AP

'If relativity is proved right the Germans will call me a German, the Swiss will call me a Swiss citizen, and the French will call me a great scientist.

If relativity is proved wrong the French will call me a Swiss, the Swiss will call me a German, and the Germans will call me a Jew.'

Albe-rt Einstein was born in Ulm. Germany on March 11.18[9 ·1nto a world not of his own making .

. -{ Just like the rest of us. J

5

6

hat was going on ·,n the world?

1870

1871

1873

~~ The 188o's marked the beqinning of the age: of imperialism and monoP,oly ca pitdl ism.~~

LENIN

Franco-Prusaian War- Prussia annexes Alsace-Lorraine, declares a German Empire, receives 5,000,000,000 francs indemnity and blows it all in financial speculation.

The Paris Commune- Workers and soldiers take over the government of Paris for 3 months. The Commune suppressed with the help of the Prussian Army. 30,000 Communards executed by the French authorities.

The Great World-Wide Financial Crash. The next 17 years meant hardship for ordinary people; great profits and consolidation for a few. Small businessmen, like Einstein's father, were badly hit. This was a time of labour struggles, immigration, the rise of militant socialism.

1878 Bismarck passes anti-socialist laws to suppress working-class

political agitation.

. ~ . . . . . . .

...

~I! The great questions of the day w·lll not be settled by resolvt1ons and majority votes but by blood and iron.~~

Ott<Y fcntlu~ t81J-18JE'

Chancellor of Germar:Y' 1811 -1890

Jews qet the blame for the Financial CriSIS.

Wilhelm Marr coins the word anti-Semitism and founds the League of Anti-Semites.

Bi5morcK's friend and

confidant . •

The Jewish tribe has indeed a different blood from the Christian peoples of Europe, a different body, a different constitution, other affects and passions. If we add to these peculiarities the thick fat skin and the volatile, mostly disease inclined blood, we see before us the Jew as white Negro, but the robust nature and capacity for physical work of the Negro are missing and are replaced by a brain which by size and activity bring the Jews close to the Caucasian peoples.

fs a period of tremendous overall industrial expansion. People throughout Europe are forced off the land and into the cities.

The rural Jewish population of southern Germany falls by 70% between 1870and 1900. Many emigrate to the Americas.

n 18So Albert's father's buoiness fails because of the depression and the family moves f~om lJlm, P.opulat!on t.5oo, to Mun1cfi, populatton 2.30, ooo. 1\loert 1s one year old.

Pauline, I think things are Better in Munich.

tJ/ertWMttttutfflu tB1! -1.902

AI bert's father. Freeman of Buchau.

Jews were not completely emanciP.ated until 1867, so being a freeman was special.

tt--·rr' (~ ..--{((

((

~~((_ ~-

Fine! You can go into business with your broN1er there.

op~cm A/bert's mother.

Daughter ot a court purveyc:;:>r, Julius koch­Bernhe1 mer.

9

10

entral to Germany's industrialization i5 the growth of me chemical arcf electrical industries.

The heavy chemical industry: bulk production of soda, nitrates, soap and sulphuric acid for bleaching, dyeing, printing, explosives and fertilizers.

Light chemical industry: aniline dyes, pharmaceutical products, plastics.

Formation of cartels: I. G. Farben, Krupp, etc.

.... ~ Signalling by Electricity 1837: telegraphs, cables, batteries, terminals, insulated wire coils, switches, measuring instruments.

Electroplating 1840: for fancy tableware and household objects for the prosperous middle classes.

Electric Lighting 1860-80: arc lighting for streets, docks, railways and finally homes.

Electric Power Production 18: electrification of railways, furnaces, machinery, construction of power plants and distribution systems.

1Z

1881. In the suburbs of Munich, Albert's fath~r opens a small factory with his brother Jacob, a tra1ned engineer. They manufadure dynamos~ electric inslxuments and electric arc light5.

Hermann and Jacob are port of the German electrical industry ooooooo

Darmstadter Bank 1853 Diskontogesellschaft Bank 1856 Deutsche Bank 1870 Dresden Bank 1872

13

y 1913 5 half the worlds trade in electro-chemical products was in German hands.

Who had the other haiP? Glad you asked.

