

made

as “physical reality” it

once more clear

quantum of action,

it

and “without any disturbance.” His analysis because of the

that,

was impossible

—

finite

magnitude of the

in contrast to classical physics

to speak of “physical reality” without including the measuring process in this reality. If that

by

EPR

is

is

borne in mind, the contradiction highlighted

only apparent, and quantum mechanics

complete

a

is

description of what physicists can discover about nature.

Einstein meanwhile was receiving letters from several colleagues

who were

argument was

quite certain that his

amusement, adduced different reasons

but who, to his

false,

for their certainty

dinger was alone in sharing his delight “that you have

caught dogmatic quantum mechanics by stein,

its

Schrodinger on his part published

stein,

some popularity and

is

known

as

a series

my

opinion

all

.

publicly

of three articles a

paradox which

“Schrodinger’s cat .” 20 Ein-

however, reproved Schrodinger for publishing the

Germany: “In

.

Schro-

throat .” 19 Inspired by Ein-

arguing with orthodox quantum mechanics, including has gained

.

18 .

articles in

well disposed individuals should break

off relations while the scientists there tolerate this shameful regime .” 21

Of

all

the objections to the

EPR

paradox, Einstein thought that

“Niels Bohr’s view best meets the case .” 22 However,

if

the

quantum

mechanical description, according to Bohr’s analysis, was complete,

Physical Reality and

a

then, in Einstein’s opinion, there was the spatially separated systems

that

Paradox

699

dilemma

that the states of

were not independent of one another,

measurement on one system has instantaneous

tially distant

effects

on

i.e.

a spa-

system. Such “ghostlike remote effects” between separate

—which could not, because of theory, influence one another instantaneously—were something Einstein refused accept,

systems

relativity

to

he refused to accept

just as

statistical regularities. “It

look into the cards of the Almighty. But

I

seems hard to

won’t for one minute believe

that he throws dice or uses ‘telepathic’ devices (as he

is

being credited

with by the present quantum theory).” 23 After lying dormant for a long time the

more become

interesting over the past

precisely defined

by theoretical

ingly,

quantum mechanics

two decades.

as

paradox has once It

has been

and what was once

analyses,

experiment has been performed

EPR

an actual experiment

a

24 .

more

thought

Accord-

supplies not only the correct but also the

now believe that the arguwere much ado about almost

“complete” description. Most physicists

EPR

ments about the

paradox always

nothing, but others, like Einstein, are irritated by the “ghostlike

remote

effect.”

The paradox and

mental concepts

of our century still

and “separability” may highlight the

like “locality”

circumstance that

related recent discussion of funda-

a satisfactory integration

of the two great concepts

— quantum mechanics and the theory of

relativity

—

is

missing.

Simultaneously with the debate about quantum mechanics, Einstein

with Nathan Rosen embarked on

a difficult

puscular structure of matter from

magnetic

field

and gravitation

transformation of the

field

25 .

a

attempt to derive the cor-

combination of the electro-

By means of

a

simple and clear

equations they created mathematical ele-

ments, the so-called “Einstein-Rosen bridges,” which they identified

with the elementary particles. insights for a “bridge,”

They succeeded

and Einstein had great hopes of a development

of their ideas. “Only the examination of

show whether

in obtaining useful

this theoretical

a

multi-bridge system will

method can supply an explanation

of the

empirically proved mass identity of particles in nature, and whether will agree

with the

facts so

it

wonderfully comprehended by quantum

The

700

Pacifist

and the Bomb

mechanics.” 26 But even the attempt to tackle the two-body problem 27 caused Einstein to bury his hopes again.

To

this

why electrons all have exactly the same mass. The problem of gravitational waves, on soluble, albeit after a

day we do not know

the other hand, proved

few detours. In Newtonian theory, gravity

instantaneously present in space.

No

one ever asked how

is

this force

propagated; that question arose only with the general theory of rela-

under which gravitation propagates with the

tivity,

light.

As early

as

during

World War

I,

finite velocity

of

while he was sick in bed in

Berlin,

Einstein had deduced the existence of gravitational waves

which,

like

electromagnetic waves, carried energy through space.

Admittedly, he had then succeeded only in what

is

called the “first

approximation.” 28 Evidently he was no longer satisfied with that makeshift result and, jointly with Nathan Rosen,

now

looked for exact

solutions of the field equations for gravitational waves. In doing so, he

encountered a surprise: “Together with a young collaborator at the interesting result that gravitational

waves do not

though

according to the

this

had been regarded

proximation.” 29 But

when he

as certain

I

arrived

exist,

even

first

ap-

tried to publish this result, Einstein

learned something about the American scientific machineiy that he did

not

like at

The United

all.

editors of the Physical Review the leading physics journal in the ,

States, returned the

long opinion by

a referee

manuscript to the authors, along with

and requests for amendments. Einstein was

outraged. Having articles examined by

normal practice of the it.

30

That,

at least,

a

Physical Review

,

anonymous

referees

was the

but Einstein refused to accept

had been handled better

in

drew the paper, henceforward avoided the

Germany. Einstein with-

Physical Review

,

and pub-

lished only in journals without referees.

Nevertheless, this incident had saved Einstein from publishing a mistake. In September 1936 he had

wasn’t so

damn

still

been complaining,

difficult to find exact solutions,” 31

“If only

it

but over the next

few months he and Rosen succeeded in obtaining exact solutions for the field equations representing gravitational waves. 32 This remained a

pioneering feat for

a

long time; only after Einstein’s death were further

— Physical Reality and

a

Paradox

701

enormous technological

solutions found. Despite an

input, however,

gravitational waves have so far evaded experimental confirmation.

By

the time the paper

on

gravitational waves appeared in 1937, in

th q Journal of the Franklin Institute

,

Nathan Rosen had

left

Princeton

engagement there had not been renewed. Rosen, whose parents

his

had immigrated from Russia, eventually went to the Soviet Union, with Einstein smoothing his way by

a letter

of recommendation to

Vyacheslav Molotov, then chairman of the Council of People’s missars.

But new collaborators had appeared on the scene,

Com-

as well as

new problems. Einstein’s last major contribution to the

development of the general

theory of relativity was produced in collaboration with Banesh Hoff-

mann and

LeopolcElnfeld. Hoffmann,

who came from

England, had

taken his doctoral degree in Princeton, under Oswald Veblen, before

becoming

became

a

member

of the institute in 1935.

Einstein’s collaborator.

from Poland

in 1936,

burgh, Scotland, with there. Einstein

on

Some

Leopold Infeld came to the

a scholarship, after a

Max

time afterward, he

Born,

who had

institute

few months in Edin-

taken up a professorship

proposed to Infeld and Hoffmann

a joint investigation

of motion in the general theory of relativity. In a paper published after

two years of difficult work, they examined the problem of motion

new

level of generalization, at

which the customary

at a

division into field

equations on the one hand and the laws of motion on the other was

overcome.

Newtonian two

celestial

mechanics in

its

axiomatic structure consists of

clearly separate parts: the law of motion,

which gives orbits.

rise to the forces that

The two

and the law of

gravity,

keep the heavenly bodies in their

parts stand alongside each other, unconnected. This

separation into two strictly distinct sets of laws had not been overcome

even by Einstein’s relativity.

initial

treatment of motion in the general theory of

However, by the early 1920s investigations by Lorentz,

Eddington, and Levi-Civita suggested that in the general theory of relativity these

in

two

sets are

not really separate. After two years’ work,

1938 Einstein, Hoffmann, and Infeld were able to show,

in a volu-

The

702

Pacifist

minous publication, 33 that the thing

—not only

uted in space.

and the Bomb equations do in fact contain every-

field

gravitation, but also the

Thus

movement of masses

now

the general theory of relativity

only space, time, and gravitation, but

also,

distrib-

described not

for the first time, the

dynamics of matter.

In the same year as this publication, there also appeared, in April 1938, a

book, The Evolution of Physics. This astonishing work, reflecting the

history of a discipline through the eyes of

owed

its

nomics

Advanced Study.

at the Institute for is

a

splendid fellow.

We’ve done

together,” Einstein reported after six

a

very pretty thing

months of

joint research, but

would not extend Infeld ’s

despite his fervent support the institute

modest scholarship. “The

Institute has treated

prevail here.” 34 Einstein,

by the

greatest representative,

genesis not to Einstein’s desire to communicate, but to eco-

“Infeld

him

its

who

felt

refusal of a scholarship for his

defray the small

sum from

his

own

him

for a

fail,

pocket. But Infeld,

who was embar-

How

about writing

silly at all.” 35

so that Infeld’s share in the proceeds

who

Infeld found a publisher,

paid

a

one of the two

as

secure his livelihood. Einstein thought this was “not a

Not

help

esteemed collaborator, wanted to

wide readership? With Einstein

authors, this could not

I’ll

he too had been badly treated

rassed by that suggestion, had an original idea:

book together

badly. But

silly

would

idea at

all.

him an advance,

while Einstein planned the contents and the basic structure of the

book.

The book was

a great success

and

Infeld’s future in

America was

secure.

While Einstein was working on the motion problem with Hoffmann and Rosen, other collaborators arrived, with his real passion, the unified theory. Peter

had taken

his doctoral

whom

he could focus on

Bergmann, born

in Berlin,

degree in Prague, under Philipp Frank, at the

age of twenty-one; he arrived in Princeton in 1936 in order to work

with Einstein. Valentin Bargmann was also ler’s

a Berliner,

but after Hit-

assumption of power he had gone to Zurich to complete his

studies.

He was a member of the institute

Alone and with

his

two young

from 1937

to 1946.

assistants Einstein

pursued

many

Physical Reality and

a

Paradox

703

approaches to unification. However, there were no breakthroughs and scarcely any publishable results. At times, as in the

thought he was close to searching,

have found

I

a

a solution:

“This year,

promising

field theory,

summer

of 1938, he

twenty years of

after

one that

an entirely

is

natural development of the relativist gravitation theory.” 36 But this

attempt, too, proved unsuccessful.

Even though Bergmann and Bargmann achieved only very cess in terms of publications, they nevertheless

mann

—

like Infeld

and Hoff-

enormously enriched by being able to share

felt

thoughts and the work of

They noted with

a genius.

in

the

fascination

how

He seemed

to

a creative artist, full

of

from conventional thought.

Einstein’s thinking differed

them

—

slight suc-

less a strictly logical theoretician

than

4T

imagination and frequently using arguments that would have been out of place in a scientific essay: “Einstein was motivated not by logic in

meaning of this concept, but by

the narrow

“In his

his collaborators recalled.

a sense

of beauty,” one of

work he was always looking

for

beauty.” 37 In his later years Einstein saw beauty in the laws of nature.

He pro-

foundly believed, with religious fervor, that simple laws existed, and that these could be discovered. Except for a brief phase during his adolescence, he never

had any use for the personified

God

of the Judeo-

Christian tradition. But even in his younger years, he saw

guarantor of the laws of nature.

sounded

Initially this

God

as the

like a playful for-

mulation, but as he grew older the metaphor became a kind of heuristic principle: Einstein

creator of the world and his criterion:

were God,

“When

I

its

am

would attempt laws.

He

surprised Banesh

judging a theory,

would have arranged the world

I

This belief in

to slip into the role of the

a lawful structure

I

in

Hoffmann with

ask myself whether,

such

a

if

1

way.” 38

of the world gave him the strength

and perseverance he needed throughout the decades when he was unified theory.

He

was capable of pursuing

a theoreti-

searching for

a

cal concept,

with great enthusiasm for months or even years

stretch; but

in the

end

when

grievous flaws emerged

—he would drop

it

at a

—which invariably happened

instantly at the

moment

of truth, without

sentimentality or disappointment over the time and effort wasted. 1 he

The

704

Pacifist and the

Bomb

following morning, or a few days later at the most, he would have

taken up

To

a

new

idea and

his assistants

it

would pursue that with the same enthusiasm.

seemed

whereas Einstein was always

quantum

tions of

motion problem, three, the

theory. a

young people

perplexed

same time thinking of the founda-

at the

When,

field theories,

in the course of their

work on

the

system of four equations emerged instead of only

number of solutions. But his

were working on

that they

courage because of the limited

lost their

Einstein said: “Oh, but that’s beautiful.”

collaborators

he explained:

“We’ll

To

an over-

have

determined system, and then we can obtain quantum conditions analogous to Bohr’s permitted orbits.” 39

He

never wavered in his conviction that although the

quantum mechanics were

statistical

useful tools, they

were not the foun-

dations of physics. This attitude

emerged regularly

in his letters. In the

summer of 1942 he

as follows:

laws of

explained

fashioned and stubborn that dice.

Because

if

it

I still

“As for myself,

that,

he would have done

oughly, and not kept to a pattern in throwing dice.

we wouldn’t have

Gone

to look for laws at

is

probably mine, not

The

fact that,

I

so old-

find

is

no use

it

thor-

the whole

all.

everything points against the belief in total regularity. But to search for just that. If what

am

do not believe that the Lord throws

he had wanted to do

hog. In that case

I

I

It’s true,

continue

in the end, then the fault

his.” 40

with regard to science, things increasingly

fell silent

around him did not sadden Einstein. As he remarked in 1936, he was “living in the kind of solitude that

is

more mature

He

years

by not talking

at

is

all.

delicious.” 41

He

painful in one’s youth but in one’s

avoided talking at cross purposes

even avoided Niels Bohr

the institute in January 1939 as a guest for a feld,

who accompanied Bohr

silence falling

when Bohr came to few months. Leon Rosen-

as his assistant,

experienced an abysmal

on the conversation of the two great men, who once had

liked nothing better than talking physics to each other:

Einstein was only a

shadow of

himself.

For days on end he kept

himself shut up in his study and really spoke only to his two assistants,

whose names,

curiously,

were Bergmann and Bargmann.

Physical Reality and

a

Paradox

705

Only once during those four months did he announce was about one of his countless attempts to theory.

Bohr attended the

his eyes

hoped had

establish a unified field

lecture. In conclusion Einstein, fixing

on Bohr, declared with emphasis

to be able to derive the

just described.

met only once did not go

at

a lecture; it

that he

quantum conditions

had always

in the

way he

During those four months Bohr and Einstein

an afternoon reception, but their conversation

beyond

banalities. Einstein allowed

it

to be clearly

understood that he would rather avoid any discussion with Bohr.

Bohr was profoundly unhappy about This episode

is all

the

this

42 .

more remarkable because Bohr’s

stay in Prince-

ton coincided with a rapid development in which a dramatic application of physics had

moved

into the realm of the feasible

production of a nuclear chain reaction and, in consequence, of a

—the

bomb

of almost unimaginable destructiveness. Einstein had been ignoring nuclear physics because

Old Man.” But

it

it

did not bring

him

closer to the “secret of the

was to catch up with him before long.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN War,

a

Bomb

Letter, and the

Einstein spent the summer of 1939 on Long two previous

years,

he had rented

eastern tip of the island, with

where

it

faces the Atlantic.

its

a

house

at

As

in the

Nassau Point,

at the

Island.

numerous bays and tongues of land

Nassau Point

on Great Peconic Bay,

is

sheltered from the ocean waves and hence an ideal sailing area.

enjoyed his boat,

made music with some

He

neighbors, and despite the

often oppressive heat, worked.

About the middle of July two old acquaintances turned up

Eugene Wigner,

a professor at

Princeton University; and Leo Szilard,

who had found asylum as a visiting researcher in New \ ork. They had set out on the drive rare metal

uranium had become

months.

was not yet

It

nium might be sive

had driven

Columbia University

to Peconic because the

a crucial subject

certain, but

over the past few

by no means impossible, that ura-

a suitable starting material for

power. Concern that Nazi

at

bombs of gigantic

Germany might develop such

a

explo-

weapon

Szilard, in particular, into a state of great excitement.

had therefore planned

a role for Einstein,

not

physics but as a friend of the queen of Belgium.

the largest deposits of uranium ore then

Congo, and the

largest stocks of metallic

as

The

He

an authority on reason was that

known were

in the Belgian

uranium were owned by

a

Belgian concern. Einstein was to write a letter to his “dear queen” to

induce the Belgian government to stop uranium sales to Germany.

Even though Einstein may not have followed the headlong advances of nuclear physics, he instantly realized the importance of the prob-

706

War,

lem

—

Letter, and the

a

Bomb

military and political significance,

its

cance for science.

as

707 well as

its

signifi-

Releasing the energy locked up in the atom was

1

an old theme that had been

back of the mind of physicists

at the

since the discovery of radioactivity before the turn of the century. In fact,

Einstein, in the final sentence of his 1905 paper in

derived his formula

E — me

2

had referred to

,

which he

this possibility in the

distant future.

Fifteen years after Ernest Rutherford’s discovery of the atomic nucleus,

when

quite a lot had since been learned about the natural

transmutation of radioactive nuclei, in

it

was once more Rutherford who

bombarding nitrogen with alpha

1920, while

emitted by

rays

radium, succeeded in observing the transmutation or fission of the nitrogen nuclei.

What was

was excitedly

called “artificial radioactivity”

hailed in the newspapers as a potentially vast source of energy, sup-

ported by the simple and very attractive calculation that one gram of

matter might replace three thousand tons of coal.

Sober

such visions because of the rarity and the

scientists rejected

enormous

cost of radium, but Privy Councillor Planck declared:

German

confidently believe that stein, the discoverer

science will

now

“We

find a way.” 2 Ein-

of the miraculous formula for the conversion of

—which some optimists was even then opening the doors to the future — commented follows:

matter into energy

for

as

It

might be

possible,

and

not even improbable, that novel

it is

sources of energy of enormous effectiveness will be opened up,

but this idea has no direct support from the facts far. It is

very

make

difficult to

realm of the possible.

.

.

.

prophecies, but

known it is

to us so

within the

For the time being, however, these

processes can only be observed with the most delicate equipment.

This needs emphasizing, because otherwise people immediately lose their heads.

But

if this

that the rays released

produce the same

road leads on, especially in such

by the alpha

effects,

This was

a

way

particles are in turn able to

one cannot be

development may not progress

a

at all sure that

such

a

rapidly. 3

prophetic statement, because of what Einstein said was the

prerequisite for development: “that the rays released

.

.

.

are in turn

708

The

able to produce the

same

Pacifist

and the Bomb

effects.”

This was the basic concept of

a

chain reaction.

To his such it

early biographer

Moszkowski, Einstein had pointed out that

development would be anything but

a

were possible to

effect that

desirable:

immense energy

“Assuming that

we should

release,

merely find ourselves in an age compared to which our coal-black present would seem golden.” 4 His objections concerned the difficulty

of regulating such an energy source nuclear terrorism

bombardments

—and,

—

fear of what

was

be called

later to

of course, the technology of weapons: “All

since the invention of firearms put together

harmless child’s play compared to

its

would be

destructive effect.” 5 Thus,

most

of what can be said about the use of nuclear energy had been stated by Einstein as early as 1920, at a time

The

the fog of the future.

ment of

when

details

prerequisite, as

were

still

shrouded in

he realized, was the achieve-

chain reaction, and humankind would be better off

a

if it

did

not succeed.

For

a

long time, such ideas were so speculative that they could not be

published in serious scientific journals, but they were always in physicists’

minds.

covered

as

A breakthrough came in a

Leo

when

the neutron was dis-

constituent of the atomic nucleus; before long, the

neutron was used 1934,

1932,

as a free particle for

Szilard, always sparkling

bombarding

nuclei. 6

as

with intelligence and imagination,

applied for a patent for a nuclear chain reaction based multiplication and had

As early

on neutron

deposited as a secret paper with the British

it

Admiralty, Einstein, like practically every other physicist, remained skeptical,

however; and

as

it

turned out

would have consumed more energy than

Toward

later, Szilard’s it

chain reaction

released.

the end of 1935, Einstein had been invited to lend special

luster to the annual

meeting of the American Association for the

Advancement of Science Memorial Lecture.

He

in Pittsburgh

by giving the Willard

demonstrated to

his

audience

J.

Gibbs

how he had

derived his famous formula on the equivalence of matter and energy. 7

Small wonder that the three dozen reporters covering a press confer-

ence on that subject wished to

know whether

the huge amounts of

;

War,

energy corresponding to

in the dark, in a

this

about

unpromising

as

neighborhood that has few

announced

Post-Gazette

709

formula might be released by bombarding

his

an atom. Einstein thought

Bomb

Letter, and the

a

“as firing at birds

The

birds.” 8

Pittsburgh

had wrecked

in a headline that Einstein

all

hope of deriving energy from the atom. Meanwhile, Enrico Fermi’s team mental setup

Rome

in

—using

—had been bombarding heavy atomic

a

superb experi-

nuclei, especially

uranium, with neutrons. But Fermi was interested chiefly in the creation of transuranium elements, and so he failed to notice that ura-

nium

nuclei were split in the process.

Hahn and

Otto

at the Kaiser

his collaborator Fritz

Wilhelm

Not

until the

end of 1938 did

Strassmann make

Institute in Berlin-Dahlem.

this discovery,

Thanks

to their

precise radiochemical methods, they identified barium in the reaction

products. Barium has a nucleus about half the weight of the uranium nucleus, and therefore nuclear fission was suggested.

In a letter to Lise Meitner, his colleague for left

the Kaiser

had

fled to

Wilhelm

many years, who had

Institute after the annexation of Austria

Sweden, Otto

Hahn

gave a detailed account of

Over Christmas, Lise Meitner discussed

this sensational

and

this result.

news with her

nephew, Otto Frisch, who had been introduced to the theory of the atomic nucleus by Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. Together Frisch and

Meitner wrote first

a brief notice for

mention of

Bohr,

who had

developed a useful theoretical model of the nucleus and minutes, Bohr had understood every-

five

wondering merely why he had not thought of it himself.

Bohr was about Institute for a

atomic nucleus. Frisch also informed

splitting the

of chain reactions. Within thing,

the British journal Nature this was the

to leave for

Advanced Study

America to spend several months

in Princeton.

On January 26,

at the

he spoke

at

Hahn and Strassmann’s discovery and Meitner. The result was that sev-

conference in Washington about

and

its

interpretation by Frisch

conference prematurely, rushing back to their

eral physicists left the

laboratories to repeat the experiments. Everything was as said, and, like

Bohr,

many

of them

Bohr had

may have wondered why

they

themselves had not thought of it.

A few days

later,

on

a five-minute

walk from the Princeton Club to

Fine Hall, Bohr realized that only the isotope uranium-235 could be

710 split

—an isotope present

in natural

This conclusion was

cent.

Bomb

Pacifist and the

The

a

uranium

to

no more than

triumphant confirmation of the

of Bohr’s nuclear model; but as separating isotopes

0.7 per-

reliability

is difficult, it

was

a

setback for any practical applications.

On March

sixtieth birthday

lization of the is

no

York Times observed Einstein’s

with an extensive interview, Einstein said that the

results obtained so far

there

when The New

14, 1939,

“do not

justify the

assumption of a practical

atomic energies released in the process.

single physicist with soul so

affect his interest in this highly

poor

who would

.

.

.

uti-

However

allow this to

important subject.” 9

That same month, however,

a crucial discovery

was made almost

simultaneously in France and America: in Paris by Frederic Joliot-

New

Curie and in

Nobel Prize cist Italy

in

York by Enrico Fermi

Stockholm on December

by

a

had not returned

to fas-

when

a

uranium nucleus was

neutron, as a rule two neutrons were released, which in turn

could each

moved

10,

after receiving the

but had taken up a professorship at Columbia University.

Joliot-Curie and Fermi observed that split

—who,

split

another uranium nucleus.

The

chain reaction had

into the realm of the possible, and Fermi, looking out his

window, mused that

a single fission

bomb would

destroy

all

that he

could see of New York.

As feverish experimenting went on

New

in the laboratories of Princeton,

York, and elsewhere, and as Niels Bohr with John Archibald

Wheeler

in his

room

at

Fine Hall was working out the theoretical basis

of the fission of uranium by neutrons, Einstein, only a few doors the corridor, was deeply immersed in his

work on

unapproachable and even incommunicado.

The

the unified theory,

fact that in

he was nevertheless involved in the developing drama had tioned earlier

—nothing

his friendship

nium

to

down

do with physics but everything

mid-July

—

as

to

do with

men-

with the “dear queen” in Brussels, and the Belgian ura-

deposits.

When

Szilard

and Wigner talked to him on the terrace of his house on

Peconic Bay, Einstein immediately declared himself ready to write letter,

letter

though not

to the

a

queen but to the Belgian government. This

was to be conveyed by the American State Department. Einstein

War,

made

a draft

on the spot and gave

New

them. Back in

Bomb

Letter, and the

a

it

711

to his visitors to take

York and uncertain about the next

home

with

step, Szilard

consulted Dr. Gustav Stolper, a politically experienced emigre and a

former his

member

of the Reichstag. Stolper in turn directed Szilard, with

unusual problem, to Alexander Sachs, a banker

who belonged

to an

unofficial circle of advisers to President Roosevelt. Sachs declared

himself ready to submit an appropriate letter from Einstein to the president.

By

the time Szilard,

now

company of Edward

in the

Teller,

next called on Sachs, the letter to Einstein’s “dear queen” had turned into a letter to the president of the United States.

Einstein dictated another draft, on the basis of which Szilard, after consultation with Sachs, produced two English versions, a longer and a shorter one, as

it

was

difficult to

how many words one

judge with

could

bother the president. In August 1939 Szilard sent both versions to Einstein,

tant

used

who immediately

of the longer letter

passages

—read

signed and returned them.

—the

The most impor-

one that was eventually

as follows:

Sir,

Some

recent

work by

communicated

me

to

element uranium

E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been in manuscript, leads

may be

turned into

me

to expect that the

new and important

a

source

of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of this situation

seem

tion

on the part of the administration.

it is

my

to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick acI

believe, therefore, that

duty to bring to your attention the following

facts

and

recommendations. In the course of the

last

four

it

has been

— through the work of Joliot France well Szilard America — that may become possible

probable

and

months in

in

as

it

as

made Fermi

to set

up

nuclear chain reactions in a large mass of uranium, by which vast

amounts of power and

large quantities of

ments would be generated. this

could be achieved

in the

Now

it

— though

extremely powerful bombs of

this type

it

is

future.

also lead to the construction of

conceivable

bombs, and

radium-like ele-

appears almost certain that

immediate

The new phenomenon would

new

—

much less certain that may thus he constructed.

The

712

A single bomb

Bomb

Pacifist and the

of this type, carried by boat or exploded in

a port,

might well destroy the whole port with some of the surrounding territory.

However, such bombs might very well prove

heavy for transportation by

to be too

air.

In the following paragraphs Einstein and Szilard

made

organizational

proposals for a collaboration between government and physicists.

They

suggested the appointment of a special adviser for these ques-

tions,

recommended

the involvement of industrial laboratories, and

did not omit to mention the need for financial support for the relevant research.

They

Germany and adduced

next referred to

a

personal

argument that might have been more persuasive to the president than the physics: “I understand that

all

sale

Germany

has actually stopped the

of uranium from the Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken

over.

That she should

take such early action

stood on the ground that the son of the State,

von Weizsacker,

is

might perhaps be under-

German Undersecretary

attached to the Kaiser

Wilhelm

where some of the American work on uranium

Berlin,

of

Institute of

is

now

being

repeated.” 10

What

Einstein did not know, but

about uranium

may have

was not the

suspected, was that his that a physicist

had

addressed to a government. As early as April 1924, Paul Harteck,

who

letter

fission

first

had taken up Otto Stern’s former professorship in Hamburg, and

his

coworker Wilhelm Groth had recommended to the German

Army

Ordnance Department the use of

“The

country that exploits

it first

will

a

chain reaction in a bomb:

have an incalculable advantage over

the others.” 11

On

September

ber

3

1,

World War

Not

until

1939, II

Germany

attacked Poland, and

began.

October

1 1

did Roosevelt find time to receive his friend

and adviser Alexander Sachs. Sachs presented Einstein’s with background material about physics in which Szilard the hectic development of nuclear research in the its

on Septem-

future prospects, together with a

first

memorandum

letter,

along

summed up

half of 1939 and

Sachs himself had

written on the steps which the government should take.

The

president

War,

Bomb

Letter, and the

a

713

immediately understood the crux of the matter. “Alex,” he interrupted

“What you

him.

are after

to see that the Nazis don’t

is

blow us up.”

When

Sachs confirmed

this,

eral E.

M. Watson, and

instructed him: “This requires action.” 12

A

few days

Roosevelt

later the president

summoned

his secretary,

thanked Einstein “for your recent

He

and the most interesting and important enclosure.”

letter

informed Einstein of what had been done in the meantime: this data

of such import that

I

Gen-

“I

also

found

have convened a board consisting of

the head of the Bureau of Standards and chosen representatives of the

Army and Navy

to

thoroughly investigate the

possibilities

gestion regarding the element of uranium.” 13

of your sug-

The board met on

October 21, with Enrico Fermi and the three members of the “Hungarian gang”

Budapest

—

Szilard, Teller,

—providing

them were

and Wigner,

who were

the nuclear expertise, even though

born in

all

four of

most committees and commissions,

foreigners. Like

one was not very farsighted: only $6,000 was approved year’s research

all

for a

this

whole

on uranium.

Everything was moving too slowly for Szilard, so he again turned to

Einstein.

On March

1940, Einstein wrote a second letter,

7,

addressed to Sachs but intended for the president. In this he stressed the urgency of the problem in view of the

need

for secrecy.

The

German

efforts,

and also the

president reacted by suggesting enlarging the

board and including Einstein. Einstein, however, declined, rather brusquely and without giving

been invited to the a

first

meetings. But he

framework “that would

lar

a reason, possibly

facilitate

because he had not

recommended

the creation of

the continuation of these and simi-

researches at a faster pace and on a greater scale than hitherto.” 14

For the time being

this letter

marked the end of

Einstein’s contact

with the government. Einstein’s interventions, including his ciable effect in the

on the course of

first letter,

events. Organization of nuclear research

United States did not get beyond the stage of improvisation

until the

fall

of 1941,

when

results achieved in

the so-called Frisch-Peierls Report, reached cial

channels. Eventually,

hattan

had no appre-

on December

Engineering District” was

set

England, in particular

Washington through

6,

up.

1941, the secret

offi-

“Man-

This was the biggest

Pacifist and the

The

714

Bomb

technological and scientific enterprise the world had ever seen the world been allowed to see

it.

December

of course, was only one

6,

day before Japan’s attack on the American Pacific Fleet Harbor. Three days

later,

Germany declared war on

cist,

but only

He

at Pearl

the United States.

Roosevelt’s decision to speed up the development of the

contradictory consequences for Einstein.

—had

was consulted

bomb had as a physi-

At the beginning of December 1941, Vannevar

briefly.

Bush, the chief of the Office for Research and Development at the center of nuclear research, requested Einstein’s assistance with a

problem of isotope separation. Contact was made through channels, via Frank Aydelotte,

Flexner

as director

who

in

official

1939 had succeeded Abraham

of the Institute for Advanced Study.

