Albert Einstein

Early Life

 

“I never think of the future—it comes soon enough.”

 

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Wüttemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. While he was still an infant, the family moved to Munich. Albert’s father was plagued with business failures throughout his life, and after one such failure, he moved his family to Milan, Italy. Einstein was, at first, left behind to finish his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium, but he disapproved of this choice, and followed his family to Milan.

Albert decided to attempt to skip the rest of gymnasium and tried to pass the test he needed in order to do so. He failed the Zürich Poly entrance examination on his first attempt, and so he was sent by his family to finish school in Aarau, where Albert actually enjoyed being educated, unlike his gymnasium experience. The school in Aarau was liberal, and a great experience for Albert, who remembered the year that he spent there vividly for the rest of his life. During that year, Albert lived with the headmaster of the school that he attended, Jost Winteler. The lack of external authority shown at Aarau “left an indelible impression” (Cropper p. 204) on Albert.

After school, he paid 3 marks that he had saved, and released himself from being a German citizen. Albert took the Poly examination for the second time and passed with good marks. He then began his four year process of becoming a fachlehrer, or a specialized high-school teacher. Albert failed to enjoy most of the schoolwork done at Poly, but graduated four years later, nonetheless, in the fall of 1900.

A few months after his graduation, he published his first work in the same journal that contained Max Planck’s inaugural paper on quantum theory. After many jobs prospects for Albert fell through, he obtained a job with the help of a friend’s father, and began working as a technical expert third class at the Berne Patent Office in 1902. He kept this job from 1902 until 1909, and it was during this time that he completed a great deal of his deep thoughts on physics.

One year after he obtained his job at the Patent office, in 1903, Albert Einstein married his sweetheart from Zürich Poly, Mileva Marie. The two had a daughter before they were married, a daughter which was given up for adoption the same year they were married. Unfortunately, their marriage was unsuccessful. Mileva was prone to periods of depression, and appeared to be jealous of Einstein’s free-acting friends (Cropper). Still, Einstein was not completely void of fault, as his attention was given, not to his wife, but to his work, and failed to give his marriage the work that it required.