Einstein and Germany

FEB 01, 1986

The native German physicist, unlike many of his colleagues, had an early antipathy to German nationalism, so that for him, Hitlerism was a confirmation of an earlier intuition.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881051

Fritz Stern

There was nothing simple about Albert Einstein, ever. His apparent simplicity concealed an impenetrable complexity. Even the links to his native Germany were prematurely ambiguous. At a time when most Germans thought their country a hospitable home, a perfect training ground for their talents, Einstein was repelled: In 1894, as a 15‐year‐old, he left Germany and became a Swiss citizen. Twenty years later, a few weeks before the outbreak of the Great War, he returned to Germany and remained for 18 years of troubled renown, years in which he appreciated what was congenial and opposed what was antipathetic in Germany. Long before Hitler’s rise, he felt unease.

References

1. O. Nathan, H. Norden, eds., Einstein on Peace, Schocken, New York (1960), p. 25.
2. N. Annan, Daedalus, Fall 1978, p. 83.
3. A. Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, new trans, and rev. by S. Bargmann, Crown, New York (1954), p. 4.
4. O. Nathan, H. Norden, eds., Einstein on Peace, Schocken, New York (1960), p. 111.
5. A. Einstein, S. Freud, Why War?, International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations, Paris (1933), p. 12.
6. A. Einstein, letter to Max Wertheimer in the Einstein Archives, Boston Univ., Boston, Mass.
7. A. Einstein, letter to Julius Schwalbe, 18 July 1924, in the Einstein Archives.
8. Letters in the Einstein Archives.
9. M. Born, My Life and My Views, Scribner’s, New York (1968), p. 38.
10. Letter in the Einstein Archives.
11. E. Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts, U. of Chicago P., Chicago (1983), p. 322.
12. Copy in the Einstein Archives.

More about the Authors

Fritz Stern. Columbia University.