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Personal ^Recollections of Cinstein's 'Boyhood and youth
By Max Talmey
Professor Albert Kins!fin
has accepted a professorship
at the Institute for Advanced
Study in this country has
aroused much satisfaction
throughout the I’nited States.
On this occasion we present
through the courtesy of Scrip-
ta Maths matica a closeup
view of Einstein's scientific
apprenticeship written by one
of his t'stors. Mr. Talmey.
author of "The RrlalUnty
Theory Simplified,” with the
exception of Einstein's rela
tives, is the only one familiar
with the most important stage
in the early development of
the outstanding physicist of
our age.—The Editor.
T fell to my lot to play a not unimportant
part in the scientific development of the hoy
who was destined to become an epoch-making
dentist, a fact which stems to be little known to
[he biographers of Professor Kinstein. About the
[elation between the schoolboy Albert Einstein
ind the medical student who gave him the first
ook on physics, one biographer can report only
[hat Albert “made the acquaintance" of a book of
‘sham science" which had put on “mould and
ust even when the boy Kinstein rummaged in it."
Another biographer knows about the fellowship of
Albert Kinstein and his boyhood friend only that
each 1 hursday his parents invited a poor stu
dent to dinner" and that “to this student Albert
['as indebted for a knowledge of a popular book
>n natural science." The association of schoolboy
md student, however, was of far greater account
i> shown b\ the following report.
Hermann Kinstein, a native of the small town
puchau on the Fedoneo, and Pauline Koch of
Kannstatt on the Neckar settled after their mar
riage in l lm on the Danube, Wuerttemberg. In
[his city their first child, their son Albert was born
}n March 4. 1879. When he was about a year
ind a half old, the family moved to Munich
here another child was born about two years
pter, a daughter named Maya. The family had
io other children.
Philosophy then became a frequent subject of
iur conversations. I recommended to him the
reading of Kant, although he was then only thir
teen years old ; hut even at that age, the works
this master, difficult as they are to most read-
rrs, seemed to be clear to him and thereafter Kant
came his favorite philosopher.
In 1894 Albert, who had then been promoted
r I ,c s cventh grade, left the gymnasium, because
Ki't of the studies required in this type of school
I riled to satisfy his needs.
I associated frequently with the young scientist
for fne years and never saw him reading any
[*fcht literature or keeping company with boys of
HE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE #
his age. He usually held him
self aloof, absorbed in books
on mathematics, physics, and
philosophy. His recreation he
found in music. He had taken
instruction in violin placing,
hut only for two years. The
preceding account shows that,
with the exception of his near
est relatives, 1 am the only one
personally familiar with the
most important stage in the
early development of the out
standing physicist of our age.
Mv intercourse with him
came to an end early in 190S
when the two Kinstein fami
lies emigrated to Milan. I did
not correspond with him and
for seven years 1 remained in
ignorance of his further for
tunes, hut at the end of that
period we met again and he informed me how
he had fared during the years since he left Munich.
He stayed in Milan only half a year and then
went to Aarau in Switzerland where he entered
the Canton School, graduating a year later. In
the fall of 1896 he entered the “Lehramtsschule,"
a part of the Polytechnicum in Zuerich, and there
continued his studies in mathematics and physics.
In the fall of 1900 he graduated from the Poly-
technicum, and a year later he acquired the Swiss
citizenship.
After his graduation from the Polytechnicum
he was confronted bv the necessity of earning his
own livelihood. Sickness and business reverses
had made it impossible for his father to maintain
him any longer. For two years he resorted to
private teaching at Schafifhauscn and Hern, but
in 1902 he obtained a steady, but poorly-paid posi
tion at the Patent Office in the latter city. Here
I met him in April of that year and we spent a
day together. I learned then of the hardships he
hail to contend with, and I noticed that he was
living in poverty. As a token of our meeting, he
gave me a reprint of an article entitled “Folgerun-
gen aus den Capillaritaetserscheinungen." It was
written in 1900 in Zuerich while he was still a
student at the Polytechnicum, or shortly after his
graduation, and was published in the Annalen der
Physik. It was his first publication. YVe parted,
and I knew nothing about my friend for nineteen
years.
In April, 1921, Professor and Mrs. Einstein
visited New York City and I called upon them
several times, learning from them many things
about his career since our meeting in Bern. I in
tended at that time to w rite a book on the rela
tivity theory together with a short biography of
Professor Einstein, and I had already made a col
lection of the necessary data concerning his life.
These extended to his twenty-third year and were
based upon personal knowledge and were exact,
but those relating to his career since that period
had been gathered from biographies and were not
accurate. Professor and Mrs. Kinstein helped
me correct them and permitted me to publish the
information which they gave me. Upon this au
thentic information is founded the following rec
ord of Einstein's later career.
In 1903 he married a Serbian girl who had been
a fellow student of his at the Polytechnicum. The
couple lived in Hern and had two sons, Albert,
horn in 1905, and Eduard, born in 1910, and dur
ing this period the young husband pursued as-
siduously his studies. Within five years he had
acquired a wide reputation as an able physicist
and mathematician. In 1909 a brilliant academic
career commenced. Within five years he occupied
successively the following positions: private dozent
in the University of Hern, 1909; extraordinary
professor in the University of Zuerich, 1909-191 I ;
ordinary professor in the University of Prague,
191 1-1912; and ordinary professor in the Poly
technicum of Zuerich, 1912-1914. In 1914 he
left for Berlin to assume the directorship of the
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for physical research and
a professorship at the University.
During their sojourn in New York in April
and May, 1921, I was privileged to call upon
them several times. ()n one of these occasions I
inquired concerning his father and learned that
he had died at the age of fifty-four. He also told
me of the death of his uncle Jacob a few' years
later, but also of about the same age as was the
case, he remarked with most of the men in his
family.
In Munich the family lived in a house with
that of Hermann’s younger brother, Jacob Ein
stein. Khe two brothers owned an electrotechni
cal factory which adjoined the house. A large
garden shaded by big trees separated the two
buildings from the main road and kept the noise
of the city away from the peaceful residence of
the two families. 'There they led a rather retired
life, associating little with other people. In this
environment, blessed with quietness, serenity, and
comfort, Albert Einstein passed a happy boyhood
until he was fifteen years old.
Early in the winter of 1889-1890, shortly after
1 had been matriculated as medical student at the
University of Munich, I was introduced into the
comfortable, cheerful Einstein home. Albert, a
pretty, dark-haired, brown-eyed boy, was then in
the third grade (Quarta) of the Luitpold Gymna
sium. Although I was his senior by eleven years,
close fellowship soon developed between us, for
Albert was able to converse with a college grad
uate on subjects far above the comprehension of
children of his age. He showed a particular in
clination towards physics and took pleasure in
talking about physical phenomena. I gave him
therefore as reading matter, A. Bernstein’s Popu
lar Books on Physical Science and L. Buechner’s
Force and Matter. Each of these works made a
profound impression upon the boy, but Bernstein’s
books, which describe physical phenomena most at
tractively, had an especially marked influence on
Albert and greatly increased his interest in physics.
(Even when he had (Please turn to page 16)
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