~__, The USofA. General Electric Co., a combine of Thomson- Houston Et Edison Co.

ermann and Jacob Einstein are in for trouble. Tneir small companY, cannot compete against g1·ants like Siemens and Halske.

~ 1808·1886 Scientific instru­ment maker at the Univer­sity of Berlin. Joined forces with Siemens in IS4-f.

Since electricity Figures so strongly in our story ·It i5 worth looking at the firm of Siemens and Ha\ske in more detail.

w~ lf}Gt e5itntl1fl5' 1816-1892 From o prominent Hanover family. Educated in the Prussion Armv. Artillery and . Enqineenng Sd1ool. Inventor of modern ~ynamo 1n 186r.

15

16

iemde~s,· flrst inyenrion was an improved on Sl ver plat1ng. process fur gold

With his brother Charles act" ~i~4~~ rights to Elkington brr%~~fn1eh~~u. K.,

Sfiemerys JPiQs the circle o .Be~l1n Un1versiiy SC1~nt1sts. He develops on Improved telegraph system. This is 0 m~thoq of coveri n9 the ~Ire \lylth seamless msulot1on made of cheap mafena/ ( gutta-P.ercha· a rubberlike plant · subs"R:Ince .)

In 18f7 he founds Telegra_phen Bpuensrodt von S•emens und Holske to manufacture and install telegraph systems.

"l'RB WO.NDB.R of the .AGB t ! INS'rANTA..'IEOUS COmiUNICATION.

Under the speci•l Patrooago of Her llajosty & H.R.U. Prince Albert.

'll'Hlll QA.Ib'#AI'CCC Al'fEI.I Elbe~'t;SQal'li:IUiiNE'l'CC

TELBGBAPRS, GT. \VESTERN, RAIL\VA Y.

M11.y be ~en in ooa.s;taut operatiun, daily, (Sunday~ excepted) from 9 tin 8, at tlu•

TELECRAPH OFFICE, LONDON TERMINUS, PADCINCTON AND TELECRAPH COTTACE, SLOUCH STATION.