On Decem-

ber 19, Einstein handed Aydelotte the result of his reflections, which

were passed on to Bush. In Einstein had been “very

you

make use of him

will

how deep

is

his covering letter Aydelotte

much in

interested. ...

his satisfaction at

much hope that to you, because I know

I

any way that occurs

remarked that

very

doing anything which might be useful in

the national effort.” 15

This, however, did not happen, because to do useful work, Einstein

would have had

much

that

I

to be fully informed about the project. “I wish very

could place the whole thing before him,” Bush wrote to

Aydelotte, “but this

is

utterly impossible in

people here in Washington

The FBI and Army

who

have studied his whole history.” 16

Intelligence had

come

stein represented a security risk: “In this office

view of the attitude of

to the conclusion that Ein-

view of

his radical

background,

would not recommend the employment of Dr. Einstein, on

matters of a secret nature, without a very careful investigation, as

seems unlikely that time,

become

a

a loyal

man

of his background could, in such

American

citizen.” 17

The FBI and

a

it

short

other secret

agencies had never been informed of Einstein’s letter to the president.

Thus

bomb

the

man who had drawn

— and who,

incidentally,

zen on October 30, 1940

Roosevelt’s attention to the

had taken

his oath as

atom

an American

citi-

—was spared having to decide to what extent

he wished to take part in the development of

this

Aydelotte’s letter, he would have gone a long way.

weapon. Judging by

War,

Somewhat research.

later,

Letter, and the

a

Bomb

715

however, Einstein was able to contribute to military

On May

16, 1943, a

navy lieutenant heading

Washington

for conventional high explosives near

Asked whether he would work

as

team

a research

called

on him.

an adviser to the navy generally, and

in the area of high explosives in particular, Einstein reacted with con-

siderable pleasure.

“He

felt

very bad about being neglected.

He

had

not been approached by anyone to do any war work,” the lieutenant,

who

enlisted

him on

the spot, later recalled. 18 Einstein was delighted

and looked forward “with great satisfaction” to working for the navy. 19 Aydelotte, after consulting Einstein, proposed the modest patriotic fee

of $25 per day. Einstein, as he joked, was

now

in the

navy without get-

ting the prescribed haircut. 4T

Every other week, or sometimes only once visited

by the explosives

experts,

a

month, Einstein was

who brought him problems

such

as

the optimal detonation of torpedoes. His solutions, arrived at by

thought, were accurate: “Very expensive experiments performed later

showed

that he

had been

right.” 20

His

visitors

much

from Washington

found him cheerful and more than happy to be able to contribute to

To

the defeat of the Hitler regime.

“connection with the navy

war

will

be over before

quences.” 21 In

work on high

On

fact,

there

as a theoretical expert,”

my is

an old friend he wrote about his

activity

on these

hoping “that the

lines has

any conse-

no record of any major consequences of his

explosives.

the other hand, Einstein

made some generous

the war chest of the United States.

contributions to

The Book and Authors War Bond

Committee, an organization which auctioned off manuscripts by famous authors and with the proceeds purchased war bonds, asked Einstein for the manuscript of his 1905 treatise on relativity. Einstein

was unable to

oblige; in his

younger years he had always discarded

his

manuscripts once his work had appeared in print, saving only the more practical reprints.

As

a substitute,

though, he offered his

German

draft

of a paper he had recently completed with Valentin Bargmann, on bivector

Soon

fields. 22

This was gratefully accepted.

afterward, however, the university’s chief librarian, acting as

an emissary of the committee, suggested that Einstein might, for

this

716

good

cause,

complied. least

that.

copy

his relativity

“When

Bomb

paper again. Einstein was astonished but

much

others were doing so

was the

for the war, this

he could do.” 23 So Helen Dukas dictated and Einstein wrote.

Now this

Pacifist and the

The

and again he pulled himself up and asked

When Helen Dukas confirmed

much more

he was referring

The

it,

if

he had really said

he grumbled:

“I

could have put

simply.” 24 His secretary did not record which passages to.

auction took place on February

on

structed manuscript for $6.5 million,

relativity

3

in

The

Kansas City.

recon-

was bought by an insurance company

and the original manuscript about bivector

brought $5 million. Both manuscripts were presented Library of Congress. Einstein, script fetishism, advised the

who

did not think

fields

as a gift to the

much

of this manu-

economists to rethink their theories of

value.

With America’s

entry into the war and the virtually simultaneous

inception of the Manhattan Project, the university’s physics depart-

ment soon found

itself

depopulated. Even in the institute’s “ivory

tower,” the quiet deepened, and several colleagues, such as John von

Neumann, could now be contacted only through a post office box in Santa Fe. The institute had for some time been in a new building, Fuld Hall, located in a vast park in western Princeton, and reachable

from

home on Mercer Street in a half hour’s walk. There he had a corner room with large windows on the ground floor, and

Einstein’s

spacious

next to

it

a smaller

one

for the assistant

who had meanwhile been

authorized for him.

By then

Einstein even had a colleague

gang Pauli had joined the

institute in

in Zurich, with Hitler at the door. “I

who was

a physicist.

1940 because he had

am very glad

that he

is

felt

Wolfuneasy

here and

I

have interesting conversations with him,” 25 Einstein reported of his

sharp-tongued colleague. Despite their disagreements on quantum mechanics, they actually produced a joint publication, about relativity theory. 26

In Einstein’s search for the unified theory, of course. Pauli was

more of

has put asunder, stein

a critic

let

than

no man

was not discouraged:

a constructive

coworker:

Wolfgang

“What God

join together,” Pauli used to say.

“I

work

like a

man

possessed,

But Ein-

i.e., I

ride

my

— War,

hobbyhorse

a

like wild,” 27

Letter, and the

he

said,

Bomb

717

describing his mental state at the

time. All this was reminiscent of his frenzy while he was wrestling with

the generalization of the theory of relativity.

sometimes “so excited

my

close to

.

.

heart, that

.

I

Even on vacation he was

over difficulties and doubts in a matter very

was unable

to free myself

day or night, or

think of anything else.” 28 Inevitably, disenchantment followed: thing still

is

certain: the

Almighty has not made

young one doesn’t

realize

it

so clearly

it

While one

easy for us.

—fortunately.”

“One

29

is

But he was

never downhearted.

A

researcher of similar perseverance was the mathematician Kurt

Godel, who, after the annexation of Austria and an adventurous escape via Siberia

and Japan, had arrived

post at the institute. Godel had

1940 and obtained

in Princeton in

become famous

work on

for his

a

the

“decision problem” and was interested in the logical foundations of

mathematics; he became not only

a fascinating discussion partner for

Einstein but also a close friend. Einstein was fond of discussing philosophical aspects of scientific

thought with Godel and Pauli; and when Bertrand Russell came to Princeton in 1943

—not

as a professor

but

as

an independent writer

these conversations were formalized: the four stein’s

met

house one afternoon every week. There probably never was an

intellectual gathering of higher caliber

—but the

discussions, at least to

Bertrand Russell, were disappointing: “Although

were Jews and

exiles,

had

a

argue.” 30 Einstein had

On

no

all

I

at

common

found that they

premises from which to

useful results to report, either.

war the four men hardly needed

had the same opinions and hopes

— the

earliest pos-

sible

and most thorough victory over Germany.

One

ever,

emerged when Bertrand Russell suggested

that after the

victors should help the

Germans

get back

on

exception,

of,

war the

With

all

the

he hoped “that the hair-raising crimes of the

Germans would soon be revenged.” 32 that “things are

how-

to their feet and forget

their crimes. Einstein indignantly rejected that idea. 31

wrath he was capable

them

metaphysics, and in spite of our utmost

international politics and the

to talk, as they

three of

all

and, in intention, cosmopolitan,

German bias towards endeavors we never arrived all

regularly at Ein-

now going

After Stalingrad, he was happy

downhill for the Germans.

.

.

.

But

it is

too

The

718 slow.

What will remain

consolation that

—one

Pacifist

of European

is

many within

life?

There

not there oneself.

sunk so low that one can think

When the Allies’

and the Bomb is

nothing

one has

possible that

Is it

but the

left

like that?” 33

landings in

Normandy brought the

reach, Einstein was thankful “that

I

defeat of Ger-

have lived to see

this

turn of events, which looks like justice.” Possibly as a reaction to

Bertrand Russell’s remark, he added: “But perhaps

it

would be more

circumspect to die soon, so as not to be disappointed again,

as in the

years between 1918 and 1938.” 34 For Einstein now, the criminal was

no longer

Nazi Party, or even the National

Hitler, or the leaders of the

movement, but the German nation

Socialist

ary for the Heroes of the

them

its totality.

as a nation, if there

as a

mass murders and must be pun-

for these

any

is

they are wholly defeated and, as after the

When

justice in the world. last

war, bewail their

one should not allow oneself to be deceived

remember

In his Obitu-

Warsaw Ghetto he wrote: “The Germans

whole nation are responsible ished for

in

a

fate,

second time, but

humanity of the

that they entirely deliberately used the

others for preparing their last and worst crime against mankind.” 35

Many

others

behaved trast,

felt like

that at the time, but after the

war most of them

in line with Bertrand Russell’s prediction. Einstein,

by con-

never forgave the Germans.

There

is

no written evidence of how much Einstein knew during

the war about the development of the

atom bomb. This top

matter was talked about only in hints, and not written about

he must have realized that ally all

a gigantic effort

was

at

secret

all.

But

in progress, since virtu-

nuclear physicists, as well as countless scientists from other dis-

ciplines,

had vanished,

them would turn up

December

22, 1943.

at

their addresses

Princeton for

unknown.

a

Now and again one of

few days, such

as

Niels Bohr on

Bohr had escaped from occupied Denmark and

was participating on the British side of the Manhattan Project

as a

kind

of elder statesman. Bohr visited Einstein and Pauli, and although

nothing to

form

is

known about

a picture

In the

fall

their conversation, Einstein

was probably able

of the state of affairs.

of 1944,

it

seems that Otto Stern,

from Prague and Zurich, informed Einstein

impending success of the bomb

his old collaborator at

least

about the

project. Certainly they discussed the

War,

Letter, and the

a

Bomb

719

alarming postwar implications, because Einstein knew of Stern’s great

concern

—which

country

became

also

his

own: “Then

be in every

there’ll

continuation of secret rearmament with technological

a

means, which inevitably annihilation,

worse in

will lead to preventive

wars (veritable wars of

of life than the present one).” 36

loss

December

After a further talk with Otto Stern on

1 1

Bohr explained how he thought the

letter to Niels

,

Einstein in a

threat of ca-

tastrophe might be avoided. Influential scientists were to instruct the

unsuspecting politicians in good time about the scale of the danger.

“There

is

yourself, with

Lindemann

in

your international contacts, A. Compton here,

England, Kapitza and Joffe in Russia,

etc.

The

idea

is

to

induce them to prevail upon the political leaders in their countries, in order to achieve an internationalization of military power

was some considerable time ago rejected radical step with

this

all

its

as

—

a

road that

being too adventurous. But

far-reaching prerequisites concerning

supranational government seems the only alternative to a secret technological arms race.” 37 This letter already contains

all

the key aspects

of Einstein’s attitude to nuclear armament and postwar international politics.

Bohr had entertained

similar ideas and

had even submitted them

to

various government quarters, even to Roosevelt and Churchill. But he

had met with no understanding and had merely exposed himself to the suspicion of being unreliable. 38 Einstein’s letter, which reached

Washington, therefore alarmed him.

made

Princeton and

to participate in

would remain In

March

defeat of

the

1945,

anyone bound to

official

secrecy

Einstein understood and promised Bohr he

it.

Leo

Szilard appeared

feared, but

summer.

state of

atom bomb,

lard,

immediately hastened to

silent.

available in the

about the

if

Germany was imminent and

no longer be

in

Einstein see that such an enterprise might have

the worst possible consequences

were

He

him

again.

The

final

Nazi “miracle weapon” need

meanwhile the American bomb would be

Szilard

and

a

few colleagues were concerned

information and the government’s wisdom in using

as well as

who wished

a

on the scene

to

about the shape of the postwar world. Szi-

submit

for a letter of introduction.

his views to the president, asked Einstein

This had to be formulated very cautiously,

The

720 as Einstein

Pacifist and the

Bomb

was not supposed to know about

Szilard’s

intended recipient. 39 Roosevelt was never to see

on April

and Einstein mourned “the

12, 1945,

purpose or the

this letter.

loss

He

died

of an old and dear

friend.” 40

On city

August

6,

shortly after eight o’clock local time, the Japanese

of Hiroshima was wiped out by the

was again spending

his vacation

said:

“Oh, Weh.

And

uranium bomb. Einstein

on Saranac Lake

Helen Dukas heard the news on the he

first

radio,

that’s that.” 41

in the Adirondacks.

and when she told Einstein

On August

9 a plutonium

bomb

was dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered; the war was over.

On August

11, 1945, Niels

Bohr wrote

formidable power of destruction which has

man may become

a

London Times “The come within the reach of human society can adjust

in the

mortal menace unless

itself to

the exigencies of the situation.” 42 Einstein remained at his

vacation

home and

kept

silent.

The

U.S. government meanwhile had

published the Smyth Report, 43 a semiofficial chronicle of the develop-

ment of sity.

the

One

atom bomb, written by

a professor at

Princeton Univer-

sentence of the report mentioned Einstein’s letter to

Roosevelt of August 1939, which was thereby

of secrecy into the limelight.

Under

the

moved from

the sphere

shadow of the new weapon of

mass destruction, Einstein could no longer avoid the debate about the

atom bomb and the new world

order.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Between Bomb and Equations: "But the Equations Are for Eternity”

With the dropping

of the atom

gigantic effort that had led to

were suddenly

its

bomb and

the

accounts of the

first

construction, physics and physicists

in the' public spotlight. Because of the swift conclusion

of the war, they were at

first

hailed as heroes

cans an invasion of Japan, with

its

who had

saved the Ameri-

inevitably heavy loss of life. But once

the victory celebrations died down, the physicists once

themselves seen

as terrifying sorcerers’

even have seen themselves in that

While

J.

apprentices

more found

—and

some may

role.

Robert Oppenheimer had become famous

as the “father

of the atom bomb,” Einstein inadvertently found himself regarded as a

kind of superfather because of the almost mythical authority he

enjoyed

among

the public, because of his magical formula

and because of the

fact,

now

president’s attention to the possibility of an atomic

1 ,

had drawn the

that he

declassified,

E = me

bomb

in

August

1939. Einstein, however, remained at Saranac Lake; not until mid-

September did he make

his first public

mass destruction, when

a reporter for

down

at his idyllic refuge.

Einstein by then his

comment on the new weapon of The New York Times tracked him

prewar pacifism

knew what he had

he merely had to resume

to do:

—modified by the debate, during the

final

year of

the war, over the postwar order. In his opinion, as the reporter repro-

duced

it,

“The only

salvation for civilization

.

.

.

lies in

the creation of

world government, with security of nations founded upon law. long

as

...

As

sovereign states continue to have separate armaments and

armaments

secrets,

new world wars

will

721

be inevitable.”

1

The

722

Pacifist and the

Einstein’s idea of world

but during the

as naive;

the war ended,

and

sevelt

it

government would often

was shared by more than

mate

for

zation.

handing over one’s atom

Most Americans and

“secret of the

some time

after

Roo-

had, up to a point, embraced the

Truman,

emerged between the

conflicts

be described

just a small minority.

idea by the establishment of the United Nations.

war

later

year of the war and for

final

his successor,

Bomb

victors.

bomb

to

This was not

some

their politicians

bomb” must remain

their

However, a

after the

good

cli-

international organi-

were convinced that the

monopoly

for a long time if

Soviet expansionism was to be curbed.

bomb

Although the existence of the atom

between the superpowers, for Einstein

it

heightened distrust

confirmed the need for

world government. Back in Princeton, he signed with for

Thomas Mann and

some

rethinking:

Hiroshima.

It also

They argued by

a

a declaration,

along

dozen prominent Americans, which called

“The

atomic

first

bomb

more than

destroyed

exploded our inherited, outdated political ideas.” 2

that the United Nations Charter, signed in

fifty-one states

a

on June

peace and would prove

26, 1945,

was not

a “tragic illusion.”

San Francisco

sufficient to guarantee

“We must

aim

at a Federal

Constitution of the world, a working worldwide legal order,

if

we hope

to prevent atomic war.”

The atom bomb had made young

physicists despair of their science,

but they were hoping for clarifying and helpful words from Einstein.

One^ of them wrote to him of the “cruel irony that one of the greatest

and most joyous triumphs of the spiritual uplift

death.

The

and greater

final

life

scientific intellect

was to bring not

affirmation but disappointment and

and unlimited confirmation of your formula

E = me

2

should have marked the beginning of an era of

light.

we

are

staring in confusion into impenetrable darkness.”

There were plans

for

a national

Instead

congress of scientists; even though this did not take place,

Einstein would not have forgotten the anxious words with which he

had been asked to

participate:

“We

social implications of the era of

that with

you here we

need you here to speak out on the

atomic energy.

shall feel inspired to better

We

feel instinctively

master our future;

we

Between Bomb and Equations almost

feel that

it is

only because yours

your duty to help us and eventually the world, not at

is

once

own work,

because your

a

humble and

a

powerful voice, but also

the mass-energy principle, has in a larger

sense led us to this road that has two turnings to help us

all

723

—and we count on you

travel along the correct path.” 3

In view of the

many

millions of

human

and the techno-

lives lost

World War II, Einstein did not see the atom bomb as a fundamentally new problem. Nor did he ever subsequently condemn the dropping of the atom bombs on the Japanese

logical horrors perfected in

He began

cities.

a

lengthy

article,

which was repeatedly reprinted, with

the sobering statement:

The It

new problem.

release of atomic energy has not created a

has merely

ing one.

One

made more urgent could say that

it

the necessity of solving an exist-

has affected us quantitatively, not

qualitatively. 4

His aim was and remained the abolition of war altogether, through the establishment of a world government which alone would have military

means

including nuclear weapons. Because of that aim,

at its disposal,

he was even able to see intimidate the

a

it

which he referred

say the sense of guilt,

felt

the construction of the

helped create

by

scientists,

its

—

“it

may

international

would not do.” 5

Nobel memorial event on December 10

stein gave a speech in

We

nuclear threat

race into bringing order into

which, without the pressure of fear,

affairs,

At

human

a positive aspect in the

New

in

York, Ein-

to the “responsibility,” not to

and also to

his

own

initiative in

atom bomb:

new weapon

this

mies of mankind from achieving

in order to prevent the ene-

it first;

given the mentality of the

Nazis, this could have brought about untold destruction as well as

enslavement of the peoples of the world. This weapon was delivered into the hands of the American and the British nations in their role as trustees of liberty;

but so far

all

mankind, and

we have no guarantee

as fighters for

of peace nor any of the

freedoms promised by the Atlantic Charter.

won

—but the peace

is

not.

peace and

.

.

.

The war

is

The

724 In this

new

Bomb

Pacifist and the

and

situation Einstein called for “bold action

change in our mentality.

.

.

Otherwise our

.

a radical

civilization

will

be

doomed.” 6 This warning had become necessary because relations between the great powers and, in consequence, the domestic climate in America

had changed dramatically over former

ally,

now became

the

a

few months.

enemy in

The

Soviet Union, the

the cold war.

In order to inform the public and the politicians about the

and

hattan Project set up an

At the request of Leo Einstein

number of

considerable

its effects, a

became

its

the physicists of the

Emergency Committee of Atomic

Szilard, the driving force

behind

bomb Man-

Scientists.

this enterprise,

chairman, 7 not as a “table ornament” but as an

eager fund-raiser and a committed propagandist.

He

signed

a

great

number of appeals and proclamations, mostly drafted by others; and he frequently spoke on the radio or took part in broadcast discussions by telephone. In the

fall

of 1946, he incited prominent Americans to a

meeting of the Emergency Committee

at the Institute for

Advanced

Study in Princeton, complete with “luncheon” and tea with the director,

Frank Aydelotte, and

nationwide network, Despite the failed to

initial publicity,

its

of Einstein’s address over a

NBC. though, the Emergency Committee

on

politics.

members; Einstein

tried to

produce any

emerged among

a relay

visible effect

Soon,

also, differences

mediate but could “not

bring himself to agree with the views of certain of the committee

members.” 8 At the end of 1948 the committee suspended ties

—but not so Einstein, who anyway

than in the atmosphere of

felt

happier as

a

its activi-

lone fighter

committee where compromise was

a

inevitable.

Despite Einstein’s support for world government and his

nouncements on the bomb,

on occasion you

see

my name

wrote to his friend Besso spend

a lot

this

at the

many

pro-

commitment remained marginal:

“If

linked with political excursions,” he

peak of his

of time on such matters, for

activity,

it

“don’t think that

would be

a

I

pity to waste

much strength on the arid soil of politics. But now and again comes a moment when one can’t do anything else.” 9 Once, walking to the

— Between Bomb and Equations Advanced Study with

Institute of

he assessed

Straus,

“Yes, that’s

work on

his

how one

As for had to

his

own

from him. “Had

contribution to the terrifying

I

known

title

I

is

for eternity.” 10

new weapon, he

who were hoping

would not have supported

he told the magazine Newsweek in March 1947.

of the three-page story

me, because

to

felt

Einstein the ,

Man Who

its

He

he

for support

Germans would not succeed

that the

developing the atom bomb, tion,”

much more important

himself in the eyes of those

justify

as follows:

has to divide one’s time between politics and our

for the present, while such an equation

is

Munich-born Ernst

Emergency Committee

the

equations. But our equations are politics

his assistant,

725

in

construc-

qualified the

—by

Started It All

explaining that the military development of nuclear energy would have

been not much different without

his intervention at the time. 11

Manhattan Project would agree with

historians of the

out Einstein’s

letter,

no more than

a

the

week

bomb would

later.

But

have been

built,

Most

Even with-

this.

and probably by

does not affect the issue of moral

this

responsibility.

Einstein stuck to the justification that to outrace the

when he

—

was necessary

Germans. But he certainly minimized

later told the editor

:

“My partic-

atom bomb consisted of

a single

Max

signed a letter to Roosevelt”; 12 and when, in a letter to

I

Germany, he repeated

von Laue

in

bomb and

Roosevelt was limited to

lard.” 13 In fact,

he had dictated the

and signed two further

letters;

that “the business with the

my signing letter (in

a letter written

as a security risk

hand, there obliged to tion. “If I

is

atom

by

Szi-

German), he had drafted

and he would have been glad to con-

tribute not only as a writer of letters but as a physicist,

excluded

time

at the

his contribution

of the Japanese journal Kaizo

ipation in the development of the

action

it

by “people

in

had he not been

Washington.”

On

the other

of course no doubt that Hitler had driven him to

recommend had known

the development of a that these fears

weapon of mass

were groundless,

I

feel

destruc-

would not

have taken part in opening that Pandora’s box.” 14

Einstein totally rejected any accusation that because of his formula

E = me

2

he bore

a special responsibility.

“So you believe that poor

me

by discovering and publishing the relation between mass and energy

726

The

Pacifist

and the Bomb

has played a major part in bringing about our lamentable situation,” he

some irony

said with

foresee the

bomb

to a historian

time

at a

when he was

have been quite impossible,

which

been ludicrous to keep .

.

required a

it

theory owes

sible technological applications

most noble

The

pursuit.

its

genesis to the endeavor to

ally speculated

Not

a hint

of pos-

in sight.” 15

to Einstein to

abandon or even

him humanity’s

search for the laws of nature was to

Anything

human

sphere, in which

would surely have

of nature because of possible problematical

restrict the exploration

I

was

would never have occurred

consequences.

number of

not even be sur-

in 1905 could

discover the properties of the ‘luminiferous ether.’

It

To

about the consequences of the special

silent

The

.

of physics.

Patent Office would

at the

obstacle had not existed,

if this

relativity theory.

still

as its construction

discoveries in nuclear physics

mised. “But even

who knew nothing

else

was part of the

beings so often

failed.

political

Even

so,

and moral

he occasion-

about the justification of this clear distinction:

believe that the terrible decline in man’s ethical behavior

is

due

primarily to the mechanization and depersonalization of our lives

—

a disastrous

by-product of the development of the techno-

logical-scientific intellect.

with

this fatal

Nostra culpa!

I

see

no way of dealing

shortcoming. Alan cools more quickly than the

planet he inhabits. 16

When the nuclear race was other with deadly threats

proxy all

on and the two superpowers faced each

— and in Korea even waged

kind of war by

—Einstein sometimes came close to despairing of humanity:

efforts are in vain

it.” 17

After a conversation with

Hermann Broch was impressed by what

pessimism, would was, and

it’s

Alozart any

still

no great

more

“If

and mankind ends in self-destruction, the uni-

verse will not shed a single tear over

him,

a

regret: “Alankind pity;

—that

is

Einstein, despite

remains

as idiotic as it

all

his

always

but that no one would then play Bach or

a pity.” 18

Regardless of occasional attacks of

melancholy, Einstein never abandoned hope, either in physics or in his political

commitments: “After

all,

to despair

to strive for an unattainable goal.” 19

makes even

less

sense than

Between Bomb and Equations

One

727

goal he was certainly not striving for, and one that he regarded as

unattainable anyway, was any fundamental change in the

nation or any reconciliation with

His anger

it.

—

fatherland” was so implacable that

Plan

—he thought

it

German

former “step-

at his

in line with the

Morgenthau

“absolutely necessary” to “prevent permanently

any substantial industrial power

in

Germany.

... I

am

not out for

revenge, but for the greatest possible safety from attacks by the Ger-

mans,

a safety that

on them.” 20

He

cannot be expected to come from moral influence

even rejected humanitarian programs to help Germans

suffering hardships in their destroyed country.

When James

Franck

Ameri-

initiated a constructive policy for the

cans as an occupying power, not for a “milder peace” but in order to

prevent

a “situation

of spiritual and psychological decay,” Einstein

brusquely reproved' -him: “The Germans butchered millions of ians according to a well prepared plan, in order to

had butchered you too,

place. If they

without some crocodile

this

into their

would not have happened

They would do

tears.

move

civil-

it

again

if

only they were

able to.” Einstein felt that “not a trace of a sense of guilt or remorse

among

to be found

the Germans”; he therefore called Franck’s initia-

tive a “stinking business”

sion arose, he

who had appeal,

is

when a suitable occaspeak out against it.” 21 Hermann Broch,

and announced

would “publicly

that,

joined Franck’s initiative and had cooperated in drafting the

succeeded in dissuading Einstein only to the extent that

he would “now desist from his threatened public protest against the

program.” 22

The more

first

person to discover that Einstein would

literally

have no

do with Germany was Arnold Sommerfeld. Einstein had

to

resigned from the Bavarian

Academy

wanted

am

to reverse that. “I

in 1933,

and Sommerfeld now

therefore asking you,” Sommerfeld

wrote, totally misjudging Einstein’s attitude, “to bury the hatchet and

once more to accept membership in the Academy.” 23 Although

it

was

a

“genuine pleasure” for Einstein to hear from his old colleague, he could not have refused him more sharply: “With the Germans having

murdered thing

my Jewish

more

Academy.” 24

to

brethren in Europe,

I

do not wish

do with Germans, not even with

to have any-

a relatively

harmless

The

728 It

would be

a mistake,

Bomb

Pacifist and the

though, to see in Einstein’s attitude a hatred

of everything German. In

human

matters as in physics, his “rational

basis [was] confident belief in unlimited causality.

way he

because he must act the

does.’

from Spinoza, acknowledged neither Einstein to

show

sin

it

led him, in his

cannot hate him

This viewpoint, taken over

nor

toleration and patience for

now

But

trespasses.

” 25

‘I

guilt,

and

had helped

it

many human

judgment on the Germans, to an

implacable conclusion, beyond crime or punishment: If the

had acted the way they had to

—encountered by

the

Max

cessor to the Kaiser

Wilhelm

Society,

who

a “foreign scientific

“The crimes of

attitude of the

German

as a suc-

was rejected by Einstein with

Germans

the

most hideous that the history of the so-called

The

those

Planck Society, founded in Gottingen

the crushing argument:

show.

all

official capacity.

Otto Hahn’s request that Einstein become

member” of

Germans

then they would do so again unless

act,

prevented. This, then, was his attitude

approached him in an

and

follies

are really the

civilized nations has to

intellectuals—viewed as a class

was no better than that of the mob. There

is

not even remorse or an

honest desire to make good whatever, after the gigantic murdering,

be made good. In these circumstances

left to

being involved in simply out of

a

I feel a

a business that represents part

need for cleanliness.” 26 Even

deep aversion to

of German public

less

is

life,

did he wish to have

anything to do with institutions of the Federal Republic born in 1949. Its

president,

ment of the stein as

Theodor Heuss, who,

civilian class

in connection with the reestablish-

of the Pour

le

one of four surviving prewar members, was informed by

Einstein that

it

was “evident that

proud Jew no longer wishes to be

a

connected with any kind of German

He

did not even

publisher sible”

Merite Order, approached Ein-

official

want the Germans

Vieweg wished

book “on the

event or institution.” 27

to read his works.

When his old

to republish his slim “generally

special

and general theory of

comprehen-

relativity,”

he was

informed by Einstein: “After the mass murder committed by the Ger-

my Jewish

mans

against

mine

to appear in

Germany

after

brethren

Germany.” 28

I

Max

do not wish any publications of Born,

who

intended to return to

being pensioned in Edinburgh in 1953, received

rather tactless ticking off for

a

“moving back into the country of the

Between Bomb and Equations mass murderers of our

tribal

companions.

well that collective conscience die just

when

is

.

very lousy

.

But then we know quite

little

plant which tends to

most needed.” 29

it is

At the same time, Einstein’s never affected individuals those who, like

a

.

729

attitude

who were

toward Germans

his colleagues

as a

whole

and friends

—even

Hahn and Sommerfeld, had remained

steadfast

under

the Nazi regime. His only intensive exchange of letters was with

whom he

von Laue,

fine fellow.”

But

had always and unqualifiedly regarded

in an obituary in

Walther Nernst, who had died gave

homage

Max

as a “really

1942, Einstein paid tribute to

in 1941. Just as if there

to the liberal-mindedness of his

were no war, he

sometime patron and

colleague, and wistfully recollected an international spirit of science that existed

no longer. 30

Max

For

Planck died on October a

When

Planck, Einstein preserved a deep reverence. 4,

1947, at the age of eighty-nine, Einstein, at

memorial meeting of the American Academy of Sciences, paid

his

respects to his father figure as a personification of the ideal of knowl-

edge. 31 In a letter of condolence to Planck’s widow, Einstein found

moving words “It

was

to describe

and

a beautiful

in his proximity.

what

fruitful

this

man had meant

time that

I

to

him

personally:

had the privilege of spending

His gaze was fixed on eternal things, yet he took an

active part in everything that

belonged to the

human and temporal

The hours which I was permitted to spend at your house, and the many conversations which I conducted face to face with that wonderful man, will remain among my most beautiful recollections for sphere.

.

.

.

the rest of

my

life.

This cannot be altered by the

fact that a tragic fate

tore us apart.” 32

Einstein had not actually gone to the memorial meeting for

Planck in Washington but had arranged for

The

reason was his

own

his

deteriorating health.

Max

eulogy to be read out.

He now

hardly ever

left

Princeton.

The

three ladies at

the obstinate old

man

1

12

the

Mercer

Street

same care

were evidently unable

that Elsa

had given him.

to give

A series

of illnesses began after the war, with marked physical deterioration,

but the causes remained uncertain for

a

long time.

