The man and scientist
Albert Einstein is born in Ulm on 14 March 1879 and spends his childhood in Munich. He is an unusual child. He only learns to speak very slowly. Until he is seven he says every sentence quietly to himself before speaking it out aloud.
But even if he makes the impression of being reserved, he is interested in the world of ideas and in physics from a very early age. Contrary to the legend, Einstein is not bad at school but rather average – except in physics where his work is very good. As a student at the Eidgenössische Polytechnische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich his marks are always excellent. Some of his teachers believe, however, that nothing will ever become of Einstein because he is obstinate and unwilling to learn. Shortly after his final exams he sends his first scientific article to the “Annals of Physics”, one of the most renowned journals in this field.
He does not find employment immediately. After two years of searching in vain, he obtains a permanent job at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. Einstein spends seven happy years in Bern as a civil servant at the Patent Office. He marries his fellow student Mileva Maric. Together they have two sons. Their daughter Lieserl, who is born before they marry, is given away for adoption soon after her birth. Einstein never sees her. Free of financial worries, Einstein devotes himself to his interests in his spare time: he occupies himself with the theories on atoms, electrons, space and time.
In 1905 – Einstein’s “annus mirabilis” – the 26 year-old opens up in a short time more horizons in physics than anyone before him. He publishes five trailblazing essays in quick succession – among them an essay on the Photoelectric Effect for which he receives the Nobel Prize in 1921. He also records his most famous formula, E = mc², in this “year of wonders” – the formula which almost everyone knows but hardly anyone can really explain. This formula is part of the “Special Theory of Relativity”, with which Einstein earns the recognition of his physicist colleagues and later universal fame.
After a few years as Professor in Zurich and Prague, Einstein is attracted to Berlin, at the time the absolute centre of scientific research. From 1914 to 1932 he lives and works as a member of the Prussian Academy of Science and as head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. These are 18 eventful years, a turbulent period both politically and privately. Following his divorce from Mileva, he marries his cousin Elsa Löwenthal and adopts her two daughters from her first marriage.
In 1919 Einstein suddenly comes into the public eye. The reason: the “General Theory of Relativity”, which he published four years earlier, is confirmed by astronomical observations. One of the central insights was that light rays are deflected by the gravity of the sun. This minimal effect can only be observed during a total eclipse of the sun, however. A British expedition succeeds in making this observation in 1919. Their spectacular findings shortly after the end of World War I bring Einstein international fame.
Einstein makes use of his reputation for political and social objectives. He works actively for the cause of Zionism and pacifism and supports numerous initiatives and campaigns to maintain and extend demo-
cratic rights. The Reich Government uses Einstein as an ambassador of the new democratic Germany in Europe and the world. Following the seizure of power by the National Socialists and the victory of anti-Semitism, Einstein is defamed as a Jew and his scientific work as “Jewish physics”. Einstein, who is abroad at the time, declares his resignation from the Academy and never returns to Germany. National Socialist Germany renounces and expropriates the scientist who had formerly been celebrated.
Einstein lives in the USA from autumn 1933 until April 1955. His most famous and at the same time most momentous political action in exile is most certainly the letter which he writes to the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly before the outbreak of World War II. In this letter he expresses the fear that Germany could be in a position to build an atomic bomb and refers to the need for the US to make an increased effort to develop an atomic bomb. Following the use of the bomb on Japan, which developed without his personal involvement, and the recognition that this was a disastrous step for mankind, Einstein devotes the rest of his life to the goal of outlawing atomic bombs.
In the field of science, Einstein in his later years devotes himself increasingly to the Quantum Theory and the formulation of a unified field theory – the so-called world formula – which is to link gravity and electrodynamics. But despite intensive work and a long search he does not find this formula.
Einstein dies on 18 April 1955 at the age of 76. So far all attempts to define the unified field theory have remained without success. Now, 50 years after Einstein’s death, the question is still: Will there ever be a “world formula”?
