BIOGRAPHY

Albert Einstein was born as the first child of the Jewish couple Hermann and Pauline Einstein, nee Koch, in Ulm on March
14, 1879. When Albert’s grandmother saw him for the first time she is said to have cried continuously: "Much too thick!
Much too thick!" But despite all fear the development of young Albert was a normal one. In November 1881 Albert’s
sister Maria – calledMaja – was born.

A short time later the Einstein family went to Munich where Albert first attended elementary school and subsequently
Luitpold grammar school. He was an "average" pupil but already very early interested in science and mathematics. He
did not like lessons in grammar school as they were held with strict discipline and as he was forced to learn. When he
turned 15 he left school without any degree and followed his family to Milan. To make up for the missed degree he
attended school in Aarau (Switzerland) from 1895 to 1896 when he successfully took his A-levels and began to study in
Zurich. His ambition was to obtain the diploma of a subject teacher for mathematics and physics. He successfully
finished his studies in July 1900.

He moved to Bern and was given work at the Patent Office. In his leisure time he worked in the area of theoretical
physics. In 1905 he published several of his important scientific works. One of them deals with the ground-breaking
special theory of relativity. Another work contains the most famous formula of the world "E = m · c2". This formula states
that matter can be converted into energy.

Einstein’s famous formula:     E = mc2

In this mathematical equation, E stands for energy, m for mass and c for the speed of the light in a vacuum (ca. 300,000
km/s).

In 1903 he married his college mate Mileva Maric. One year later Einstein’s first son, Hans Albert, was born and his
second sonEduard followed in 1910. In 1909 he became professor for theoretical physics at the University of Zurich.
After that time he was given a professorship in Prague and then again in Zurich. In 1914 Einstein was called to Berlin to
work there scientifically. In the same year World War I broke out.

After Einstein had separated from his wife Mileva he married his cousin Elsa Löwenthal in 1919. From 1909 to 1916
Albert Einstein worked on a generalisation of the special theory of relativity, the general theory of relativity. After this
theory was proven right in an experiment in 1919 (deflection of light by the sun’s gravitational field) Einstein became
famous over night. He received invitations and honours from all over the world. There was hardly any magazine which
did not report about him and praise his work to the skies. For the year 1921 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Through the political situation in Nazi Germany Einstein left the country in December 1932 and never again entered German
ground. From 1933 Einstein and his family lived in Princeton, USA. At the "Institute for Advanced Study" he found ideal working
conditions. In December 1936 Einstein’s wife Elsa died. In 1939 World War II broke out. Because of his fear that Germany was
working on atomic bombs he wrote a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the president of the United States of America, to tell him
about the possibility of atomic weapons. In 1946 he proposed a world government in which he saw the only way to achieve
continuous peace. Einstein spent the last years of his life reclusively in Princeton. Until his last breath he worked on a new
theory, the unified field theory, which however was not successful. Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955. He was 76 years old.