Einstein History

Einstein's parents, Hermann and Pauline, middle-class Germans. "I was the son of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents," Einstein recalled. "There was this huge world out there, independent of us human beings and standing before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partly accessible to our inspection and thought. The contemplation of that world beckoned like a liberation." The house where Einstein was born. One story Einstein liked to tell about his childhood was of a "wonder" he saw when he was four or five years old: a magnetic compass. The needle's invariable northward swing, guided by an invisible force, profoundly impressed the child. The compass convinced him that there had to be "something behind things, something deeply hidden." Even as a small boy Einstein was self-sufficient and thoughtful. According to family legend he was a slow talker at first, pausing to consider what he would say. His sister remembered the concentration and perseverance with which he would build up houses of cards to many stories. The boy's thought was stimulated by his uncle, an engineer, and by a medical student who ate dinner once a week at the Einsteins'. "At the age of 12, I experienced a wonder in a booklet dealing with Euclidean plane geometry, which came into my hands at the beginning of a school year. Here were assertions, as for example the intersection of the three altitudes of a triangle in one point, which -- though by no means evident -- could nevertheless be proved with such certainty that any doubt appeared to be out of the question. This lucidity and certainty made an indescribable impression on me." School class photograph in Munich, 1889. Einstein is in the front row, second from right. Although he got generally good grades (and was outstanding in mathematics), Einstein hated the academic high school he was sent to in Munich, where success depended on memorization and obedience to arbitrary authority. His real studies were done at home with books on mathematics, physics, and philosophy. A teacher suggested Einstein leave school, since his very presence destroyed the other students' respect for the teacher. The fifteen-year-old boy did quit school in mid-term to join his parents, who had moved to Italy. "It is almost a miracle that modern teaching methods have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for what this delicate little plant needs more than anything, besides stimulation, is freedom." Einstein with his sister. Einstein's family had moved to Italy to try to establish a business, and he joined them for a glorious half year of freedom from work and anxiety. In 1895 he took the entrance examination for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology -- and he failed. He was advised to study at a Swiss school in Aarau; here his teachers were humane and his ideas were set free. His thoughts turned to the theory of electromagnetism formulated by James Clerk Maxwell, seldom taught even in universities at the turn of the century. From a classroom essay Einstein wrote in French at the age of 16, explaining why he would like to study theoretical mathematics or physics: "Above all it is my individual disposition for abstract and mathematical thought, my lack of imagination and practical talent. My inclinations have also led me to this resolve. That is quite natural; one always likes to do things for which one has talent. And then there is a certain independence in the scientific profession which greatly pleases me." The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ("ETH"), Zurich. Einstein graduated from the Aarau school and entered the Institute of Technology in Zurich. Around this time he recognized that physics was his true subject. Only there could he "seek out the paths that led to the depths." He also realized that he could never be an outstanding student. Fortunately his friend Marcel Grossmann had the conventional traits Einstein lacked. While Einstein worked in the library or the laboratory, Grossmann took excellent notes at the mathematics lectures, and gladly shared them with his friend before examinations. Einstein later wrote, "I would rather not speculate on what would have become of me without these notes." Einstein grew familiar with the successes of past scientists who had tried to explain the world entirely through atoms or fluids, interacting like parts of a machine. But he learned that Maxwell's theory of electricity and magnetism was defying efforts to reduce it to mechanical processes. Through a new friend, the engineer Michele Besso, Einstein came to the writings of Ernst Mach -- a skeptical critic of accepted ideas in physics. Einstein with his friend Marcel Grossman (left). Learn more in an essay by Gerald Holton on Einstein's Worldview