Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Albert Einstein
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== Life and career == === Childhood, youth and education === {{See also|Einstein family}} [[File:Albert Einstein at the age of three (1882).jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=A young boy with short hair and a round face, wearing a white collar and large bow, with vest, coat, skirt, and high boots. He is leaning against an ornate chair.|Einstein in 1882, age{{nbs}}3]] Albert Einstein was born in [[Ulm]],<ref name="Bio" /> in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire, on 14 March 1879. His parents, secular [[Ashkenazi Jews]], were [[Hermann Einstein]], a salesman and engineer, and [[Pauline Koch]]. In 1880, the family moved to [[Munich]]'s borough of [[Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt]], where Einstein's father and his uncle Jakob founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a company that manufactured electrical equipment based on [[direct current]].<ref name="Bio"/> He often related a formative event from his youth, when he was sick in bed and his father brought him a [[magnetic compass|compass]]. This sparked his lifelong fascination with [[electromagnetism]]. He realized that "Something deeply hidden had to be behind things."{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p= 13}} Albert attended St. Peter's [[Catholic school|Catholic elementary school]] in Munich from the age of five. When he was eight, he was transferred to the [[Luitpold Gymnasium]], where he received advanced primary and then secondary school education.{{Sfnp|Stachel|2002|pp=[{{GBurl|id=OAsQ_hFjhrAC|p=59}} 59–61]}} {{multiple image | width = 145 | image1 = Hermann einstein.jpg | alt1 = | image2 = Pauline Koch edit.jpg | alt2 = | footer = Einstein's parents, [[Hermann Einstein|Hermann]] and [[Pauline Einstein|Pauline]] }} In 1894, Hermann and Jakob's company tendered for a contract to install electric lighting in Munich, but without success—they lacked the capital that would have been required to update their technology from direct current to the more efficient, [[alternating current]] alternative.<ref name="EQyag"/> The failure of their bid forced them to sell their Munich factory and search for new opportunities elsewhere. The Einstein family moved to Italy, first to [[Milan]] and a few months later to [[Pavia]], where they settled in [[Palazzo Cornazzani]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=University of Pavia |title=Einstein, Albert |url=http://musei.unipv.eu/msu/our-museums/historical-figures/albert-einstein/ |website=Museo per la Storia dell'Università di Pavia |publisher=University of Pavia |access-date=7 January 2023}}</ref> Einstein, then fifteen, stayed behind in Munich in order to finish his schooling. His father wanted him to study [[electrical engineering]], but he was a fractious pupil who found the Gymnasium's regimen and teaching methods far from congenial. He later wrote that the school's policy of strict [[rote learning]] was harmful to creativity. At the end of December 1894, a letter from a doctor persuaded the Luitpold's authorities to release him from its care, and he joined his family in Pavia.{{Sfnp|Fölsing|1997|pp=30–31}} While in Italy as a teenager, he wrote an essay entitled "On the Investigation of the State of the [[Aether (classical element)|Ether]] in a Magnetic Field".<ref name=Stachel2008>Stachel, et al (2008). Vol. 1 (1987), doc. 5.</ref><ref name="1RgTv"/> Einstein excelled at physics and mathematics from an early age, and soon acquired the mathematical expertise normally only found in a child several years his senior. He began teaching himself [[algebra]], [[calculus]] and [[Euclidean geometry]] when he was twelve; he made such rapid progress that he discovered an original proof of the [[Pythagorean theorem]] before his thirteenth birthday.<ref name="FVfDU"/><ref>{{cite book |title=The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates |edition=illustrated |first1=Howard |last1=Bloom |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-61614-552-1 |page=294 |url={{GBurl|id=xlEupJb4ojIC}} |access-date=8 August 2020 }} {{cite book| url = {{GBurl|id=xlEupJb4ojIC|pg=PT294}}| title = Extract of page 294| isbn = 978-1-61614-552-1| last1 = Bloom| first1 = Howard| date = 30 August 2012| publisher = Prometheus Books| access-date = 8 August 2020}}</ref> A family tutor, [[Max Talmud]], said that only a short time after he had given the twelve year old Einstein a geometry textbook, the boy {{qi|had worked through the whole book. He thereupon devoted himself to higher mathematics{{nbs}}... Soon the flight of his mathematical genius was so high I could not follow.}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=17}} Einstein recorded that he had "mastered [[integral]] and [[differential calculus]]" while still just fourteen.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=16}} His love of algebra and geometry was so great that at twelve, he was already confident that nature could be understood as a "mathematical structure".{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=17}} [[File:Albert Einstein as a child.jpg|thumb|upright=.9|left|alt=Studio photo of a boy seated in a relaxed posture and wearing a suit, posed in front of a backdrop of scenery.|Einstein in 1893, age{{nbs}}14]] At thirteen, when his range of enthusiasms had broadened to include music and philosophy,{{sfnp|Calaprice|Lipscombe|2005|p=8}} Talmud introduced Einstein to [[Kant]]'s ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]''. Kant became his favorite philosopher; according to Talmud, {{qi|At the time he was still a child, only thirteen years old, yet Kant's works, incomprehensible to ordinary mortals, seemed to be clear to him.}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=17}} In 1895, at the age of sixteen, Einstein sat the entrance examination for the [[ETH Zurich|federal polytechnic school]] (later the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. He failed to reach the required standard in the general part of the test,<ref name=Stachel2008a>Stachel, et al (2008). Vol. 1 (1987), p. 11.</ref> but performed with distinction in physics and mathematics.{{Sfnp|Fölsing|1997|pp=36–37}} On the advice of the polytechnic's principal, he completed his secondary education at the [[Old Cantonal School Aarau|Argovian cantonal school]] (a [[Gymnasium (school)|''gymnasium'']]) in [[Aarau]], Switzerland, graduating in 1896.<ref name="b250">{{cite journal | last=Hunziker | first=Herbert | title=Albert Einstein's Magic Mountain: An Aarau Education* | journal=Physics in Perspective | volume=17 | issue=1 | date=2015 | issn=1422-6944 | doi=10.1007/s00016-014-0153-5 | pages=55–69| bibcode=2015PhP....17...55H }} ref for: [[Old Cantonal School Aarau]]</ref> While lodging in Aarau with the family of [[Jost Winteler]], he fell in love with Winteler's daughter, Marie. (His sister, [[Maja Einstein|Maja]], later married Winteler's son Paul.{{Sfnp|Highfield|Carter|1993|pp=21, 31, 56–57}}) [[File:Albert Einstein's exam of maturity grades (color2).jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Einstein's matriculation certificate at the age of 17. The heading translates as "The Education Committee of the Canton of Aargau". His scores were German 5, French 3, Italian 5, History 6, Geography 4, Algebra 6, Geometry 6, Descriptive Geometry 6, Physics 6, Chemistry 5, Natural History 5, Art Drawing 4, Technical Drawing 4. 6 = very good, 5 = good, 4 = sufficient, 3 = insufficient, 2 = poor, 1 = very poor.|Einstein's ''[[Matura]]'' certificate from canton [[Aargau]], 1896<ref group=note name=MaturaScore />]] In January 1896, with his father's approval, Einstein renounced his [[German citizenship|citizenship of the German Kingdom of Württemberg]] in order to avoid [[Conscription in Germany|conscription into military service]].{{Sfnp|Fölsing|1997|p=40}} The ''[[Matura]]'' (graduation for the successful completion of higher secondary schooling), awarded to him in September 1896, acknowledged him to have performed well across most of the curriculum, allotting him a [[Grading systems by country#Switzerland|top grade of 6]] for history, physics, algebra, geometry, and descriptive geometry.<ref name=Stachel2008b>Stachel, et al (2008). Vol. 1 (1987), docs. 21–27.</ref> At seventeen, he enrolled in the four-year mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the federal polytechnic school. Marie Winteler, a year older than him, took up a teaching post in [[Olsberg, Aargau|Olsberg]], Switzerland.{{Sfnp|Highfield|Carter|1993|pp=21, 31, 56–57}} The five other polytechnic school freshmen following the same course as Einstein included just one woman, a twenty year old [[Serbs|Serbian]], [[Mileva Marić]]. Over the next few years, the pair spent many hours discussing their shared interests and learning about topics in physics that the polytechnic school's lectures did not cover. In his letters to Marić, Einstein confessed that exploring science with her by his side was much more enjoyable than reading a textbook in solitude. Eventually the two students became not only friends but also lovers.<ref name="mileva">{{Cite web|last=Gagnon|first=Pauline|date=19 December 2016|title=The Forgotten Life of Einstein's First Wife|url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-forgotten-life-of-einsteins-first-wife/|access-date=17 October 2020|website=Scientific American Blog Network|archive-date=17 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017222145/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-forgotten-life-of-einsteins-first-wife/|url-status=live}}</ref> Historians of physics are divided on the question of the extent to which Marić contributed to the insights of Einstein's ''annus mirabilis'' publications. There is at least some evidence that he was influenced by her scientific ideas,<ref name="mileva"/><ref name="7HA7H"/><ref name="1zJdH"/> but there are scholars who doubt whether her impact on his thought was of any great significance at all.