Early Life
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire. His father was Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer, and his mother was Pauline Koch. The family was Jewish but non-observant. Shortly after Albert’s birth, the family moved to Munich, where his father and uncle founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a company that manufactured electrical equipment.
As a child, Einstein showed an early aptitude for mathematics and physics, though he was famously at odds with rote learning and rigid authority. A well-known story—likely apocryphal—holds that he did not speak until he was four, though his sister later recalled he simply preferred to take his time before speaking. He began violin lessons at age five and maintained a love of music throughout his life. He enrolled in the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School (later ETH Zurich) in 1896, where he studied physics and mathematics.
The Miracle Year (1905)
While working as a patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland, Einstein published four groundbreaking papers in 1905, now known as his annus mirabilis (miracle year). These papers addressed the photoelectric effect (for which he later won the Nobel Prize), Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of mass and energy—summarised in the iconic equation E = mc².
The special theory of relativity upended classical Newtonian mechanics by demonstrating that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers and that the speed of light is constant regardless of the motion of the observer or light source. The equation E = mc² revealed that mass and energy are interchangeable, a discovery with profound consequences for nuclear physics and our understanding of the universe.
General Theory of Relativity
Einstein extended his work over the following decade, publishing his general theory of relativity in 1915. General relativity reformulated gravity not as a force, as Newton had described it, but as the curvature of spacetime caused by mass and energy. The theory predicted that massive objects would bend light rays passing near them—a prediction dramatically confirmed during the total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, when British astronomer Arthur Eddington observed the deflection of starlight around the sun.
The confirmation made Einstein an overnight global celebrity. His name became synonymous with genius, and his theories have since been confirmed by GPS satellite systems, gravitational wave detections, and imagery of black holes—most notably the first-ever photograph of a black hole’s shadow released in 2019.
Later Career, Exile, and Pacifism
Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. He held posts at the University of Berlin and Prussian Academy of Sciences. When Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany in 1933, Einstein—who was Jewish and a vocal critic of National Socialism—emigrated to the United States, accepting a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where he remained for the rest of his life.
In 1939, at the urging of fellow physicists including Leo Szilard, Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning of the possibility of Germany developing an atomic bomb and urging the US government to begin its own nuclear research programme. The letter contributed to the establishment of the Manhattan Project, though Einstein himself did not participate in the project. Later in life, he was a committed pacifist and co-signed the Russell–Einstein Manifesto in 1955, calling for the peaceful resolution of international conflicts.
Death and Legacy
Einstein died on April 18, 1955, in Princeton, New Jersey, from an abdominal aortic aneurysm, at the age of 76. He had refused surgery, saying: “I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially.” His brain was removed and preserved for study by pathologist Thomas Harvey, and pieces were distributed to researchers across the world in subsequent decades.
Einstein’s legacy is immeasurable. General and special relativity remain cornerstones of modern physics, underpinning technologies from GPS navigation to medical imaging. Time magazine named him Person of the Century in 1999. His name has become a cultural shorthand for genius, and his image—the wild white hair, the kind eyes—remains one of the most recognisable in history.