Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating and influential figures of the modern era. As a preeminent physicist, he radically transformed our understanding of the universe. As an ardent humanist, he took an active and outspoken stance on the significant political and social issues of his time. As a committed Jew, he advocated a distinctive moral role for the Jewish people.

Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879. After his family moved to Switzerland, his Swiss citizenship was granted in 1901, but Einstein and Ulm kept up a brisk correspondence.

Einstein attended university in Zurich, Switzerland, where he received his Ph.D. in 1905, what has became known the "year of wonders". During that year Einstein showed how mass and energy were equivalent - called the special theory of relativity: If a body emits a certain amount of energy, then the mass of that body must decrease by a proportionate amount. This relationship is expressed as an equation:

Also in 1905, Einstein described the statistical mechanics and the photoelectric effect according to which electromagnetic energy seem to be emitted from radiating objects in discrete quantities, an achievement for which he was to receive the Nobel Prize in 1921. By 1909, Einstein was recognized throughout German-speaking Europe as a leading scientific thinker. After Einstein spent a year at the Karl-Ferdinand University in Prague he moved back to Zurich in 1912. In 1914 Einstein returned to Germany, where he had been offered a position in the Prussian Academy of Sciences together with a chair at the University of Berlin. He was also offered the directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics in Berlin which was about to be established. At this time Berlin was becoming a hub for research in the natural sciences.

Starting in the 1920s Einstein began traveling to the United States. On his third visit in 1932 he was offered a post at Princeton. Einstein accepted and left Germany in December 1932 for the United States. The following month the Nazis came to power in Germany and Einstein was never to return there.

At the end of August 1932 Einstein wrote Mein Glaubensbekenntnis ("My confession of faith"):
"Ich achte stets das Individuum und hege eine unüberwindbare Abneigung gegen Gewalt und gegen Vereinsmeierei. Au allen diesen Motiven bin ich ein leidenschaftlicher Pazifist und Antimilitarist, lehne jeden Nationalismus ab, auch wenn er sich nur Patriotismus gebärdet".
("I always respect the individual and have an insurmountable antipathy against violence and against the obsession with joining organizations. For all of these reasons, I am a passionate pacifist and anti-militarist and reject every form of nationalism, even when it is disguised as patriotism.")

With the rise of fascism, though, Einstein abandoned his pacifism. In 1939 he sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that urged the United States to proceed to develop an atomic bomb before Germany did. The letter was one of many exchanged between the White House and Einstein, and it contributed to Roosevelt's decision to fund what became the Manhattan Project and led to the development of the atomic bomb by the United States. In 1940 Einstein became a citizen of the United States, but chose to retain his Swiss citizenship as well.

With the onset of the atomic era, Einstein realized that nuclear weapons posed profound risk to humanity and could bring an end to civilization. During the last decade of his life, he was tireless in his efforts to create effective international cooperation to prevent war.

Einstein died on April 18, 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey. His ashes were scattered at an undisclosed place.

Ulm and Albert Eintein

Links
http://www.westegg.com/einstein
http://www.albert-eintein.org
http://www.einstein-website.de
http://www.ulm.de
http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1921

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