Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein Summary | Plot Summary

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany. His father Hermann moved the family to Munich before his son was five to give him the best education possible. Einstein's first memory related to his father was a toy compass on Hermann's watch chain. His first memory of his mother Pauline was her playing Beethoven on the piano. Hermann moved the family to Milan after his business failed, but he left Albert behind to complete his studies in the German schools he detested. Albert did not graduate. He joined the family in Milan, Italy. He told his father he wanted to become a theoretical physicist and attend a technical school, like the Polytechnic in Zurich, Switzerland.

Although it took a year of preparatory study, Einstein was admitted to the Polytechnic, where he met—his future wife, the brilliant Hungarian student Mileva Maritsch. They had two sons, and Mileva felt beaten down by domestic chores. In 1905, the 26-year-old Einstein published the four theoretical papers that would revolutionize modern physics.

Following these publications in the Annals of Physics, Einstein was offered a series of academic appointments (the University of Zurich, the University of Prague, his old Polytechnic, and finally three concurrent appointments in Berlin: at the Prussian Academy of Sciences, University of Berlin, and Kaiser Wilhelm Institute). Einstein and Mileva separated before he moved to Berlin, but they remained friends, and Einstein occasionally visited his sons.

Einstein remained in Berlin for 20 years. During World War I, he married his first cousin, Elsa. Then a Swiss citizen, Einstein was little affected by the war and content to stay in his lab. In its aftermath, however, Einstein joined War Resisters International and established the Einstein International War Resisters Union. In 1922, he traveled to the Orient and received the Nobel Prize for his work on photoelectric law and general contributions to theoretical physics.

During Hitler's rise to power, and after a bounty was placed on his head, Einstein resigned his Academy position in Berlin. He and Elsa moved to Princeton University in the United States.

Einstein heard the stories of Hitler's atrocities and decided pacifism was no longer an option. He wrote to President Roosevelt about the desirability and feasibility of developing an atomic bomb before Germany did. After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, he became the first chair of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists. Einstein died in a Princeton hospital in 1955.