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 路1nto a world not of his
own making .
.- { Just like the rest of us.
J
5
hat was going on 路,n the world? ~~
The 188o's marked the beqinning of
the age: of
imperialism and monoP,oly ca pitdl ism.~~ LENIN
6
1870
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.
1871
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.
1873
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路lll not be settled by resolvt1ons and majority votes but by blood and iron.~~
...
Ott<Yfcntlu~ t81J-18JE' Chancellor of Germar:Y' 1811 -1890
Wilhelm Marr coins the word anti-Semitism and founds the
League of Anti-Semites.
Jews qet the blame
for the
Financial CriSIS.
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.
Bi5morcK's
friend
and
confidant . â&#x20AC;˘
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.
Albert's father's buoiness fails because of 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. n 18So
Pauline, I think things
are Better in Munich.
the
tt--路rr' (~ ..--{(( ((
~~((_ ~-
Fine!
You can go into business with your broN1er
there.
tJ/ertWMttttutfflu op~cm tB1! -1.902 AI bert's father.
Freeman of Buchau. Jews were not completely emanciP.ated until 1867, so being a freeman was special.
A/bert's mother. Daughter ot a court purveyc:;:>r, Julius kochBernhe1 mer.
9
entral to Germany's industrialization i5 the growth of arcf electrical industries.
me chemical
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.
10
. . . .~ 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.
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
1Z
Darmstadter Bank Diskontogesellschaft Bank Deutsche Bank Dresden Bank
1853 1856 1870 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路ants like Siemens and Halske.
~
w~ lf}Gte5itntl1fl5'
1808路1886
1816-1892
Scientific instrument maker at the University of Berlin. Joined forces with Siemens in IS4-f.
From o prominent Hanover family. Educated in the Prussion
Armv.
Artillery
and
.
Enqineenng
Sd1ool. Inventor of modern ~ynamo
Since electricity Figures so strongly in our story 路It i5 worth looking at the firm of Siemens and Ha\ske in more detail.
1n 186r.
15
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.,
"l'RB WO.NDB.R of the .AGB INS'rANTA..'IEOUS COmiUNICATION.
t!
Under the speci•l Patrooago of Her llajosty & H.R.U. Prince Albert.
'll'Hlll
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
manufacture and install telegraph
systems. 16
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
:f :!er: ~~_istg:eC~'!~:dPi~~~d~ 1~/~u1!;~,~ ~~~o:;.;~; ~~: whn\e.ofthe Nubility of J::ngland.
~~~i::A!:'~:=
••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.
to
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 electeel the K1ng to be 1 emperor.
Siemens loses ihe Prussian conTract in 1850. But 路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
lectric power be~ome~ a commodity.
The first market 151ight1ng for docks, rai Iways 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 generating station in 1882.
first centra I
Th'1s should turn a n1ce
profit,hey?
Pearl St. Station of Edison Electric Illumina..ting Company
Zo
lectricity is a/1 the rage.
Everyone on tHe oct.tnes to get in
Telephone 8.lld Electric 路
and Ankle.
21
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路Jrcle.is appointed head.
oo.,
my
and
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.
Z2
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.
In 1881 Alberis s路1ster Maj(ll is born.
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.
Albert's closest
friend in childhood.
23
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
路 march,路ng up
and down.
24
There,there. 楼/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
Albert
goes to
schoolooo
ooowhich is. very
military.
-------1Christ was nailed ro the cross with nails l!~e
this.
Albert goes to a Catholic school. 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.)
26
Albert, what do you
thint? of this?Ifs called q
compass.
tbert had a much better time
at home playing with his 5ister M~a.
How does
it
f---------1
alwoys point the same
way, papa?
~_, ~gneti5m. Hush now
and go to sleep.
â&#x20AC;˘ Ibert's uncle
Jacob introduces him to moths
I li~e my uncle Jake. He always shows me thi
I
oooo ........
2.8
o o ...... o o o â&#x20AC;˘
. ./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.
And his mo1her introduces him
to music and literature.