Einstein (6 page)

Today such books as Büchner’s
Kraft und Stoff
are considered superficial and we may wonder how at that time young people like Einstein who were capable of independent thought could have been stirred by them. Yet if we have any sense of historical values and justice, we should ask ourselves what recent books are to be regarded as the analogues of those earlier works. In reply we can point to such books as Sir James Jeans’s
The Mysterious Universe
. Probably a really critical judge would not be able to say that Büchner’s book is more superficial than those of similar contemporary writers. At any rate, we find a very good popular presentation of the scientific results themselves, and a rather vague philosophical interpretation, which may be accepted or not according to one’s taste.

Einstein’s interest in mathematics was also aroused at home and not at school. It was his uncle and not the teacher at the gymnasium who gave him his first understanding of algebra.
“It is a merry science,” he told the boy; “when the animal that we are hunting cannot be caught, we call it
x
temporarily and continue to hunt it until it is bagged.” With such instruction, Albert found a great deal of pleasure in solving simple problems by hitting upon new ideas instead of just using a prescribed method.

He was impressed most, however, when at about the age of twelve he obtained for the first time a systematic textbook on geometry. It was a book to be used in a class that had just started, and, like many children who are curious about the new subjects they are going to take up in school, he tried to delve into the subject before it acquired the unpleasant and irksome quality that teachers generally imparted. Having begun to read the book, he was unable to put it down. The clarity of the exposition and the proof given for every statement, as well as the close connection between the diagrams and the reasoning, impressed him with a kind of orderliness and straightforwardness that he had not encountered before. The world with its disorder and uncleanliness suddenly appeared to him to contain also an element of intellectual and psychological order and beauty.

Ever since Albert was six years old his parents had insisted that he take violin lessons. At first this was only another kind of compulsion added to the coercion of the school, as he had the misfortune to be taught by teachers for whom playing was nothing but a technical routine, and he was unable to enjoy it. But when he was about thirteen years old he became acquainted with Mozart’s sonatas and fell in love with their unique gracefulness. He recognized that his technique was not equal to the performance of these compositions in the light-handed manner necessary to bring out their essential beauty, and he attempted repeatedly to express their light, carefree grace in his playing. In this way, as a result of his efforts to express a particular emotional mood as clearly as possible and not through technical exercises, he acquired a certain skill in playing the violin and a love for music, which he has retained throughout his life. The feeling of profound emotion that he experienced in reading the geometry books is perhaps to be compared only with his experience as a fourteen-year-old boy when for the first time he was able to take an active part in a chamber-music performance.

At the age of fourteen, while he was still reading Büchner’s books, Einstein’s attitude toward religion experienced an important change. While in the elementary school he had received Catholic instruction, in the gymnasium he received instruction
in the Jewish religion, which was provided for the students of this sect. Young Einstein was greatly stirred by the comments of the teachers of religion on the Proverbs of Solomon and the other parts of the Old Testament dealing with ethics. This experience made a permanent impression and left him with a profound conviction of the great ethical value of the Biblical tradition. On the other hand Einstein saw how the students were compelled to attend religious services in Jewish temples whether they had any interest in them or not. He felt that this did not differ from the coercion by means of which soldiers were driven to drill on the parade ground, or students to unravel subtly invented grammatical puzzles. He was no longer able to regard ritual customs as poetic symbols of the position of man in the universe; instead he saw in them, more and more, superstitious usages preventing man from thinking independently. There arose in Einstein an aversion to the orthodox practices of the Jewish or any other traditional religion, as well as to attendance at religious services, and this he has never lost. He made up his mind that after graduation from the gymnasium he would abandon the Jewish religious community and not become a member of any other religious group, because he wanted to avoid having his personal relationship to the laws of nature arranged according to some sort of mechanical order.

When Einstein was fifteen an event occurred that diverted his life into a new path. His father became involved in business difficulties, as a result of which it appeared advisable to liquidate his factory in Munich and seek his fortune elsewhere. His pleasure-loving, optimistic temperament led him to migrate to a happier country, to Milan in Italy, where he established a similar enterprise. He wanted Albert, however, to complete his studies at the gymnasium. At this time it was axiomatic for every middle-class German that an educated person must have a diploma from a gymnasium, since only this diploma entitled him to become a student at a university. And as a course of study leading to a degree was in turn necessary before one could obtain a position in one of the intellectual professions, Einstein, like all the others, felt compelled to complete his course at the gymnasium.

In the field of mathematics Einstein was far ahead of his fellow students, but by no means so in classical languages. He felt miserable at having to occupy himself with things in which he was not interested but which he was supposed to learn only because he had to take an examination in them. This feeling of dissatisfaction grew greater when his parents departed and left him in a boarding-house. He felt himself a stranger among his fellow students and regarded their insistence upon his participation in all forms of athletic activities as inconsiderate and coarse. He was probably friendly to all, but his skeptical attitude toward the organization and the spirit of the school as a whole was quite clear to the teachers and students and aroused a sense of uneasiness in many of them.