Au Exhibition admitted by its numcrou:i Visiton to be tl1e most inter~tJng

~~~i::A!:'~:= :f :!er: ~~_istg:eC~'!~:dPi~~~d~1~/~u1!;~,~ ~~~o:;.;~; ~~: whn\e.ofthe Nubility of J::ngland.

••TI!is Erlubitima. wljick luu ~" tnllcfl e.rr.ited t~uJ,Jir attutimt •if lafe, i5 tuell u.oortlay a 11iratjmm aliwlw foNt to 1ce tla. wo~udcraof leimu.."-Uoat.•ul'c PosT. The Electric Telegnph is unlimited in the Daturt! aDd extent of itt com•

munications; b)· its eli:traordina.ry agency a person in Lr•ndon CO'Ild COfl:veue with at~othPr at Ne.rYork, or at any other place ._.ow•ver dh.tant, .as easily and nearly us rapidly as if both parties were in the satne ruoru. foluear.ion" propotr.ed by Vi!titor~ wHl be asked by means ofthi~ Apparatu~. and answers thereto will in~tar.taneou•ly be returnat by a per!iOR 20 :Mile>~ ofl~ who will aho, at their reque~t, ring a beY or .fire a cannon, in an incred!bly 11bo:t apace of time, after the sip.al tOr his do1ng IJO ha!' bePn gi'"'n-

The Electric Fluid travels at the rate of ZBO,OOO Miles per Second. Ry it~; i;ltw•rful Agency 1\tu:·Jercf!l ba,·e 1>«-en app•·rh(>Jll\t>d. \••~ iu the late cat..~

of Taweli,)-Tb;evell detected; and la~~tl7, which i• oi 110 little impurtat'C"I'. the timely ast=i:o~tfl.li':o" ~r ,\ledical asd. hu been procu1-ed in ca~es which otht>rwi~ y,uuld b""" Uto7Pd f.a.loi.

Tb.-;. grut '"'tiona! important'<! of' this wonderful in,·ention ill .a well known that any fur;;h,•r dlu"i"t. here tt:. ih merits ~·ould be superftuous, N.D. Dcs:•~t.::bo>~ ~ent tn and fro with thl' most confiding setn'C.:'- )leswnco!!'\ in constAnt ll!tendnncc • ., that comnmniu.tion' rcWv,!d by 'l'elegraph,. wo•ld be forwGI'd•!d, if requi..·ed, to any part of ],,ndou, WiMd ... or, Et:m, &c.

ADMISSION ONE SHILLING. T. Hoaali., Lic.aiU.

n t8f8 he gets the Prussian government contract to build q network in Northern Germany.

The Frankfurt Revolutionary a5sembly has JUs:t elect eel the

K1ng to be 1 emperor.

Siemens loses ihe Prussian conTract in 1850. But ·In Ru5sia he succeeds in selling ihe Tsar on an extensive system.

17

1854-56 Thanks to Siemens we can find out how that Crimean war is doin !

Siemens uses his profits from f?vssia for the next Big Deal­underwater cob\e telegraphy! -- ---..

he ftrst transatlantic cable is laid between 1Ssr-186B.

Siemens organize5 the Indo- European telegraph in 1870. It connects London- Berlin-Odessa-Teheran and Calcutta. He becomes consultant to the British government.

His ship, the faraday, lays 5 transatlantic cables between 1875-188).

-----....

whats the price of cotton

\in London this "-.Week? .....___

19

Zo

lectric power be~ome~ a commodity. The first market 151ight1ng for docks, rai I ways and streets.

In the U5 Its Thomas Edison who switches on.

Schuckert, who combines

with Siemens, worked with Edison in New Jersey.

Edison organizes the construction of the first centra I generating station in 1882.

Pearl St. Station of

Th'1s should turn a n1ce profit,hey?

Edison Electric Illumina..ting Company

lectricity is a/1 the rage. Everyone tnes to get in on tHe oct.

Telephone 8.lld Electric ·

and Ankle.

21

Z2

n 1887 the German government opens the Physikolische-Tedinische- Reichsanstalt for research in the exact sciences and P,recision technology. Siemens donates 5oo,ooo marks to the project. His old friend, Hermann von Helmholtz of the University of Berlin c·Jrcle.is appointed head.

oo., and my

daughter married

Siemens' son.

Educated as an army surgeon. As the new professor of natural philosophy in Berlin in 1871 he initiated systematic tests of all existing theories of electricity and magnetism. His lab becomes the centre of physics research on the Continent. He is known as the patriarch of German science and the state's foremost science adviser.

So Albert was born when electricity had

become big business and the most

popular of the sciences. His future would

be greatly influenced by the

commitment of the German state to

technical education and state-supported

research.

our fumily wo.s ver~ close-knit and very hospitable.

Albert proves to be a slow,dream~chi ld. Even at age 9 he spoke hesitantly.

In 1881 Alberis s·1ster Maj(ll is born.

Albert's closest friend in childhood.

23

24

~~

Pauline, our Bertie 56ems a bit dim.

Ach~ dorit worry. Per hap~ he'll oe a profes5or one day/

Alberts Germany is a very military placeoooooooo

Papa,Idonr like all this

· march,·ng up and down.

There, there. ¥/ell worry about it later.

Arms expenditure nearly triples between 1870 and 1890.

The officer corps increases from 3000 to 22,500. Three year military service is compulsory. Socialist literature is forbidden. Youths are subjected to fear and humiliation.

Veterans organizations are state supported. Membership increases from 27,000 in 1873 to400,000 in 1890and 1,000,000in 1900.

Heads of state all appear in military uniform.

Even the taxi drivers wear uniforms.

Albert doesn't like it. \

\ 25

26

-------1Christ was nailed ro the cross

with nails l!~e this.

Albert goes to a Catholic school.

Albert goes to schoolooo

ooowhich is. very military.

He is the only Jew in his class ••••

(Albert's father was a non-religious Jew who regarded the kosher dietary laws as ancient superstition.)

tbert had a much better time at home playing with his 5ister M~a.

Albert, what do you thint? of this?Ifs

called q compass.

How does it f---------1

alwoys point the same way, papa?

~_, ~gneti5m. Hush now and go to sleep.

• I bert's uncle Jacob introduces him to moths o o ...... o o o •

2.8

I li~e my uncle Jake. He always shows me thi

I

. ./Algebra is a merry science.

./ When the animal we are hunf1ng cannot be caught, we cc:Jll it x temporarily a.nd cpntinue to hunt it until it rs caught.

oooo ........ And his mo1her introduces him to music and literature.