When he was better

Bomb

730

The

again he drew up a

humorous balance sheet

Pacifist and the

become markedly weak and looked years

for that period: “I

like a specter. It

had

turned out that for

had been observing an unintentional starvation treatment

I

which impaired the elementary balance of substances. With correctly dosed fattening-up

human appearance granted

me

I

gained 15 pounds over four weeks, acquired a

again,

and the weakness was gone. Thus the Devil

one more reprieve.” 33

However, painful abdominal by vomiting and

attacks then recurred,

accompanied

Rudolf Ehrmann,

a specialist in

lasting several days.

stomach complaints who had treated Einstein

His patient, by then seventy, with

intestinal ulcer.

wondered tion,

“that this incredibly

moreover

realize

how

for so

many

lousily primitive

though not

years!

One

in

as a patient

December 1948

Nissen

in.

to

Eventually the

a cyst in the

abdomen.

my friends,” 35 Einstein Hospital in Brooklyn, New

who

to Jewish

is.” 34

life

—who had met Einstein

—diagnosed

York, for surgical “medical repair.” sions of the intestine,

only has to think of

our whole science

After an “impressive council of doctors

was admitted

equanimity

stoical

complex machinery is ever able to func-

surgeon Rudolf Nissen was called in Berlin,

in Berlin, suspected an

are

The surgeon found

several adhe-

which had apparently caused the

attacks.

The

suspected cyst, however, turned out to be an aneurysm, an arteriosclerotic dilation of the

major abdominal

as large as a grapefruit. 36

So

an alarming

aorta, of

far the wall

a

was

of the aneurysm was firm, and

surgical intervention, given the high risk associated with

was not indicated. After

size: it

it

at that time,

month, the patient was discharged from the

hospital.

Accompanied by Walter Bucky, Einstein spent valescence in Florida. better,

and one

is

“One

few weeks of con-

gets hungry, the old crate

developing something

But he could not indulge

a

in laziness, as

like a

is

working

paunch,” he reported.

he had promised to write

a

concluding reflection on the nineteen contributions to the volume devoted to him in the Library of Living Philosophers. “So I’m just writing, always dissatisfied with

improve on

it.” 37

more defended

what

I

have written, yet unable to

In the end he was, after

“the

all,

satisfied at

having once

good Lord against the suggestion that he continu-

Between Bomb and Equations

When

ously rolls dice.” 38

sister

had been at

he returned to Princeton he was feeling

not well.

better, but

His

731

Maja’s health was considerably worse than his own.

living with

how much

Maja

in cordial

He

harmony; friends were astonished

the siblings with increasing years resembled each other in

appearance, gestures, and facial expressions. Maja had intended to return to Switzerland at the end of the war, but she suffered a stroke

from which she never recovered. Progressive

arteriosclerosis

and kept her bedridden. Her brother was

lized her

during her prolonged suffering. “During the

last

a loving

ture. Strangely

advanced

companion

few years

her every evening from the best books of the old and the

immobi-

I

read to

new

litera-

enough, her intelligence had hardly suffered from the

illness,

even though toward the end she could hardly talk

audibly anymore.” Maja died on June 25, 1951.

“Now I miss

her more

than can be imagined.” 39 Mileva, Einstein’s

never had an easy

first

wife,

beyond endurance. Added financial

transfers of

money and

in

Zurich in 1948. She had

and her son Eduard’s schizophrenia upset her

life,

permanent

had died

to this

problems

were her own

—which

illnesses, as well as

Einstein had brought on by

by some complicated transactions, such

also

as

taking over the house on Huttenstrasse.

Eduard was

at the

author Carl Seelig,

Burgholzli psychiatric hospital in Zurich.

who was

Robert Walser, proved stein could “not

with

already looking after the mentally

a kindly

ill

The poet

and helpful mentor to Eduard. Ein-

thank [him] enough for

[his]

sympathetic occupation

my sick son. He represents the virtually only human problem that

remains unsolved.

The

rest

have been solved, not by

me

but by the

hand of death.” 40 up any contact with

Einstein, however, felt unable to keep

even by

letter:

“There

is

But one factor

a

block behind

believe

is

that

I

feelings of various kinds in

him

if I

lyze fully.

it

I

which

I

am

unable to ana-

would be arousing painful

made an appearance

form.” 41 Eduard Einstein survived his father by ten years. the Burgholzli in 1965.

his son,

in

whatever

He

died at

The

732 It

was

after the

and the Bomb

that the picture posterity has of Einstein

Without

take shape.

him

war

Pacifist

began to

Elsa’s supervision, the indifference that suited

in external matters

was gaining the upper hand. As early

he had described himself mockingly

as “a

as

kind of ancient figure

1942

known

primarily by his non-use of socks and wheeled out on special occasions as a curiosity.” 42

not

Now, marked by

sickness and haggard, often dressed

comfortably but grotesquely, he might have become

just

a

Chap-

linesque tragicomic figure, had not his features and his deep, intelli-

gent eyes enthralled every

And and

there were a lot of visitors.

Max von Laue were

Prominent

a

Old

friends like

his daughter, Indira, to

New York

to

Mercer

at the university the four

or Washington

late fall

of 1952. After

young musicians came

Street and played Beethoven and Bartok, before surprising

Einstein with a request to be allowed to

make music with him.

—he had stopped playing the

prolonged protest viously

Israel,

man. Of particular charm

by the Juilliard String Quartet in the

an afternoon concert

house.

David Ben-Gurion from

point of driving to Princeton from

a visit

at his

from the Indian prime minister Jawaharlal

for an afternoon in order to talk to the wise

was

Maurice Solovine

welcomed and stayed

cordially

political figures,

Nehru with made

visitor.

After

violin seven years pre-

—Einstein chose Mozart’s great G Minor Quintet and took the

second-violin part. Despite his unpracticed and fragile fingers, he

played with a good sense of coordination and intonation, and with impressive concentration. Admittedly, concession had to be

him

in the matter of tempi, but the fact that the

slower and slower did not diminish the

warm

Juilliard

brilliance of Mozart’s

Some

time

later,

on November

honor which moved him

Chaim Weizmann, died on November up

virtuosi.

of farewell, Einstein said he could not understand

Quartet was often criticized for

a suggestion,

the

first

greatly,

At the

why

the

tempi. 43

1952, Einstein was offered an

but which he could not accept.

president of the

9. Israel’s

thrown out

16,

its fast

to

movements became

music and even intensified the happiness of the young

moment

made

young

state

of Israel, had

premier, David Ben-Gurion, had taken

in the Israeli press, that the vacant post be

offered to Einstein as the greatest living

Jew and

as

an expression of

Between Bomb and Equations Israel’s special link

with

scientific

he instructed Abba Eban, then

733

humanism. By telephone and ambassador

Israel’s

telex

Washington,

in

to

offer Einstein the presidency. 44

Before the ambassador could even prepare for this delicate

had

a surprise: Einstein

task,

he

was on the telephone. Ben-Gurion’s intention

had been reported by the news media and Einstein had learned of it on

November

the evening of

ruffled,” reported a colleague stein.

“

‘This

“The

16.

quiet household was

little

from the

institute

who was

much

visiting Ein-

very awkward, very awkward,’ the old gentleman was

is

explaining, while walking

up and down

was very unusual with him.” 45

He

in a state of agitation

decided to

call

Washington

which

at once,

and in decisive terms he told Abba Eban that Ben-Gurion should miss the idea.

He

asked

Eban

to report to Israel that

dis-

he was honored,

but also that his refusal was unalterable.

Eban

realized that he

would be unable

mind, but he would not accept telephone. day.

He

a refusal

make

Einstein change his

Israel’s

presidency over the

to

of

therefore sent his deputy to Princeton the following

When he presented the official letter,

Einstein had already drafted

his reply:

I

am

deeply

moved by

the offer from our state Israel, and at once

saddened and ashamed that

I

cannot accept

dealt with objective matters, hence

I

it.

All

my

life I

have

lack both the natural apti-

tude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise

functions.

official

unsuited to

fulfill

For these reasons alone

the duties of that high office, even

age was not making increasing demands on I

am

the

more

relationship

to

I

would be

if

advancing

my strength.

distressed over these circumstances because

the Jewish people has

become

human bond, ever since I became fully aware situation among the nations of the world. 46 Abba Eban was deeply impressed by

my

my

strongest

of our precarious

the fact that in the very

first

sen-

tence Einstein referred to “our state Israel.” Einstein had in fact

wholeheartedly welcomed the foundation of the regretted that

it

state,

even though he

had not been possible without violence and although

he continued to view coexistence between Jews and Arabs

as a task

still

The

734 to be accomplished.

Pacifist

To the

and the Bomb

editor of the Tel Aviv daily

which had sug-

gested Einstein for the presidency, he also justified his refusal by

expressing his concern about “the difficult situation that might arise the government or parliament took decisions which would bring into a conflict of conscience, the

more

so as moral responsibility

if

me

would

not be eliminated by the circumstance that de facto one has no influence on events.” 47

To Israeli

was simpler: “The

a friend, his justification

brethren

moved me

deeply. But

offer

many a

make myself do

While Ben-Gurion was awaiting

rebel has

become

a bigwig, I couldn’t

Einstein’s

decision, he asked his assistant, the future president Yitzak

over a cup of coffee: “Tell offer the post to

me what

him because

it’s

do

to

my

declined straight away with

I

genuine regret. Although that.” 48

from

if

he says

impossible not

to.

yes! I’ve

But

if

Navon, had to

he accepts

we’re in for trouble.” 49

At the

Advanced Study, Einstein had been

Institute for

retired in the

spring of 1946, but he had ensured that there would be no change in his salary or his

Princeton

working

facilities:

when I was pensioned

off,

“I

threatened that

I

would leave

and they didn’t want that because

of my popularity.” 50 In the

fall

of the same year,

J.

Robert Oppenheimer assumed the

directorship of the institute and began to develop

it

into an out-

standing center of research in physics. Einstein esteemed the director as an “unusually capable

did not

come

scientific

younger

man

new

of many-sided education” but

into close contact with him, “perhaps partly because our

opinions are fairly diametrically different.” 51 As physicists

whom Oppenheimer

brought to the

all

the

institute

had

been brought up on quantum mechanics, they would not and could not concern themselves with Einstein’s problems. The few who called

on Einstein invariably ished to find

him

felt

enriched by their contact but were aston-

talking as if he had a direct line to

who ignored him or smiled at him from a when they caught sight of him, a sense of living representative of their science, if

Isaac

God. The many

distance nevertheless

reverence for the greatest

though from the past

Newton had appeared among them.

felt,

— almost

as

Between Bomb and Equations This was always the case when he attended

symposium by which the

at a

in

March

1949.

Abraham

institute

had already taken

There was

moment

formed

— again

and

it

was so

his seventieth birthday,

when

their seats

Einstein appeared.

of respectful silence in the hall before the guests

Even

rose to their feet and applauded him. 52

tongue) was

a lecture,

most of the three hundred

Pais recalled that

participants a

honored

735

according to

Abraham

Pauli (of the sharp

Pais

—somewhat

and could not help feeling

in Einstein’s presence

trans-

touch

a

of awe.

While self,

his life’s

two weeks

There

work was being celebrated after his birthday,

isn’t a single

stand up, and

concept of which

I feel

unsure

has, as

it

am

I

differently:

convinced that

it

will

am even on the right road. My me as a heretic and a reactionary

were, outlived himself.

of course,

This,

up

it

if I

contemporaries, however, see

who

summed

immortal, Einstein him-

as

due to fashion and shortsightedness,

is

but the sense of inadequacy comes from within. Well bly can’t be otherwise

if

one

is

critical

and modesty keep one on an even

—

proba-

it

and honest, and humor

keel,

in spite of outside

influences. 53

Sometimes he expressed himself more robustly about poraries: “It in arms, it

is

and

rather hard to find that

it is

we it

at least

“Maybe even my general field

of infants

is

and indefatigably

of quantum theory on the

on the general theory of

Often he was hopeful that he had

symmetrical

at the stage

to himself

his great task, the explanation

basis of a unified theory resting

the truth.

still

contem-

not surprising that the fellows are reluctant to admit

(myself too).” 54 But he did admit

worked on

are

his

caught hold of

relativity

a

relativity.

shred of

theory of the non-

the correct thing,” he thought in 1952. “Elowever,

the mathematical difficulties of a comparison with experience are prohibitive for the time being.

from

a truly sensible

ticles) as fifty

Be

that as

it

may, we are certainly

as far

theory (the dual nature of light quanta and par-

years ago.”

Although he instructed

his assistant that

it

was already

a success “if

one can compel nature his

own

to stick

its

tongue out

at one,” 55

Not only would

criteria for a sensible theory.

hence in

Bomb

Pacifist and the

The

736

he kept raising

the electron, and

view matter generally, be derived from such

his

theory

magnitudes of natural constants

logical necessity, but the

velocity of light

a

were no longer to be empirical

facts

as a

like the

but would be

derived unambiguously from the theory.

In the past Einstein had tried to find out the intentions of the

metaphorically understood the world. ally

Now he raised his sights; he wanted to discover if God actu-

had any choice

God

whether

—Almighty and to discover how he created

in creating the world:

could have

whether the demand

made

“What

really interests

me

is

the world differently; in other words,

for logical simplicity leaves

any freedom

at all.” 56

For the sake of solving the ancient philosophical problem of contingency, at least within the

framework of

prepared to give up the

theory and search for alternative physical

field

physics, Einstein

was even

and mathematical structures. Despite various attempts along those lines,

nothing matured to the point of publication.

While he

indefatigably continued to

work on

a unified field theory,

he by no means rejected the idea that maybe everything was entirely different. In the

summer of

century

had been with him

earlier,

theory, he said: “However,

cannot be based on the

1954, in his last letter to Besso, who, half a

I

field

that case nothing remains of

regard

of the relativity

as entirely possible that physics

it

concept,

my

at the genesis

i.e.

on continuous

entire castle in the

air,

structures. In

including the

gravitation theory.” 57 In this harsh judgment, too, Einstein

Politics

was alone.

and secrecy moved into the ivory tower with J. Robert Oppen-

heimer. Military police kept

a

twenty-four-hour guard over the safe in

which the “father of the atom bomb” deposited his conferences

with the government on nuclear matters. While Ein-

stein

was immersed

No.

109,

one

his secret papers for

floor

in

thought in his

fine street-level

corner room,

above him Oppenheimer held conferences with

bomb-experienced colleagues

—from

mann, and John Archibald Wheeler

Enrico Fermi, John von Neu-

to

Edward Teller

—

to discuss the

construction of a “superbomb”: a hydrogen bomb. Einstein

is

unlikely to have spoken about the dangers of that enter-

Between Bomb and Equations prise with the

when

bomb

builders

who came and went

737

But

at the institute.

the president of the United States announced the successful con-

struction of the hydrogen for the first time

bomb, Einstein spoke

on the new medium of television,

in Princeton the

day before.

If this

whole nation,

to the

in an address filmed

development succeeded, he

said,

“radioactive poisoning of the atmosphere and, hence, annihilation of

on earth

all life

have been brought within the range of what

will

technically possible.

The

weird aspect of

development

this

is

lies in its

apparently inexorable character. Each step appears as the inevitable

consequence of the one that went before. And

at the end,

looming ever

clearer, lies general annihilation.” 58

The

Reaction was overwhelming.

following day the

ran a banner headline across the whole page: “Einstein

H-Bomb

Outlaw suit. It

was

all

New

York Post

Warns World:

or Perish!” 59 Papers throughout the world followed

in vain.

The arms

race was running

its

course with the

“apparent inevitability” diagnosed by Einstein. Just as he did not give

up

in his scientific endeavors, so

he con-

tinued his struggle against the nuclear arms race. Moreover, he inter-

vened in many other controversies of American domestic

policy;

during the dark period of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s witch-hunts he called for the defense of civil liberties

ence.

and pleaded for

civil

disobedi-

As during the Weimar Republic, he was now revered by the

and by

liberals,

demanded

and

fiercely attacked

from the

right,

left

which even

that he be stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported.

When he

saw how

free expression of opinion

the universities and in public

life,

how

was being muzzled

intellectuals

and

scientists

in

were

persecuted, Einstein at seventy-five provoked the nation with the

statement that

become

a scientist

plumber or pendence delighted sent

as a

him

a

is

Thanks

in that situation

or scholar or teacher.

I

he would “not

would rather choose

try to

to be a

peddler in the hope to find that a modest degree of indestill

when a

young man

available

under present circumstances.” 60

He

the Chicago Plumbers’ and Sanitary Engineers’

membership

was

Union

card.

to his science, however, Einstein

independence he was striving

for,

had not only acquired the

he had also made use of

breath. In February 1955 Bertrand Russell approached

it

to his final

him with

a

pro-

738

The

posal to

make

it

Pacifist

and the Bomb

emphatically clear to the public and to the world’s

governments that in

a nuclear

war there would be neither

victors

nor

vanquished, only total catastrophe. 61 In a protracted correspondence the two grand old

whose voices

men

agreed on an appeal to be signed by scientists

carried international weight. Russell bore the brunt of

organizing this project and also drafted the definitive document, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. Einstein signed

returned It

stein

was

it

it

on April

11, 1955,

and

to Bertrand Russell with a short covering note.

his last letter.

was no longer

By

alive. 62

the time Russell held

it

in his hands, Ein-

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE “An Old Debt”

The end came quickly

summer of

long been expected. In the

found that

knew

his

and surprisingly, even though

had

it

1950, Einstein’s physicians had

aneurysm was getting bigger. From then on, Einstein

that his time

“die gracefully.” 1

was limited. Calmly he awaited

On March

his death,

hoping to

18 he had signed his will, which ap-

pointed Helen Dukas and Otto Nathan as his literary executors and instructed that sity in

all

his

manuscripts were to go to the

Hebrew Univer-

Jerusalem.

He

He who

wished to have the simplest possible funeral.

on Newton’s

laid flowers

grave,

commemorating

once had

the giant on whose

shoulders he stood, did not even want a gravestone. Replying to a bold

question from a student death?

—he

become

—What would become of

said with a roguish smile:

a place

bones of the

his

That was

in the

after his

“This house will certainly not

of pilgrimage, where pilgrims would

saint.” 2

house

fall

come

to view the

of 1953.

In 1954, Einstein developed hemolytic anemia. In 1955, he was able to report that medical crate

is

again functioning,

skill

had allowed him to survive

more or

less,

it.

“The

only the brain has gotten very

— the Devil altogether counts the years conscientiously, one’s got

rusty to

acknowledge

that.” 3

He

was again able to go to the

Advanced Study every morning and work with

Kaufmann,

a

young woman

physicist

born

Institute for

his assistant Bruria

in Palestine

and trained in

America. Preparations were being

made

in

739

Bern and Berlin

to

mark

the

The

740 fiftieth it

anniversary of the theory of relativity. “Age and sickness

impossible for

me

to participate in such events,

also that this divine dispensation has

Max von

me,” he wrote to long

life’s

ponderings

it is

Laue. “If

we

that

and

it

for

have learned anything from a

I

much

are

believe, so that noisy celebrations are

make

have to confess

I

something liberating about

insight into the elementary processes than

state

Bomb

Pacifist and the

from

further

a

deeper

most of our contemporaries

not

much

in line with the real

of affairs.” 4

For Einstein’s seventy-sixth birthday, which was observed without any ent

fuss, a physicist at

the university had thought

up

a graceful pres-

—an experimental demonstration of the equivalence principle

was to remind him of the “happiest idea” of his

The

the Patent Office in Bern.

lier at

spring, and a sphere,

life,

5

that

half a century ear-

setup, involving a broomstick, a

was demonstrated with great ceremony and

obvious enjoyment.

A

month

later,

on April

11, Einstein

signed the appeal drawn up by

Bertrand Russell against the arms race, and in the afternoon he received the Israeli ambassador,

Abba Eban,

to discuss a planned radio

address on the seventh anniversary of the establishment of Israel.

None

of his visitors suspected that death was close.

On

Wednesday, April

13,

strong pains set

His family doctor

in.

feared a small perforation of the aneurysm. Walter

Ehrmann,

as well as

other doctor friends, arrived from

following day to be with Einstein at the end. surgery. “I is

would

tasteless.” 6

A

Bucky and Rudolf

like to

go when

few weeks

earlier

I

want

to.

To

He

New York

the

resolutely rejected

prolong

life artificially

he had thought of death

as

“an old

debt that one eventually pays. Yet instinctively one does everything possible to postpone this final settlement. plays with us.

We

may

Such

ourselves smile that

is

we

the

game

that nature

are that way, but

we

cannot free ourselves of the instinctive reaction to which we are

all

subject.” 7

Now that he

to be free

from

On

knew

his

time had come, he tried to smile and

instinct, so as to “die gracefully.”

Friday he had to be hospitalized. His son

from California; Otto Nathan came from

New

however, Einstein’s condition had improved so

Hans Albert came York.

much

On

Sunday,

that he asked for

"An Old Debt”

and for the draft of

his calculations

brethren.”

He was unable

to finish

German which aneurysm had

Twelve

mony

his broadcast for his “Israeli

though. Shortly after one o’clock

it,

on Monday morning, he became

741

restless,

spoke

a

few words in

the night nurse could not understand, and died.

The

finally ruptured.

close friends assembled in the afternoon for a simple cere-

at the

crematorium. Otto Nathan gave

recited the epilogue to Schiller’s Glocke

,

a

short address and

which Goethe had written

Schiller’s funeral service. Einstein’s ashes

were scattered

for

in an undis-

closed place.

His stepdaughter Margot,

been allowed to see him

“He as

.

.

.

left this

life

same hospital and had

few times, reported about his

last

few hours:

—so quietly and modestly he was facing death.

world without sentimentality and without regrets .” 8

Three weeks before friend Besso:

“Now

strange world. This tinction

in the

waited for his end as for an impending natural event. Fearless

he had been in

He

a

who was

between

his death, Einstein

past, present,

stubborn illusion .” 9

his old

me a little by parting from To us believing physicists the

he has preceded

means nothing.

had commemorated

this dis-

and future has only the significance of a

'

,

NOTES Note: For works listed in the Bibliography, short citations are given here. Refer to the Bibliography also for abbreviations used.

1.

by Helen Dukas; the original docu-

Family

ments are

Maja Winteler-Einstein, Albert

1.

Einstein

—Beitrag fur

sein Lebensbild

on

completed

36-page

manuscript,

February

15, 1924. Extracts

a

CPI, p. LVI. The editor’s notes, even more than Maja’s manuscript, are source for

many

Einstein’s family and the his

details of

first

Hans Eugen Specker (ed.), Einstein und Ulm (Ulm/Stuttgart, 1979). Contains numerous documents from

Ulm

city archives. Einstein’s birth

certificate

is

reproduced on

1953,

4,

Dunkle Zeit

,

CPI,

5.

Einstein

p.

Abe?idpost

,

—

trag,

Lvn.

to

Carlos

Ulm to

Ernst G. Straus, Reminiscences,

13.

Zvfarch 16, 1929,

of

Winteler-Einstein, CPI,

Maja Winteler-Einstein, CPI, p. L.

—

p.

e.g.,

Maja

LVII

—the

was spoken regard the version related by

softly. I

most plausible. Maja Winteler-Einstein, CPI,

to be the 14.

LVII. 15.

Ibid.

16.

Erik H. Erikson, Psychoanalytic in

Symposium,

Jerusalem

p. 157.

17. Einstein

city

quoted

to

18. Autobiograph isches,

Bei-

stein

7.

p.

Ein-

often jocularly referred to his

Reiser, p. 28.

autobiography

9.

Ibid., p. 26.

“Obituary.”

10.

Quoted in Hoffman/Dukas, These sentences were excerpted

743

Franck,

James

in Seelig (1952), p. 72.

8.

p. 22.

419; ac-

p.

repetition of the sentence

Reflections,

Ulmer

Ulm

Symposium,

cording to other accounts

Erlander,

city archives.

editor

May

21, 1954.

p.

archives. 7.

Maja Winteler-Einstein, CPI,

12. Einstein to Sybille Blinoff,

LVI.

18, 1929,

Einstein

6.

in Helle Z.eit

p. 56.

4.

March

ETH,

are

present accessible.

11. p.

They

Einstein himself to his assistant Straus

p. 61.

Hans Miihsam,

Einstein to Dr.

March

at

in Jerusalem

life.

3.

not

years of

2.

the

University in Jerusalem, in

the so-called Family Folder.

published

in

a reliable

Hebrew

in the Einstein Archives of

as

his

“

Nekrologf his

19. Ibid.

20. Einstein’s

reply to

a

written

Notes

744 question at a press conference in

York on March

New

19. Skizze, p. 10.

1953, quoted in

18,

May

20. Einstein to Sybille Bintoff,

21, 1954.

Seelig (1960), p. 399.

21. Ibid.

Maja Winteler-Einstein, CPI,

22. 2.

School p.

LIX.

1.

CPI,

2.

Reiser, p. 30.

24. Autobiographisches, p. 2.

3.

Einstein in a draft letter to an

25.

unknown

p.

LEX,

addressee, April

4.

Reiser, p. 30.

5.

Einstein,

23. Reiser, p. 28.

n. 42.

3,

1920.

p.

LX. 26. Reiser, p. 29.

draft letter,

April

27. Autobiographisches, p.

3,

1920.

Maja Winteler-Einstein, CPI,

29. Ibid., p. 2.

LIX.

Hoffman/Dukas,

8.

Reiser, p. 33.

9.

Student register of elementary

Frank,

p. 27.

the

school on Blumenstrasse, CPI,

p.

LIX,

10.

Frank,

same story. 31. Moszkowski,

11.

Frank, pp. 221:

ski,

p.

told

me

“With

bitter

Period

sarcasm he

p. 163.

the teachers had the character

—those

ca,

name.

nasium predominantly had the char-

33.

later at the

acter of lieutenants.” ,

Umschau, 1933, No. .

10.

Dr. H. Wieleitner, Albert Ein-

On

his

22

and

Iff.

15.

Antonina Vallentin, Das Drama

Albert Einsteins

—Eine Biographie

(Stutt-

Moszkowski,

17.

Abraham

kreise

p.

18.

The

eines

jiidischen

(Stuttgart, 1955), p. 16.

syllabi are

CPI, Appendix

reproduced in

B, pp. 346ff.

little

is

geometry

book

it

would seem too voluminous. Accord-

a

account, the

sister’s

book could equally well have volume of Adolf Sickenberger’s Mathematik,

Leitfiaden der elementaren

which was used at the Luitpold Gymnasium but may have been bought ahead of time.

in

A. Fraenkel, Lebens-

—Erinnenmgen

Math ematikers

221.

Spieker’s textbook

a “little”

gart, 1955), p. 16. 16.

his last

remains uncertain; for

been 7 Iff.

93 2),

claims,

“sacred”

Moszkowski, pp.

1

Talmey

Miinchner

14. E.g.,

Fonnative

(see below), as

book”

in

14, 1929.

the

(New York,

“sacred

ing to Einstein’s

March

Relativity

had anglicized

am Miinchner Luitpold-Gymnasium Nachrichten,

and

The

immigration to Ameri-

stein

Neueste

Maja

p. 4.

Inventor

Whether the

really

12. E. A. Pariser, Albert Einstein in

ofi Its

Max Talmud

Gym-

of sergeants

Simplified

Moszkow-

24f.; see

version of

223; also

p.

Max Talmey,

32.

Theory

p. 26.

222; see also

Winteler-Einstein, CPI, p. LXI, and

21; see also Reiser,

p.

p.

p. 26, for a similar

Autobiographisches,

n. 42.

3

Moszkowski,

30.

7.

1

1.

28. Ibid.

6.

p.

Maja Winteler-Einstein, CPI,

34.

Heinrich B. Liibsen, Emleitwig

die

Infinitesimalrechnung (Differen-

tial-

und Integralrechnung) Ziim

Mit Notwendigste und unterricht.

.

Riicksicht

Selbst-

auf

das

Wichtigste (Leipzig,

Friedrich Branstatter). Also intended for independent study

was Liibsen’s

Notes

745

Ausfuhrliches Lehrbuch der Analysis as

well as his Ausfuhrliches Lehrbuch der

und sphdrischen Trigonometric. three volumes are now in the Ein-

On the flyleaf they bear

stein Archives.

the signature

a

J a k»b Einstein,”

makes

it

Albert

obtained

volumes not

these

from Talmud but from library.

The

that

The patents can be inspected at German Patent Office in Munich;

sorgung von

hand.

liber die

von ihnen verwendeten

(Berlin/Munich,

1891);

pp.

G.

60.

N.

Reinhart,

in

Alfred

36. Autobiographisches, p. 4.

Kuhlo, Geschichte der bayrischen Indus-

37. Ibid., p. 3.

trie

of Bertrand

raphy

The Autobiog-

Rxtssell

(Munich, 1926),

p. 31.

61. Ibid.

(London,

Maja Winteler-Einstein, CPI,

62. p. LIII.

1967), p. 36.

memorial

63. In that respect the

39. Autobiographisches, p. 4.

now

40. Ibid., p. 2.

plaque

41. Ibid., p.

12 does not entirely accord with the

5.

42. Ibid. 43. 44. stein,

facts:

Talmey (see n. 32), p. 164. Fritz Genewein to Albert Ein-

Munich, October

stein, Berlin,

46.

December

p.

LVIII.

47. Einstein to Philipp Frank, draft a letter,

on the

site.

65. Reiser, pp. 41 f.; Frank, p. 31. 66. Officially,

school was dated

1927.

Maja Winteler-Einstein,

Albert Einstein never lived in

64. See n. 24.

20, 1924.

9,

affixed to Adlzreiterstrasse

that building, but only

45. Alfred Einstein to Albert Ein-

his

release

December

from

29, 1894;

Kgl. Luitpold-Gymnasium, annual re-

port for 1895.

1940.

48. Ibid.

Talmey

50.

Weltbild (1934), p.

8

(written

1.

p.

p.

“Child Prodigy’*

(see n. 32), p. 165.

51. Reiser, p. 33;

Moszkowski,

A

3.

49.

about 1930).

on Ruess,

Maja Winteler-Einstein, CPI,

LX IV.

see also

221.

2.

Ibid.

3.

Ernesta Pelizza Marangoni,

Mo-

52. Reiser, pp. 34f.

menti pavesi nella vita di Alberto Ein-

53. Einstein to Philipp Frank, draft

stein , in

of a

letter,

54. p.

mit elektrischem

63-66 describe the Einstein threeconductor DC system.

(see n. 32), p. 164.

38. Bertrand Russell,

of

Stadten

Strom. Nach Berichten elektrotechnischer

Systeme

own

p. 54.

Uppenborn, Die Ver-

59. Friedrich

Einleitung in die Infini-

Talmey

35.

they are listed in Pyenson,

Firmen

tesimalrechnung has a few glosses in Einstein’s

the

uncle’s

his

to

58.

which

exceedingly probable

CPI, notes

details see

pp. LI-LIII; and Pyenson, pp. 35-53.

ebenen All

For

57.

Maja Winteler-Einstein, CPI,

56.

4.

An

55. Einstein to Philipp Frank, draft letter,

1940.

,

May

14,

p. 8.

Quoted from Harry A. Cohen,

Afternoon with Einstein

6.

,

in Jewish

January 1969, p. 16. Marangoni, p. 1. Einstein to Marie Winteler,

Spectator, 5.

See also Erich Kiesel, Miinch-

ner Stadtanzeiger, 1979, No. 22,

Provincia Pavese

1955, pp. 1-3.

1940.

LXIII.

of a

La

April 21, 1886.