{{Sfnp|Pais|1994|pp=1–29}}<ref name="xKrMG"/>{{Sfnp|Stachel|2002|pp=[{{GBurl|id=OAsQ_hFjhrAC|p=49}} 49–56]}}<ref name="dUxMl"/> === Marriages, relationships and children === [[File:Albert Einstein and his wife Mileva Maric.jpg|thumb|Albert Einstein and [[Mileva Marić]] Einstein, 1912]] Correspondence between Einstein and Marić, discovered and published in 1987, revealed that in early 1902, while Marić was visiting her parents in [[Novi Sad]], she gave birth to a daughter, [[Lieserl Einstein|Lieserl]]. When Marić returned to Switzerland it was without the child, whose fate is uncertain. A letter of Einstein's that he wrote in September 1903 suggests that the girl was either given up for adoption or died of [[scarlet fever]] in infancy.<ref name="HBMes"/>{{sfnp|Calaprice|Lipscombe|2005|pp=22–23}} Einstein and Marić married in January 1903. In May 1904, their son [[Hans Albert Einstein|Hans Albert]] was born in [[Bern]], Switzerland. Their son [[Einstein family#Eduard "Tete" Einstein (Albert's second son)|Eduard]] was born in Zurich in July 1910. In letters that Einstein wrote to Marie Winteler in the months before Eduard's arrival, he described his love for his wife as "misguided" and mourned the "missed life" that he imagined he would have enjoyed if he had married Winteler instead: "I think of you in heartfelt love every spare minute and am so unhappy as only a man can be."<ref name="MlQLY"/> [[File:Einstein_Albert_Elsa_LOC_32096u.jpg|alt=Einstein, looking relaxed and holding a pipe, stands next to a smiling, well-dressed Elsa who is wearing a fancy hat and fur wrap. She is looking at him.|left|thumb|Albert and [[Elsa Einstein]] arriving in New York, 1921]] In 1912, Einstein entered into a relationship with [[Elsa Löwenthal]], who was both his first cousin on his mother's side and his second cousin on his father's.{{sfnp|Calaprice|Lipscombe|2005|p=[{{GBurl|id=5eWh2O_3OAQC|p=50}} 50]}}<ref name="dh">{{cite book |last1=Hoffmann |first1=Dieter |title=Einstein's Berlin: In the footsteps of a genius |date=2013 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |isbn=978-1-4214-1040-1 |pages=2–9, 28}}</ref>{{Sfnp|Stachel|1966}} When Marić learned of his infidelity soon after moving to Berlin with him in April 1914, she returned to Zurich, taking Hans Albert and Eduard with her.<ref name="mileva"/> Einstein and Marić were granted a divorce on 14 February 1919 on the grounds of having lived apart for five years.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/06/arts/dark-side-of-einstein-emerges-in-his-letters.html|title=Dark Side of Einstein Emerges in His Letters|first=Dinitia|last=Smith|newspaper=The New York Times|date=6 November 1996|access-date=17 August 2020|archive-date=5 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210105092333/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/06/arts/dark-side-of-einstein-emerges-in-his-letters.html|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Stachel|2002|p=[{{GBurl|id=OAsQ_hFjhrAC|p=50}} 50]}} As part of the divorce settlement, Einstein agreed that if he were to win a Nobel Prize, he would give the money that he received to Marić; he won the prize two years later.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Volume 9: The Berlin Years: Correspondence, January 1919 – April 1920 (English translation supplement) page 6|url=https://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/vol9-trans/28|access-date=4 October 2021|website=einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu|archive-date=4 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004033245/https://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/vol9-trans/28|url-status=live}}</ref> Einstein married Löwenthal in 1919.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=xix}}{{Sfnp|Calaprice|Kennefick|Schulmann|2015|p=62}} In 1923, he began a relationship with a secretary named Betty Neumann, the niece of his close friend Hans Mühsam.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1523626/Einsteins-theory-of-fidelity.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1523626/Einsteins-theory-of-fidelity.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Einstein's theory of fidelity|first=Roger|last=Highfield|date=10 July 2006|work=The Daily Telegraph}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/science/albert-einstein-genius-national-geographic-channel.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418100011/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/science/albert-einstein-genius-national-geographic-channel.html |archive-date=18 April 2017 |url-access=limited |title='Genius' Unravels the Mysteries of Einstein's Universe| first=Dennis| last=Overbye| newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=17 April 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.natgeotv.com/za/special/genius-albert-einsteins-theory-of-infidelity|title=Genius Albert Einstein's Theory of Infidelity|publisher=NatGeo TV|access-date=9 August 2020|archive-date=23 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923010851/https://www.natgeotv.com/za/special/genius-albert-einsteins-theory-of-infidelity|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.jpost.com/health-and-science/getting-up-close-and-personal-with-einstein|title=Getting up close and personal with Einstein|website=The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com|access-date=29 August 2020|archive-date=23 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923001654/https://www.jpost.com/Health-and-Science/Getting-up-close-and-personal-with-Einstein|url-status=live}}</ref> Löwenthal nevertheless remained loyal to him, accompanying him when he emigrated to the United States in 1933. In 1935, she was diagnosed with heart and kidney problems. She died in December 1936.{{Sfnp|Highfield|Carter|1993|p=216}} [[File:Albert Einstein and Elsa Einstein arriving by ship, San Diego, 1930 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Albert and Elsa Einstein, 1930]] A volume of Einstein's letters released by [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] in 2006<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/einstein-secret-love-affairs-out/story-QVSHrfMYJzCRcIlbBCJKAM.html|title=Einstein secret love affairs out!|date=13 July 2006|website=Hindustan Times|access-date=17 August 2020|archive-date=23 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923115250/https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/einstein-secret-love-affairs-out/story-QVSHrfMYJzCRcIlbBCJKAM.html|url-status=live}}</ref> added some other women with whom he was romantically involved. They included Margarete Lebach (a married Austrian),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Graydon |first=Samuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PRSsEAAAQBAJ&dq=Margarete+Lebach&pg=PA199 |title=Einstein in Time and Space: A Life in 99 Particles |date=14 November 2023 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-9821-8512-1 |edition=1 |location=New York |pages=199 |language=en}}</ref> Estella Katzenellenbogen (the rich owner of a florist business), Toni Mendel (a wealthy Jewish widow) and Ethel Michanowski (a Berlin socialite), with whom he spent time and from whom he accepted gifts while married to Löwenthal.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna13804030|title=New letters shed light on Einstein's love life|date=11 July 2006|publisher=NBC News|access-date=15 August 2020|archive-date=22 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222022647/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/13804030/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/new-letters-shed-light-einsteins-love-life|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/albert-einstein-may-have-had-the-iq-but-he-needed-to-work-on-his-eq/articleshow/64849211.cms?from=mdr|title=Albert Einstein may have had the IQ, but he needed to work on his EQ|newspaper=The Economic Times|access-date=15 August 2020|archive-date=8 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208134808/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/albert-einstein-may-have-had-the-iq-but-he-needed-to-work-on-his-eq/articleshow/64849211.cms?from=mdr|url-status=live}}</ref> After being widowed, Einstein was briefly in a relationship with Margarita Konenkova, thought by some to be a Russian spy; her husband, the Russian sculptor [[Sergei Konenkov]], created the bronze bust of Einstein at the [[Institute for Advanced Study]] at Princeton.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/01/us/love-letters-by-einstein-at-auction.html|title=Love Letters By Einstein at Auction|first=Robin|last=Pogrebin|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1 June 1998|access-date=10 August 2020|archive-date=7 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107053956/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/01/us/love-letters-by-einstein-at-auction.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/einsteins-letters-show-affair-with-spy-1162418.html|title=Einstein's letters show affair with spy|date=2 June 1998|website=The Independent|access-date=10 November 2020|archive-date=16 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116013010/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/einsteins-letters-show-affair-with-spy-1162418.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Following an episode of acute mental illness at about the age of twenty, Einstein's son Eduard was diagnosed with [[schizophrenia]].<ref name="Robinson2015a"/> He spent the remainder of his life either in the care of his mother or in temporary confinement in an asylum. After her death, he was committed permanently to [[Burghölzli]], the Psychiatric University Hospital in Zurich.{{sfnp|Neffe|2007|p=[https://archive.org/details/einsteinbiograph00neff/page/203 203]}} === Assistant at the Swiss Patent Office (1902–1909)=== [[File:Einstein patentoffice full (cropped).jpg|alt=Head and shoulders shot of a young, mustached man with dark, curly hair wearing a plaid suit and vest, striped shirt, and a dark tie.|thumb|upright=1|Einstein at the [[Swiss patent office]], 1904]]Einstein graduated from the federal polytechnic school in 1900, duly certified as competent to teach mathematics and physics.<ref>Stachel, et al (2008). Vol. 1 (1987), doc. 67.