As he developed into an independently thinking man, the thought of having to submit for some time yet to the pedagogical methods of the gymnasium became more and more unbearable. Although he was good-natured and modest in personal intercourse, nevertheless then as well as later he stubbornly defended his intellectual life against the entry of any external constraint. He found it more and more intolerable to be compelled to memorize rules mechanically, and he even preferred to suffer punishment rather than to repeat something he had learned by rote without understanding.

After half a year of suffering in solitude Einstein tried to leave the school and follow his parents to Italy. To Einstein, living in Munich, which was dominated by the cold, rigid Prussian spirit, colorful Italy, with its art- and music-loving people living a more natural and less mechanized life, appeared to be a beckoning paradise. He worked out a plan that would enable him to run away from school, at least for a while, without forfeiting his chances of continuing his studies. Since his knowledge of mathematics was far ahead of the requirements of the gymnasium, he hoped that he might perhaps be admitted to a foreign institute of technology even without a diploma. He may even have thought that, once he was out of Germany, everything would take care of itself.

From a physician he obtained a certificate stating that because of a nervous breakdown it was necessary for him to leave school for six months to stay with his parents in Italy, where he could recuperate. He also obtained a statement from his mathematics teacher affirming that his extraordinary knowledge of mathematics qualified him for admission to an advanced institution for the study of such subjects. His departure from the gymnasium
was ultimately much easier than he had anticipated. One day his teacher summoned him and told him that it would be desirable if he were to leave the school. Astonished at the turn of events, young Einstein asked what offense he was guilty of. The teacher replied: “Your presence in the class destroys the respect of the students.” Evidently Einstein’s inner aversion to the constant drill had somehow manifested itself in his behavior toward his teachers and fellow students.

On arriving at Milan he told his father that he wanted to renounce his German citizenship. His father, however, kept his own, so that the situation was rather unusual. Also, since Einstein could not acquire any other citizenship immediately, he became stateless. Simultaneously he renounced his legal adherence to the Jewish religious community.

The first period of his stay in Italy was an ecstasy of joy. He was enraptured by the works of art in the churches and in the art galleries, and he listened to the music that resounded in every corner of this country, and to the melodic voices of its inhabitants. He hiked through the Apennines to Genoa. He observed with delight the natural grace of the people, who performed the most ordinary acts and said the simplest things with a taste and delicacy that to young Einstein appeared in marked contrast to the prevalent demeanor in Germany. There he had seen human beings turned into spiritually broken but mechanically obedient automatons with all the naturalness driven out of them; here he found people whose behavior was not so much determined by artificial, externally imposed rules, but was rather in consonance with their natural impulses. To him their actions appeared more in accord with the laws of nature than with those of any human authority.

This paradisal state of delight, however, could exist only as long as Einstein was able to forget completely — as he did for a while — the urgent demands that the practical necessities of life made upon him. The need for a practical occupation was particularly urgent since his father was again unsuccessful in Italy. Neither in Milan nor in Pavia did his electrical shop succeed. Despite his optimism and happy outlook on life, he was compelled to tell Albert: “I can no longer support you. You will have to take up some profession as soon as possible.” The pressure that had hardly been released appeared to have returned. Had his departure from the gymnasium been a disastrous step? How could he return to the regular path leading to a profession?

Einstein’s childhood experience with the magnetic compass
had aroused his curiosity in the mysterious laws of nature, and his experience with the geometry book had developed in him a passionate love for everything that is comprehensible in terms of mathematics and a feeling that there was an element in the world that was completely comprehensible to human beings. Theoretical physics was the field that attracted him and to which he wanted to devote his life. He wanted to study this subject because it deals with the question: how can immeasurably complicated occurrences observed in nature be reduced to simple mathematical formulæ?

With his interest in the pure sciences of physics and mathematics and the training required for a more practical profession, together with the fact that his father was engaged in a technical occupation, it seemed best that young Einstein should study the technological sciences. Furthermore, since he lacked a diploma from a gymnasium but had an excellent knowledge of mathematics, he believed that he could more easily obtain admission to a technical institution than to a regular university.

At that time the most famous technical school in central Europe outside of Germany was the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich. Einstein went there and took the entrance examination. He showed that his knowledge of mathematics was far ahead of that of most of the other candidates, but his knowledge of modern languages and the descriptive natural sciences (zoology and botany) was inadequate, and he was not admitted. Now the blow had fallen. What he had feared ever since leaving Munich had come to pass and it looked as though he would be unable to continue in the direction he had planned.

The director of the Polytechnic, however, had been impressed by Einstein’s knowledge of mathematics and advised him to obtain the required diploma in a Swiss school, the excellent, progressively conducted cantonal school in the small city of Aarau. This prospect did not appeal very much to Einstein, who feared that he would again become an inmate of a regimented institution like the gymnasium in Munich.

Einstein went to Aarau with considerable misgiving and apprehension, but he was pleasantly surprised. The cantonal school was conducted in a very different spirit from that of the Munich gymnasium. There was no militaristic drilling, and the teaching was aimed at training the students to think and work independently. The teachers were always available to the students for friendly discussions or counsel. The students were not required to remain in the same room all the time, and there were separate rooms containing instruments, specimens, and accessories for every subject. For physics and chemistry there were apparatuses with which the student could experiment. For zoology there were a small museum and microscopes for observing minute organisms, and for geography there were maps and pictures of foreign countries.