Notes

746

March

biography in CPI,

1946, published in

16,

Elena Sanesi, Three Letters by Albert

25

Stay at Pavia in Physis 18 (1976), ,

pp. 174-178. In the original the sen-

tences read: “I mesi

giorno

in

sono

ricordanze.

Italia .

.

piu

le

belle

Giorni e settimane sen-

.

Otto

March

Neustatter

CPI, Doc.

26, 1895,

9, p. 14.

in

Edgar

Lehrerzeitung

Schweizerische

Liischer,

(1944), p. 623.

Hans

27.

Byland,

Aus

Einsteins

Jugendtagen. Ein Gedenkblatt in Neue ,

Biindner Zeitung, February

1928.

7,

28. Central State Archives, Stutt-

za ansie e senza tensione.” 9.

388.

p.

Anna Winteler-Besso

26.

mio sog-

del

felici

see the short

Gustav Maier to Jost Winteler,

.

October

and Some Information on Ein-

Einstein

On Jost Winteler,

24.

Ernesta Marangoni, Prince-

August

stein's

,

26, 1915.

To

8.

ton,

23. Skizze pp. 9f.

Einstein to Tnllio Levi-Civita,

7.

Einstein,

to

E

gart,

1516, Royal Wiirttembergian

Danube Region of

List for the

12, 1929.

Mehra,

the

Physikalische

Loss of Reich and State Citizenship

Blatter 27, 1971, pp. 385-91, with par-

through the Granting of Charters of

which

Release in the Calendar Year 1896,

Jagdish

10. ,

facsimile of the Einstein text

tial is

Koch’s

heirs, in

CPI, Doc.

Einstein

11.

summer

1895,

chung CPI,

5, p. 6.

Koch,

Caesar

to

CPI, Doc.

Einstein,

12.

of Caesar

possession

the

in

still

Uber

6,

die

pp.

Untersu-

,

Monatsschrift

15.

3

(1891),

pp.

p. 6, n. 14.

that

7,

Reiser, pp. 42 f.

details of the

no

later

than

that, lacking a better

he treated Albert’s oc-

30. Einstein

summer

Einstein,

Maja

to

Winteler-

quoted

in

February

16,

1935,

31. Einstein to Besso,

1936, Speziali, p. 308.

To

Katzenstein,

Julius

Cali-

December 27, 1931. Stargard Katalog 620, No. 423, June 1980. fornia,

,

requirements

dix C; the individual examination re-

can no longer be found.

82, p. 269.

34. Frank, p. 34:

he

“At the same time

commu-

the Jewish religious

left

nity”

19. Skizze p. 9.

CPI, Doc.

33.

of the examination, see CPI, Appen-

is

the presumed source of this

assertion.

,

20. Ibid.

35. Einstein in a letter of April 15,

21. See Pyenson, pp.

pp.

Einstein set the appli-

“occupation.”

32.

For

therefore be assumed

help in the factory as his

casional

Albin Herzog to Gustav Maier,

17. Skizze p. 9.

sults

may Hermann

description,

pp. 12f.

18.

and

Seelig (1952), p. 22.

September 25, 1895, CPI, Doc. 16.

Archive,

Emigrations

2:

September, and

Leonhard Sohncke, Die Umwalzung unserer Anschauungen vom Wesen der elektrischen Wirkungen in Himmel und Erde. Illustrierte natunvissenschaft157-72; CPI,

City

cation in motion in Pavia

14.

liche

No.

29. It

Clark, p. 17.

13.

Ulm

also

Renunciations of Citizenship.

9f.

p. 6.

,

No. 8; B 122/53,

9ff.,

and CPI,

1954,

—Dunkle

quoted in Hclle Zeit

Zeit pp. 57f.

1 1 ff.

,

22.

CPI, Doc.

12, p. 18.

8, p.

13,

and Doc.

36. Einstein

April 21, 1896,

to

CPI,

Marie Winteler, p. 21.

Notes 37. Einstein

May

teler,

Win-

Pauline

to

CPI,

1897,

Doc.

34,

sity’s

new

When

2.

Quoted from CPI,

385.

p.

39. Einstein to Julia Niggli,

1899, CPI, Doc. 51, pp. 22

studies,

August

began

his

there were exactly 841

stu-

Einstein

Program of

dents at the Polytechnic;

the Polytechnic 1897b, pp. 35ff. All

If.

40. Antonina Vallentin, p. 9.

CPI, Doc. 11, p. 17. Elermann Einstein

building next door, erected

in 1914.

pp. 55f. 38.

747

other figures from the same source. 3.

Craig (see

Jost

4.

Autobiographisches p.

1895, CPI,

5.

Skizze p.

6.

Ibid.

7.

Ibid., p. 10.

examination papers and

8.

Ibid.

CPI, pp. 23-42. 45. CPI, Doc. 22, p. 28, reproduces the original French text with all mistakes, and corrections by the teacher Jakob Hunzicker. Grade 3-4

9.

See CPI,

41. 42.

December

Winteler,

Doc.

30,

to

14, p. 19.

43.

CPI, Doc.

44.

On

all

19, p. 23.

results:

seems exceedingly generous. 46. Albert

Zangger,

Einstein

spring

Heinrich

to

ETH;

1918,

see

n. 1) p. 150. 7.

,

,

1 1.

p.

LIV,

n. 21.

Kornprobst had

10.

collaborated

Munich. Three patents dated 1889 and 1890 had been granted to “Einstein & Co and Sebastian Kornprobst.” These were Nos. 53,546, 53,846, and 60,361 of the German Patent Office, Munich. closely with Jakob Einstein in

1.

Briefe,

Ernesta

11.

p. 18.

Pelizza

Marangoni,

Marie, September(P) 18, 1899, CPI,

Momenti pavesi nella vita di Alberto Einstein in La Provincia Pavese, May 14,

Doc.

1955,

47. Albert

Einstein

Mileva

to

54, p. 230.

,

48. Skizze, p. 10. 49. Goethe,

ed.

Erich

Trunz,

stein,

Ham-

script

burg Edition).

4.

in

Semper und

Gottfried

ETH,

(Basel,

don A.

December 1974 1976); and Gor-

Zurich, in

Stuttgart,

Craig, Ziirich im Zeitalter des Lib-

eralisms 1830-1869 (Munich,

1988),

pp. 20 Iff. Later additions toward the

Ramistrasse have impaired the proportions

of Semper’s building, so that

only the side facing Zurich can be

regarded

as

original

—and

even that

was somewhat affected by the univer-

Maja Winteler-Einstein, 17; CPI, Doc. 38, p. 221.

Ibid.

14.

Albert Einstein to Alfred Stern,

May

3,

1901, CPI, Doc. 104,

296. 15.

die

Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, symposium at

of

13.

Milan,

Zurich

p.

See

Zurich, 1898; included in type-

Beitrag, p.

“Vagabond and Loner“:

Student Days

Albert Einstein to Maja Ein-

12.

(Hamburg, 1960;

vol. 14, p. 82

p. 1.

On

Werner G. Zimmer-

this:

mann, Albert

Einstein in Ziirich

March

Ziircher Zeitung, 16.

Milan, p.

,

Neue

11, 1979.

Albert Einstein to Alfred Stern,

May

3,

1901, CPI, Doc. 104,

296. 17.

Imposition of fine No. 6619

of April 23/28, 1897, CPI, Doc. 33, p. 54.

18. Skizze p.

1 1.

,

19. Ibid.

20. Seelig (1960), p. 55.

Notes

748

Frau Anna Gross-

21. Einstein to

mann, Princeton, September 22. Skizze p.

26, 1936.

by Einstein

summer

to Mileva

has been

Marie

in the

lost.

32. Ibid.

1 1.

,

Frau Anna Gross-

23. Einstein to

mann, Princeton, September

Besso, Princeton,

24. Einstein to

March

CPI, Doc.

May

Zurich,

CPI, Doc.

26. See

Markwalder,

of

Seelig

in

(1960),

nating.

CPI, the woman presumably was

Zurich, probably June 57;

1897,

7,

37. Einstein

to

CPI, p.234. 38. CPI, Doc.

29. Einstein

to

Niggli,

Julia

p. 219.

For Mileva Marie, see the short biography in CPI, pp. 3801. The book 30.

Desunka

Albert

Schatten Stuttgart,

(Bern

Einsteins

1983),

conveys

and

42.

this

book has become

kind of

manifesto,

anti-Einstein

feminist

a

1895. Entries for July 20, 21,

,

A

travel diary

owned by

CPI, Doc. 28, p. 47. Quoted in Seelig (1960),

44. Louis

Kommilitonen

eines

Dunkle Zeit

,

p. 2

,

Helle

in

claims about Mileva’s scientific work,

47. Ibid., p. 6.

particularly her alleged contributions

48. Ibid., p. 7.

to the special theory of relativity, as

49.

my

article

in

Die

Mutter der Zeit

,

16,

1990. 3 1

gen

.

This

is

rie,

extant letter; at least one letter written

Vorlesun-

iiber Gastheorie (Leipzig,

1896 and

See Einstein to Alileva

September 1899, CPI, Doc.

Ma54,

230. 51. Skizze p. 10. ,

CPI,

the earliest

Ludwig Boltzmann,

50.

Mileva Marie to Einstein, Hei-

36, pp. 58f.

7.

1898).

p.

delberg, end of October 1897,

Doc.

,

Relativitdts-

November

—

1

46. Autobiographisches p.

them, are devoid of any foundation.

Zeit

45. Einstein 1901, pp. 513-23.

it

drawn from

p. 65.

Erinnerungen

Kollros,

should be pointed out that most of the

well as the conclusions

the

43. Ibid., p. 47.

her

determination to study, and her tragic

,

Princeton.

good

a

Notes of Travel

American Institute of Physics, quoted from Russell McCormmach, Editor’s Foreword, p. XVI, in HSPS, 7, 1976, 41.

impression of Mileva’s origins,

As

Henry Crew,

and 22.

Im

Trbuhovic-Gjuvic,

42, p. 214.

,

Europe

probably July 28, 1899, CPI, Doc. 48,

theorie

Marie,

Adileva

39. Skizze p. 10.

40.

28. Seelig (1960), p. 58.

See

(see

n. 33).

Selina Caprotti’s mother.

life.

Mileva Marie

Milan, probably September 28, 1899,

27. Einstein to Pauline Winteler,

by

reproduced in CPI,

pp. 63-210, but are not very illumi-

pp.

56-62.

p.

35. Einstein’s elaborations of Web-

36. Einstein to

Susanne

Marie,

34. Ibid.

17, p. 21.

report

the

March

Mileva

39, p. 212.

er’s lectures are

34, p. 56.

nation at the cantonal school, 31, 1896,

CPI, Doc.

1897,

Report on instrumental exami-

25.

to

Zurich, probably February 16, 1898,

1952, and Einstein to Pau-

6,

Winteler,

line

26, 1936.

33. Einstein

52.

Max Wertheimer,

Thinking p.

218.

Productive

(New York/London,

1945),

,

Notes 53. Ibid. 54. Einstein,

How

Theory of Relativity

,

I

Created

the

in Physics Today

749

damental Equations of Electrodynamics for Moving Bodies, all reprints of work published

journals

in

1889 and

in

August 1982, pp. 45-47; here, p. 46. This text is based on a lecture given by

1890.

Einstein at Kyoto University, Japan,

Mettmenstetten, probably August

on December 14, 1922. Einstein used no notes and spoke in German. Pro-

1899,

fessor Ishiwara

62. Einstein

CPI, Doc.

64. Ibid. 65. Ibid., p. 227.

Japanese record was then translated

66.

The

quotation therefore

tion

from German into Japanese, and

is

a transla-

Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, Vereiner Theorie der elektrischen und

such

optischen Erscheinungen in bewegten

pem

(Leyden,

from Japanese into English. Despite its questionable transfer through two translations, the Kyot6 lecture is an early and (if only for that reason)

Maxwellsche

indispensable source for reconstruct-

(Leipzig, 1894).

Frank,

p.

1895);

Verhandlungen

67.

56. Skizze, p. 10.

in

full

57. Ibid.

Chemie, Vol. 65, No.

Mileva

Annalen

in

Zurich, probably spring 1898, CPI,

68.

Doc. 41,

69. Einstein

213. des Athers

auf elektro-magnetischer Grundlage

(Stutt-

in

die

Gesellschaft

und Arzte, Vol. der

3

Physik

(1898),

und

Appen-

I-XVII.

dix, p.

Drude, Physik

Ein-

part, 1st half, p. 83; published

Marie,

59. Paul

to

Elektrizitdt

der

deutscher Naturforscher

2nd

p.

der

Theorie

70,

to

p. 49,

of August Foppl, Einfuhrung

55. Reiser, p. 52.

58. Einstein

according

and Reiser,

38,

Kor-

stein also studied the popular textbook

ing Einstein’s thinking at the genesis

of the theory of relativity.

10,

63. Ibid.

translated into Japa-

by Yoshimasa A. Ono.

Marie,

52, p. 226.

nese and took notes in Japanese. This

into English

Mileva

to

H. A. Lorentz,

ibid.,

pp. 86ff.

Mileva

to

Marie,

Milan, probably September 28, 1899,

CPI, Doc.

57, p. 233.

70. Ibid.

gart, 1894).

This clearly resolves the

Abhandlungen

much disputed question whether and when Einstein learned of the

(Leipzig, 1895); especially pp. 476-504:

Michelson-Morley experiment. Wien’s

The Principle of the Least Action

survey of thirteen experiments on the

60. holtz,

Probably Elermann von HelmWissenschaftliche

trodynamics

mous

,

article

a

reprint of the epony-

from Annalen der Physik

und Chemie 47, 1892, ,

61.

in Elec-

pp. 1-26.

motion of the ether

“with negative result.” 71. See n. 67.

en iiber die Ausbreitung der elektrischen

1892);

especially pp.

147-70: The Forces of Electrical OscillaTreated According to Maxwell’s tions ,

Theory, pp. 208-255:

On

the

the Michel-

son-Morley experiment among the ten

Heinrich Hertz, JJntersuchung-

Kraft (Leipzig,

lists

Funda-

mental Equations of Electrodynamics for Bodies at Rest-, pp. 256-85: On the Fun-

Maja Winteler-Einstein, CPI,

72. p.

LV,

n. 29.

Maja Spring 1899, CPI, Doc. 44, 73. Einstein

74. Einstein to

1899,

CPI, Doc.

75. Einstein

Einstein,

to

p.

215.

Mileva Marie, March

45, p. 216. to

Mileva

Marie,

Notes

750

Mettmenstetten, August 1899, CPI,

Doc.

76. Ibid., p. 221.

Hans

Aus

Byland,

Ein

Jugendtagen.

Einsteins

Gedenkblatt

Biindner Zeitung, February

Neue

,

68)

—

94.

63, pp. 243 f.

52, p. 227.

95.

79. Ibid.

Mileva Marie, Mi-

probably September 28,

1899,

The

kept

lectures

for

which Ein-

CPI, Appendix E,

9,

1900,

lost.

Not even

96. Einstein

Princeton, April

pp. 362-69.

97.

1952, in

8,

The results

of the

84.

This applies to ETH’s Depart-

CPI, Doc.

Heim,

Arnold

86. See Julius Braunthal, Victor

und

—

Zivei Generationen Arbei-

terbewegung (Vienna, 1965), pp. 195 ff

The

close link

quoted

Adler,

in

attempt

to

establish

or even, by construing “isoemotional as the prerequisite

of his innovations in physics

Lewis

S.

—

as

London, 1982)

(New Brunswick/

—seem

90. Einstein

to

to

Mileva

1899,

Marie to Helene KauZurich, March 9, 1900, CPI,

Doc. 63,

p.

243.

her

as

correspond

to

have been unable in

ETH archive to find any minimum

Chapter

5

p.

See

12.

also

of this book.

101. Einstein

to

Mileva

Melchtal, probably August

CPI, Doc.

Marie, 1,

1900,

69, p. 251.

Mi1900, CPI,

102. Einstein to Mileva Alaric, lan,

probably September

Doc.

5. 10,

91. Ibid.

fler,

Mileva Marie

to

6,

74, p. 257.

Marie,

63, p. 238.

92. Mileva

to

me mistaken.

Milan, probably October

CPI, Doc.

not

decision

practice,

100. Skizze,

in

Feuer, Einstein and the Ge-

nerations of Science

in

99. Autobiographisches, p. 8.

a

between Einstein’s relations

view them

are

average below which a diploma would

subsequent research in physics,

lines,” to

VIA

be refused.

with revolutionary fellow students and his

present

to

the

Seelig (1960), p. 164. 89.

diploma

final

grade average of 4.0 would, according

“satisfactory.” I

87. Reiser, p. 50. 88. Friedrich

The

diploma

a

ETH.

cannot readily be understood,

Princeton, July 14, 1952.

Eriedrich Adler

award

Seelig,

67, p. 247.

98. Ibid.

to this day.

the subjects

Carl

to

examination in Section

to

archives,

known.

Reiser, p. 51.

85. Einstein

CPI, Doc.

Polytechnic’s

the

in

83.

ment XII

serious

that

those by Einstein and Marie must be

are

stein enrolled at the Polytechnic are listed in

from

As diploma essays were not

considered

57, p. 235.

81. Ibid. 82.

emerges

it

March

Zurich,

CPI, Doc.

CPI, Doc.

e.g.,

Mileva Marie to Helene Kauf-

ler,

lan,

—

intentions of marriage existed by that

menstetten, probably August 10, 1899,

80. Einstein to

later letters

time.

1928.

7,

Doc.

Mileva Marie, Mett-

78. Einstein to

From

one written by Einstein to Mileva Marie at the end of July 1900 (CPI,

50, p. 220.

77.

93.

Looking for a Job 1.

Einstein

Melchtal,

CPI, Doc.

to

Mileva

probably July

29,

1900,

68, p. 248; the following

quotations are also from that 2.

Marie,

letter.

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, Vor-

Notes lesungen

Vol.

iiber

mathematische

Mechanik (Leipzig, 1897). Einstein to Mileva Marie.

I:

3.

Melchtal, probably August

CPI, Doc.

9,

1900, CPI,

20. Einstein to

Einstein

5.

Mileva

to

Melchtal, probably August

CPI, Doc.

1900,

6,

rich,

probably August

Doc.

71, p. 253.

9,

1900, CPI,

Mi1900, CPI,

23 lan,

9.

Einstein to Mileva Marie,

probably September

11.

p.

71, p. 253.

probably August

Doc.

72, p. 255.

probably August

Doc.

71, p. 253.

Doc.

9,

1900,

14, 1900,

9,

CPI,

CPI,

1900,

CPI,

Mi1900, CPI,

Einstein to Mileva Marie,

Zurich, October 11,

Helene Kaufler, 1900, CPI, Doc.

Milan, probably October 3, 1900, CPI, Doc. 79, p. 267. Gustav H. Wiedewas, until his death in

of Annalen

editor

der

1899,

und

Physik

Chemie the most important journal of ,

exact

sciences

in its

the

German-

foundation by

At the time Einstein the publish in Annalen

Poggendorff.

began

to

,

deleted “chemistry” from

cause of

its title.

who Be-

Wiedemann’s towering repu-

for a long time to be called

Annalen

—

Wiedemanns

as Einstein referred to

it.

27. Einstein described the interac-

tion

between two molecules of types

andy by

74, p. 257.

Einstein to Mileva Marie,

probably September

13,

Mi-

1900,

a potential

Mi1900, CPI,

Einstein to Mileva Marie,

probably August 30, 74, p. 258.

18. Ibid.

Mileva

Marie,

i

acjP(r),

with aq being specific constants for the forces and P(r) being

a

universal if

only

because of the disparate sizes of the molecules. 28. Einstein

to

P = P —

function. This was insufficient,

75, p. 260.

19. Einstein

CPI, Doc.

26. Einstein 1901.

probably August 30,

17.

to

speaking area since

Einstein to Mileva Marie, Zu-

CPI, Doc.

1900,

Mi-

tation as editor, the journal continued

rich,

lan,

CPI,

Mileva Marie, Zu-

rich,

16.

26,

journal was edited by Paul Drude,

13. Einstein to

lan,

1900,

Mileva Marie, Zu-

Doc.

Doc.

9,

Seelig (1960), p. 48.

probably August

lan,

24. Einstein

the

rich,

15.

Einstein to Adolf Hurwitz,

September

mann

253.

12. Einstein to

14.

1900,

13,

Mileva Marie, Zu-

probably August

Doc. 71,

Mi-

75, p. 260.

10. Einstein to rich,

.

77, p., 263.

25. Einstein to Mileva Marie,

Seelig (1960), p. 61.

CPI, Doc.

Hurwitz,

81, p. 268.

73, p. 255.

8.

lan,

Adolf

to

78, p. 264.

probably August 20,

Doc.

CPI,

1900,

Milan, probably September 23, 1900,

Einstein to Mileva Marie,

7.

3,

79, p. 266.

22. Einstein

Einstein to Mileva Marie, Zu-

6.

Mileva Marie, Mi-

probably October

CPI, Doc.

70, p. 251.

1900,

19,

76, p. 261.

21. Einstein to

Marie.

Mileva Marie, Mi-

probably September

lan,

lan,

CPI,

1900,

9,

71, p. 253.

Doc.

253.

lan,

Doc.

CPI, Doc.

69, pp. 250f.

probably August

rich,

1900,

1,

Zurich, probably August

Einstein to Mileva Marie. Zu-

4.

p.

Physik,

751

to

mann, Milan, April Doc. 100, p. 290.

Marcel 14,

Gross-

1901, CPI,

Notes

752

See also A.

30. Ibid., pp. 290f.

Humboldt,

Kosmos

Vol.

“The most important

sult

1, p. 6:

Berlin

,

v.

(1845),

this:

in the multiplicity to

remembering mission of Man, to com-

recognize the unity the exalted

prehend the

.

.

cover

the

lies

33.

p.

1901,

28,

CPI,

CPI, Doc.

Johannes

to 7,

1907,

in

Stark,

47.

The

14,

Mileva Marie to Helene

36. Einstein to 9,

Savic,

Otto Wiener, Zu-

1901,

CPI, Doc.

25,

was

few days before

a

date of publication), and Riecke’s

Milan on March CPI, Doc. 93 and

48. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger,

summer

May 24,

died in Zurich on 49. Einstein

Einstein,

1912;

undated in Briefe,

1912.

Alaja

Winteler-

1918,

published

to

Berlin,

Weber had

p. 16.

50. Einstein

to

Mileva

Marie,

Milan, probably March 27, 1901, CPI,

277.

Wilhelm Ostwald, Zurich, March 19, 1901, CPI, Doc.

Doc. 93,

92, p.278.

bly Milan, April 4, 1901,

Wilhelm Ostwald, 1901, CPI, Doc. 95,

38. Einstein to

Milan, April

3,

284, enclosing his address. 39.

No.

94, pp. 279ff.

90,

37. Einstein to

p.

CPI,

1901,

advertisement appeared in

presumably available its

Gross-

23, 1901 (though the issue

undated,

March

Marcel

to

mann, Milan, April Doc. 100, p. 290.

Stark,

nee Kaufler, Zurich, December 20, 1900, CPI, Doc. 85, p. 273.

p.

46. Einstein

27, 1901. See also

132, p. 331.

272.

rich,

281.

p.

rejection arrived in

321.

December

35.

Doc. 94,

March

Mileva Marie, Schaff-

November

34. Einstein

Bern,

probably March 27,

lan,

,

32. Einstein to

p.

Mi1901, CPI,

Physikalische Zeitschrift Vol. 2,

31. Einstein 1902b.

Doc. 126,

279.

p.

45. Einstein to Mileva Marie,

of the

phenomena.”

hausen,

Doc. 93,

.

of nature that

spirit

under

concealed

is

probably March 23, 1901,

lan,

re-

of profound physical research

therefore

MiCPI,

44. Einstein to Mileva Marie,

29. Ibid.

Hermann

Doc. 99, p. 289. 40. Ostwald

Nobel Prize

had

Wilhelm 1901, CPI,

received

for chemistry in 1909

the

prize for chemistry and physics. 41. Pais, p. 506.

Heike Kamerlingh

Doc. 98,

p.

12,

1901, CPI,

CPI, Doc.

April

to

Mileva

1901,

15,

Marie,

CPI, Doc.

101, p. 292. 53. Einstein

to

mann, Milan, April Doc. 100, p. 290. 54. Einstein to lan, April p.

15,

Marcel 14,

Gross-

1901, CPI,

Mileva Marie, Mi-

1901,

CPI, Doc.

101,

291. 55. Einstein to Carl Seelig, Prince-

March

26,

letter Einstein

1952,

ETH.

In this

mistakenly referred to

“nine years” of statelessness instead of the actual five years.

288.

43. Einstein to Professor Paalzow,

Milan, April 12, 1901, in

Einstein to Mileva Marie, proba-

52. Einstein

ton,

Onnes, Milan, April

.

96, p. 285.

and

was therefore, according to the rules, entitled to propose recipients for the

42. Einstein to

1

Milan,

Einstein to

Ostwald, Milan, April 13,

5

280.

p.

MPG.

56.

Maja Winteler-Einstein,

trag typescript, p. 20. ,

Bei-

753

Notes

On

57.

ing

the procedure for acquir-

Note,

Editorial

and the relevant

239ff.,

pp.

CPI:

see

citizenship,

documents.

was by Philipp Lenard, Erzeugung von Licht, in

ultraviolettes

Annalen der Physik 1900, pp. ,

359-75.

Zurich Municipal Police De-

58.

durch

Kathodenstrahlen

V

tective’s report,

District, of July 4,

1900, CPI, Doc. 66,

to

Mileva

Winterthur, probably June

CPI, Doc.

246.

p.

73. Einstein

Marie, 1901,

4,

112, p. 306.

Minutes of the “Civic Section” of the Zurich City Council of Decem-

74. Einstein to Jost Winteler,

Win-

terthur, probably July 8, 1901,

CPI,

ber 14, 1900, CPI, p.272.

Doc.

59.

Pathe Journal London, Libr.

60.

No.

76. Ibid.

77. See also

61. Questionnaire for Civic Rights

Applicants of the City of Zurich,

com-

1900, CPI, Doc. 82, p.269.

Report of the Swiss Informa-

tion Bureau, Zurich, January 30, 1901,

CPI, Doc.

CPI, Doc.

91,

on June 2, 1931, by the League of Opponents of War, signed by, among others, Einreproduced in part

in Frieden

,

p. 154.

from Einstein to a Swiss conscientious objector of August 15, 66. Letter

1931, in Frieden

,

to

ETH.

68. Einstein on His Theory

Times (London),

November

69. Einstein

,

p.

to

CPI, Doc.

Doc.

1

81

.

Marie,

nee Kaufler, Zurich, undated, proba1901,

CPI, Doc.

CPI,

Einstein to Jost Winteler,

Win-

14, p. 308.

to

Mileva

Winterthur, probably

May

28,

Marie. 1901,

26, 1901,

the

“wonderful

paper”

CPI,

ETH. to

Marcel

Gross-

mann, Winterthur, probably September 6, 1901, CPI, Doc. 122, p. 315. 84. Seelig, p. 84. 85. Einstein

Schaffhausen,

CPI, Doc.

to

87.

12,

Marie, 1901,

127, p. 323.

hausen, probably

CPI, Doc.

Mileva

December

Mileva Marie, Schaff-

November

28, 1901,

126, p. 321.

Mileva Marie to Helene Sa-

Neusatz, early December 1901,

CPI, Doc.

125, p. 320.

88. Einstein to

hausen, probably

Ill, p. 304.

1901,

Doc. 115, p. 310. 82. Records of Section VIA, July

vic,

71. Einstein

1901,

4,

1901,

terthur, probably July 8,

109,

302.

Marie,

Mileva Marie, Win-

terthur, probably July 7,

The

Mileva Marie to Elelene Savic

72. Ibid.;

Mileva

112, p. 306.

86. Einstein to

CPI, Doc.

Gross-

315.

292.

mid-May

Marcel

mann, Winterthur, probably September 6, 1901, CPI, Doc. 122,

28, 1919.

Mileva

to

in

Milan, April 15, 1901, CPI, Doc. 101,

bly

to

83. Einstein

Gustav Wissler,

Princeton, August 24, 1949,

p.

78. Einstein

p. 160.

67. Einstein

70.

and 120.

80. Einstein to

278. 65. Declaration released

p.

113, 117,

Winterthur, probably June

64. Service Book,

stein;

CPI, Doc.

79. Einstein

88, p. 275.

63. Ibid.

p.

118,

toward the end of October

62.

15, p. 310.

75. Ibid.

UN 142, 1/1932.

pleted

1

CPl,p. 322.

Mileva Marie, Schaff-

November

28, 1901,

Notes

754 89. Einstein

December

Schaffhausen,

CPI, Doc.

Marie,

Mileva

to

1901,

28,

131, p. 330.

p.

November

CPI, Doc. 91

.

109. Ibid., p. 20. 110. Einstein

126, p. 322.

December

hausen, probably

CPI, Doc.,

17, 1901,

Doc. 94,

to

Victor

Adler, Zurich, June 19, 1908, in Julius

Braunthal,

Victor

(Vienna, 1965),

und

Schaffhausen, probably 1901, CPI, Doc. 128,

282.

p.

December

17,

To

1.

Mileva Marie, Bern, proba-

bly February 4, 1902,

326.

CPI,

3.

Anzeiger fur

February

1,

1902,

Doc. 132, p. 331. 95. Mileva Marie to Helene early

1901, CPI, Doc. 125,

p.

ruary Savic,

4.

December

5.

319.

6.

96. Ibid., p. 320. 97. Einstein

7.

Mileva

to

Schaffhausen, probably

Marie,

December

12,

1901, CPI, Doc. 127, p. 322.

99. Schweizerisches Bundesblatt (Swiss

No. 50 of December

11, 1901, p. 1265.

to

Mileva

Marie,

Bern, mid-February 1902, CPI, Doc.

CPI, Doc.

129, p. 327.

102. Ibid.

103. Einstein

Schaffhausen,

to

Mileva

December

19,

Marie, 1901,

130, p. 328.

104. Ibid. 105. Einstein

Schaffhausen,

CPI, Doc.

to

Mileva

December

28,

Marie, 1901,

131, p. 329.

106. Einstein to

Bern, February 133, p. 331.

,

Fluckiger, pp. 11, 12.

To Mileva Marie (see n. 1). To Mileva Marie (see n. 1). To Mileva Marie, Bern, probaPauline

CPI,

Einstein

p.

335.

Pauline

to

CPl,p. 336. 9. Talmey, 10.

pp. 166f.

To Mileva Marie, 8,

1902,

Bern, proba-

CPI,

p.

334.

11. Ibid. 12.

Maurice Solovine,

in Solovine,

p.v.

137, p. 336.

CPI, Doc.

332.

Bern Feb-

die Stadt

bly February 17, 1902, 8.

p.

1902.

bly February

100. Einstein

101.

5,

CPI,

Winteler, Milan, February 20, [1902,]

98. Ibid.

official gazette),

17,

Expert HI Class

Ibid.

probably

December

Marie,

2.

Neusatz,

Marie,

1901, CPI, Doc. 128, p. 325.

94. Receipt of the university chancellery dated

Mileva

to

Schaffhausen, probably

6.

Mileva

to

Marie,

Friedrich Adler

p. 196.

93. Einstein

p.

111. Einstein

Adler

Mileva

to

Milan, probably March 27, 1901, CPI,

128, p. 326.

92. Friedrich

286. 108. Autobiographisches, p. 19.