</ref> His successful acquisition of Swiss citizenship in February 1901{{Sfnp|Fölsing|1997|p=82}} was not followed by the usual sequel of [[conscription in Switzerland|conscription]]; the Swiss authorities deemed him medically unfit for military service. He found that Swiss schools too appeared to have no use for him, failing to offer him a teaching position despite the almost two years that he spent applying for one. Eventually it was with the help of [[Marcel Grossmann]]'s father that he secured a post in [[Bern]] at the [[Swiss Patent Office]],<ref name="ODY5p"/>{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=63}} as an [[Patent examiner|assistant examiner – level III]].<ref name="MeZPN"/><ref name="IGEFAQ"/> [[Patent application]]s that landed on Einstein's desk for his evaluation included ideas for a gravel sorter and an electric typewriter.<ref name="IGEFAQ"/> His employers were pleased enough with his work to make his position permanent in 1903, although they did not think that he should be promoted until he had "fully mastered machine technology".{{sfnp|Galison|2000|p=370}} It is conceivable that his labors at the patent office had a bearing on his development of his special theory of relativity. He arrived at his revolutionary ideas about space, time and light through thought experiments about the transmission of signals and the synchronization of clocks, matters which also figured in some of the inventions submitted to him for assessment.{{sfnp|Galison|2000|p=377}} In 1902, Einstein and some friends whom he had met in Bern formed a group that held regular meetings to discuss science and philosophy. Their choice of a name for their club, the [[Olympia Academy]], was an ironic comment upon its far from Olympian status. Sometimes they were joined by Marić, who limited her participation in their proceedings to careful listening.{{Sfnp|Highfield|Carter|1993|pp=96–98}} The thinkers whose works they reflected upon included [[Henri Poincaré]], [[Ernst Mach]] and [[David Hume]], all of whom significantly influenced Einstein's own subsequent ideas and beliefs.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=79–84}} === First scientific papers (1900–1905)=== [[File:Einstein thesis.png|thumb|upright|alt=Cover image of the PhD dissertation of Albert Einstein|Einstein's 1905 dissertation, {{shy|''Eine neue Be|stimm|ung der Mol|e|kül|di|men|si|onen'' ("A new deter|mi|na|tion of mo|lec|u|lar di|men|sions")}}]] Einstein's first paper, [[List of scientific publications by Albert Einstein#Journal articles|"Folgerungen aus den Capillaritätserscheinungen"]] ("Conclusions drawn from the phenomena of capillarity"), in which he proposed a model of intermolecular attraction that he afterwards disavowed as worthless, was published in the journal ''[[Annalen der Physik]]'' in 1901.<ref>Einstein (1901).</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Murrell | first1 = J. N. | last2 = Grobert | first2 = N. | date = January 2002 | doi = 10.1098/rsnr.2002.0169 | issue = 1 | journal = Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London | jstor = 532124 | pages = 89–94 | title = The centenary of Einstein's first scientific paper | volume = 56}}</ref> His 24-page doctoral dissertation also addressed a topic in molecular physics. Titled "Eine neue Bestimmung der Moleküldimensionen" ("A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions") and dedicated "Meinem Freunde Herr Dr. Marcel Grossmann gewidmet" (to his friend Marcel Grossman), it was completed on 30 April 1905<ref name=1905b>Einstein (1905b).</ref> and approved by Professor [[Alfred Kleiner]] of the University of Zurich three months later. (Einstein was formally awarded his PhD on 15 January 1906.)<ref name=1905b/><ref>Einstein (1926b). ''A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions''.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mehra |first=Jagdish |url={{GBurl|id=o1XVCgAAQBAJ}} |title=Golden Age Of Theoretical Physics, The (Boxed Set Of 2 Vols) |date=28 February 2001 |publisher=World Scientific |isbn=978-981-4492-85-0 |language=en}}</ref> Four other pieces of work that Einstein completed in 1905—[[Annus mirabilis papers|his famous papers]] on the [[photoelectric effect]], [[Brownian motion]], his [[special theory of relativity]] and the [[equivalence of mass and energy]]—have led to the year being celebrated as an ''annus mirabilis'' for physics akin to 1666 (the year in which [[Isaac Newton]] experienced his greatest epiphanies). The publications deeply impressed Einstein's contemporaries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=May |first1=Andrew |editor1-last=Clegg |editor1-first=Brian |title=Albert Einstein, in 30-Second Physics: The 50 most fundamental concepts in physics, each explained in half a minute |date=2017 |publisher=Ivy Press |location=London |isbn=978-1-78240-514-6 |pages=108–109}}</ref> === Academic career in Europe (1908–1933)=== Einstein's sabbatical as a civil servant approached its end in 1908, when he secured a junior teaching position at the [[University of Bern]]. In 1909, a lecture on relativistic [[electrodynamics]] that he gave at the University of Zurich, much admired by Alfred Kleiner, led to Zurich's luring him away from Bern with a newly created associate professorship.<ref name="bG2yp"/> Promotion to a full professorship followed in April 1911, when he accepted a chair at the German [[Charles-Ferdinand University]] in [[Prague]], a move which required him to become an [[Cisleithania|Austrian]] citizen of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], which was not completed.{{cn|date=February 2025}} His time in Prague saw him producing eleven research papers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lyth |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pRaGDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Einstein%22+%22Prague%22+%22Eleven%22&pg=PA122 |title=The Road to Einstein's Relativity: Following in the Footsteps of the Giants |date=31 January 2019 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-429-68268-1 |language=en}}</ref> [[File:ETH-BIB-Einstein, Albert und Kollegen am Physik-Labor ETH-Portrait-Portr 10750.tif|thumb|Einstein with colleagues at the [[ETH]] in [[Zurich]], 1913|upright=1.1]] From 30 October to 3 November 1911, Einstein attended the first [[Solvay_Conference#First_conference|Solvay Conference on Physics]].<ref>Paul Langevin and Maurice de Broglie, eds., [https://archive.org/details/lathoriedurayo00inst ''La théorie du rayonnement et les quanta. Rapports et discussions de la réunion tenue à Bruxelles, du 30 octobre au 3 novembre 1911, sous les auspices de M. E. Solvay'']. Paris: {{ill|Gauthier-Villars|fr}}, 1912. See also: The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Vol. 3: Writings 1909–1911, Doc. 26, p. 402 (English translation supplement).</ref> In July 1912, he returned to his ''alma mater'', the [[ETH Zurich]], to take up a chair in theoretical physics. His teaching activities there centered on [[thermodynamics]] and analytical mechanics, and his research interests included the molecular theory of heat, [[continuum mechanics]] and the development of a relativistic theory of gravitation. In his work on the latter topic, he was assisted by his friend Marcel Grossmann, whose knowledge of the kind of mathematics required was greater than his own.<ref name="hXQin"/> In the spring of 1913, two German visitors, [[Max Planck]] and [[Walther Nernst]], called upon Einstein in Zurich in the hope of persuading him to relocate to Berlin.{{Sfnp|Stachel|2002|p=534}} They offered him membership of the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences]], the directorship of the planned [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics]] and a chair at the [[Humboldt University of Berlin]] that would allow him to pursue his research supported by a professorial salary but with no teaching duties to burden him.<ref name=dh/> Their invitation was all the more appealing to him because Berlin happened to be the home of his latest girlfriend, Elsa Löwenthal.{{Sfnp|Stachel|2002|p=534}} He duly joined the Academy on 24 July 1913,<ref name="jstor.org">{{Cite web |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1687520 |title=Albert Einstein: His Influence on Physics, Philosophy and Politics JL Heilbron – 1982, Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science |jstor=1687520 |access-date=22 November 2021 |archive-date=22 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211122130724/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1687520 |url-status=live }}</ref> and moved into an apartment in the Berlin district of [[Dahlem (Berlin)|Dahlem]] on 1 April 1914.<ref name=dh/> He was installed in his Humboldt University position shortly thereafter.<ref name="jstor.org"/> [[File:Berliner Physiker u Chemiker 1920.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.1|Einstein with other physicists and chemists in [[Berlin]], 1920]] The outbreak of the [[First World War]] in July 1914 marked the beginning of Einstein's gradual estrangement from the nation of his birth. When the "[[Manifesto of the Ninety-Three]]" was published in October 1914—a document signed by a host of prominent German thinkers that justified Germany's belligerence—Einstein was one of the few German intellectuals to distance himself from it and sign the alternative, eirenic "[[Manifesto to the Europeans]]" instead.{{sfnp|Scheideler|2002|p=333}}{{Sfnp|Weinstein|2015|pp=18–19}} However, this expression of his doubts about German policy did not prevent him from being elected to a two-year term as president of the [[German Physical Society]] in 1916.{{sfnp|Calaprice|Lipscombe|2005|loc=[{{GBurl|id=5eWh2O_3OAQC|pg=PR19}} "Timeline", p. xix]}} When the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics opened its doors the following year—its foundation delayed because of the war—Einstein was appointed its first director, just as Planck and Nernst had promised.<ref name="EXcH6"/> Einstein was elected a Foreign Member of the [[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1920,<ref name="3gcYy"/> and a [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1921|Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1921]]. In 1922, he was awarded the 1921 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".