ALBERT EINSTEIN
Albert Einstein: The Genius Who Changed the World
Early Life (1879–1895)
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, Germany. His parents were Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer, and Pauline Koch. The family later moved to Munich, where his father and uncle founded an electrical equipment manufacturing company.
As a child, Albert showed a deep curiosity about nature and the mysteries of the universe. Contrary to popular myth, he was not a poor student — though he disliked rote learning and strict discipline. His favorite subjects were mathematics and physics, which he mastered at an early age.
When Einstein was around 10, he was introduced to key scientific and philosophical books that profoundly influenced his thinking. However, at age 15, his family’s business failed, and they moved to Italy, leaving him behind to finish school. Disillusioned by the rigid German education system, he left school early and joined his family in Milan.
Education and Early Career (1895–1905)
In 1896, Einstein enrolled at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich (now ETH Zurich) to study physics and mathematics. He graduated in 1900 with a teaching diploma but struggled to find an academic job. Eventually, in 1902, he secured a position as a technical assistant at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern.
During his time at the patent office, Einstein continued to study physics in his free time. This period became one of the most creative in scientific history. He married Mileva Marić, a Serbian physics student, in 1903. They had two sons, Hans Albert and Eduard, and possibly a daughter, Lieserl, whose fate remains uncertain.
The Miracle Year (Annus Mirabilis) – 1905
In 1905, at age 26, while working full-time at the patent office, Einstein published four revolutionary papers in the Annalen der Physik journal that changed science forever:
Photoelectric Effect – Explained that light behaves like packets of energy (photons), laying the foundation for quantum theory.
Brownian Motion – Gave evidence for the existence of atoms and molecules.
Special Theory of Relativity – Proposed that space and time are relative, and that the speed of light is constant for all observers.
Mass-Energy Equivalence – Introduced the most famous equation in history:
E = mc², showing that mass and energy are interchangeable.
These discoveries redefined physics, breaking centuries of Newtonian concepts and opening new doors in modern science.
Academic Career and General Relativity (1909–1919)
Einstein’s fame grew rapidly after 1905. He held teaching posts in Zurich, Prague, and Berlin. By 1914, he was appointed a professor at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin and became one of the leading physicists in Europe.
Between 1907 and 1915, Einstein worked tirelessly on his General Theory of Relativity, published in 1915. This new theory expanded on his 1905 work, showing that gravity is not a force but a curvature of spacetime caused by mass and energy.
His theory was confirmed in 1919, when astronomer Arthur Eddington observed that starlight bent around the Sun during an eclipse exactly as Einstein predicted. Overnight, Einstein became a global celebrity, hailed as a genius who reshaped our understanding of the universe.
Personal Life and Challenges
Einstein divorced Mileva Marić in 1919 and married his cousin Elsa Löwenthal the same year. His personal life was complex; he was deeply dedicated to science but often distant as a husband and father.
During the 1920s, Einstein also became politically active — supporting pacifism, Zionism, and civil rights. He spoke out against nationalism and militarism, which made him a target of rising Nazi hostility in Germany.
Move to the United States (1933–1955)
When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein, who was Jewish, left Germany permanently. He accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. He became an American citizen in 1940 but retained his Swiss citizenship.
Although he was a lifelong pacifist, the rise of Nazi Germany alarmed him. In 1939, Einstein signed a letter to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning that Germany might develop atomic weapons. This letter indirectly led to the creation of the Manhattan Project, though Einstein himself did not work on the bomb and later regretted its development.
During his later years, he continued to work on unified field theory, an attempt to merge all fundamental forces of nature into a single framework. However, this theory remained unfinished at the time of his death.
Death and Legacy
Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955, in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 76, from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Before his death, he refused surgery, saying,
“I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially.”
His brain was preserved (without his family’s consent) for study, leading to decades of scientific research on its structure.
Einstein’s contributions revolutionized physics — from relativity and quantum theory to cosmology and atomic energy. His humanitarian values, pacifism, and advocacy for education made him more than a scientist — he became a symbol of wisdom and moral integrity.
Interesting Facts
Einstein’s teachers once said he would “never amount to anything.”
He loved playing the violin and often said that music inspired his scientific thinking.
He was offered the Presidency of Israel in 1952 but declined.
He won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1921) for explaining the photoelectric effect, not for relativity.
His brain and eyes were kept for scientific study after his death.
Summary
Albert Einstein’s life was a journey from a curious boy in Germany to one of the greatest scientific minds in history. His theories redefined how humanity perceives time, space, matter, and energy. Beyond science, he stood for peace, freedom, and equality — values that remain as powerful as his equations.