28, 1901,

Einstein to Mileva Marie, Schaff-

Mileva Marie,

to

Milan, probably April 10, 1901, CPI,

90. Einstein to Mileva Marie, Schaff-

hausen, probably

Einstein

107.

4,

Conrad Habicht, 1902, CPI, Doc.

13.

Ibid., p. VII.

14.

To

March

6,

M.

Princeton,

Besso,

1972, in Besso,

p.

464.

To C. Seelig, Princeton, April 20, 1952, ETH. 16. To Pauline Winteler, Zurich, May 1897, CPI, p. 56. 17. To C. Seelig, Princeton, April 15.

20, 1952. 18. Einstein

1902a

(

Uber

die ther-

modynamische Theorie der Potentialdifferenz zwischen Metallen

und

vollstandig

755

Notes Losungen ihrer Salze und

dissoziie?~ten

Methode zur Erforder Molecularkrafte [On the

liber eine elektrische

schung

Thermodynamic Theory of

the Potential

pletely Dissociated Solutions of Their Salts

Method for Investigating Molecular Forces], AdP, 8, 1902, and on an

Electrical

36.

19. Ibid., p. 814.

To J.

December

Stark, Bern,

1907, in Stark,

7,

267.

p.

37.

39.

41.

and Police Department

“Expert

according to the career ranks

To

To

42.

2,

as

5,

To

44.

To

p.

and

does not therefore suggest any “reduc-

Mileva Marie, Winterthur,

May

1901,

CPI, Doc.

ton,

Frau Grossmann, Prince-

September 26, 1936.

25.

To Hans Wohlwend,

Bern,

iger collection,

Der Bund March ,

excerpt published in 2,

12,

Schaff-

1901,

45.

To M.

Besso, Bern, January 22, p. 3.

46. Einstein 1902b. 47. Einstein 1903. 7.

To M.

Grossmann, WinterSeptember 6, 1901, CPI, p. 315.

49.

50. Einstein 1902b, p. 417. 51.

W.

Voigt, Ludwig Boltzmann

obituary in PhZ, Vol.

7,

1906,

p.

To Conrad

Habicht,

1905, in Seelig,

p.

Bern,

of energy and the Liouville theorem;

53. Einstein. 1902b, p. 433.

29. Ibid.

54.

Michele

Besso,

Berlin,

12, 1919, in Besso, p. 148.

55.

56.

33. Ibid., p. 58.

57.

34. Friedrich Haller to the Federal

Bern,

January

27,

1906;

Patent Office, Bern. 35.

Besso, Bern, January 22,

Negative judgment on patent

To M.

3.

March

17,

Max Born in Schilpp, p. 85. To M. Besso, Berlin, June

23,

1903, in Besso,

32. Fliickiger, p. 57.

Council,

To M.

1903, in Besso, p.

30. Ibid.

December

49.

see Einstein 1902b, p. 427.

126.

,

To

,

had managed

28. Skizze p. 12.

31.

CPI,

solely with the law of the preservation

26. Ibid.

Summer

December

Marie,

52. Einstein in fact

1985.

May

324.

thur,

beginning of September 1902, Fliick-

27.

Mileva

48. Autobio graph isches, p.

110, p. 304.

To

C. Seelig, Princeton,

1903, in Besso,

tion in rank.”

Bei-

43. Sayen, p. 70.

at the

in the advertisement,

second half of

Milan,

Marie,

1952.

mentioned

24.

Mileva

Maja Winteler-Einstein,

hausen,

To

227.

p.

23, 1901,

time, to that of “Engineer II Class,”

23.

CPI, p. 336. Emile Meyerson, Berlin,

trag, p. 23.

corresponded,

Class”

III

June

His grading

338.

p.

Bern, proba-

p. 47.

to the Federal Council, Bern,

CPI,

1907, Pa-

CPI, p. 281. 40. Private communication from Helen Dukas to Abraham Pais, in Pais,

,

1902,

To Mileva Mane,

January 27, 1930. 38. Moszkowski,

21. Skizze p. 12. 22. Justice

11,

bly February 17, 1902,

March

pp. 798-814).

December

tent Office, Bern.

Between Metals and Com-

Difference

20.

application,

1918, in Besso,

Besso, Bern, p. 14.

p. 126.

58. Einstein 1916b, p. 481. 59. Hertz,

Grundlagen

Uber

der

die

mechanischen

Thermodynam ik

in

756

Notes

AdP, Vol.

1910, pp. 225-74 and

33,

pp. 537-52.

Comment

Sauter,

j’appris a

,

August

63. Ibid.

To M.

Besso, Princeton, July

This may be deduced from the

81. letter

of the Justice and Police Depart-

ment

to the Federal Council, repre-

senting Einstein’s development at the

Patent Office. Federal archives, Bern.

13, 1953, in Besso, p. 471.

Paul Gruner, see Fliick-

To Vero

82.

Princeton,

iger, pp. 72 ff.

Reglement

66.

10, 1904. Federal archives, Bern.

6,

1955, in Fliickiger, pp. 154ff.

On

iiber die Habilita-

p.

and

March

der Hochschule Bern von 1891.

84.

Besso, January 22, 1903,

in Besso, p. 4.

To M.

68.

Besso,

March

71.

p.

am

of

zu Bern State and Univer-

88. Ibid., p. 362.

,

p.

F.

Baltzer,

Princeton,

,

Marie, 17,

Schaff-

90.

CPI,

1901,

92.

Mileva Marie to Einstein, Stein

November

13, 1901,

CPI,

CP2,

p.

332.

91. Ibid., p. 317.

May

To Conrad

Habicht, end of

or beginning of June 1905, in

Seelig, pp. 124f.

317.

93. Autobiograph isches p. 12. ,

73.

To

Mileva

Einstein-Marie,

Bern, end of August 1903.

To C. Seelig, 1952, ETH. 74.

5,

Reviews for the Beibldtter zu den Annalen

derPhysik CP2, pp. 109-111.

Alileva

December

Editorial Note, Einstein’s

89. See

1936.

Rhein,

Seelig,

1904,

86. Einstein 1904, p. 360.

325. 72.

in

3,

87. Ibid., p. 361.

To

hausen,

Bern,

Naturforschende

To

December

Grossmann,

85. Einstein 1911c, p. 175.

22, 1903,

sity Fibrary, Bern.

70.

M.

p. 101.

Minutes

Gesellschaft

To

probably April

in ibid., p. 14. 69.

Besso,

538. 83. Seelig, p. 120.

To M.

Bice

21, 1955, in Besso,

tion an der philosophischen Fakultat

67.

March

to the Federal Council, Bern,

connaitre Einstein broadcast,

65.

and Police Department

80. Justice

61. Ibid.

64.

Bern,

Habicht,

April 14, 1904, in Seelig, p. 100.

60. Einstein 1911c, p. 175.

62. J.

To Conrad

79.

Princeton,

May

75. Ibid.

March 78.

had

"Herr Doktor Einstein"

and the Reality of Atoms 1.

76. Solovine, p. XII. 77.

7.

To

Mileva

Marie,

27,

1901, CPI,

p. 282.

Tony

Cawkell

Milan,

Science by Citation Analysis in Einstein: ,

The

theory that Mileva Marie

The

First

Hundred Years (London,

1980), p. 32. 2.

Einstein 1905a.

work was propagated by Desunka Trbuhovic-Gjuvic, Im Schatten Albert Einsteins. However, it rests on unprovable speculations; see n. 30 to Chap-

3.

Einstein 1905b.

4.

Examples

5.

E.g., Clark, p. 86.

6.

The

ter 4.

Eugene

Garfield, Assessing Einstein’s Impact on

significant share in Einstein’s

a

and

in n.

1,

above.

entry for Einstein in the

Dictionary of Scientific Biography does

Notes not mention the dissertation

at

all;

757

ably referring to the publication of his

neither does Born in his article in

dissertation,

Schilpp; nor do the contributions to

addendum

symposia

Einstein

the

Abraham

of

shortcoming: Pais, pp. 88ff. 7. To M. Besso, Bern, January 22,

this

1903, in Besso,

p. 4.

Sauter, Erinnerungen 1955, in

8. J.

Maja

Winteler-Einstein,

Bei-

Kleiner,

10. A.

degree expertise,

Zurich, July 24, 1905,

24, 1905,

July 24,

10 23 Using values from the

1905

new

edition of the data compila-

tion

by Landolt and Bornstein he

.

X

STZ

1905,

Burkhardt,

(underlining by

Ludwig Boltzmann’s inaugural lecture on natural philosophy, December 11, 1903, in Boltz-

L. Boltzmann, Vorlesungen zur

Part

Gastheorie,

(Leipzig,

II

u

1898),

referred to

Nekrolog, 17.

“

” his

To M.

18.

by Einstein

Obituary

as

his

” .

Besso, Bern,

1903, in Besso,

18, jocu-

p.

,

March

17,

p.

26.

ground of

To Ludwig

the

returned

to

him

by

Kleiner with the observation that short. After

single sentence

he had inserted

was

tacitly

There

it

a

accepted”

no support version. Einstein was presum-

(Seelig, p.

for this

it

112).

p. 180.

Hopf,

Zurich,

1911.

On

the Brownian

movement,

Bye, Molecular Reality

New

York, 1972) and the

very interesting book by Jean

still

Perrin, Les Atomes (Paris, 1913).

the

shortcomings

resulted because, before Einstein,

it

was believed that the velocity of the particles

could

however,

is

back-

stein later related that his dissertation

was too

of

be

measured.

This,

not possible; instead, one

29. Ibid., p. 560.

a

initially

Determination

the

28. Einstein 1905b, p. 549.

well-known but scarcely plausible anecdote: “Laughing, Ein-

was

on

Mary Jo

see

289.

probably

is

considered

measures their mean displacement.

p. 14.

Einstein 1906a,

This

592).

25. Einstein 1905b, p. 549.

19. Einstein 1906a, p. 305.

20.

is

p.

detail, see Einstein's

27. Essentially,

16. Autobiograph isches

10 23

24. Einstein 191 Id.

VI.

larly

For more

(London,

1979). 15.

1911a,

Molecular Dimensions, CP2,

From

Schriften (Braunschweig,

a

became N=6.56

December 1910-January

,

mann, Populare

(Einstein

Dissertation

23.

13. Antobiographisches p. 19.

p.

10 23

22.

by 'H.

X

the “best” value.

Burkhardt).

14.

.

10 23 In 1911, following correction of

STZ.

12. Expertise

obtained

N=2A X

Nowadays 6.022 X

STZ.

Expertise by A. Kleiner, July

11.

had

Einstein

dissertation

calculation error, this

trag, p. 23.

a

21. Einstein 1906a, pp. 305f. In his

obtained, in his appendix, IV=4.15

Fliickiger, p. 158. 9.

than

longer

rather

is

subsequent

his

single sentence.

remedied

eventually

Pais

1979.

though

is

30. p.

371.

See introduction, Einstein 1906b,

The

respondence

Einstein-Siedentopf coris lost.

31. Einstein 1906b. 32.

According to notes by Hein-

Zangger from the 1950s, this meeting took place in 1905 or 1906 rich

(CP2, Zeit

p.

217; the account in Helle

—Dunkle

that

Zeit, p. 42, to the effect

Zangger and Einstein had known

Notes

758

each other since 1902 does not seem 33. Einstein 1907c.

To

vember

Jean Perrin, Zurich

No-

1

No.

Minutes

Natur-

1038,

39. Einstein 1906b, p. 343.

March A.

to

Einstein,

18, 1906.

Planck to the Prussian

Ministry of Education,

8.

October

7,

1899,

CPI,

Mileva

To

10, 1901,

17.

To Conrad Habicht, Bern, end of May or beginning of June 1905, in Seelig, pp. 124f.

Mileva Alaric, Milan, April

CPI, p.287.

stetten,

CPI,

To

p.

219.

Mileva Marie, Mettmen-

probably August

Einstein 1905a.

3.

E.g.,

22. Einstein 1905a, p. 132.

the Introduction

23. Ibid., p. 133.

Critique ofJudgment, first version, sec-

24. Ibid., p. 136.

in Critique of

to

Judgment,

§78, A.

25. Ibid.,

p.

143.

Actually,

what

Einstein wrote was not hv, but Rfiv/N,

Planck to Robert Williams

Wood, October 5.

1899,

CPI, p.227.

the

Max

10,

21. Ibid., p. 229.

2.

4.

4,

Ibid,p. 17.

28, 1899,

1.

and

April

16. Autobiovraphisches, pp. 16f.

20.

II;

Marie,

18.

Light Quanta

tion

216.

p.

To Mileva Marie, Winterthur, end of May 1901, CPI, p. 304. 19. To Julia Niggli, Zurich, July

p. 100.

The "Very Revolutionary"

in

Wissenschaftliche Selbst-

CPI, p.284.

15.

43. Einstein 1915a (1925), p. 291.

1913, in Berlin,

11, 1931.

Mileva Marie, Milan, mid-

To

14.

1901,

42. Einstein 1905b, p. 549.

Max

To

13.

40. Einstein 1908a.

Rontgen Munich, September

Robert

to

Wood, October

Williams

in

biographie (n. 6 above), p. 29.

38. Einstein 1908c.

41. C.

im Normalspektrum

Planck

.

Theorie der

1900, pp. 237-45.

2,

12. Planck,

forschende Gesellsch aft Bern, 1907.

Zur

Planck,

VhDPG, Pt. 1 Max

36. Ibid.

44.

Max

10.

Energieverteilung

11, 1911.

1931.

7,

Ibid.

9.

35. Ibid.

37.

Planck to Robert Williams

Wood, October

to be correct).

34.

Max

8.

7,

1931.

with

R

being the gas constant and

N

number, R/N=k and (5—h/k. However, hv is the form that later became customary and will be the Avogadro

Gustav Kirchhoff, Uber das Ver-

hdltnis zwischen den Emissionsvermogen

und den Absorptionsvemiogen, in Poggendorfs Annalen der Physik und

use of hv will not be perceived as a vio-

Chemie, Vol. 160, 1860,

lation of historical accuracy.

6.

Max

Planck,

Selbstbiograph ie

p.

292.

Wissenschaftliche

(Leipzig,

1948),

pp.

22f. 7.

many

familiar to

readers. I

hope

my

26. Pais, p. 387.

27. Einstein 1906c, p. 199. 28. Ibid.

Friedrich Paschen to Heinrich

Kayser, February

8,

1898, in

Darmstadter collection.

STPK,

29. Ibid., p. 202. 30.

No

details

have come

down

to

us on the history of publication of Ein-

— Notes But

early papers.

stein’s

it

was

just

759

negative r Elektronen,

under three months from receipt of

Radioaktivitdt

the paper to the date of publication

1909, pp. 425-84.

a

than

longer

little

entirely within the

em

to Albert Ein-

June 2, 1906. Planck to Albert Einstein,

stein, Berlin,

Max

32.

Berlin-Grunewald, July is

the

first

6,

Their

than the

earlier letters

—

have not survived. 33.

Max

Berlin, July 10, 1909. Ltfrentz’s letters

been

Planck

tation,

lost; in this

confirms

quo-

Lorentz’s

34.

Nomination

for the acceptance

member of the Academy of Sciences

of Albert Einstein as

Royal Prussian

a

June 12, 1913, signed by Planck, Nernst, Rubens, and War-

in Berlin, Berlin,

burg,

handwriting;

Planck’s

in

in

NW, stein’s

Max Vol.

Planck

Forscher

als

remark here

refers to the

function /(/jl/T), which

is

,

Wien

equivalent to

Kirchhoff function, although

the

additionally

depends

in

1077f. Ein-

1913, pp.

1,

on

a

it

variable

36.

To

November ,

Lenard,

Philipp

16, 1905, cited in A.

and C.

Einstein p.

PhZ,

Vol.

pp.

1916,

17,

41. Einstein 1909c, p. 188. 42. Einstein 191 p.

German

li,

1914,

359.

A

43.

good heat”

approximation

C

is

=

for

6 cal/mol

X

degree.

44. Cited in Dictionary of Scientific

Biography Dulong. ,

According to the equal

45.

theorem

mean

the

distri-

kinetic

energy per degree of freedom

WzkT;

is

means 3/2NkT per mol, and with an equal amount for the for a crystal this

potential energy a total of l>Nkt 3 RT,

hence

C = 3R —

6 cal/mol

= X

degree.

March

To

Mileva

23, 1901,

Milan,

Marie,

CPI,

p.

279.

47. Einstein 1907a. 48.

This

is

the

function

delta

introduced into quantum mechanics

by Dirac. Einstein uses function on

p.

a

form of

that

183 of Einstein 1907a.

49. Einstein 1907a, pp. 183f.

/jl/T.

ert

Ef-

40. Ibid., p. 221.

46.

Berlin, p. 96. 35.

photoelektrischen

217-21.

bution

opinion.

Quantenbezie-

beim

“specific

Planck to H. A. Lorentz,

to Planck have

A. Millikan,

in

fekt,

ex-

summer of 1906, but like many later ones

Review of Mod-

,

hungen

change of ideas in writing began no later

6,

Physics Vol. 21, 1949, p. 343. 39. R.

extant letter of the Einstein-

correspondence.

Planck

1907; this

der

Elektronik, Vol.

38. R. A. Millikan,

still

normal range.

Max von Laue

31.

but

usual

und

in Jahrbuch

in

319. This

Bern, Klein-

Schonbeck, Lenard und Gesnerus is

,

Vol. 35,

1978,

the only extant letter

from what presumably was not a very voluminous correspondence. 37. Rudolf Ladenburg, Die neueren Forschungen

iiber die

durch Licht- und

Rontgenstrahlen hervorgerufene Emission

50.

AdP,

22, 1907, p. 800.

51. Einstein 1907a, p. 188. 52. Ibid. 53. iiber

W.

die

Untersuchungen

Nernst,

spezifische

Wdrme

Temperaturen, in SB,

bei

tiefen

1911, pp. 306-

315. 54.

March

W. 17,

Nernst 1910.

to

A.

Original

archive of the Royal Society,

Schuster, in

the

London,

Notes

760

MPG,

Schuster papers; copy

Kangro

1886) and Das Inertialsystem vor

zig,

dem Forum der Naturforschung (Leip-

collection.

zig, 1902).

9. Relative

Life for

Kyoto

1.

Seven Years’*

1922, in Physics Today

The

1982.

based on

,

14,

August

p. 46,

following account

is

3.

Joseph

Comment

j’ai

95 1 in Seelig, ,

Kyoto

lecture (n.

p.

1 1

March

See also the

4.

Now

and again

refer to “relativity theory” in con-

when

texts

R.

6.

this

S.

exist.

Shankland, Conversations

Albert

with

term did not yet

Einstein

,

American

in

Science et

refers to Lizeau’s

experiment

The

18.

physics

A

1).

Einstein 1905d.

5. I

C. Seelig, Princeton,

La

Poincare’s

Werke, Vol.

To

in

1902).

(Paris,

Heinrich

17.

,

p. 156.

,

of 1851.

appris a connaitre Einstein in Fliickiger,

1

Henri Poincare

16.

Vhypothese

Sauter,

der

Sitzungsherichte

Abt.IIa., 1909, p. 382.

remark

Ibid.

by

1909

in

Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien

partly

this text.

2.

4.

Lrank:

Philipp

December

lecture,

“Galileo transforma-

was introduced

tions”

“My

11,

The term

15.

Movement:

1

Gesammelte

Hertz,

(Leipzig, 1895), p. 339.

account of ether

fullest

is still

Edmund

in

Whittaker,

History of the Theories of Aether and

Electricity

2 -vol.

also

(London,

(London,

edition

Max

See

1953).

Born, Die Relativitdtstheorie

Einsteins (1st ed., 1920; Einstein’s

enlarged

1910);

Theory

new

ed., 1969).

of Relativity

(New

Journal of Physics, Vol. 31, 1963, p. 56. 7. See the opening of the Kyoto

York, 1962).

lecture.

299,792,458 meters per second. Lately

Galileo Galilei, Dialogo, Gior-

8.

nata seconda, 1632, p. 212. Ibid.,

9.

p.

The velocity

19.

this value

213; Galileo’s text of

With

has been laid

and

nition

brackets, equivalent to the determina-

meter

il

moto

sia

uniforme

tuante in qua e in 10. Isaac

non

flut-

la.”

Newton,

uralis principia

e

12.

Philosophiae nat-

mathematica (London,

nunft

,

13.

B

Kant, Kritik der reinen VerKant, Metaphysische Anfangs-

griinde der Naturwissenschaften, A, p. 14.

The term

is

now a

20. Albert

by atomic

clocks, the

derived unit.

Abraham

Michelson,

Light Waves and Their Uses (Chicago,

2

1

.

Spate Jahre, p. 228.

According to Lorentz’s own account in Electromagnetic Phenomena 22.

in Proceedings of the

40.

I.

defi-

,

Ibid. I.

down by

1907), p. 159.

1687), Corollary V. 11.

given as

defined time standard, accu-

a

rately realizable

che

is

no longer measured.

is

the crucial restriction, placed between

tion of an inertial system, runs: “pur

of light

“inertial

1.

system” was

Academy of Science

Amsterdam Vol. 6, 1904, p. 810. 23. Henri Poincare, La Theorie

,

,

Lorentz

et le principe de

Johannes travaux

Bosscha

offerts

par

la

(ed.), les

de

reaction in

Recueil

de

auteurs a H. A.

introduced by Ludwig Lange in 1885.

Lorentz (The Hague, 1900). Poincare’s

See Lange’s papers Die

contribution, pp. 252-78; the synchronization method is described on p. 272.

geschichtliche

Entwicklung des Bewegungsbegriffs (Leip-

,

,

,

Notes Henri Poincare, UEtat

24.

Vavenir de

actuel et

physique mathematique in

la

Bulletin des sciences mathematiques Vol.

German

28, 1904, pp. 302-24.

tion in Physikalische Blatter

transla-

Vol. 15,

,

196 of the

p.

March

German

p.

Dyna-

la

An

Vol. 140, 1905, pp. 1504-1508.

Matematico

Palermo

di

ex-

,

a

somewhat out of the

way, but often chosen for

this topic:

Rendiconti Vol. 21, 1906, pp. 129-175. ,

The

Zur Elektrodynamik

paper,

bewegter Korper

does have four foot-

,

more There are no

notes, but these simply provide

precision than the text. bibliographical citations. 29. Schilpp, p. 30.

December

To

p.

Marie,

Schaff-

CPI,

1901,

17,

Marie,

Schaff-

CPI,

1901,

19,

328.

To

44.

Mileva

December

hausen, p.

Mileva

December

hausen,

Marie,

Schaff-

CPI,

1901,

28,

330. 45. Ibid.

To M.

46.

1903, in Besso,

To

47.

Besso,

Bern, January

p. 4.

Mileva Marie, Mettmen-

August

stetten,

CPI,

10, 1899,

p.

227.

48. Solovine, p. VIII.

Henri Poincare, La

49.

Science et

Vhypothese.

1.

Cohen, An Interview with

B.

I.

Mileva

325.

43.

tensive version appeared in Rendiconti

28.

To

42. Ibid.

mique de Velectron in Comptes rendus

journal that was

316.

hausen, p.

Henri Poincare, Sur

Circolo

Milan,

Marie,

CPI, p. 282. 40. To M. Grossmann, Winterthur, early September 1901, CPI,

26. Ibid., pp. 199f.

del

Mileva

27, 1901,

41.

translation.

27.

To

39.

1959, pp. 145-49 and pp. 193-201. 25. Ibid.,

761

Joseph Sauter, Zur Interpreta-

50.

MaxwelPschen Gleichungen

Einstein in Scientific American, Vol. 93,

tion der

July 1955, pp. 69-73.

elektromagnetischen Feldes in ruhenden

,

In Schilpp, p. 20.

3 1.

isotropen

33. R. S. Shankland, Conversations

Albert

Einstein,

American

in

Journal of Physics, Vol. 31, 1963,

p. 48.

34. In Schilpp, p. 6.

35. stetten,

CPI, theory ether

To

Mileva Marie, Mettmen225.

used

Heinrich

the

participating

1899,

10,

Hertz’s

concept in

the

of

an

motion

stetten, p.

To

Mileva Marie, Mettmen-

September

10,

1899,

CPI,

230. 37. See the

1

1901,

Sauter,

Comment Jai

appris a connaitre Einstein, in Fliickiger, p. 154.

To

February

Carl

Princeton,

Seelig,

19, 1955.

53. Ibid. 54.

To

J.

Stark, Bern,

September

25, 1907, in Stark, p.269. 55.

That Einstein was

certainly

able to use the City Eibrary emerges

of matter. 36.

Joseph

51.

52.

probably August p.

6,

pp. 331-38.

32. Ibid.

with

Medien, in AdP, Vol.

des

from

lecture, Einstein

922 j; also Reiser, p. 52. 38. To Mileva Marie, Milan, Sep-

tember 28, 1899, CPI, 233.

Gruner of February

11, 1908; Fliickiger, p. 117.

56.

Kyoto

a letter to

Max Abraham,

Dynamik

des Elektrons, in

Prinzipien der

AdP, Vol.

10,

1903, pp. 105-179. 57.

A4ax Abraham, Zur Theorie der

Strahlung und des Strahlungsdrucks, in

762

Notes

AdP, Vol.

14, 1904, pp.

of his paper on

236-87. In §8

relativity,

Einstein cal-

on

culated the radiation pressure

was

“in

The

that

Einstein’s.

who had

of Abraham,

obtained

the

same

in

fact

by other

result

methods.

Wien,

Differential-

gleichungen der Elektrodynam ik fur be-

wegte Kd'rper, in AdP, Vol. 13, 1904, pp. 641-62; Part

II,

pp. 663-68.

Wilhelm Wien, Enviderung auf Kritik des Hm. Abraham in AdP, ,

Vol. 14, 1904, pp. 635-37.

Emil Cohn, Uber

60.

Gleich-

die

AdP, Vol.

bewegte Kd'rper, in

7,

1904,

pp. 29-56.

To

70.

September

Walter Kaufmann, Die elektromagnetische Masse des Elektrons, in PhZ, 1902, pp. 54-57.

published

siones,

75.

2-069,

further

Kaufmann

papers

on

this

W. Wien,

Differentialgleichun-

der

Elektrodynamik fur Korper, in AdP, Vol. 13, 1904,

To

Robert

W.

bewegte

ment of

662.

Lawson, Berlin,

Theory

of Relativity,

in

Nature, Vol. 106, February 17, 1921, pp. 782-84.

The original is in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York; a copy in

EA under file ref.

66. Frank, p. 38,

Mathe-

Unpublished manuscript: article

draft

from the 1920s,

EA

p. 1.

Mach, Die Mechanik

ihrer Entwicklung,

Chapter

in

2.6.2.

Henri Poincare, La

Science et

Vhypothese. 78.

Henri Poincare, La Mesure du

temps, in Revue de metaphysique et de

morale, Vol. 6, January 1898, pp. 1-13;

79.

La Valeur

de la science (Paris,

Henri Poincare, La Mesure du

temps. 80.

Henri Poincare, LEtat

Pavenir de

la

actuel et

physique mathematique,

81. Einstein 1907h.

82. Ibid., p. 413. 83. Draft for Nature, January 1920,

footnote on

65.

is

Principia

lecture in St. Louis, 1904.

Brief Outline of the Developthe

Confes-

/

p.

January 22, 1920.

A

Augustinus,

Newton,

76. Ernst

1905).

64.

13, 1932.

matica.

Gottinger Nachrichten.

63.

Prague,

Ehrenfest,

Lib. 11.

also in

gen

is

Erika Oppenheim, Berlin,

73. Aurelius

subject in other journals, notably in

62.

emphasis

72. Ibid., p. 20.

77.

61.

4,

article,

April 25, 1912.

of a popular

ungen des elektromagnetischen Feldes fur

Vol.

1920;

Paul

74. Isaac

59. die

To

69.

478.

Nature

of the

of

p.

71. In Schilpp, pp. 19f.

Wilhelm

58.

68. Draft

agreement

only “other theory” was

Besso to Einstein, Geneva, 1952, in Besso,

3,

beginning

with experience and with other theories.”

August

first

mirror, obtaining a term which, in

approximation,

a

M.

67.

2-070.

and Reiser,

84.

p. 20.

Sound recording on

February

6,

disk

of

1924, for the collection of

voice records of the Prussian State p. 49,

Library, Berlin; transcription

by Fried-

agree that Einstein had read August

rich Herneck, Uber die deutsche Reichs-

Foppl’s Einfiihrung in die MaxwelVsche

angehorigkeit Albert Einsteins

Theorie der Elektricitdt (Leipzig, 1894)

No.

as a student.

2,

1961, p. 104.

85. Pais, p. 161.

in

NW,

Notes Kyoto

86.

lecture (see n.

wrong with

1).

87. In Einstein 1906d, p. 627.

89.

Joseph

Sauter,

a

from Einstein’s 12.

tivity

Time”

To Conrad Habicht, Bern, end of May or beginning of June 1905. 3.

An

1

905 d,

p.

(New York,

1962).

1905d,

16. Ibid., p. 894.

This

17.

due to the

is

Einstein 1905d,

5.

Ibid. In his papers

p.

891.

on

if

relativity

A

is

synchronous with

B and

chronous with

velocity of light in

synchronous with

the rather old-

in

of

line

1895.

18. Einstein

By

19. Ibid., p. 896.

however, the modern designation,

was

already

customary,

therefore using

it

and

Einstein 1905d,

p.

892.

7.

Einstein 1907h,

p.

416.

8.

The independence

binary 9.

10.

de VelectroTi,

source was

first

Sitter

by

measurements on

Einstein 1905d,

p.

892.

Schilpp, p. 20.

Lorentz

B

also

is

p.

895.

that

Dynamique ,

Vol.

mathematically

equivalent

for-

mulas had been derived from the wave equation by

Voigt’s

has

transformations

from the invariance of the wave equation, and from them in turn to derive the kinematic effects. This is how Einstein proceeded in his Jahrbuch article, and how Laue proceeded in the first textbook. There is, of course, nothing

la

140, 1905, p. 1504. It should be noted

W.

Voigt

become 24.

To

as early as 1877,

little

attention.

As

context was totally

physical

different, the

soon became customary to

the

then

Comptes rendus

in

but this attracted

stars.

11. It

derive

precise

1905d,

H. Poincare, Sur

23.

of the ve-

proved in 1913 by Willem de

means of

syn-

is

22. Einstein 1905d, p. 896.

6.

its

A

is

21. Einstein 1907h, p. 417.

here.

locity of light of

B

20. Ibid.

c,

am

I

C,

If

then

C.

with Lo1905,

B,

synchronous with A.

also

theory Einstein until 1907 denotes the

Versuch

transitivity of

the synchronism defined by Einstein:

4.

rentz’s

892.

p.

15. Ibid.

891.

lished draft for Nature.

V,

and many

Ibid., p. 893.

14.

expression from his unpub-

fashioned way,

Born, Die Rela-

later editions). Einstein's Theory of Rela-

1.

Einstein

Max

and

13. Einstein

2.

a

recommended: Ein-

tivitdtstheorie Einsteins (1920,

Relativity:

Modification of the Theory

of Space and

which

principles.

to be

Still

stein 1917a;

“A

to

rentz transformations derive directly

p. 158.