<ref name="Nobel Prize"/> At this point some physicists still regarded the general theory of relativity skeptically, and the Nobel citation displayed a degree of doubt even about the work on photoelectricity that it acknowledged: it did not assent to Einstein's notion of the particulate nature of light, which only won over the entire scientific community when [[S. N. Bose]] derived the [[Planck spectrum]] in 1924. That same year, Einstein was elected an International Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=9 February 2023 |title=Albert Einstein |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/albert-einstein |access-date=13 July 2023 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240221194114/https://www.amacad.org/person/albert-einstein |archive-date=21 February 2024}}</ref> Britain's closest equivalent of the Nobel award, the [[Royal Society]]'s [[Copley Medal]], was not hung around Einstein's neck until 1925.<ref name="frs"/> He was elected an International Member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1930.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Albert+Einstein&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=13 July 2023 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> Einstein resigned from the Prussian Academy in March 1933. His accomplishments in Berlin had included the completion of the general theory of relativity, proving the [[Einstein–de Haas effect]], contributing to the quantum theory of radiation, and the development of [[Bose–Einstein statistics]].<ref name=dh/> === Putting general relativity to the test (1919)=== [[File:19191125 A New Physics Based on Einstein - The New York Times.png|thumb|right| ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported confirmation of the bending of light by gravitation after observations (made in [[Príncipe]] and [[Sobral, Ceará|Sobral]]) of the 29 May 1919 eclipse were presented to a joint meeting in London of the [[Royal Society]] and the [[Royal Astronomical Society]] on 6 November 1919.<ref name="NYTimes_19191125"/>]] In 1907, Einstein reached a milestone on his long journey from his special theory of relativity to a new idea of gravitation with the formulation of his [[equivalence principle]], which asserts that an observer in a box falling freely in a gravitational field would be unable to find any evidence that the field exists. In 1911, he used the principle to estimate the amount by which a ray of light from a distant star would be [[Gravitational lens|bent]] by the gravitational pull of the Sun as it passed close to the Sun's [[photosphere]] (that is, the Sun's apparent surface). He reworked his calculation in 1913, having now found a way to model gravitation with the [[Riemann curvature tensor]] of a non-Euclidean four-dimensional [[spacetime]]. By the fall of 1915, his reimagining of the mathematics of gravitation in terms of Riemannian geometry was complete, and he applied his new theory not just to the behavior of the Sun as a gravitational lens but also to another astronomical phenomenon, the [[precession of the perihelion of Mercury]] (a slow drift in the point in Mercury's elliptical orbit at which it approaches the Sun most closely).<ref name=dh/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Weinberg |first1=Steven |title=Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and applications of the general theory of relativity |date=1972 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |isbn=9788126517558 |pages=19–20}}</ref> A [[Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919|total eclipse of the Sun that took place on 29 May 1919]] provided an opportunity to put his theory of gravitational lensing to the test, and observations performed by Sir [[Arthur Eddington]] yielded results that were consistent with his calculations. Eddington's work was reported at length in newspapers around the world. On 7 November 1919, for example, the leading British newspaper, ''[[The Times]]'', printed a banner headline that read: {{qi|Revolution in Science{{nbs}}– New Theory of the Universe{{nbs}}– Newtonian Ideas Overthrown}}.<ref name="Eddington"/> === Coming to terms with fame (1921–1923)=== [[File:Albert Einstein (Nobel).png|thumb|upright|left|Einstein's official portrait after receiving the 1921 [[Nobel Prize]] for Physics]] With Eddington's eclipse observations widely reported not just in academic journals but by the popular press as well, Einstein became {{qi|perhaps the world's first celebrity scientist}}, a genius who had shattered a paradigm that had been basic to physicists' understanding of the universe since the seventeenth century.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-celebrity-scientist-albert-einstein-used-fame-denounce-american-racism-180962356/|last=Francis|first=Matthew|title=How Albert Einstein Used His Fame to Denounce American Racism|date=3 March 2017|publisher=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref> Einstein began his new life as an intellectual icon in America, where he arrived on 2 April 1921. He was welcomed to New York City by Mayor [[John Francis Hylan]], and then spent three weeks giving lectures and attending receptions.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Falk |first=Dan |date=2021-04-02 |title=One Hundred Years Ago, Einstein Was Given a Hero's Welcome by America's Jews |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/one-hundred-years-ago-einstein-was-given-heros-welcome-americas-jews-180977386/ |access-date=2025-03-14 |magazine=[[Smithsonian Magazine]]}}</ref> He spoke several times at [[Columbia University]] and [[Princeton]], and in Washington, he visited the [[White House]] with representatives of the [[National Academy of Sciences]]. He returned to Europe via London, where he was the guest of the philosopher and statesman [[Viscount Haldane]]. He used his time in the British capital to meet several people prominent in British scientific, political or intellectual life, and to deliver a lecture at [[King's College London|King's College]].{{Sfnp|Hoffmann|1972|pp=145–148}}{{Sfnp|Fölsing|1997|pp=499–508}} In July 1921, he published an essay, "My First Impression of the U.S.A.", in which he sought to sketch the American character, much as had [[Alexis de Tocqueville]] in ''[[Democracy in America]]'' (1835).<ref name="7gwHd"/> He wrote of his transatlantic hosts in highly approving terms: {{qi|What strikes a visitor is the joyous, positive attitude to life ... The American is friendly, self-confident, optimistic, and without envy.}}{{sfnp|Holton|1984|p=20}} In 1922, Einstein's travels were to the old world rather than the new. He devoted six months to a tour of Asia that saw him speaking in Japan, Singapore and Sri Lanka (then known as [[Ceylon]]). After his first public lecture in Tokyo, he met [[Emperor Yoshihito]] and his wife at the [[Tokyo Imperial Palace|Imperial Palace]], with thousands of spectators thronging the streets in the hope of catching a glimpse of him. (In a letter to his sons, he wrote that Japanese people seemed to him to be generally modest, intelligent and considerate, and to have a true appreciation of art.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p= 307–308}} But his picture of them in his diary was less flattering: {{qi|[the] intellectual needs of this nation seem to be weaker than their artistic ones – natural disposition?}} His journal also contains views of China and India which were uncomplimentary. Of Chinese people, he wrote that {{qi|even the children are spiritless and look obtuse... It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary}}.<ref name="38YkY"/><ref>{{Cite web|last=Katz|first=Brigit|title=Einstein's Travel Diaries Reveal His Deeply Troubling Views on Race|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/einsteins-travel-diaries-reveal-his-deeply-troubling-views-race-180969387/|access-date=3 January 2021|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en|archive-date=25 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201225201826/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/einsteins-travel-diaries-reveal-his-deeply-troubling-views-race-180969387/|url-status=live}}</ref>) He was greeted with even greater enthusiasm on the last leg of his tour, in which he spent twelve days in [[Mandatory Palestine]], newly entrusted to British rule by the [[League of Nations]] in the aftermath of the First World War. [[Sir Herbert Samuel]], the British High Commissioner, welcomed him with a degree of ceremony normally only accorded to a visiting head of state, including a cannon salute. One reception held in his honor was stormed by people determined to hear him speak: he told them that he was happy that Jews were beginning to be recognized as a force in the world.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p= 307–308}} Einstein's decision to tour the eastern hemisphere in 1922 meant that he was unable to go to [[Stockholm]] in the December of that year to participate in the Nobel prize ceremony. His place at the traditional Nobel banquet was taken by a German diplomat, who gave a speech praising him not only as a physicist but also as a campaigner for peace.<ref name="oxak7"/> A two-week visit to Spain that he undertook in 1923 saw him collecting another award, a membership of the Spanish Academy of Sciences signified by a diploma handed to him by King [[Alfonso XIII]]. (His Spanish trip also gave him a chance to meet a fellow Nobel laureate, the neuroanatomist [[Santiago Ramón y Cajal]].)<ref name="w74nv"/> === Serving the League of Nations (1922–1932)=== [[File:League of Nations Commission 067.tif|thumb|Einstein at a session of the [[International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation]] ([[League of Nations]]) of which he was a member from 1922 to 1932]] From 1922 until 1932, with the exception of a few months in 1923 and 1924, Einstein was a member of the Geneva-based [[International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation]] of the [[League of Nations]], a group set up by the League to encourage scientists, artists, scholars, teachers and other people engaged in the life of the mind to work more closely with their counterparts in other countries.