The Theory of

wave equation

Comment fai ,

0.

it

de la

appris a connaitre Einstein in Fliickiger,

1

But

procedure.

this

good deal of “theory” attaches, and therefore no longer makes it clear that kinematic effects as well as the Lo-

science.

90.

with

starts

H. Poincare (see n. 80). H. Poincare, La Valeur

88.

763

name

given by Poincare

accepted.

C. Seelig, Princeton, Feb-

ruary 19, 1955. 25.

This concerns the implicitly

performed factoring of (1

—

v 2/C2) on

understood only to be derived.

p.

a(v)

=

P(v)

285, which can be

in light of the result

Notes

764

means the invariance of the expression x 2 +y 2 +

37. Einstein

26. Mathematically, this

z2

—

2 2 c t

under Lorentz transforma-

tions.

H. Minkowski, Raum und

27.

and Physicists

September

,

component notation; Lorentz and most of the authors in Annalen had by then gone over to the vector notation in use today. 38. Einstein 1905d, p. 910.

Cologne on

in

H. A. Lorentz, H. Minkowski, Das Rela-

39. Ibid., p. 915.

tivitatsprinzip.

Eine

Abhandlungen.

With

Sammlung a

von

Max Abraham, Zur

40.

21, 1908, in

A. Einstein,

Heinrich

Hertz’s

meeting of German Sci-

lecture at the entists

Zeit

uses

still

Theorie der

Strahlung und des Strahlungsdrucks in ,

AdP, Vol.

contribution by

14, 1904, pp.

236-87.

41. Einstein 1905d, p. 915.

H. Weyl and notes by A. Sommerfeld. Preface by O. Blumenthal (1913),

point furnished with an electric charge

reprinted (Stuttgart, 1982), p. 54.

e” which purely for convenience he

28. Einstein 1905d, p. 903. 29. Ibid., pp. 904f.

here

given

the

for

42. Einstein considers a “material

calls

The

expression

time

dilatation

an “electron.” Naturally, his re-

sults are valid for

particle,

any other charged

and some important

even for uncharged

is

obtained from the exact formula

results are valid

in

good approximation

“ponderable” matter.

of

and

fourth

if

higher

magnitudes order

defined in school

30. Ibid., p. 905. Einstein specifi-

“balance-wheel clock,”

cally refers to a

since a

physical

43. Einstein defines “force” as

are

disregarded.

pendulum clock is part of a system to which the Earth

partial

—mass

it is

times accel-

eration. Planck’s definition as a deriva-

tion of

momentum from

time

is

more

appropriate for a mechanics with variable masses, as the theorems of the

momentum and

necessarily belongs and thus had to be

conservation of

excluded. (See the footnote, of uncer-

gy thereby acquire

tain origin, in the reprint of 1913, ed.

M.

by O. Blumenthal; see

und die Grundgleichungen der Mechanik,

n. 27.)

31. Einstein 1911c, p. 13.

in

32. Paul Langevin, LEvolution de

Planck, Das Prinzip der Relativitdt

VhDPG, Vol.

1906, pp. 136-41.

8,

44. Einstein 1905d, p. 920.

45. Ibid., p. 921.

1911, pp. 31-54.

46.

33.

When

clocks

around the globe of two effects

is

are

carried

in aircraft, the

in fact

measured

sum

— the

time dilatation according to the special relativity

theory and the slowing

of clocks

in

the

gravitational

down field

according to the general theory of relativity.

34. Einstein 1905d, p. 903. 35. Ibid., p. 907.

36. Ibid.

simple form. See

a

Vespace et du temps in Scientia, Vol. 10, ,

ener-

To Conrad

August- September

Habicht, 1905,

in

Bern, Seelig,

p. 126.

Zur

47. Hasenohrl,

Theorie

der

Strahlung in bewegten Kb'rpem, in AdP, Vol. 15, 1904, pp. 344-77. 48. Einstein 1905e, p. 641. 49. Ibid.; symbols have been ad-

justed to later usage. 50. J.

1906,

p.

Precht,

in

AdP, Vol.

599.

51. Einstein 1906d, p. 633.

21,

.

Notes 52. Einstein 1907f.

W.

Braunbek,

Bestimmung nisses , in

Planck- Wien

the

spondence. Planck and

Die empirische

des Masse-Energie-Verhdlt-

Wien

corre-

often dis-

cussed editorial problems concerning

Annalen STPK. ,

ZAP, Vol. 107, pp. 1-11; here,

In this article Braunbek was not

1.

p.

See

8.

53. Einstein 1907h, §11. 54.

765

M.

9.

Planck, Wissenschaftliche Selbst-

biographie, 1948, p. 31.

M. von Laue to C. Seelig, Fribourg, March 13, 1952, ETH.

allowed to mention Einstein.

10.

55. Einstein 1907h, p. 443.

Jakob Johann Laub to C. SeeFribourg, September 11, 1959,

11. lig,

ETH.

Acceptance, Opposition,

1 1

To

12.

Tributes

Max

1.

Planck,

Wissenschaftliche

Selbstbiographie (Leipzig, 1948), p. 22.

To

2.

Novem-

Ph. Lenard, Bern,

Rudolf Ladenburg, Bern,

December 20, 1907, 641, No. 420, March

in Stargard, Kat.

1988.

Sommerfeld to H. A. LoMunich, December 26, 1907, in

13. A.

rentz,

ber 16, 1905; see also A* Kleinert and

Lorentz Papers, Microfilm Reel

C. Schonbeck, Lenard und Einstein. Ihr

American

Briefwechsel in Gesnerus Vol. 35, 1978,

obliged to Diana Barkan for drawing

,

318-33. Lenard’s

pp.

Einstein 3.

to

letter

first

is lost.

Maja Winteler-Einstein, Albert Beitrag fur

Einstein. p.

,

23 (see n.

to

1

Lebensbild,

sein

Chapter

1). I

assume

Maja Einstein here gets something mixed up with an earlier episode, the more so as in 1905 she was living that

in Berlin;

and she did not move near

her brother in Bern until 1907. In

1908 Einstein was indeed disappointed that there

was no reaction

to his first

attempt to generalize relativity theory.

Maja

mention of Planck’s “elucidation of a few

Einstein’s

request

for

dark points” certainly supports

this

tution

W.

Kaufmann, Uber Elektrons,

des

in

die Konsti-

SB,

1905,

pp. 949-56. 5.

To M.

Solovine, Bern,

1906, in Solovine,

Einstein 1913d,

7.

Planck’s is

May

3,

first

dated July

p.

M.

15.

Relativitdt

Mechanik

extant 6,

1907.

letter

to

am

January

und die Grundgleichungen der in

,

Das Prinzip der

Planck,

VhDPG,

Vol.

8,

1906,

pp. 136-41. 16. In Schilpp, p. 8.

1905d,

17. Einstein

W. Kaufmann,

18.

tution des Elektrons

,

92

p.

Uber

in

1.

die Konsti-

AdP, Vol.

19,

pp. 487-553. 19. Ibid.

H. A. Lorentz

20.

Leyden, March 2

1

Max

.

8,

to

Poincare,

1906.

Planck, Die Kaufmannschen der

Ablenkbarkeit

von

(3-Strahlen in ihrer Bedeutung fiir die

Dynamik der Elektronen lecture on September 19 in Stuttgart, in PhZ, ,

Vol.

7,

1906, pp. 753-59.

W. Kaufmann,

merkung

1079.

I

27, 1920, in Born, p. 45.

22.

p. 4.

6.

Einstein

my attention to this letter. 14. To Max Born, Berlin,

Messungen

assumption. 4.

Institute of Physics.

4,

23.

kung

,

,

ibid., p.

M.

ibid.

Diskussionsbe-

760.

Planck,

Diskussionsbemer-

Notes

766 1907h,

24. Einstein

§10,

25. Ibid., p. 439.

April

To

Marcel Grossmann, Milan,

1901.

1,

H. Bucherer to Einstein, Bonn, September 7, 1908. Bucherer’s results were published in Messungen an

Was

Bucherer’s

were by no means

1908,

9,

however,

data,

as

good

self believed; thus the

pp.

as

he him-

controversy was

finally settled until a

decade

H. Bucherer to A. Einstein, Bonn, September 9, 1908. Einstein’s Bucherer are

Gesellschaft

3

1

.

Was

Welibild

,

ist

No.

on January

R elativi tdtsth eone 7

in

end of 1919.

,

und

Probleme

Nobel

lecture in

48. Grundgedanken

der Relativitdtstheorie.

Goteborg on July

11,

49.

92 3 in Les Prix

1

,

Unpublished

from M. Klein,

p. 3.

draft,

quoted

Einstein on Scientific ,

50.

Max von Laue

Jakob Laub, 1907, in Gerd Rosen to

September 2, Katalog, No. 35, No. 4578, auction of 51.

1960.

8,

Max

Planck, Acht Vorlesungen

iiber Theoretische

Physik gehalten an der ,

Columbia University

in the City of

New

32. Ibid., p. 128.

York im Eriihjahr 1909 (Leipzig, 1910),

33. Ibid., p. 127.

pp. 117f.

34. Schilpp, p. 6. 35.

M.

Messungen

Planck, Die Kaufmannschen ,

p.

756

37.

For instance,

in

1

9 12e

and

Max

Planck,

Minkowski,

(see n.

41.

tember

16,

1911,

Zurich

,

No. 4

53. See also

H. Poincare, Demieres

Pensees (Paris, 1913). 54.

Wissenschaftliche

Selbstbiographie (Leipzig 1948), p. 32.

60

in

Gesellschaft.

Natur-

(quarterly), 1911.

38. Primarily in 1907e.

40.

fiorschenden

meeting of January

(see n. 21).

1913c.

39.

der

52. Sitzungsberichte

36. Einstein 191 le.

p.

Weltbild p. 129.

November

4, p. VIII.

127, written toward the

p.

in

Relativitdtstheorie

ist

17, 1975, p. 113.

the meeting of the Zurich Natur-

16, 1911; Vol. 56,

1921.

4,

,

30. Contribution to the discussion

forschende

,

Revolutions in Vistas in Astronomy Vol.

lost.

29. Einstein 1907d,

at

York Times April

Nobel (Stockholm, 1923),

later.

28. A.

letters to

EA2089.

script, c. 1920,

47.

PhZ, Vol.

not

,

Lorentz-Einsteinschen

Theorie

manu-

der Relativitdtstheorie unpublished

New

der

Gedanken

hauptsdchlichen

46.

Bestdtigung

75 5-62.

45. Die

experimented

Die

Bequerel-Strahlen.

in

(New York,

Shoulders of Giants

the

1965).

27. A.

,

Robert

to

Hooke, February 5, 1675 or 1676. For more detail, see Robert K. Merton, On

436-39.

26.

Newton

44. Isaac

pp.

To

Raum und

27 to Chapter

Zeit

10).

E. Zschimmer, Berlin, Sep-

30, 1921.

November

Zangger,

15,

1911. 55.

,

To H.

ture

Geometrie und Erfahmng

on

Day”

“Frederick

Academy

Prussian

of

,

at

Sciences

lec-

the in

Berlin on January 21, 1921, published in Weltbild p. 122. ,

42. See Schilpp, p. 12.

43.

To

56.

C. Habicht, Bern, end of

May or beginning of June

1905.

To

January p. 99,

28,

A.

Sommerfeld, 1922;

in

with further data.

Berlin,

Sommerfeld,

.

Notes

767 74.

To M.

57. 6,

Besso, Princeton,

1952, in Besso,

To

58.

October

November 60.

Born,

Princeton,

Mercier, Princeton,

An

Interview with

Einstein in Scientific American, Vol. 93, ,

July 1955,

69. See also Einstein’s

p.

75

.

An

exception here

J.

given in

pret here?

95 3f

ton,

62. trons

,

H. A. Lorentz, Theory of Eleclectures at Columbia University,

New

Spring

York,

1906

it

To

76.

61. Pais, p. 171.

path which led

first

who took down German without

Drake’s translation of the Dialogo of 1

Kyoto

Einstein, refer-

Ishiwara,

translated

Galileo Galilei, Einstein

when

the

is

to the special theory of relativity.”

1953, to Stilman

preface, written in

Einstein

in

ring to Michelson’s null result, said,

“This was the

Cohen,

B.

I.

instance,

lecture of 1922,

1953.

9,

Lor 1917a.

12, 1953.

To Andre

59.

464.

p.

Max

March

the lecture

notes and

H. Davenport, Prince-

F.

To

February

Did

into Japanese, overinter-

February

77.

me

9,

1954.

C.

Princeton,

Seelig,

19, 1955.

78. Einstein 1916i, p. 103.

(Leipzig,

1909).

H. A. Lorentz, Alte und neue Fragen der Physik, in PhZ, Vol. 11, 63.

12. Expert

1910, p. 1236.

Max

65.

H. A. Lorentz, Das

Born, in Born,

hoop, August

p. 72.

Relativitdts-

Laub, Bern, March

19,

68. R. A. Millikan, Albert Einstein

on His Seventieth Birthday in Review of ,

Laue, Das Relativitdts-

Einstein

,

American

in

Journal of Physics, Vol. 31, 1963,

p. 48.

To

tember

Mileva Marie, Milan, Sep-

28,

“interesting

Uber

die

paper”

Bewegung

torische

fen, in

1899, CPI,

Fragen,

AdP, Vol.

was

welche

p.

233; the

W. Wien, die

transla-

des Lichtathers betref-

65,

Appendix No.

3,

pp. I-XVII. 73.

To

January

To

14, 1908.

Sommerfeld,

Bern,

L. Chavan, Prague,

c.

1912,

Fliickiger, p. 66.

See

Yardley

of Physics,

American

Beers,

Vol.

46,

1978,

Karl Biedermann to Carl Seelig,

6.

Bern, 7.

March 2, 1952. The former Besenscheuerweg

is

Tscharnerstrasse.

8.

To M.

Solovine, Bern,

1906, in Solovine, 9.

March

6,

p. 5.

Ibid.

10. Ibid. 11.

Mileva in

Einstein

to

Helene

December D. Tribuhovic-Gjuvic, Im

Savic-Kaufler,

1906, A.

17,

506.

now

71. Ibid., p. 55.

72.

4.

Journal p.

70. R. S. Shankland, Conversations

Albert

Fliickiger, p. 68.

5.

,

prinzip (Braunschweig, 1911), p. 14.

with

Swiss

Bern, January

3.

quoted in

Physics Vol. 21, 1949, p. 343.

M. von

69.

Council,

the

lectual Property, Bern.

1909.

Modern

1918.

1906; Swiss Federal Office for Intel-

66. Einstein 1914o.

To J. J.

8,

Ahrens-

Dallenbach,

Friedrich Haller to

2.

Federal

prinzip (Leipzig, 1914), p. 23.

67.

To W.

1.

64.

Class

II

undated,

Schatten Albert Einsteins (Bern, 1983), p. 82.

Notes

768 12.

To Conrad

dated,

September

Habicht, Bern, unSeelig,

in

1905,

zig,

November

13. Ibid.

Mileva

Einstein

Helene

to

15. Einstein’s

Maja

16. n.

1

now

is

of

Weizmann

(see

June

Laub:

mentions

1953,

STPK;

papers of

Bern, July 29,

Wien

the

in

the subject of their

correspondence was mainly the

between

ences

and

phase

I

am

J.

a

Stark, Bern,

December a

post

J.

Stark:

married man, the income

6,

38. Einstein 1907h. 39. Einstein 1923a, pp. 4f.

To W.

5.

de

Sitter, Berlin,

No-

1916.

4,

43. See

the letter to 1907;

1,

in

J.

Stark of

it,

Einstein

makes no mention of the theory of gravitation.

To Conrad

44.

December

Habicht,

Bern,

24, 1907.

1909, in Stark,

278.

13.

To

271.

p.

37. Ibid.

November of

refusal

his

enough,” Bern, April 22.

1907, in Stark,

41.

from that post would not be large p.

November

Stark, Bern,

42. In Schilpp, p. 24.

Aachen, offered to him by

“As

1,

J.

group

14, 1907, in Stark, p. 227.

in

To

40. Ibid., p.

19. Ibid.

21. See

September

Stark, Bern,

35. Einstein 1907h.

vember

To

J.

differ-

velocity.

20.

Wiedemann, Bern,

Eilhard

To

36.

preserved

are

letters

14,

25, 1907, in Stark, p. 269.

a

Only a few of the Wien-Einstein

1907.

December

14, 1909.

34.

at last arrived.”

To W. Wien,

1907, in

33. Einstein 1922a.

photograph of 1906. 18.

2,

32. Einstein 1917a.

Bern, undated, 1909; Laub to Albert 9,

December Stark,

J.

To

31.

17. Albert Einstein to J. J.

Einstein, July

1908.

1907, in Stark, p. 227.

25.

“The photograph has

To

30.

Israel.

1), p.

3,

29. J. Stark,

offInsti-

Winteler-Einstein

Chapter

to

collection

at the

Rehovoth,

tute,

1907.

3,

Stark, p. 278.

Savic-Kaufler (see n. 11), p. 82.

prints

October

28. S. Hirzel to Einstein, Leipzig,

p. 126.

14.

G. Teubner to Einstein, Leip-

27. B.

the Director of Education,

New

The

Copernicus:

From "Bad Joke"

to "Herr

Bern, June 17, 1907, Cantonal Archive

Bern,

BB

III 6,

Vol.

Professor"

XV,

1907; see also

Fliickiger, p. 113.

Minutes of faculty meeting of October 28, 1907, Cantonal Archive, 23.

Bern. 24.

March 25.

March

J.

2.

To

January

To 6,

M.

Besso,

1952, in Besso,

To M.

Besso,

p.

To 6,

M.

Arnold Sommerfeld, Bern,

14, 1908,

Physikalische

464.

Sommerfeld).

Sommerfeld’s

during the

few years of their cor-

March

,

No. first

2,

respondence are Princeton, p.

DMM;

Blatter 40,

Bern,

Besso,

1952, in Besso,

J.

Princeton,

17, 1903, in Besso, p. 14.

26.

Laub to Einstein, Wurzburg, March 1, 1908, ETH. 1.

464.

3.

letters

lost.

To Conrad

cember

1984, p. 29 (not in

24, 1907.

Habicht, Bern, De-

Notes 4.

To

January

Marcel Grossmann, Bern,

ETH;

1908,

3,

mann/Dukas,

Hoff-

in

769 day

this

from Jiirgen Renn).

p. 104.

Faub

18. J. J.

May

burg,

to Einstein, Wiirz-

ETH.

5.

Ibid.

6.

Ibid.

19.

7.

To

20. Einstein 1908a.

the Educational Council of

Canton of Zurich, Bern, January 1908, STZ, U 84d. 2.

the 20,

To

8.

Gruner,

Paul

Feb-

Bern,

ruary 11, 1908, in Fliickiger,

p.

117, in

Fliickiger,

9.

ther

of

details

gives

119,

p.

the

fur-

Habilitation

procedure. Einstein 1909c, pp. 185-93.

11.

To

December

p. 117.

of Bern, SS 1908, in Fliickiger,

p. 121.

24, 1907.

To

23.

Arnold Sommerfeld, Bern,

Fucien Chavan, Theorienhefte,

Einstein-Flaus, Bern.

netische

Grundgleichimgen fur bewegte

Korper

[Electromagnetic

Gockel

Albert

26.

1908,

Vol. 27, 1908,

Fundamental

ToJ.

15. Einstein

elek-

tromagnetischen Felde auf ruhende Kor-

per ausgeubten ponderomotorischen Krdfte

To

28.

Electromagnetic Field on Bodies at 26, 1908, pp. 541-50;

Bernerkungen zu unserer Arbeit

Work

.

.

.],

.

.

in

.

[Ob-

AdP,

Vol. 28, 1909, pp. 445ff. J. J.

1908,

3,

STPK,

Faub, Bern, undated,

To M.

32.

ber

Hans

1908;

3,

“Buio”

is

Swiss

Albert’s for

Bub

33.

Whitrow

34.

See also

stein

to

(see n. 3 a

1961,

up because

p.

160.

quoted

in

These problems

have not been definitively solved to

35.

21.

“Now

8,

ToJ.

in the

could put both of you

my sister is away.” Max Planck to Einstein,

September 36.

1), p.

the Habicht brothers from

I

1918,

in

postcard from Ein-

course of July

To Walter Dallenbach, Ahrens-

(boy),

Solovine, p. 10, in facsimile.

Rosen, Berlin, Auction No. 36, April p. 3.

Decempet name

Solovine, Bern,

(undated):

Fliickiger,

Autogr.

H. A. Einstein in an interview with Bernard Mayes, BBC, in G. J. Whitrow (ed.), Einstein: The Man and His Achievement (Fondon, 1966), p. 17.

summer 1907

8,

Bern,

mu.

probably Spring 1909; Katalog Gerd

August

und Albert

Gockel,

Albert

December

[The Ponderomotoric Forces Exerted in

servations on our

Faub, undated, August

J.

31.

and Faub, Die im

AdP, Vol.

Faub, Bern, July 30,

J.

Albert Einstein

in

1908,

,

232.

p.

und

Academia Freibur-

in

,

To J. ETH.

30. Ibid.

hoop,

30 (not in

2, p.

1962, pp. 30-33.

,

Vol. 26, 1908, pp. 532-40; Corrections

17.

Physikalische

Sommerfeld).

29. Ibid.

To

No.

,

Equations for Moving Bodies], in AdP,

16.

in

Gockel (see n. 25), p. 31.

Einstein and Faub, Elektromag-

Rest], in

1908,

14,

Blatter 40, 1984,

27.

14.

Bern,

22. Ibid.

gensis

Semester report of the Univer-

13.

Habicht,

25. J. J. Faub, Albert Einstein

Paul Gruner, Bern, Feb-

ruary 11,1 908, in Fliickiger,

sity

To Conrad

21.

24. Einstein 1908a, p. 217.

10.

12.

18, 1908,

Einstein 1907b.

January

facsimile.

the

communication

(personal

Axalp,

1908. Stark, Bern,

1908, in Stark, p.274.

February 22,

Notes

770

To

37.

14, 1908, in Stark,

p.277.

Hermann Minkowski, Raum

38.

und

December

Stark, Bern,

J.

Zeit (see n. 27 to

Chapter

10).

For

To J. J. Laub, Bern, March 19, 1909, in ETH. 53. To M. Besso, Princeton, 52.

March

6,

1952, in Besso, p. 464.

Adler

the genesis of Minkowski’s concept

54. Friedrich

of space-time see also Peter Louis

Adler, Zurich, July

Galison, Minkowski's Space-Time: Visual Thinking

HSPS,

in

meiner p.

Absolute World

(Braunschweig,

1958),

Born, Autobiography

York, 1978),

(New

Hermann Minkowski

42. J. J.

May

Victor

to

28, 1908, in

(see

To

58.

n.

Ehrat, Bern, February

J.

15, 1909, in Seelig, p. 155.

Laub

to Einstein,

Wurz-

ETH.

18, 1908,

To J. ETH.

59.

1909,

J.

May

Laub, Bern,

This

letter

19,

contains

a

43. Pais, p. 151.

detailed account of the professorship

44. Seelig, p. 46.

episode from Einstein’s point of view.

191 7d; quoted from

45. Einstein

Braunschweig, 1969 edition, 47. Louis

Dunkle 48.

Erinnerungen

Koilros,

Helle

in

,

Zeit

—

A. Kleiner, Bern, February

25, 1909, in Universitatsarchiv Zurich. 62. Expert

quoted in

Chrthe

Dean, Professor Otto

history of theoretical

see the unique

book by Christa

Intellectual

McCormmach,

Mastery of Nature

ical Physics from

— Theoret-

Ohm to Einstein. Vol.

New Mighty

Theoretical

4,

a

letter

of the

Stoll,

Regierungsrat

in Zurich, pp.

7f.,

Einstein’s personal

of

March

Heinrich

STZ, U.llOb.

2,

file.

63. Ibid., p. 6.

Physics

(Vienna, 1984), pp. 156-94, gives a

to

Alfred

Ernst, Director of Cantonal Education

2,

1870-1925 (Chicago, 1986). 49. Rudolf G. Ardelt, Friedrich Ad-

1909,

by

opinion

Kleiner,

Jungnickel and Russel

The

To

Zeit, p. 25.

physics in the German-speaking countries,

Bern, February

Ehrat,

J.

15, 1909, in Seelig, p. 155.

p. 46.

61.

Kommilitonen

eines

To

60.

46. Ibid., p. 48.

ler

19,

R. G. Ardelt, p. 165.

p. 131.

38), p. 111.

burg,

Adler

November

Adler, Zurich,

May

Laub, Bern,

J.

57. Friedrich

Max

41.

Laub, Bern, July 30,

J. J.

ETH. 56. To J. 1909, ETH.

218. 40.

To.

55.

1908,

Born, Physik im Wandel

Zeit

1908, in Ru-

1,

dolf G. Ardelt, p. 164.

,

10, 1979, pp. 85ff.

Max

39.

to the

From

Victor

to

The

64.

ter Ritz died four 7,

Walon July

exceptionally gifted

months

later,

1909, at the age of only thirty-one.

For the reactions of heads of

65.

detailed account of Friedrich Adler’s

university departments and ministries

ambivalent attitude toward the Zurich

appointment of Jewish physicists, see Jungnickel and McCormmach, pp. 286f (see n. 48).

professorship

as

well

as

the

back-

ground of the establishment of the

66. See n. 62 above, p. 8.

post. 50. Ibid., pp. 159ff. 51. Friedrich

Adler

67. Ibid., p. 9.

to

Victor

Adler, Zurich, June 19, 1908, in ibid., pp. 163f.

to the

68.

1909, 69.

To J. ETH.

J.

Laub, Bern,

May

19,

This emerges from the pro-

Notes Government Council of 1910, STZ.

771

tocol of the

Sommerfeld, Johannes Stark, Wilhelm

July 14,

Wie, and Woldemar Voigt. 82. PhZ, 10, No. 22, p. 777.

To J. J. Laub, Bern, May 19, 1909, ETH. Carl Seelig, Princeton, 71. To 70.

Summer

73. Justice

invitation

a visit to

of 1908 (Clark,

Seelig, p. 159.

and Police Department

is

thought to

have been brought by Rudolf Laden-

burg on

1952, in Seelig, pp. 157 ff.

Quoted from

72.

The

83.

evidence of

Bern

in the

have found no

p. 93); I

this.

summer

Nor do

the extant

to Swiss Federal Council, Bern, July

fragments

12, 1909, in Fliickiger, p. 70.

between Planck and Einstein contain

To M.

74.

Solovine, Bern,

March

18, 1909; in Solovine, p. 12.

To

75.

probably June

undated,

1908

assumed by

as

1909

(not

Seelig, p.

147),

ETH. 76.

anything about an invitation for

However, since Planck presided over the afternoon meeting on September 21 and was therefore responfor

sible

To H.

Lorentz,

A.

Bern,

To

J. J.

should

program,

its

one

give

Laub, Bern, Monday,

Max

84.

meiner

To J. J. Laub, Bern, May 19, 1909, ETH. Lorentz’s early letters to Einstein are lost. On May 23, 1909,

p. 193.

78.

To

Stark,

J.

Arzte

p.

31,

279.

(

1958),

81.

der

Gesell-

Naturforscher

Versammlung

in

und

Salzburg

,

Leipzig 1910) and the program of the

Planck’s contribution to

the discussion, ibid.,

Max

91.

Verhandlungen

Deutscher ,

Bern, July

According to the report on the

congress

Max

90.

1909, in Stark,

schaft

Planck.

89. Ibid.

79. Ibid.

.

keynote

86. Ibid., p. 820.

88. Ibid., p. 820.

theory.

the

85. Einstein 1909e.

on problems of radiation

letter

of

(Braunschweig,

Zeit

87. Ibid., p. 817.

81

seems very

Born, Physik im Wandel

Einstein wrote Lorentz a seventeen-

80.

it

come from

addresses did

undated, probably June 1909.

page

a lec-

likely that the suggestion that Einstein

undated, probably April 1909. 77.

correspondence

the

ture.

Laub, Bern, Monday,

J. J.

of

(only in this

(Berlin,

trag zur

1920),

p.

238

first edition).

Wolfgang

92.

825.

Born, Die Relativitatsthe-

Einsteins

orie

p.

Pauli, Einsteins Beiin

Schilpp,

Chavan,

Zurich,

Quantentheorie

,

p. 78.

“well attended” physical section (PhZ, 10,

November

777),

those

Born, Paul

S.

10,

1909,

present

No.

included

22, p.

Max

Epstein, James Franck,

Philipp Frank, Albert Gockel,

Otto

Hahn, Friedrich Hasenohrl, Ludwig Hopf (later an assistant at Zurich UniRudolf Ladenburg, Anton versity), Lampa, Max von Laue, Lise Meitner, Gustav Mie, Rubens,

Max

Planck,

Heinrich

Clemens Schaefer, Arnold

14. Professor in Zurich 1.

To

October 2.

Lucien 19, 1909.

Friedrich Adler to Victor Adler,

Zurich, October 28, 1909, in R. G. Ardelt, p.

166 (see

n.

49 to Chap-

ter 13). 3.

To

J. J.

ber 31, 1909,

Laub, Zurich, Decem-

ETH.

Notes

772 Ibid.

5.

To M. To

January

DMM,

19, 1910,

,

p. 16.

Sommerfeld,

A.

Blatter 40,

Novem-

Besso, Zurich,

ber 17, 1909, in Besso, 6.

No.

1984,

2,

Zurich,

Physikalische p.

32 (not in

To

Wiedemann, Bern,

Eilhard

DMM.

July 14, 1909, 8.

November 5, 1910, STPK. 25. ToJ. J. Laub, Zurich, Decem-

Hans Tanner,

in Seelig, p. 171.

Max Fisch, in Seelig, p. 170. 10. To M. Besso (see n. 5). 11. To J. J. Laub (see n. 3). 12. To J. J. Laub, Zurich, March 16, 1910, ETH. 9.

To J. J. Laub, Zurich, March 16, 1910, ETH. 27. To A. Sommerfeld, Zurich, Blatter

Seelig, p. 188.

15.

To

C.

29.

“My

Armin Hermann,

Princeton,

This

Zangger drew my attention to an important remark ...” 17. Hans Tanner, in Seelig, p. 170. 18. George Hevesy, interview with T. S. Kuhn and E. Segre of May 25,

To

33.

W.

215 (Oxford, 1978).

To J. J. 1910, ETH.

19. 16,

Laub, Zurich, March

34.

ber

ToJ.

4,

1910,

35.

To

vember

tions

of

obvious

Einstein’s

Debye (AdP, Vol. as

Max Born

Karman (PhZ,

modifica-

Peter

theory,

Theodor

Vol. 13,

p. 297),

von

devel-

oped formulas which correctly decourse

the

scribe

of specific

heat

during approach to absolute zero. 21. In Seelig, p. 177.

22.

To

January

A.

19,

Sommerfeld,

1910,

lische Blatter,

Sommerfeld).

40,

DMM;

Zurich,

in Physika-

1984, p. 32 (not in

Novem-

ETH. J.

No-

Laub, Zurich,

J.

See the

36.

ETLI.

Sommerfeld 1910; and to Laub of

letters to

1910, undated.

37. Seelig, p. 101; the lecture

given on

May 7,

was

1910. In a letter to his

mother of April

1910, Einstein

29,

few days

I

give a lecture to

the convention of Swiss scientists, for

which

39, p. 789), as well

and

Laub, Zurich,

J.

11, 1910,

says: “In a

20. Following

zur

,

summer

,

1910a and 1910b.

Quantentheorie in Schilpp, p. 79.

from T. S. Kuhn, Black-Body Theory and the Quantum quoted

ETH.

Pauli, Einsteins Beitrag

of January 19,

Discontinuity p.

Laub, Zurich, Satur-

J. J.

1962, in Sources for History of Quantum Physics;

Sommer-

31. Ibid.

paper

Professor

colleague

in

feld, p. 23.

32. Einstein

1911b.

in

28. Ibid.

ETH.

16. Einstein

(not

33

p.

day, undated, July 1910,

Seelig,

August 20, 1952,

1984,

40,

,

in Physikalische

Sommerfeld).

30.

14.

DMM;

July 10, 1910,

13. Ibid.

begins:

ETH.

ber 31, 1909, 26.

Sommerfeld). 7.

To J. J. Laub, Zurich, March 16, 1909, ETH. Emil Fischer, Zurich, 24. To 23.

4.

I

haven’t prepared at

38. Carl lig,

all.”

Gustav Jung to Carl See-

February" 25, 1952,

ETH.

39. Ibid.

40.

To

42.

C. Habicht and P. Habicht,

Conrad Habicht, Zurich, December 14, 1910. 41. To Conrad Habicht, Zurich, undated, February-March 1910. Elektrostatischer

nach A. Einstein pp. 532-35.

Potentialmultiplikator ,

in

PhZ,

11,

1910,

Notes 43. Ibid., p. 535.

To M.

44.

ruary

cember August

15, 1948.

von

Smoluchowski

Vol.

1908,

pp.

und Werk, Nauk (Warsaw,

Akademia

,

205-26.

—Lehen

chowski

To

49.

in line with Planck’s

J.

three years later,

62.

1977),

in

Max

Prussian

the

to

Planck, Acht Vorlesungen

Theoretische

Physik,

an

gehalten

York im Friihjahr 1909 (Leipzig,

1910).

ETH.

63.

To

Sommerfeld,

A.

Zurich,

July 10, 1910, in Physikalische Blatter

51. Ibid., p. 1294.

40, 1984, p. 33 (not in Sommerfeld).

To M.

April

Grossmann, Milan, 1901, in CPI, Doc. 100,

14,

64.

Quoted

Teske

in

66.

(see n. 47),

ber

55. Einstein

p.

His

9 1 7g.

1

invitation

to

Prague

Einstein

physikalischen

Lehrstiihle

an

1975, pp. 285-92. (b) Jan

—

69. Protocol

,

Hav-

Council, 1

in

Prague

,

(c)

in

70,

pp. 76-84.

March

Ad-

30, 1910, in Adler-

Archiv, Vienna. 58.

To

of

July

Governmental

STZ,

1910,

14,

U

73. Friedrich Adler to Victor ler,

Zurich, September 23,

Ad-

1910, in

Adler-Archiv, Vienna.

57. Friedrich Adler to Victor

Zurich,

110b.2 (44).

72. Illy, p. 77 (see n. 56).

,

1979,

U

71. Frank, p. 136.

Jozsef Illy, Ein-

Isis,

Kleinert,

70. Ibid.

to

Univ. Car. Pragensis

1977, pp. 109-12.

Decem-

10b. 2.

,

Hist.

in

Em-

68. Ibid.

Professor in Prague in Acta Universitatis

Carolinae

quoted

1910;

June 23,1910, STZ,

der

ranek, Albert Einstein's Appointment

ler,

Stiirgkh to

67. Petititon of fifteen students to

—Die Neubesetzung

deutschen Universitdt Prag, in Gesnerus

stein

(see n. 56).

the Directorate of Education, Zurich,

Andreas Kleinert, Anton Lampa

und Albert

32,

288

1910.

289.

is

described in the following accounts:

der

summer

Count Karl

16,

,

Laub, Zurich, Sat-

J.

peror Francis Joseph, Vienna,

54. Ibid., p. 231.

(a)

J.

65. Kleinert, p.

219.

56.

To.

urday, undated,

290. 53.

8,

election

der Columbia University in the City of

New

Laub, Zurich, Sat-

J.

form of words when he proposed

50. Einstein 1910c.

52.

p.

is

Academy of Sciences.

1917, p. 737.

urday, undated, Summer.1910,

p.

291; see n. 56). This reconstruction

liber

5,

from oral 288 and n. 9, it

p.

Polska

,

Andreas

lost;

is

tradition (Kleinert, p.

Einstein’s

Marian von Smoluchowski

NW, Vol.

This expertise

Smolu-

pp. 215-32. 48.

61.

Kleinert has reconstructed

Habicht, Princeton,

Armin Teske, Marian

See

De-

Prague,

26, 1911, in Besso, p. 42.

25,

Archiv, Vienna. 60. Illy, p. 77 (see n. 56).

Marian

47.

AdP,

Feb-

p. 47.

Besso,

To Conrad

46.

Prague,

Besso,

To M.

45.

Zurich, April 29, 1910, in Adler-

ler,

1912, in Besso,

4,

773

75. Frank,

Dukas,

Pauline Einstein, Zurich,

76.

p.

1

To

p.

137;

Hoffmann/

14.

Paul

Ehrenfest,

Prague,

Schroter,

Zurich,

April 25, 1912.

April 29, 1910. 59. Friedrich Adler to Victor

74. Illy, p. 78 (see n. 56).

Ad-

77.

To

Carl

Notes

774 December ter

12,

ETH.

1910,

Schro-

was professor of botany

at

the

15. Full Professor in

Prague—

But Not for Long

Polytechnic. 78. Illy, p. 78 (see n. 56). 79. Protocol

1.

Governmental

of

Council, Zurich, February 10, 1911,

March March

STZ.

2.

Havranek,

80.

106 (see

p.

n. 56).

longer identifiable), Zurich, January

STZ.

Emil Fischer to A. Einstein,

82.

November

Berlin,

1,

1910, in Fischer

Papers, Bancroft Library, University

of California, Berkeley. 83.

To

Emil

November

On

84.

5,

1910,

Zurich,

STPK.

Emil Fischer and Franz

1922).

cher, Berlin-Wannsee,

Fischer

in

1911,

November

Papers,

9,

Bancroft

Library, Berkeley. 86.

To

vember 87.

5,

1910,

To

FI.

STPK. Zurich,

January 27, 1911. 88.

ruary 89.

To 8,

February 90.

ETH.

To H.

Lorentz,

A.

Lorentz,

Prague,

To M.

Grossmann, Prague, end

of March 1911. 6.

Ibid.

7.

To H.

Zangger,

un-

Prague,

dated, spring 1911.

191

1,

To M.

Besso, Prague,

May

13,

in Besso, p. 19.

To L. 1911, ETH.

Chavan, Prague, July

9.

Otto

Stern,

in

an

with Res Jost, recorded on is

at

6,

interview

November

ETH;

I

am

obliged to Professor Jost for permit-

me to quote from it. 11. To M. Besso, Prague, May 12.

The

13,

natural science institutes

Weinberggasse 13.

oration for H.

Lorentz, 1928, in Weltbild

,

92.

Zurich,

23, 1911.

91. Graveside

H. Zangger, Prague, un-

of the Philosophical Faculty are on

H. A.

November

To

1911, in Besso, p. 19.

15, 1911.

To

ulice 7; there

ting

Friedrich Adler, Basel, Feb-

1911,

now Lesnicka

25, 1961; a transcript

Lorentz,

A.

Trebizkeho

dated, spring 1911.

10.

Emil Fischer, Zurich, No-

was

address

ibid., p. 37.

8.

Franz Oppenheim to Emil Fis-

1).

a bust

5.

Oppenheim as treasurer of the German Chemical Society, see Emil Fischer, Aus meinem Leben (Berlin, 85.

The

(postmarked

undated

27, 191

Prague,

on the facade to commemorate its first and most famous resident. 3. See also a letter to Besso, end of September 1911, in Besso, p. 30, and a letter from Besso, October 29, 1911, is

4.

Fischer,

Grossmann,

1911,

ulice 1215,

81. A. Kleiner to a colleague (no

18, 1911,

To M.

A.

p. 27.

H. A. Lorentz a Is Schopfer und

191

1,

To M.

3

,

now Vinicna ulice

Besso, Prague,

May

3

13,

in Besso, p. 19.

14.

Frank,

p. 145.

15.

To M.

Grossmann, Prague, end

Personlichkeit, written in 1953, in Welt-

of March 1911,

bild, p. 3 1.

To A. Stem, Prague, March 17, 1912, ETH. 17. To L. Chavan, Prague, July 6, 1911, ETH. 16.

93. Seelig, pp. 177ff. 94.

To

end 1910,

A. Stern, Zurich, undated,

ETH.

ETH.

.

.

Notes

775

To J. J. Laub. Prague, August 10, 1911, ETH. 19. To M. Besso, Prague, Feb-

1911, in Besso,

ruary

tember

18.

4,

1912, in Besso,

p. 45.

To J. J. Laub, Prague, August 10, 1911, ETH. 21. To H. Zangger, Prague, Sep20.

tember 20, 1911. 22. Prager

Chapter

40.

41.

January

Tagblatt, Illy, p.

79 (see

To M.

To M. 1,

Besso, Prague, October

in Besso, p. 32.

42. Ibid.

To H.

Zangger, Prague, un-

56

ETH;

in

November

1911,

—Dunkle

Helle

Zeit

Zeit

,

p. 43.

44.

To H.

Zangger, Prague,

ETH;

Gerhard Kowalewski, Bestand und Wandel (Munich, 1950), p. 237. 25. Hugo Bergmann, Personal Re-

vember

membrances of Albert Einstein in Boston

German, and English.

24.

,

Studies in the Philosophy, of Science Vol. ,

1911,

16,

—Dunkle

Zeit

Zeit

p.

,

43.

Brod,

(Munich, 1969),

Streitbares

Leben

45.

To M.

46. In

Helle

in

The

Besso, Prague,

“three

Conseil

of the

German

,

Decem-

p. 40.

Proceedings

Solvay 1911

201.

p.

No-

languages” were, of course, French,

ber 26, 1911, in Besso,

XIII, p. 390.

version in Ab-

27. Ibid., p. 202.

handlungen der Bunsen-Gesellschaft, No.

28. Frank, pp. 152 ff

7 (Halle, 1914), pp. 339f.

29.

To Hedwig

tember

Born, Berlin, Sep-

1916, in Born,

8,

31.

To M.

May

13,

June

Walther Nernst, Prague, quoted

20, 1911,

unpublished

Jean Pelse-

in

manuscript,

,

Institut

Sur

35. Ernest Solvay,

PEtablisse-

Eondamentaux de

des Principes

la

Gravito-Materialique (Brussels, 1911).

Solvay

also Jagdish

Conference

on

drecht/Boston, 1975), 37.

Max

Nernst,

Mahra, The

Physics

(Dor-

1,

Besso, Prague,

ETH;

June

Pelseneer (see n. 34).

to 11,

Walther 1910,

in

Decem-

in Besso, p. 40.

H. Zangger, Prague, unHelle

in

November

—Dunkle

Zeit

1911, Zeit

,

p. 42.

50.

Quoted

in the Earl of Birken-

head, The Professor between

Two Worlds

p. 42.

51. Clark, p. 185. 52.

To

H. Zangger, Prague, un-

dated, beginning of

ETH;

Helle

in

November

1911,

—Dunkle

Zeit

Zeit

,

p. 43.

53. Details of the

p. 4.

Planck

Berlin,

38. Ibid.

To M.

To

—

in Helle Zeit

p. 43.

(Cambridge, 1962),

Solvay, Brussels.

36. See

,

ETH;

dated, beginning of

neer, Le premier Conseil de Physique

ment

48.

49.

33. Ibid.

To

H. Zangger, Prague, No-

16, 1911,

ber 26, 191

p. 19.

32. Ibid., p. 20.

34.

To

Dunkle Zeit

Besso, Prague,

1911, in Besso,

47.

vember

p. 21.

30. Frank, p. 143.

I.

Sep-

11, 191 1, in Besso, p. 26.

beginning

14).

Max

Prague,

Besso,

dated,

23. Ibid.

26.

13,

p. 19.

22, n.

May

Besso, Prague,

To M.

21, 191

43.

1911, quoted from to

39.

correspondence

between Einstein and Julius are Clark, pp. 54.

tember

To

1

in

8 7 ff

H. Zangger, Prague, Sep-

20, 1911.

Notes

776

H. Zangger to Ludwig Forrer, Zurich, October 9, 191 1, in Swiss Fed-

To H.

memoriam

74. In

Zangger, Prague, Sep-

Zangger, Prague, Feb-

ruary 19, 1912.

eral Archive, Bern.

56.

To H.

73.

55.

books are

vember

Leyden. Martin

To M.

58.

November p.

Grossmann,

ETH;

Prague,

75. Ehrenfest’s

them

for

remarkable

225. Grossmann’s letter, to which

fest Vol. 1:

the

present

letter

the

is

answer,

Physicist

H.

59.

Lorentz

A.

Leyden, December

To M.

cember

to

Einstein,

here

1911.

8,

Grossmann, Prague, De-

10, 1911,

ETH.

Zurich,

steins

December

14, 1911,

ETH.

The Making of a Theoretical (Amsterdam, 1970); here pp.

November

64. A.

17, 1911,

ETH;

Poin-

Sommerfeld, quoted from

77.

March

1919.

January 22,

row,

Swiss Federal

Archive, Bern. the Federal President of

February

2,

ETH. 68. To Alfred Stern, Prague, February 2, 1912, ETH. The “bear cubs”

80.

are his

two

sons.

69.

To

H.

To

Mileva

23, 1901, in

1914;

F 2e 1898

82.

CPI,

New York, January 9, To George

1912.

Peagram, Prague,

January 29, 1912. 72. To H. Zangger, Prague, Janu-

p.

281.

and Alileva lived apart

H. A. Einstein

— The

divorced

in

Whitand His

G.

in

J.

Man

To M.

p. 20.

Besso, Prague,

ber 21, 1911, in Besso, 83.

To M.

March

3,

To C. Seelig, 1952, ETH. 85. See

p. 32.

also

a

p. 32.

Princeton,

letter

to

Meyer-Schmid of December

To C. Seelig, 20, 1952, ETH. 87. To C. Seelig, 5, 1952, ETH. 86.

Decem-

Besso, Zurich, end of

84.

5,

to Einstein,

Milan,

Marie,

they were

Einstein

(5).

1912 (not in Besso).

undated,

spring 1912.

George Peagram

to

STPK, Darm-

February 1914, in Besso, Zangger,

3,

Nernst to Emil Fischer,

Achievement (London, 1967), 81. To M. Besso, Prague,

1912,

ary 27, 1912.

W.

staedter Collection

after

If.

Prague,

no reference

is

Berlin, July 30, 1910,

Minutes of the Swiss Education Council for 1912, meeting of

Switzerland,

March

Besso, Prague,

79. Einstein

66.

To

To M.

respondence there

Seelig, p. 230.

1912, in

quotation

from Karl von Mayenn, EinDialog mit den Ko liegen, in Berlin

78.

65. Seelig, pp. 23

has not so

1912 (not in Besso). In Einstein’s cor-

Seelig, p. 228.

71.

Paul Ehren-

“talking shop.”

care to Pierre Weiss, pp. 228ff., in

70.

—biography,

is

76.

Marie Curie to Pierre Weiss,

67.

in

Symposion, pp. 464ff.

M. Grossmann to Einstein, Zurich, December 12, 1911, ETH. 62. H. Zangger to Rudolf Gnehm,

Paris,

—

made use of many respects

Klein

The second volume been published. The

far

61.

63.

his

J.

and note-

Boerhaave in

174ff.

is lost.

60.

,

diaries

Museum

at the

in Seelig,

18, 1911,

Ehrenfest

(1934), in Spate Jahre, p. 204.

tember 20, 1911. 57. To H. Zangger, Prague, No15, 1911.

Paul

May

Annelie 17, 1926.

Princeton, April

Princeton,

May

,

Notes

To

88.

Lowenthal,

Elsa

Prague,

Tuesday, April 30, 1912. Elsa Lowenthal’s letters to Einstein were de-

him

by

stroyed

her

at

presumably to deny Mileva

111

Relativity

request, a

point of

—

December

Lowenthal kept Einstein’s of which this is the first in a

—

tied-up folder;

on

a

card attached to

it

from better days.”

89.

To

May 7, 90.

May 21, 91.

Lowenthal, Prague,

Elsa

1912.

Ibid.

3.

Dictionary of Scientific Biography, p. 61.

Grundgedanken und Methoden der

4.

[Fundamental

dargestellt

in an interview with

from

(see n. 10).

92. Ibid.

and

1912a

93. Einstein

manuscript

1912d.

of

1920,

5.

Ibid.

6.

Henri Poincare, Sur

mique de

Matematico di Palermo, Vol. 21,

chemischen Aquivalentgesetzes [Thermo-

1906, pp. 129ff. and 166ff.

of the

Law

Photochemical Equivalence], in

AdP,

p.

37,

832, and 38, p. 881 (1912).

Johannes Stark, Uber die Anwendung des Planckschen Elementarge-

auf photochemische Bemerkung zur Mitteilung

Reaktionen.

stein

[On

mentary

des

Hr. Ein-

the Application of Planck's Ele-

Law

Photochemical Reactions.

to

Observation on Einstein's Paper], in

AdP,

38, 1912, p. 467.

95. Einstein

,

8.

See

Einstein’s

also

letter

to

Stark of September 25, 1907, ac-

J.

cording to which Einstein was acquainted

with

only

with

papers

five

none of which

relativity theory,

theory;

gravitation

on

dealt Stark,

in

269.

9 1 2d.

9.

96. Havranek, p. 108 (see n. 56 to

Chapter

Korpem, in Gottinger

in bewegten

Nachrichten 1908, pp. 53ff.

p. 1

Hermann Minkowski, Grund-

gleichungen der elektromagnetischen Vor-

gdnge

94.

setzes

7.

of

Dyna-

la

in Rendiconti del Cir-

1' electron,

colo

Justification

quoted

Pais, p. 175.

Thermodynamische Begriindung desphoto-

dynamic

and

Ideas

Their Development], unpub-

sented in

lished

Otto Stern

Res Jost

922 j.

Methods of the Theory of Relativity Pre-

1912.

To

1

Relativitdtstheorie in ihrer Entrwicklung

Lowenthal, Prague,

Elsa

14, 1922, in Einstein

2.

Vol. 10,

she had written: “Especially beautiful letters

Einstein in his Kyoto lecture of

1.

attack. Elsa letters

Toward the General Theory of

16.

Einstein 1933d, pp. 135f.

10. Ibid.

“Inertial

11.

14).

m

mass”

appears as

t

97. Frank, p. 170.

inertial

98. Ibid.

Newton’s law of force, his so-called Second Axiom: K = m b. “Gravita-

99. Prager Tageblatt of

1912, quoted in

Chapter 100.

84

(see n.

5,

56 to

To

Illy, p.

102. See

ETH;

in Seelig, p. 221.

,

p.

mass”

also

432.

mg

free

fall,

m = mg t

2 .

with

is

that of gravitation

Hence b

it

follows for

M

=

g 2/r

.

12. Einstein 191 7d, p. 54.

84.

John

Stachel,

Genesis of General Relativity

Symposion

tional

2

C. Habicht, Prague, Feb-

acceleration in

to

t

K = mgMg /r

14).

ruary 12, 1912 101.

Illy, p.

August

resistance

The

in Berlin

13. Einstein

1970h,

14. Ibid., p. 456. 15. Ibid., p. 458.

p.

454.

2 ,

that

Notes

778

17. Ibid., p. 461.

Gerhard Kowalewski, Bestand und Wandel (Munich, 1950),

18. Ibid., p. 462.

p.

16. Ibid., p. 459.

Stark to

19. J.

October

wald, p.

Stark, Bern,

J.

November

April 41.

21. Einstein 1933d, p. 136.

42.

This emerges from the “Cor-

February 1908, in Jahrbuch

Vok

,

5,

December

1907,

24,

Seelig, pp. 127f.

Bern,

in

ETH

—Dunkle

and

Zeit, p. 14.

14,

To

L. Hopf, Prague, June 13,

To

L. Hopf, Zurich, August

16, 1912.

45. Louis

Dunkle Zeit

Erinnerungen

Kollros,

Kommilitonen,

eines

24. Helle Zeit

ETH.

1912,

1912. 44.

Habicht,

Prague,

Kleiner,

AdP, 38, 1912, p. 356. Kyoto lecture, December

43.

pp. 98f.

To Conrad

Alfred

1922, Einstein 1922j.

rections” written toward the end of

23.

To 1,

1907, in Stark, p. 271.

22.

Relativitdts-

prinzip (Braunschweig, 1911). 40.

To

von Laue, Das

39. Alax

270. 20.

1,

Stark,

in

1907,

4,

238.

Greifs-

Einstein,

and

389;

p.

—

Helle

in

Zeit

p. 27.

,

25. Einstein 191 lg, p. 898.

46. Skizze, p. 15.

26. Ibid., p. 906.

47. See also Einstein’s account in

27. Ibid., p. 908.

To

28.

tember

E. Freundlich, Prague, Sep-

1911.

1,

To

29.

January

8,

tember

1,

p.

Kyoto 47;

Einstein

lecture,

1

922 j,

and the accounts of Pais and

Straus, in Pais, p. 213.

Freundlich,

E.

To

30.

the

Prague,

48.

To

1912.

October

E. Freundlich, Prague, Sep-

p. 26.

1911.

To j. J. Laub, Prague, August 10, 1911, ETH. 32. To L. Hopf, undated, Prague,

1912,

29,

Munich, November

Zurich,

Sommerfeld,

in

Sommerfeld

49. A.

31.

Sommerfeld,

A.

to

1,

D. Hilbert,

1912, in

Som-

merfeld, p. 27. 50. Skizze p. 16. ,

December 1911 33. Einstein

34.

To M.

51.

1912b and 1912c.

28, 1913.

Besso, Prague,

March

26, 1912 (notin Besso). 35. F. A.

Brussels,

to his father,

1911; reprinted

in the Earl of Birkenhead,

To

Ernst

summer

To

Mach,

May

Zurich,

1913.

P. Ehrenfest, Zurich,

May

54. Einstein 1913c. 55.

John

Norton,

How

Einstein

Eound His Field Equations: 1912-1915,

Quoted

37. Interview

in

Constance

Reid,

typescript,

in

HSPS,

Vol. 14, Part

2,

1984, pp.

253-315. p.

56. Einstein

11,

ETH.

1933 d,

in

Weltbild,

p. 138.

See

also

Hugo

Bergmann,

Personal Remembrances of Albert Einstein

P. Ehrenfest, Zurich,

28, 1912.

Two Worlds (Cambridge,

Hilbert (Berlin, 1970), p. 112.

38.

53.

The Pro-

1962), p. 42. 36.

52.

undated,

Lindemann

November 4,

fessor between

To

or January 1912.

in

Boston

Studies,

Vol.

XIII,

57.

Max

Born,

Besprechung

von

u

Entwurf

einer verallgemeinerten Rela-

tivitdtstheorie

und

einer

Theorie

der

;

.

Notes Gravitation ,” in

NW, Vol.

2,

1914, pp.

779

From Zurich

17.

to Berlin

448 f.

To H.

58.

August

Lorentz,

A.

Zurich,

The

14, 1913.

The

1.

address was Hofstrasse 116.

details of the

59. Einstein 191 3f.

ken from

60. Einstein 191 3g.

District Court,

61. Ibid., p. 1251.

STZ.

62. Ibid., p. 1255.

2.

63. Ibid., p. 1262.

Conference

64.

report

in

PhZ,

3.

4.

on

Einstein’s lec-

5.

E. Freundlich, Zurich, un-

To M.

6.

Besso, Zurich, undated,

end of 1913.

PhZ, Vol.

70.

To

dated, 71.

14, 1913, p. 1262.

E. Freundlich, Zurich, un-

August 1913.

To

dated, 73.

To

E. Freundlich, Zurich, un-

74.

cember

7,

it

To

L. Hopf, Prague, June 12,

This tradition continued. Be-

George

Hale,

Zurich,

E. Freundlich, Zurich,

the

1913.

E. Freundlich, Zurich, un-

77. Einstein

To M.

1

9 1 4i

remained

to an ordinary profes-

Ernst

for

Nobel Prize

Schrodinger,

Schrodinger received in 1933.

Otto Stern, typescript,

M. von Laue to C. Seelig, Berlin, March 13, 1952, ETH. 10. To M. Besso, Zurich, undated, end of 1913, 11.

dated,

in Besso, p. 50.

To M. March

Solovine, Zurich, un-

1913, in Solovine, p. 14.

12. Einstein

1913b.

13. Einstein 1913c, p. 226.

p. 52.

14.

To

H. Zangger, Zurich, March

10, 1914.

81.

To M.

Besso, Zurich, undated,

beginning of March 1914, in Besso, p. 53.

82.

3,

10, 1914.

Zangger, Zurich, March

To

Marie Curie, Zurich, April

1913.

Eve Curie, Madame Curie English translation by Vincent Sheean (London/Toronto, 1938), 15.

p.

Quoted

in

Quoted

in

296. 16.

To H.

11,

Ibid.

beginning of March 1914, in Besso,

80.

p.

9.

Besso, Zurich, undated,

79. Einstein 1914a.

to

ETH. 8.

De-

first

ensure that he would stay longer than

dated, beginning of 1914.

78.

To

was upgraded

7.

75. Ibid. 76.

Laue, Prague, June

vacant after Laue’s departure. In 1917

14, 1913.

To

To M. von

cause of the war, the post of “extra-

August 1913.

October

Kleiner, Prague, April 10,

his predecessor.

E. Freundlich, Zurich, un-

To

To A.

sorship

dated, 1913. 72.

L. Hopf, Prague, June 12,

ordinary” professor at

69.

63 14 32.

1912.

dated, January 1914. 68.

B XII Zch

10, 1912.

ture, ibid., p. 1263.

To

tenancy dispute, Zurich

a

1912.

65. Ibid.

67.

ta-

1912.

Vol. 14, 1913, p. 1073.

66. Discussion

To

apartment are

Martin J. Klein, Paul

Ehrenfest (Amsterdam, 1972), p. 295. 17.

Berlin,

M. von Laue to Carl March 13, 1952, ETH.

Seelig,

780

Notes Otto

18.

Stern

script, p. 12,

type-

ETH.

on

ference

dated, after

(Boston,

Physics

1975),

Prussian

Hugo

to

Ministry

of

Kriiss,

dated,

Education,

44.

21. See Berlin, pp. 7f;

and Docu-

ments 1-6, pp. 96-100.

25. Ibid., p. 97.

dated,

To

28.

to

August

Elsa

F.

Linde-

A.

18, 1913.

Lowenthal,

Zurich,

November

1913,

22,

To M.

in

dated,

in Besso, p. 50.

(Wiesbaden,

Erstrehtes

To J. J. Laub, Zurich, 1913, ETH, in Seelig, p. 245. 36. To H. A. Lorentz, 35.

July 22,

Zurich,

14, 1913.

December

Lowenthal,

Elsa

P. Ehrenfest, Zurich,

un-

end of 1913. Hugo Bergmann, Personal Re-

Studies XIII, p. 390.

ber 22, 55.

Stodola

May 12, 1919. To H. Zangger,

7,

1913.

Zurich,

to

Ehren-

was

address

Doc.

Einstein,

7:

Letter

p. 101.

To

the

Royal Prussian Aca-

of Sciences, Zurich, December

1913, in Berlin, Doc.

Otto

Stern

8, p.

101.

interview,

type-

ETH.

script, p. 13,

Doc. 22-32, pp. 112-20.

58. Einstein 1914e. 59. eines

Louis

Kollros,

Kommilitonen

Dunkle Zeit 60.

,

39. Aurel

The

57. Berlin,

,

1915.

Zurich,

from Presiding Secretary of the Academy, Gustav Roethe, to Einstein, Novem-

56.

membrances of Albert Einstein in Boston

40.

Lowenthal,

Elsa

To

53.

demy

Zurich,

1913.

To Elsa Lowenthal, Zurich, un-

52.

1952),

p. 119.

38.

To

54. Berlin,

34. Friedrich Schmidt-Ott, Erlebtes

dated,

mid-December

Zurich, un-

bergstrasse 33.

(Stuttgart, 1983), p. 43.

To

To Elsa Lowenthal,

dated, beginning of

Besso, Zurich, undated,

33. Fritz K. Ringer, Die Gelehrten

37.

un-

undated, end of December 1913.

pp.

32. Ibid.

August

Zurich,

undated, end of December 1913.

end of 1913,

und

Lowenthal,

Elsa

To Elsa Lowenthal, Zurich,

51.

1077-99. 31.

To

50.

To J. J. Laub, Zurich, July 1913, ETH, in Seelig, p. 245. 30. Max Planck als Forscher, I,

10, 1913.

mid-October 1913.

49.

29.

Vol.

Zurich,

undated, end of November 1913.

undated, about July 14, 1913.

NW,

Lowenthal,

Elsa

mid-August 1913. 48. To Elsa Lowenthal, Zurich,

26. Seelig, p. 245.

Berlin,

Zurich, un-

undated, end of November 1913. 47.

mann,

Zurich,

To Elsa Lowenthal, Zurich, un-

46.

24. Ibid., p. 99.

Nernst

To

dated,

23. Ibid., p. 97.

W.

Lowenthal,

Elsa

mid-August 1913.

45.

22. Berlin, p. 96.

27.

14, 1913.

To Elsa Lowenthal,

October

Pontresina, J anuary 4, 1913.

Zurich, un-

undated, about July 14, 1913. 43.

Haber

March

To

42.

XXIII. 20. F.

To Elsa Lowenthal,

41.

Jagdish Mehra, The Solvay Con-

19.

p.

interview,

To

,

,

in

Erinnerungen Helle

Zeit

—

p. 30.

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin, April

10, 1914.

61. Ibid. Berlin, July 7,

62.

1914.

To

A. Hurwitz, Berlin,

May

4,

.

.

Notes

781

63. Ibid.

tions of

64. Ibid.

in

To

65.

May

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

25, 1914. P. Ehrenfest, Berlin, April

soren

7.

M.

January

Besso to Einstein, Bern, Besso recalls that “I had to

back from

bring Mileva

Berlin

8.

Helen Dukas

information A.

to

in

Pais,

to

Georg Ibid.,

9.

Friedrich

Die

Nicolai,

“Aufruf an

13,

p.

die

Ibid., p. 13.

To

from

11.

Pais,

undated,

242.

Ehrenfest,

P.

end of 1914,

Berlin,

Frieden,

in

p. 20.

May

69.

To

70.

H. A. Einstein

C. Seelig,

1952.

5,

G.

in

auf

die

Max

des Sekretars

Max

To H.

14.

Antrittsrede

[Reply by Secretary

16,

Planck

to

Ein2,

Romain

15.

de PEurope,

1915. This

war

pp. 742-44.

no

Zangger,

source,

undated, Berlin, February 1915.

Einsteins

Inaugural Address], in SB, Vol.

Rolland, La Conscience

entry of September

16,

Rolland’s diary of the

is

1914-1918.

years,

Franziska Baumgartner-Tramer,

16.

Erinnerungen an Einstein in Der Bund

Madhouse”:

18. “In a

January

1917, in Berlin, p. 160.