<ref name="Q5hgx"/><ref name="vNNnX"/> He was appointed as a German delegate rather than as a representative of Switzerland because of the machinations of two Catholic activists, [[Oskar Halecki]] and [[Giuseppe Motta]]. By persuading Secretary General [[Eric Drummond]] to deny Einstein the place on the committee reserved for a Swiss thinker, they created an opening for [[Gonzague de Reynold]], who used his League of Nations position as a platform from which to promote traditional Catholic doctrine.<ref name="e9Xyh"/> Einstein's former physics professor [[Hendrik Lorentz]] and the Polish chemist [[Marie Curie]] were also members of the committee.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Committee on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations |journal=Science |date=6 August 1926 |volume=64 |issue=1649 |pages=132–133 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1651869 |access-date=30 May 2022 |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science|doi=10.1126/science.64.1649.132.b |jstor=1651869 |s2cid=239778182 }}</ref> === Touring South America (1925) === In March and April 1925, Einstein and his wife visited South America, where they spent about a week in Brazil, a week in Uruguay and a month in Argentina.<ref>{{cite book|doi=10.1007/978-0-8176-4940-1_6|chapter=Science and Ideology in Einstein's Visit to South America in 1925|editor= Lehner, Christoph|editor2=Renn, Jürgen|editor3=Schemmel, Matthias|title=Einstein and the Changing Worldviews of Physics|year=2012|last1=Tolmasquim|first1=Alfredo Tiomno|pages=117–133|isbn=978-0-8176-4939-5}}</ref> Their tour was suggested by Jorge Duclout (1856–1927) and Mauricio Nirenstein (1877–1935)<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0269889708001853|title=Einstein's Unpublished Opening Lecture for His Course on Relativity Theory in Argentina, 1925|year=2008|last1=Gangui|first1=Alejandro|last2=Ortiz|first2=Eduardo L.|journal=Science in Context|volume=21|issue=3|pages=435–450|arxiv=0903.2064|s2cid=54920641}}</ref> with the support of several Argentine scholars, including [[Julio Rey Pastor]], [[Jakob Laub]], and [[Leopoldo Lugones]]. and was financed primarily by the Council of the [[University of Buenos Aires]] and the ''Asociación Hebraica Argentina'' (Argentine Hebraic Association) with a smaller contribution from the Argentine-Germanic Cultural Institution.<ref>{{cite arXiv|eprint=1603.03792|last1=Gangui|first1=Alejandro|last2=Ortiz|first2=Eduardo L.|title=The scientific impact of Einstein's visit to Argentina, in 1925|year=2016|class=physics.hist-ph}}</ref> === Touring the US (1930–1931) === [[File:Albert_Einstein_writing_on_a_blackboard_in_Pasadena_(1931).jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Einstein in [[Pasadena, California]], 1931]] In December 1930, Einstein began another significant sojourn in the United States, drawn back to the US by the offer of a two month research fellowship at the [[California Institute of Technology]]. Caltech supported him in his wish that he should not be exposed to quite as much attention from the media as he had experienced when visiting the US in 1921, and he therefore declined all the invitations to receive prizes or make speeches that his admirers poured down upon him. But he remained willing to allow his fans at least some of the time with him that they requested.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=368}} After arriving in New York City, Einstein was taken to various places and events, including [[Chinatown, Manhattan|Chinatown]], a lunch with the editors of ''The New York Times'', and a performance of ''[[Carmen]]'' at the [[Metropolitan Opera]], where he was cheered by the audience on his arrival. During the days following, he was given the keys to the city by Mayor [[Jimmy Walker]] and met [[Nicholas Murray Butler]], the president of [[Columbia University]], who described Einstein as "the ruling monarch of the mind".{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=370}} [[Harry Emerson Fosdick]], pastor at New York's [[Riverside Church]], gave Einstein a tour of the church and showed him a full-size statue that the church made of Einstein, standing at the entrance.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=370}} Also during his stay in New York, he joined a crowd of 15,000 people at [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]] during a [[Hanukkah]] celebration.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=370}} [[File:Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin City Lights premiere 1931.jpg|thumb|upright=.9|left|Einstein with [[Charlie Chaplin]] at the [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] premiere of Chaplin's ''[[City Lights]]'', January 1931]] Einstein next traveled to California, where he met [[Caltech]] president and Nobel laureate [[Robert A. Millikan]]. His friendship with Millikan was {{qi|awkward}}, as Millikan {{qi|had a penchant for patriotic militarism}}, where Einstein was a pronounced [[pacifist]].{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=373}} During an address to Caltech's students, Einstein noted that science was often inclined to do more harm than good.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=374}} This aversion to war also led Einstein to befriend author [[Upton Sinclair]] and film star [[Charlie Chaplin]], both noted for their pacifism. [[Carl Laemmle]], head of [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]], gave Einstein a tour of his studio and introduced him to Chaplin. They had an instant rapport, with Chaplin inviting Einstein and his wife, Elsa, to his home for dinner. Chaplin said Einstein's outward persona, calm and gentle, seemed to conceal a "highly emotional temperament", from which came his "extraordinary intellectual energy".{{sfnp|Chaplin|1964|p=320}} Chaplin's film ''[[City Lights]]'' was to premiere a few days later in Hollywood, and Chaplin invited Einstein and Elsa to join him as his special guests. [[Walter Isaacson]], Einstein's biographer, described this as {{qi|one of the most memorable scenes in the new era of celebrity}}.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=374}} Chaplin visited Einstein at his home on a later trip to Berlin and recalled his "modest little flat" and the piano at which he had begun writing his theory. Chaplin speculated that it was {{qi|possibly used as kindling wood by the Nazis}}.{{sfnp|Chaplin|1964|p=322}} Einstein and Chaplin were cheered at the premiere of the film. Chaplin said to Einstein, "They cheer me because they understand me, and they cheer you because no one understands you."{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=374}} === Emigration to the US (1933) === [[File:Einstein-cartoon1.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Cartoon of Einstein, who has shed his "Pacifism" wings, standing next to a pillar labeled "World Peace". He is rolling up his sleeves and holding a sword labeled "Preparedness".|Cartoon of Einstein after shedding his "pacifism" wings ([[Charles R. Macauley]], {{circa|1933}})]] In February 1933, while on a visit to the United States, Einstein knew he could not return to Germany with the rise to power of the [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]] under Germany's new chancellor, [[Adolf Hitler]].{{Sfnp|Fölsing|1997|p=659}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p= 404}} While at American universities in early 1933, he undertook his third two-month visiting professorship at the [[California Institute of Technology]] in Pasadena. In February and March 1933, the [[Gestapo]] repeatedly raided his family's apartment in Berlin.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Albert Einstein Quits Germany, Renounces Citizenship|url=https://newspapers.ushmm.org/events/albert-einstein-quits-germany-renounces-citizenship|access-date=14 March 2021|website=History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust|language=en|archive-date=17 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417085304/https://newspapers.ushmm.org/events/albert-einstein-quits-germany-renounces-citizenship|url-status=live}}</ref> He and his wife Elsa returned to Europe in March, and during the trip, they learned that the German Reichstag had passed the [[Enabling Act of 1933|Enabling Act]] on 23 March, transforming Hitler's government into a ''de facto'' legal dictatorship, and that they would not be able to proceed to Berlin. Later on, they heard that their cottage had been raided by the Nazis and Einstein's personal sailboat confiscated. Upon landing in [[Antwerp]], Belgium on 28 March, Einstein immediately went to the German consulate and surrendered his passport, formally renouncing his German citizenship.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=407–410}} The Nazis later sold his boat and converted his cottage into a [[Hitler Youth]] camp.<ref name="el4GB"/> ==== Refugee status ==== [[File:Einstein's landing card (5706142737).jpg|thumb|Landing card for Einstein's 26 May 1933 arrival in [[Dover]], England from [[Ostend]], Belgium,<ref name="robinson19"/> enroute to [[Oxford]]<ref name="robinson24">{{cite book| first=Andrew | last=Robinson | author-link=W. Andrew Robinson | title=Einstein in Oxford | date=2024 | publisher=[[Bodleian Library Publishing]] | isbn=978-1-85124-638-0 }}</ref>]] In April 1933, Einstein discovered that the new German government had passed [[Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service|laws barring Jews from holding any official positions]], including teaching at universities.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=407–410}} Historian [[Gerald Holton]] describes how, with {{qi|virtually no audible protest being raised by their colleagues}}, thousands of Jewish scientists were suddenly forced to give up their university positions and their names were removed from the rolls of institutions where they were employed.{{sfnp|Holton|1984|p=}} A month later, Einstein's works were among those targeted by the [[German Student Union]] in the [[Nazi book burnings]], with Nazi propaganda minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] proclaiming, "Jewish intellectualism is dead." One German magazine included him in a list of enemies of the German regime with the phrase, "not yet hanged", offering a $5,000 bounty on his head.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=407–410}}<ref name="Jerome" /> In a subsequent letter to physicist and friend [[Max Born]], who had already emigrated from Germany to England, Einstein wrote, {{qi|...{{nbs}}I must confess that the degree of their brutality and cowardice came as something of a surprise.}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=407–410}} After moving to the US, he described the book burnings as a {{qi|spontaneous emotional outburst}} by those who {{qi|shun popular enlightenment}}, and {{qi|more than anything else in the world, fear the influence of men of intellectual independence}}.<ref>Einstein (1954), p. 197.</ref> Einstein was now without a permanent home, unsure where he would live and work, and equally worried about the fate of countless other scientists still in Germany. Aided by the [[Academic Assistance Council]], founded in April 1933 by British Liberal politician [[William Beveridge]] to help academics escape Nazi persecution, Einstein was able to leave Germany.<ref name="Albert Hall">{{cite web |url=https://www.royalalberthall.com/about-the-hall/news/2013/october/3-october-1933-albert-einstein-speaks-at-the-hall/ |title=3 October 1933 – Albert Einstein presents his final speech given in Europe, at the Royal Albert Hall |last=Keyte |first=Suzanne |date=9 October 2013 |website=Royal Albert Hall |access-date=20 June 2022}}</ref> He rented a house in De Haan, Belgium, where he lived for a few months. In late July 1933, he visited England for about six weeks at the invitation of the British Member of Parliament Commander [[Oliver Locker-Lampson]], who had become friends with him in the preceding years.<ref name="robinson19">{{cite book| first=Andrew | last=Robinson | author-link=W. Andrew Robinson | title=[[Einstein on the Run]] | publisher=[[Yale University Press]] | isbn=978-0-300-23476-3 | date=2019 }}</ref> Locker-Lampson invited him to stay near his [[Cromer]] home in a secluded wooden cabin on Roughton Heath in the Parish of [[Roughton, Norfolk]]. To protect Einstein, Locker-Lampson had two bodyguards watch over him; a photo of them carrying shotguns and guarding Einstein was published in the ''Daily Herald'' on 24 July 1933.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=422}}{{Rp| }}<ref name="3zIp7"/> [[File:Churchill and Einstein in 1933.jpg|thumb|[[Winston Churchill]] and Einstein at [[Chartwell]] House, 31 May 1933]] Locker-Lampson took Einstein to meet [[Winston Churchill]] at his home, and later, [[Austen Chamberlain]] and former Prime Minister [[Lloyd George]].{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p= 419–420}} Einstein asked them to help bring Jewish scientists out of Germany. British historian [[Martin Gilbert]] notes that Churchill responded immediately, and sent his friend physicist [[Frederick Lindemann]] to Germany to seek out Jewish scientists and place them in British universities.<ref name="Gilbert" /> Churchill later observed that as a result of Germany having driven the Jews out, they had lowered their "technical standards" and put [[Allies of World War II|the Allies]]' technology ahead of theirs.<ref name="Gilbert"/> Einstein later contacted leaders of other nations, including Turkey's Prime Minister, [[İsmet İnönü]], to whom he wrote in September 1933, requesting placement of unemployed German-Jewish scientists. As a result of Einstein's letter, Jewish invitees to Turkey eventually totaled over "1,000 saved individuals".<ref name="aDu8s"/> Locker-Lampson also submitted a bill to parliament to extend British citizenship to Einstein, during which period Einstein made a number of public appearances describing the crisis brewing in Europe.{{Sfnp|Clark|1971}} In one of his speeches he denounced Germany's treatment of Jews, while at the same time he introduced a bill promoting Jewish citizenship in Palestine, as they were being denied citizenship elsewhere.<ref name="AP" /> In his speech he described Einstein as a "citizen of the world" who should be offered a temporary shelter in the UK.<ref group=note name="gnriE" /><ref name="Guardian" /> Both bills failed, however, and Einstein then accepted an earlier offer from the [[Institute for Advanced Study]], in [[Princeton, New Jersey]], US, to become a resident scholar.{{Sfnp|Clark|1971}} ==== Resident scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study ==== [[File:Einstein-formal portrait-35 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Einstein taken in 1935 at [[Princeton University|Princeton]]]] On 3 October 1933, Einstein delivered a speech on the importance of academic freedom before a packed audience at the [[Royal Albert Hall]] in London, with ''[[The Times]]'' reporting he was wildly cheered throughout.<ref name="Albert Hall"/> Four days later he returned to the US and took up a position at the [[Institute for Advanced Study]],{{Sfnp|Clark|1971}}{{Sfnp|Fölsing|1997|pp=649, 678}} noted for having become a refuge for scientists fleeing [[Nazi Germany]].<ref name="Arntzenius2011"/> At the time, most American universities, including Harvard, Princeton and Yale, had minimal or no Jewish faculty or students, as a result of their [[Jewish quota]]s, which lasted until the late 1940s.<ref name="Arntzenius2011"/> Einstein was still undecided about his future. He had offers from several European universities, including [[Christ Church, Oxford]], where he stayed for three short periods between May 1931 and June 1933<ref name="robinson24"/> and was offered a five-year research [[fellowship]] (called a "[[studentship]]" at Christ Church),<ref name="FFt5E"/><ref name="v8v06"/> but in 1935, he arrived at the decision to remain permanently in the United States and apply for citizenship.{{Sfnp|Clark|1971}}{{Sfnp|Fölsing|1997|pp=686–687}} Einstein's affiliation with the Institute for Advanced Study would last until his death in 1955.<ref name="mzNc5"/> He was one of the four first selected (along with [[John von Neumann]], [[Kurt Gödel]] and [[Hermann Weyl]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weyl |first1=Hermann |editor1-last=Pesic |editor1-first=Peter |title=Levels of Infinity: Selected Writings on Mathematics and Philosophy |date=2013 |publisher=Dover Publications |isbn=9780486266930 |page=5 |url={{GBurl|id=Dd-vAAAAQBAJ}} |access-date=30 May 2022 |quote=By 1933, Weyl... left for the newly-founded Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, where his colleagues included Einstein, Kurt Gödel, and John von Neumann.}}</ref>) at the new Institute. He soon developed a close friendship with Gödel; the two would take long walks together discussing their work. [[Bruria Kaufman]], his assistant, later became a physicist. During this period, Einstein tried to develop a [[unified field theory]] and to refute the [[Copenhagen interpretation|accepted interpretation]] of [[quantum physics]], both unsuccessfully. He lived in Princeton at his home from 1935 onwards. The [[Albert Einstein House]] was made a [[National Historic Landmark]] in 1976. ==== World War II and the Manhattan Project ==== {{See also|Einstein–Szilárd letter}} [[File:Einstein-Roosevelt-letter.png|thumb|upright=1.4|Facsimile of the [[Einstein–Szilard letter]]]] In 1939, a group of Hungarian scientists that included émigré physicist [[Leó Szilárd]] attempted to alert [[Washington, D.C.]] to ongoing Nazi atomic bomb research. The group's warnings were discounted. Einstein and Szilárd, along with other refugees such as [[Edward Teller]] and [[Eugene Wigner]], {{qi|regarded it as their responsibility to alert Americans to the possibility that German scientists might win the [[German nuclear energy project|race to build an atomic bomb]], and to warn that Hitler would be more than willing to resort to such a weapon.}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=630}}<ref name="o4fkQ"/> To make certain the US was aware of the danger, in July 1939, a few months before the beginning of World War II in Europe, Szilárd and Wigner visited Einstein to explain the possibility of atomic bombs, which Einstein, a pacifist, said he had never considered.<ref name="pRqWK"/> He was asked to lend his support by writing [[Einstein–Szilard letter|a letter]], with Szilárd, to President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], recommending the US pay attention and engage in its own nuclear weapons research. The letter is believed to be {{qi|arguably the key stimulus for the U.S. adoption of serious investigations into nuclear weapons on the eve of the U.S. entry into World War II}}.<ref name="4Z68g"/> In addition to the letter, Einstein used his connections with the [[Belgian royal family]]<ref name="eZym8"/> and the Belgian queen mother to get access with a personal envoy to the White House's Oval Office. Some say that as a result of Einstein's letter and his meetings with Roosevelt, the US entered the "race" to develop the bomb, drawing on its "immense material, financial, and scientific resources" to initiate the [[Manhattan Project]]. For Einstein, {{qi|war was a disease{{nbs}}... [and] he called for resistance to war.}} By signing the letter to Roosevelt, some argue he went against his pacifist principles.<ref name="z73PK"/> In 1954, a year before his death, Einstein said to his old friend, [[Linus Pauling]], {{qi|I made one great mistake in my life—when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification—the danger that the Germans would make them{{nbs}}...}}{{Sfnp|Clark|1971|p=752}} In 1955, Einstein and ten other intellectuals and scientists, including British philosopher [[Bertrand Russell]], signed [[Russell–Einstein Manifesto|a manifesto]] highlighting the danger of nuclear weapons.