72. Einstein 1914k.

Planck

from the Reich Chan-

13. Letter

cellor to Einstein, Berlin,

p. 20.

71. Einstein 191 4f

Enviderung

Berlin, p. 10.

12.

Whit-

J.

row, Einstein (London, T 967),

A

though without the

10. Ibid., p. 14.

68. Personal

stein''s

Weltkrieg (Stuttgart,

Europaer ” [“Appeal to Europeans”].

Zurich.”

73.

deutscher Profes-

Biologie des Krieges (Zurich, 1919), p. 12.

17, 1928, in Besso, p. 238. In

this letter

p.

Ersten

im,

e.g.,

of signatories.

list

10, 1914.

67.

documents,

I

Aufrufe und Re den

1975), pp. 47-49,

To

66.

World War

,

,

Bern,

July

Pacifist in Prussia

10,

1955;

reprinted

in

Frieden, p. 27. 1.

To

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

August

August 23, 191 5,

19, 1914. 2.

Ibid.

Foreword Emanuel Lasker

Hannak,

Johan

to

(Princeton,

Planck, Rektoratsrede

zum

August

Universitat,

Deutsche

stimmen No. 33, 1914. also Kurt 5. See

Hochschul-

Walther Nemst und heim, 1976), pp. 6. “Aufruf an peal

to

Vossische p. 7.

the

1

Mendelssohn,

seine Zeit

(Wein-

1.

Au-

A.

22.

see

2,

1915, in Frieden,

Berlin,

p. 29.

A. Lorentz, Berlin, Sep-

Lorentz,

1915, in Frieden,

On

also

Lorentz,

science in

Berlin,

p. 30.

World War

John Ziman, The

I,

Forces of

Knowledge (Cambridge, England, 1976),

12f.

die Kulturwelt. ”

Cultured

in Frieden, p. 3

tember 23, 1915. 21. To H. A. August

,

2,

To H.

20.

3.

der Berliner

Stiftungsfest

in

am

Berlin,

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

To H.

19.

August

Max

Rolland,

gust 23, 1915, in Frieden, p. 30.

1952),

X. 4.

To

18.

3.

p.

To Romain

17.

[“Ap-

World”],

Zeitung of October

4,

in

1914,

Repeatedly reproduced in collec-

pp. 302ff.

Nachruf auf Otto Sackur [Obituary for Otto Sackur\, in PhZ, 16, 1915, 23.

pp.

1 1

3 ff

Notes

782 24.

To

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

Au-

The

Strasse

address was Wittelsbacher

corner

13,

was destroyed in

See also Peter Galison,

50.

Humm,

Tage-

and

To M.

51.

Besso, Berlin, February

28.

To

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

Au-

E.

also

the

F.

Freundlich’s

academy of De-

application

to

cember

1913; and notes in Ber-

lin,

7,

Earman and C. Glymor, and Eclipses, in HSPS, 11,

Relativity

53.

“Einstein

Problem,

”

in

If.,

erroneously given as

is

Rolland to Einstein, Ge-

To

22, 1915.

A.

Sommerfeld,

(Riigen), July 15,

December 57.

Sellin

Sommer-

1915, in

Sommerfeld 25, 1914,

To H.

W. Wien,

to

STPK.

Zangger, Berlin, July

7,

1915.

37. Ibid., p. 1080.

58. R.

P. Straneo, Berlin, January

La

Rolland,

REurope (see

1915.

41.

Berlin,

1915.

56. A.

36. Ibid:, p. 1079.

March

Rolland,

22, 1915; in Frieden, pp. 3

March

55.

35. Ibid., p. 1030.

40.

May

feld, p. 30.

14, 1983, pp. Iff.

34. Einstein 19141, p. 1030.

March

To Romain

May 22,

33. Ibid.

39.

Zangger, Berlin,

where the date

neva,

Campbell and the

7,

To H.

p. 161.

28, 1915.

32. J. Crelinstein, William Wallace

To

1922, in Berlin,

54. R.

31. Ibid.

38.

9,

52.

1980, pp. 49ff.

HSPS,

Minutes of the Meeting of the

March

pp. 164ff. 30. J.

more com-

Technical Reich Institute of March 8

and

gust 19, 1914. 29. See

account;

Board of Trustees of the Physical-

1915 (not in Besso).

15,

a

How

1987), pp.

extensive

247-52, for

Pais, pp.

pact one.

27.

an

for

buch in Seelig, p. 259. ,

End (Chicago,

Experiments

34-74,

II.

Rudolf Jakob

26.

49. Einstein 191 5d.

Konstanzer

of

Strasse; the building

World War

Besso, Berlin, February

15, 1915, in Besso, p. 58.

gust 19, 1914. 25.

To M,

48.

n. 15),

Vol.

Conscience 1,

de

pp. 696ff.

59. Ibid.

To

T.

Levi-Civita,

Berlin,

Meine Meinung liber den Krieg, undated manuscript, end of Octo-

Levi-Civita,

Berlin,

ber or beginning of

November

26, 1915.

STPK; with

excision

To M.

paragraphs

5,

1915.

To

T.

Besso, Berlin, February

15, 1915, in Besso, p. 58.

60.

Goethes

42. Fliickiger, p. 172.

the

published

in

—Ein

1914-1916

of

1915,

two

Das Land vaterldndis-

43. Ibid.

Gedenkbuch [The Country of Goethe 1914-1916 A Patriotic Album], pub-

44. Einstein, 191 5d, p. 157.

lished

45. Ibid., p. 170.

(Berlin, 1916.)

46.

De Haas

found

greater value in Leyden,

ches

—

a

g

also Proceedings of the Royal Sciences,

somewhat

=

1.2; see

Academy

of

Amsterdam, 1916, pp. 128 Iff.

47. Einstein

1

91 6g.

61. lin,

by

To

Berliner

Berliner Goethebund, Ber-

November

To

A.

November

28,

62.

p. 32.

Goethebund

11,

1915,

STPK.

Sommerfeld,

Berlin,

1915, in Sommerfeld,

Notes 19.

"The Greatest Satisfaction of

My

Life":

783

dence that the deflection of light by the curvature of space has the same

The Completion of the

value as that derived from the equiva-

General Theory of Relativity

lence

To

1.

March

Walter Dallenbach,

Berlin,

Ibid.

3.

To

cember Sommerfeld,

(Riigen), July 15,

1915, in

Sellin

Sommer-

19.

To W.

de Haas, no place,

J.

undated, end of August 1915.

vitationsverschiebung der Spektrallinien

[On

Fixstemen

bei

Shift of the Spectral Lines of Fixed Stars], in

PhZ, XVI, 1915,

To M.

6.

pp. 145-17.

To W. To

ber

Dallenbach, Berlin,

May

10.

To

A.

November

28,

Berlin, Janu-

Sommerfeld,

Berlin,

John Norton, How

Found His Field Equations: 1912-1915 in HSPS, Vol. 14, Part 2,

Einstein

,

Einstein’s

letter

Conrad Habicht of December Chapter 14.

See

p.

Einstein

16.

Einstein 191 5h.

1

9 1 5i,

it

is

p.

Besso, Berlin,

To M. To

p. 37.

Decem-

p. 60.

Besso, Berlin,

Decem-

p. 61.

Ehrenfest,

P.

Berlin,

26, 1915.

To H.

Zangger, no place (Ber-

undated (presumably December

1915); see also

Comment

on

and

Hilbert

the

H. A. Medicus, Relations

Einstein,

A

between

American

in

lichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften

Mathematisch-physikalische

On

Einstein and Hilbert, see

following

Mehra,

779.

zu

1915, pp. 395-407.

31.

(see

the

17. Actually,

1915, in Sommerfeld,

9,

December

3,

place

1915).

ber 21, 1915, in Besso,

Klasse,

n. 11).

15.

3,

ber 10, 1915, in Besso,

29.

no

Zangger,

Sommerfeld, Berlin, De-

To M.

26.

847.

5i, p.

Physik in Nachrichten von der Konig-

799.

Norton

John

also

91

1

undated, “Friday” (presum-

Gottingen,

Einstein 191 5g,

Sommerfeld,

28, 1915, in

24,

16).

13.

Berlin,

to

1907, quoted in Chapter 16 (see n. 23 to

Sommerfeld,

A.

Journal of Physics, 52, 1984, p. 206. 30. D. Hilbert, Die Grundlagen der

1983, pp. 253ff. also

From a

To A.

cember

lin),

See

in Theoretical Physics, in

December

25.

1915, in Sommerfeld,

also

Dirac,

others: P. A.

To H.

28.

p. 32.

See

M.

To

27.

H. A. Eorentz,

Pais, p. 256.

one example that can

is

many

(Berlin),

Novem-

D. Hilbert, Berlin,

1916.

12.

This

ably

1,

11.

21.

23. Einstein

derivations.

ary

Quoted from

24.

ized the faulty nature of his earlier

To

Janu-

November

writes that ‘’four weeks ago” he real-

9.

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

20.

22.

Besso, Berlin, February

1915; in this letter Einstein

7,

To

p. 33.

31, 1915. 8.

p. 37.

Life of Physics (Trieste, 1968).

15, 1915, in Besso, p. 57. 7.

Sommerfeld, Berlin, De-

1915, in Sommerfeld,

Methods

Gravitational

the

2.

9,

stand for

Erwin Freundlich, Uber die Gra-

5.

result

ary 16, 1916.

feld, p. 30. 4.

To A.

18.

A.

the

that

appears to be multiplied by

31, 1915.

2.

so

principle,

studies:

Einstein, Hilbert,

(a)

and

Jagdish

the Theory

of Gravitation (Dordrecht and Boston,

only

a

coinci-

1974); (b)

J.

Earman and C. Glymour,

Notes

784 and

Einstein

Two Months

Hilbert:

in the

History of General Relativity in Archive ,

for the History of the Exact Sciences

,

1978, pp. 2 9 1 ff

. ,

March

May 8,

pp. 261-65. Pauli,

Got-

1921, in Pauli, p. 27.

8,

W.

Klein to

33. F.

tingen,

W.

Klein to

32. F.

tingen,

(c) Pais,

19,

Pauli,

Got-

p. 31.

1921, in Pauli,

To M.

48.

Besso, Berlin, August

28, 1918, in Besso, p. 138.

To

49.

Naumann,

Otto

cation, Berlin,

December

Hermann

35. Pais, p. 265. Hilbert’s letter of

20, 1915, in Berlin, p. 170.

not keep

stein did

it

lost.

Possibly Ein-

because he did not

wish to be reminded of an unpleasant

36.

To

D. Hilbert, Berlin, Decem-

ber 10, 1915. 37. bert

See also Constance Reid, HilHeidelberg, 1970),

Rudolf

Humm,

Jakob

in

Klein to

39. F.

40.

May 8, To M.

W.

Pauli,

1921, in Pauli,

Got-

p. 30.

Besso, Berlin, January

To

January

H.

A.

Lorentz,

p. 36.

H.

53.

Struve

O. Naumann,

to

December

20,

1915, in Berlin, p. 169.

To A.

ruary

2,

Sommerfeld, Berlin, Feb-

1916, in Sommerfeld, p. 39.

To M.

55.

Besso,

21, 1915, in Besso, p. 61.

To Hermann

56.

De-

Berlin,

Weyl,

Berlin,

23, 1916.

57. Karl

Schwarzschild,

Gravitationsfeld

eines

Uber das

Massenpunktes

nach der Einstemschen Theorie

,

in SB,

1916, pp. 189-96.

1916, in Besso, p. 63. 41.

Sommerfeld,

52. Ibid.

November

Seelig, pp. 260ff.

NauDecember

Sommerfeld, Berlin, No-

28, 1915, in

cember

p. 141.

tingen,

vember

54.

(New York and

38.

To A.

51.

Berlin-Babelsberg,

episode.

1915, in

7,

Struve to Otto

mann, Berlin-Babelsberg,

seems to be

Edu-

Berlin, pp. 167f.

34. Hilbert, p. 395.

Straus,

Min.

Direktor in Prussian Ministry of

50.

apology, which Einstein mentioned to

3,

47. Seelig, p. 257.

Berlin,

17, 1916.

58. Karl

Schwarzschild,

Uber das

Gravitationsfeld einer Kugel aus inkom-

42. Ibid.

pressibler Fliissigkeit nach der Einstein-

43. Die Grundlage der allgemeinen

schen Theorie in SB, 1916, pp. 424-34.

Relativitatstheorie

,

in

AdP, 49, 1916,

769-822. Published in Einstein, Lorentz, and Minkowski, Das Relativipp.

tdtsprinzip

glish

translation,

translation 44.

3rd ed. (1919 et seq. En-

,

1920.

French

by Solovine, 1933).

Max

Born, Einsteins Theorie der

und der allgemeinen RelaPhZ, 17, 1916, pp. 51-59.

Gravitation tivitdt, in

45.

To M.

Born, Berlin, February

27, 1916, in Born, p. 20. 46.

Erwin Freundlich, Die Grund-

lagen der Einsteinschen Gravitationstheorie (Berlin, 1916).

,

59. Einstein 1916c.

60. Einstein 1918a, p. 154.

On

61.

mental

this test

tests

and other experi-

of the general theory of

relativity, see the precise

and compre-

hensible presentation by Clifford

Was

Will,

Einstein Right?

(New

M.

York,

1987). 62.

To M.

1916, in Besso,

Besso, Berlin,

May

14,

p. 69.

63. Einstein 1913c, p. 228. 64.

ruary

To 4,

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

1917.

'

65. Einstein 1917a, p. 144.

Feb-

785

Notes 66. Ibid.

68. Grundziige

p.

Appendix

,

der

Relativitatsthe-

(Braunschweig, 1956),

1

If.

Line

Gamow, My

George

(New

marked

York, 1970),

p. 150:

term was

Leopold

Infeld,

biggest

the

blunder he ever made in his

p.

“he re-

that the introduction of the

cosmological

70.

World

life.”

Schilpp,

in

343.

February

Sommerfeld,

A.

1916,

8,

in

Berlin,

Sommerfeld,

p. 40.

To A.

72.

gust

Sommerfeld, Berlin, Au-

1916, in Sommerfeld,

3,

p. 41.

To M.

in Besso,

75. Einstein 1916j, p. 319.

is

the issue

memory of Professor Kleiner, who had died on July

published

in

19 lo. Identical text in PhZ, 1917,

121-28. 78. Ibid., p. 127.

To M.

tember

6,

Besso,

1916, in Besso,

Berlin,

Sep-

p. 82.

1916, in Besso,

To

8.

To M.

Besso, Berlin,

1917, in Besso,

20. Wartime

1916.

6,

Ehrenfest,

P.

9.

Fragmentarischer

Entwurf aus dem Jahre 1928 probably for a memorial address on the death of H. A. Lorentz, quoted in Martin Klein, Paid Ehrenfest (Amsterdam, 1970), pp. 303f.

To AI. Besso, October 31, 1916. To P. Ehrenfest, Berlin, Oc-

tober 18, 1916. 12.

To

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

To W.

Octo-

Besso, Berlin, October

14.

To H.

vember

A. Lorentz, Berlin,

March

9,

15.

Wien

16.

To H.

STPK, and letter from A. Sommerfeld to W. Wien of December 25, 1914, DMM. papers,

Zangger, Berlin, un-

dated, probably April 1917.

To M.

Besso, Berlin,

18.

To H.

ruary in Berlin

Dallenbach, Berlin,

May

To

4,

Besso, Berlin,

December

21, 1915, in Besso, p. 61.

To M.

Besso, Berlin, July 14,

in Besso).

A.

Lorentz, April

9,

3,

p. 38.

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

Feb-

1917.

To H.

cember

March

p. 103.

1917, in Frieden,

p. 103.

No-

13, 1916, in Frieden, p. 36.

6,

Zangger, Berlin, De-

1917.

21. Einstein

To M.

1916 (not

To M.

1917, in Besso,

31, 1915.

3.

August

tember

20.

2.

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

and M. Besso, Berlin, Sep-

19.

1.

p. 80.

25, 1916,

17.

80. Einstein 191 7h, p. 128. 81.

Besso, Berlin, August 24,

31, 1916, in Besso, p. 84.

77. Einstein 1916k; this

79.

To M.

7.

13.

76. Ibid., p. 322.

p.

Besso, Berlin, September

ber 24, 1916.

pp. 78f.

3,

July

1916, in Besso, p. 81.

11.

Besso, Berlin, undated,

presumably mid-July 1916,

Alfred

To M.

6.

10.

73. Einstein 1916c, p. 696. 74.

Berlin,

,

To

71.

Zangger,

25, 1916.

6,

69.

To H.

5.

111. Amplified version of Einstein

192

Besso, Berlin, July 21,

1916 (not in Besso).

67. Ibid., p. 151.

orie

To M.

4.

1916m.

22. Ibid. p. 509.

There is, incomprehensibly, no on Hermann Anschiitzliterature Kaempfe, his fascinating life, or his 23.

Notes

786

on the archive of the firm of Anschutz & Co. in Kiel and on the publication preinventions.

pared for the firm’s in

1955.

I

myself

base

I

am

fiftieth

opinion. 37.

To M.

Besso, p.

August

7,

sische

had been motivated to conduct

ed., p. 2.

his

gyromagnetic experiments by “tech-

on the gyrocomEmile Meyerson of

nical expert opinions

to

(letter

May

13, 1917, in

14.

Unterredung mit A. Einstein

1915, Einstein later recalled that he

pass”

1

Besso,

38. Friedrich Adler als Physiker. Eine

his help.

24. Patent expertise of

by the

treatise

court with a request for an expert

anniversary

grateful to Dipl.-Ing.

Bernhardt Schell for

had been sent Adler’s

Zeitung

39.

To

,

May

from Braunthal

morning

23, 1917,

Friedrich

Vos-

in

,

quoted

Adler,

(see n. 27).

40. Friedrich Adler, Ortszeit, Systemzeit, Zonenzeit

und das ausgezeichnete

January 27, 1930), but these experiments began toward the end of 1914.

Bezugssystem der Elektrodynamik

Thus he must have been commis-

FJyitersuchung iiber die Lorentzsche

sioned to give an expert opinion soon

Einsteinsche Kinematik (Vienna, 1920).

after his arrival in Berlin in 1914.

25.

To M.

Besso, Berlin,

1916, in Besso, 26.

To

May

14,

8,

Au-

43.

27. Adler’s assassination of Stiirgkh,

are

and

its

described

Victor

and

Julius

Friedrich

Braunthal,

Adler

(Vienna,

1965), pp. 230-51. 28.

To

Katya Adler, Berlin, Feb-

44.

To

Adler,

Berlin,

dated, 31.

To H.

1917, in Besso, 32.

May 5, 33

.

p. 105.

M. Besso

The

—

eine

Vor dem Aus-

17,

35.

Katya Adler,

dated,

1917, in Braunthal (see

52.

To M.

1917, in Besso, 36. Frank,

8,

Besso, Berlin,

May

13,

p. 114.

also

Pschyrembel, Klini-

Worterbuch

Berlin

,

is

(1982),

now

only a

To M.

Besso, Berlin,

March

9,

p. 102.

50. Ibid. 51.

n. 27), p. 248.

9,

p. 113.

To M.

1917, in Besso,

lung (Vienna, 1923).

February

March

Besso, Berlin, Alay

1113. “Scrofulosis”

49.

Dokumentensamm-

34. Friedrich Adler to

Feb-

historical term.

p. 110.

full text is in

nahmegericht

sches p.

to Einstein, Zurich,

1917, in Besso

To M.

48. See

Besso, Berlin, April 29,

Besso, Berlin,

1917, in Besso,

end of April 1917.

To M.

To M.

1917, in Besso, 47.

Zangger, Berlin, un-

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

Marie to Helene Savic, Zurich, end of May 1901, in CPI, Doc. 109, p. 303.

April 13, 1917. 30.

To

45. Mileva

46.

Friedrich

1917,

1917, in Besso, p. 102.

ruary 20, 1917. 29.

April

ruary 14, 1917.

political significance

in

und

in Besso, p. 103.

gust 22, 1917, in Frieden, p. 38.

his trial,

To C. Seelig, Princeton, 1952, ETH. 42. To M. Besso, March 9, 41.

p. 69.

R. Rolland, Lucerne,

—Eine

To H.

Zangger, Berlin, un-

end of April 1917. Data on Einstein’s

lectures

during the war years are taken from Besso, Berlin, April 29,

the listings in Physikalische Zeitschrift.

p. 106. p.

289; Philipp Frank

53. 3,

To

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

1917, in Frieden,

p. 38.

June

Notes 54.

Hedwig Born,

Albert Einstein

ganz privat. Repeatedly published: in Helle Zeit

here

—Dimkle

Zeit

,

e.g.,

pp. 35ff.,

On Hans Miihsam Zeit

Helle

and Ein-

—Dunkle

Zeit

56. 57.

To M.

May

Besso, Berlin,

1917, in Besso, p. 59.

To M.

To M.

tember 61.

1

14.

Besso,

June

Berlin,

Besso,

Sep-

Berlin,

September

12, 1917,

ZTPG.

A

few documents on the foundation of

Wilhelm

Kaiser

To W.

December 64.

von Siemens,

18, 1917,

1,

1

5 Of.

1919, to

Planck,

Planck, 67.

MPG. To H.

cember

5,

6,

1

un-

1918,

Zangger, Berlin, De-

9 i 7.

with

a

January 20, 1918,

To

Rolland,

R.

August 22, 1917,

in Frieden, p. 39.

Colleagues, April

79. Circular to 1

Lucerne,

9 1 8; in the Hilbert

file

of EA, 13 115;

further data are taken from a covering letter

by Einstein

To

80.

to Hilbert.

D. Hilbert,

Berlin,

end of

D. Hilbert to Einstein, Got-

81.

D. Hilbert to Einstein, Got-

82.

tingen, 83.

May 1, 1918. To D. Hilbert,

Berlin,

May 24,

1918.

.

Postwar Chaos and Revolution 1.

To M.

Besso, Berlin, January

1918, in Besso,

ruary 3.

p. 124.

To Hedwig 8,

Born, Berlin, Feb-

1918, in Born,

To

D.

5,

p. 23.

Berlin,

Hilbert,

un-

dated, end of April 1918.

To M.

Besso, Berlin, January p. 124.

4.

5.

A.

Sommerfeld,

Berlin,

March

1918, in

undated, beginning of

Sommerfeld,

p. 48.

To M.

Besso, Berlin, June 23,

1918, in Besso, pp. 126f.

70. Ibid.

To

along

in Berlin, pp. 198f.

2.

1917, in Besso,

71.

of Berlin,

21 Berlin,

68. Ibid. 69.

President

Police

March

on an application by Debye, passed on to beginning July

dated,

the

in

Chief of Staff to

Kaiser

31, 1920, in Berlin, p. 152.

To Max

Command

tingen, April 27, 1918.

Institute for Physics for the

period from April

66.

G. Nicolai, Berlin, Feb-

Marches.

Berlin,

65. Activity report of the

Wilhelm

Einstein, Berlin,

29, 1917.

High

77.

Siemens, Berlin,

1918, in Berlin, pp.

4,

Berlin,

April 1918.

MPG.

To W. von

January

Lorentz,

18, 1917.

To

76.

for

Institute

Physics are in Berlin, pp. 147ff. 63.

December

78.

tember 22, 1917, in Besso, p. 121. 62. A. von Harnack to Einstein,

the

A.

“blacklist,” Berlin,

Besso, Benzingen, Sep-

To M.

Berlin,

1917.

6,

Max Planck to

75.

1917, in Besso^p. 119.

3,

Zangger, Berlin, De-

To H.

74.

13,

24, 1917, in Besso, p. 117. 60.

(changed

ruary 28, 1917.

1945), p. 158. 58.

cember

(New York and London,

Thinking

To H.

December

Moszkowski, pp. 16f. Max Wertheimer, Productive

title

by the editor) Prinzipien der Forschung.

,

pp. 48-58.

des Forschens, in Weltbild,

under the

pp. 107-10,

73.

see

stein,

Motiv

72.

p. 36.

55.

787

To

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

1918. 6.

Rudolf Ehrmann,

Dunkle Zeit pp. ,

58ff.

June

5,

—

in Helle Zeit

Notes

788

To M.

7.

Besso, Berlin, September

Ibid.

9.

To M.

Born, Ahrenshoop, un-

Ahrenshoop,

Besso,

August 20, 1918, in Besso, p. 133. 12. To M. Born, Ahrenshoop, August

To M.

13.

Besso,

Berlin,

7,

Education

the

23, 1918, excerpt,

tations

from

ETH;

quo-

(undated) to the education authority,

December

To M.

19.

July 29, 1918, in Besso,

To M.

20.

December

Besso, Berlin, undated,

To M.

23.

1918, in Besso,

class

WS

p. 44.

To

November 27. 4,

28.

given

Pauline

relativity

To

undated,

1918,

11,

Einstein,

in

Berlin,

Besso, Berlin,

1918, in Besso,

Accounts

of

Born,

pp.

Frieden, pp. 44f.

Decem-

this

mistakenly given as

event

202ff.;

and

are in

B XII

Einstein,

Berlin,

1919.

Ehrenfest, Berlin,

Pauline

March

March Berlin,

Einstein,

1919.

To H.

42.

A. Lorentz, April 26,

know who

in

his

51.

A. Folsing

the other five

the committee were, but to

letter

Lorentz

Einstein

for their “absolutely pure

and

earnest attitude and sense of justice.”

To H.

43.

A. Lorentz, Berlin, Sep-

tember 21, 1919, in Frieden, p. 44. To H. A. Lorentz,

March 45.

53.

Berlin,

18, 1920, in Frieden, p. 54.

To H.

A. Lorentz, Berlin, Sep-

tember 21, 1919,

p. 145.

Zurich,

41. Ibid.

vouched

11, 1918, in Frieden, p. 43.

To M.

in

the

Education

the

1919, in Frieden, p.

and Paul Winteler,

Frieden, 26.

To P.

40.

1918/19, EA.

November

is

March

members of

Berlin,

of

Pauline

p. 126.

To Maja

25.

To

does not

for

p. 28.

1919).

Besso, Berlin, June 23,

Notebook

24.

Born,

22, 1919, in Frieden, p. 48.

p. 98.

p. 124.

5,

undated,

Besso, Berlin, January

1918, in Besso,

Born, Arosa, January

Zch. 6314.43.

39.

Currency exchange statistics of the German Bundesbank, Frankfurt.

To M.

Berlin,

37. District Court, Zurich,

p. 130.

21.

22.

202.

1919, in Sommerfeld, p. 55

5,

January

38.

Ahrenshoop,

1916, in Besso,

p.

1918, in Frieden, p. 48.

6,

(where the date

20, 1918.

Besso,

November

ETH. To A. Sommerfeld,

March

from Einstein

letter

a

in-

Council of Canton Zurich, December 36.

of

speech

Lorentz,

A.

35. Protocol

17. Ibid.

received on

a

1944, in Born,

To M.

23, 1918,

Protocol

206.

p.

Born, Princeton, Sep-

To- H.

December

Sep-

1918, in Besso, pp. 139f.

cember

ber

tember

34.

Council of Canton Zurich of De-

5,

To M.

16. Ibid.

18.

Born, in Born,

19, 1919, in

To M. 8,

Manuscript of

32.

in Besso, p. 133.

14. Ibid.

tember

31.

33.

Ahrenshoop,

Besso,

August 20, 1918, 15.

M.

1918, in Frieden, p. 45.

1918, in Born, p. 27.

2,

30.

but probably not made,

10. Ibid.

To M.

Born,

tended for the revolutionary students

dated, July 1918, in Born, p. 26.

11.

Max

in Born, p. 205.

22, 1917, in Besso, p. 121. 8.

As remembered by

29.

46. Protocol

in Frieden, p. 53.

of

the

Education

Council of Canton Zurich, July 1919,

ETH.

8,

Notes 47. Register of marriages, Berlin-

Wilmersdorf, No. 623/1919.

Thus

48.

from

in letter

Ein-

Ilse

Herneck,

Uber

die

deutsche Reichsangehorigkeit Albert Ein-

NW,

No.

To H.

50.

a detailed description 5

March

Tobenkin, Interview with

New

in

York Evening Post

26, 1921.

To M.

55.

,

New

Besso,

Antwort

an

York,

May

amerikanische

with Esther

57. In a conversation

spring

in

1924,

Seelig,

to

Herman

Berlin,

undated,

Einstein

and

wife,

MPG. 60. To Vero and Bice Besso, Prince-

1929,

March 21, 1955, 61. M. Planck to

ton,

in Besso, p. 537.

Einstein, Berlin,

July 20, 1919. 62. F.

to Einstein, Berlin, un-

To

63.

tember

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin, Sep-

Haber

to Einstein,

no

place,

undated, “Saturday,” August 1919.

245.

1919.

8,

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin, Sep-

12, 1919.

73. P. Ehrenfest to

To

74.

H. A. Lorentz,

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin, Sep-

12, 1919.

To

75.

To

76.

October

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin, Sep-

Pauline

Einstein,

Berlin,

19, 1919.

To 9,

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

den,

November

To

79.

cember

No-

1919.

78. P. Ehrenfest to Einstein,

Ley-

24, 1919.

P. Ehrenfest, Berlin,

De-

1919.

4,

80. Pierre Kerszberg,

The Inverted

Universe : The Einstein-de Sitter Contro-

and

mology

the Rise of the Relativistic Cos-

(Oxford,

1989),

gives

a

full

Einstein and de Sitter.

22. Confirmation of the

Famous 1.

To M.

Born, Berlin, Septem-

1919, in Born, p. 33.

Nachruf auf Moritz Katzenstein Dunkle Zeit p. 46. Helle Zeit 67.

in

Einstein,

to

Deflection of Light: "The Suddenly

M. Planck to H. von Ficker, Munich, March 31, 1933, in Ber65.

1,

Ehrenfest

12, 1919.

64. F.

ber

would

account of the discussions between

dated, July 1919.

66.

tember

versy

Haber

Einstein

to

German Bundesbank,

of the

To

vember

58. Sayen, p. 70.

Struck

more than 50,000 marks;

Frankfurt.

77.

p. 3 16.

59. Elsa

guilders

tember 28, 1919.

p. 45.

,

lin, p.

statistics

tember

Frauen 1932, in Weltbild, Salaman,

Dutch

Leyden, September 21, 1919.

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.

Albrecht Folsinc was born and studied physics

in

Germany in

1940,

and Hamburg. He became a science journalist and most recently has been head of the department of “Nature and Science” of a German radio and television station. In 1983 he published a biography of Galileo, which in

Berlin, Philadelphia,

aroused considerable public attention as well as gaining the respect of experts.

Jacket design by Martin Ogolter

Jacket photograph of Albert Einstein Institute for

in his

study at the

Advanced Study, Princeton,

N.J., 1947,

by Alfred Eisenstadt,

'

1

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me

I

nc.

< d c/i

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division of Penguin

375 Hudson Street,

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— Die Wdtwoche /

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“Whoever is ready for extensive reportage will be rewarded b the experience of having been in the compan) erf a genius.”— Suddeutsch Zeitung 1

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“The consistency w ith which Folsing marshals the aets paints a fresh portrait of Einstein, which settles the question whether oihfdfinvas necessary to add to the quantities of Einstein biographies. oh ng strength is the detached contemplation of i

*

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mu

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ISBN 0-670-85545-6

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