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Einstein |first1=Albert |url=https://pugwash.org/1955/07/09/statement-manifesto/ |title=The Russell-Einstein Manifesto |last2=Russell |first2=Bertrand |date=9 July 1955 |publisher=Pugwash Conferences |location=London |access-date=9 June 2021 |archive-date=1 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301114337/https://pugwash.org/1955/07/09/statement-manifesto/ |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1960 Einstein was included posthumously as a charter member of the [[World Academy of Art and Science]] (WAAS),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boyko |first1=Hugo |title=Science and the Future of Mankind |publisher=Indiana University Press |page=377 |url=https://www.worldacademy.org/files/publications/Science%20and%20the%20Future%20of%20Mankind.pdf}}</ref> an organization founded by distinguished scientists and intellectuals who committed themselves to the responsible and ethical advances of science, particularly in light of the development of nuclear weapons. ==== US citizenship ==== [[File:Citizen-Einstein.jpg|thumb|Einstein accepting a [[Citizenship of the United States|US citizenship]] certificate from judge [[Phillip Forman]] in 1940]] Einstein became an American citizen in 1940. Not long after settling into his career at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, he expressed his appreciation of the [[meritocracy]] in American culture compared to Europe. He recognized the "right of individuals to say and think what they pleased" without social barriers. As a result, individuals were encouraged, he said, to be more creative, a trait he valued from his early education.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=432}} Einstein joined the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) in Princeton, where he campaigned for the [[Civil rights movement (1896–1954)|civil rights]] of African Americans. He considered racism America's "worst disease",<ref name="Jerome" /><ref name="smithsonianmag">{{cite news |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-celebrity-scientist-albert-einstein-used-fame-denounce-american-racism-180962356 |title=How Albert Einstein Used His Fame to Denounce American Racism |first=Matthew |last=Francis |date=3 March 2017 |work=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=10 February 2021 |archive-date=11 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211150143/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-celebrity-scientist-albert-einstein-used-fame-denounce-american-racism-180962356/ |url-status=live }}</ref> seeing it as {{qi|handed down from one generation to the next}}.{{Sfnp|Calaprice|2005|pp=148–149}} As part of his involvement, he corresponded with civil rights activist [[W. E. B. Du Bois]] and was prepared to testify on his behalf during his trial as an alleged foreign agent in 1951.{{sfnp|Robeson|2002|p=565}} When Einstein offered to be a character witness for Du Bois, the judge decided to drop the case.<ref name="civil"/> In 1946, Einstein visited [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]] in Pennsylvania, a [[historically black college]], where he was awarded an honorary degree. Lincoln was the first university in the United States to grant college degrees to African Americans; alumni include [[Langston Hughes]] and [[Thurgood Marshall]]. Einstein gave a speech about racism in America, adding, {{qi|I do not intend to be quiet about it.}}<ref name="Jerome_Isis"/> A resident of Princeton recalls that Einstein had once paid the college tuition for a black student.<ref name="civil"/> Einstein has said, {{qi|Being a Jew myself, perhaps I can understand and empathize with how black people feel as victims of discrimination}}.<ref name="smithsonianmag"/> Isaacson writes that "When [[Marian Anderson]], the black contralto, came to Princeton for a concert in 1937, the Nassau Inn refused her a room. So Einstein invited her to stay at his house on Main Street, in what was a deeply personal as well as symbolic gesture ... Whenever she returned to Princeton, she stayed with Einstein, her last visit coming just two months before he died."{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=445}} === Personal views === ==== Political views ==== {{Main|Political views of Albert Einstein}} [[File:Einstein Apr.1921 SS Rotterdam 32099.jpg|alt=Casual group shot of four men and two women standing on a brick pavement.|thumb|Albert Einstein and [[Elsa Einstein]] arriving in New York in 1921. Accompanying them are Zionist leaders [[Chaim Weizmann]] (future president of Israel), Weizmann's wife [[Vera Weizmann]], [[Menahem Ussishkin]], and Ben-Zion Mossinson.]] In 1918, Einstein was one of the signatories of the founding proclamation of the [[German Democratic Party]], a liberal party.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tobies |first=Renate |url={{Google books|EDm0eQqFUQ4C|page=116|plainurl=yes}} |title=Iris Runge – A Life at the Crossroads of Mathematics, Science, and Industry |publisher=Birkhèauser |year=2012 |isbn=978-3034802512 |location=Basel |pages=116}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gimbel |first=Steven |url={{Google books|HvTOBwAAQBAJ|page=111|plainurl=yes}} |title=Einstein - His Space and Times |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0300196719 |location=New Haven |pages=111}}</ref> Later in his life, Einstein's political view was in favor of [[socialism]] and critical of capitalism, which he detailed in his essays such as "[[Why Socialism?]]".<ref>Einstein (1949), pp. 9–15.</ref><ref name="LXsUJ" /> His opinions on the [[Bolsheviks]] also changed with time. In 1925, he criticized them for not having a "well-regulated system of government" and called their rule a "regime of terror and a tragedy in human history". He later adopted a more moderated view, criticizing their methods but praising them, which is shown by his 1929 remark on [[Vladimir Lenin]]: {{blockquote|In Lenin I honor a man, who in total sacrifice of his own person has committed his entire energy to realizing social justice. I do not find his methods advisable. One thing is certain, however: men like him are the guardians and renewers of mankind's conscience.{{sfnp|Rowe|Schulmann|2013|pp=[{{GBurl|id=_X1dAAAAQBAJ|pg=413}} 412, 413]}}}} Einstein offered and was called on to give judgments and opinions on matters often unrelated to theoretical physics or mathematics.{{Sfnp|Clark|1971}} He strongly advocated the idea of a democratic [[global government]] that would check the power of nation-states in the framework of a world federation.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=487, 494, 550}} He wrote {{qi|I advocate world government because I am convinced that there is no other possible way of eliminating the most terrible danger in which man has ever found himself.}}<ref>Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 4 (February 1948), No. 2 35–37: 'A Reply to the Soviet Scientists, December 1947'</ref> The FBI created a secret dossier on Einstein in 1932; by the time of his death, it was 1,427 pages long.<ref name="ixWWZ" /> Einstein was deeply impressed by [[Mahatma Gandhi]], with whom he corresponded. He described Gandhi as {{qi|a role model for the generations to come}}.<ref name="Albano-Müller"/> The initial connection was established on 27 September 1931, when [[Wilfrid Israel]] took his Indian guest [[V. A. Sundaram]] to meet his friend Einstein at his summer home in the town of Caputh. Sundaram was Gandhi's disciple and special envoy, whom Wilfrid Israel met while visiting India and visiting the Indian leader's home in 1925. During the visit, Einstein wrote a short letter to Gandhi that was delivered to him through his envoy, and Gandhi responded quickly with his own letter. Although in the end Einstein and Gandhi were unable to meet as they had hoped, the direct connection between them was established through Wilfrid Israel.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://streams.gandhiserve.org/einstein.html| title = Einstein's letter and Gandhi's answer| access-date = 22 August 2021| archive-date = 9 June 2014| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140609031152/http://streams.gandhiserve.org/einstein.html| url-status = live}}, gandhiserve.org</ref> ==== Relationship with Zionism ==== {{Main|Political views of Albert Einstein#Zionism}} Einstein was a figurehead leader in the establishment of the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]],<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/science/brace-yourself-here-comes-einsteins-year.html|title=Brace Yourself! Here Comes Einstein's Year|quote=Hebrew University ... which he helped found|author=Dennis Overbye|date=25 January 2005|access-date=27 October 2020|archive-date=30 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030232656/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/science/brace-yourself-here-comes-einsteins-year.html|url-status=live}}</ref> which opened in 1925.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://en.huji.ac.il/history |website=Hebrew University}}</ref> Earlier, in 1921, he was asked by the biochemist and president of the [[World Zionist Organization]], [[Chaim Weizmann]], to help raise funds for the planned university.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=290}} He made suggestions for the creation of an Institute of Agriculture, a Chemical Institute and an Institute of Microbiology in order to fight the various ongoing epidemics such as [[malaria]], which he called an "evil" that was undermining a third of the country's development.{{sfnp|Rowe|Schulmann|2007|p=161}} He also promoted the establishment of an Oriental Studies Institute, to include language courses given in both [[Hebrew]] and [[Arabic]].{{sfnp|Rowe|Schulmann|2007|p=158}} Einstein was not a [[nationalist]] and opposed the creation of an independent Jewish state.{{sfnp|Rowe|Schulmann|2007|p=33}} He felt that the waves of arriving Jews of the [[Aliyah]] could live alongside existing Arabs in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]. The state of [[Israel]] was established without his help in 1948; Einstein was limited to a marginal role in the [[Zionism|Zionist movement]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Ze'ev |last=Rosenkranz |date=2011 |title=Einstein Before Israel: Zionist Icon Or Iconoclast? |publisher=Princeton University Press |pages=4–5 |isbn=978-0-691-14412-2}}</ref> Upon the death of Israeli president Weizmann in November 1952, Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]] offered Einstein the largely ceremonial position of [[President of Israel]] at the urging of [[Ezriel Carlebach]].<ref name="Time" /><ref name="Msb2q" /> The offer was presented by Israel's ambassador in Washington, [[Abba Eban]], who explained that the offer {{qi|embodies the deepest respect which the Jewish people can repose in any of its sons}}. Einstein wrote that he was "deeply moved", but "at once saddened and ashamed" that he could not accept it.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=522}} ==== Religious and philosophical views ==== {{Main|Religious and philosophical views of Albert Einstein}} [[File:03 ALBERT EINSTEIN.ogg|thumb|Opening of Einstein's speech (11 April 1943) for the United Jewish Appeal (recording by Radio Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina) ---- {{qi|Ladies (coughs) and gentlemen, our age is proud of the progress it has made in man's intellectual development. The search and striving for truth and knowledge is one of the highest of man's qualities{{nbs}}...}}]] Per [[Lee Smolin]], {{qi|I believe what allowed Einstein to achieve so much was primarily a moral quality. He simply cared far more than most of his colleagues that the laws of physics have to explain everything in nature coherently and consistently.}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=549–550}} Einstein expounded his spiritual outlook in a wide array of writings and interviews.<ref name="018QJ" /> He said he had sympathy for the impersonal [[pantheistic]] God of [[Spinozism|Baruch Spinoza's philosophy]].{{Sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=[{{GBurl|id=G_iziBAPXtEC|p=325}} 325]}} He did not believe in a [[personal god]] who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings, a view which he described as naïve.{{Sfnp|Calaprice|2000|p=218}} He clarified, however, that {{qi|I am not an atheist}},{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=390}} preferring to call himself an agnostic,{{Sfnp|Calaprice|2010|p=[{{GBurl|id=G_iziBAPXtEC|p=340}} 340]}}<ref name="flickr2687"/> or a {{qi|deeply religious nonbeliever}}.{{Sfnp|Calaprice|2000|p=218}} He wrote that {{qi|A spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe—a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort.}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=550–551}} Einstein was primarily affiliated with non-religious [[Secular humanist|humanist]] and [[Ethical Culture]] groups in both the UK and US. He served on the advisory board of the [[First Humanist Society of New York]],<ref name="mKToJ"/> and was an honorary associate of the [[Rationalist Association]], which publishes ''[[New Humanist]]'' in Britain. For the 75th anniversary of the [[New York Society for Ethical Culture]], he stated that the idea of Ethical Culture embodied his personal conception of what is most valuable and enduring in religious idealism. He observed, {{qi|Without 'ethical culture' there is no salvation for humanity.}}<ref>Einstein (1995), p. 62.{{GBurl|id=9fJkBqwDD3sC|p=62}}</ref> In a German-language letter to philosopher [[Eric Gutkind]], dated 3 January 1954, Einstein wrote: {{quote|[[God (word)|The word God]] is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. ... For me the [[Jewish religion]] like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the [[Jewish people]] to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. ... I cannot see anything '[[Jews as the chosen people|chosen]]' about them.<ref name="xI99y"/>}} Einstein had been sympathetic toward vegetarianism for a long time. In a letter in 1930 to Hermann Huth, vice-president of the [[ProVeg Deutschland#History|German Vegetarian Federation (Deutsche Vegetarier-Bund)]], he wrote: {{quote|Although I have been prevented by outward circumstances from observing a strictly vegetarian diet, I have long been an adherent to the cause in principle. Besides agreeing with the aims of vegetarianism for aesthetic and moral reasons, it is my view that a vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ivu.org/history/northam20a/einstein.html | title=Albert Einstein (1879–1955) | publisher=International Vegetarian Union }}</ref>}} He became a vegetarian himself only during the last part of his life. In March 1954 he wrote in a letter: {{qi|So I am living without fats, without meat, without fish, but am feeling quite well this way. It almost seems to me that man was not born to be a carnivore.}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://aretheyvegan.com/alberteinstein/ | title=Was Albert Einstein vegan? | website=AreTheyVegan.com | date=27 March 2020 }}</ref> ==== Love of music ==== [[File:Wanda von Debschitz-Kunowski Albert Einstein beim Geigenspiel 1927.jpg|thumb|Einstein playing the violin, 1927|upright=1.05]] Einstein developed an appreciation for music at an early age. In his late journals he wrote: {{blockquote|If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music{{nbs}}... I get most joy in life out of music.<ref name="BQH5A"/><ref name="aBOjz"/>}} His mother played the piano reasonably well and wanted her son to learn the violin, not only to instill in him a love of music but also to help him assimilate into [[German culture]]. According to conductor [[Leon Botstein]], Einstein began playing when he was 5. However, he did not enjoy it at that age.<ref name="Botstein"/> When he turned 13, he discovered [[Mozart]]'s [[Mozart violin sonatas|violin sonatas]], whereupon he became enamored of Mozart's compositions and studied music more willingly. Einstein taught himself to play without "ever practicing systematically". He said that {{qi|love is a better teacher than a sense of duty}}.<ref name="Botstein"/> At the age of 17, he was heard by a school examiner in Aarau while playing [[Beethoven]]'s [[Beethoven's violin sonatas (disambiguation)<!-- intentional -->|violin sonatas]]. The examiner stated afterward that his playing was {{qi|remarkable and revealing of 'great insight'}}. What struck the examiner, writes Botstein, was that Einstein {{qi|displayed a deep love of the music, a quality that was and remains in short supply. Music possessed an unusual meaning for this student.}}<ref name="Botstein"/> Music took on a pivotal and permanent role in Einstein's life from that period on. Although the idea of becoming a professional musician himself was not on his mind at any time, among those with whom Einstein played [[chamber music]] were a few professionals, including Kurt Appelbaum, and he performed for private audiences and friends. Chamber music had also become a regular part of his social life while living in Bern, Zurich, and Berlin, where he played with Max Planck and his son, among others. He is sometimes erroneously credited as the editor of the 1937 edition of the [[Köchel catalog]] of Mozart's work; that edition was prepared by [[Alfred Einstein]], who may have been a distant relation.<ref name="kGuWC"/><ref name="OIn6p"/> Mozart was a special favorite; he said that "Mozart's music is so pure it seems to have been ever-present in the universe." He preferred [[Bach]] to Beethoven: "Give me Bach, rather, and then more Bach."{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=38}} In 1931, while engaged in research at the California Institute of Technology, he visited the Zoellner family conservatory in Los Angeles, where he played some of Beethoven and Mozart's works with members of the [[Zoellner Quartet]].<ref name="Times"/><ref name="RR"/> Near the end of his life, when the young [[Juilliard Quartet]] visited him in Princeton, he played his violin with them, and the quartet was {{qi|impressed by Einstein's level of coordination and intonation}}.<ref name="Botstein"/> === Death === On 17 April 1955, Einstein experienced [[internal bleeding]] caused by the rupture of an [[abdominal aortic aneurysm]], which had previously been reinforced surgically by [[Rudolph Nissen]] in 1948.<ref name="BXLfp"/> He took the draft of a speech he was preparing for a television appearance commemorating the state of Israel's seventh anniversary with him to the hospital, but he did not live to complete it.<ref name="QN45b"/> Einstein refused surgery, saying, {{qi|I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.}}<ref name="BhiNM"/> He died in the [[Princeton Hospital]] early the next morning at the age of 76, having continued to work until near the end.<ref name="YUhsl"/> During the autopsy, the pathologist [[Thomas Stoltz Harvey]] removed [[Einstein's brain]] for preservation without the permission of his family, in the hope that the [[neuroscience]] of the future would be able to discover what made Einstein so intelligent.<ref name="MqyYW"/> Einstein's remains were cremated in [[Trenton, New Jersey]],<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Cosgrove|first1=Benjamin|last2=Morse|first2=Ralph|url=https://www.life.com/history/the-day-albert-einstein-died-a-photographers-story/|magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]]|title=The Day Albert Einstein Died: A Photographer's Story|date=14 March 2014|access-date=10 March 2021|archive-date=19 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319004714/https://www.life.com/history/the-day-albert-einstein-died-a-photographers-story/|url-status=live}}</ref> and his ashes were scattered at an undisclosed location.<ref name="GQrBZ"/><ref name="Obit"/> In a memorial lecture delivered on 13 December 1965 at [[UNESCO]] headquarters, nuclear physicist [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] summarized his [[Einstein–Oppenheimer relationship|impression of Einstein]] as a person: {{qi|He was almost wholly without sophistication and wholly without worldliness{{nbs}}... There was always with him a wonderful purity at once childlike and profoundly stubborn.}}<ref name="aJHxn"/> Einstein bequeathed his personal archives, library, and intellectual assets to the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] in Israel.<ref>{{cite news|last=Unna|first=Issachar|date=22 June 2007|title=An Ongoing Power of Attraction|newspaper=[[Haaretz]]|url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.4945718|access-date=15 June 2021|archive-date=16 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210616043403/https://www.haaretz.com/1.4945718|url-status=live}}</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)