Albert Einstein

Year 1896 was an important one for Einstein as far as his personal life was concerned, for it was then that he met Mileva Mariac. The two became great friends and very soon, this friendship culminated into marriage. However, before the nuptial knots were tied, Einstein and Mariac became parents to their first born, a daughter whom they named Lieserl.

Einstein and Mariac married in the January of 1903. Later next year, Mariac gave birth to their first son, Hans Albert Einstein. Six years later, the couple was blessed with another son, Eduard. In 1914, Einstein moved to Berlin, while his wife and two sons remained in Zurich.

Five years later, the two divorced on February 14, 1919. The same year, Einstein remarried with his then lady love, Elsa Lowenthal, after having had a relationship with her since 1912.

Born to Hermann Einstein and Pauline Einstein, in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, Albert Einstein was one of the two children of the couple. He had a younger sister named Maja Einstein

The family shifted base to Munich, where his father, along with his uncle, founded the Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie Company, manufacturing electrical equipment based on direct current.

Albert’s first taste of education was at the Catholic Elementary School, when he was five. After acquiring three years of education, he was transferred to the Luitpold Gymnasium. Post completing advanced primary and secondary school education, he left Germany.

Right from the early childhood, Einstein showed signs of having an in-depth talent and skill for mathematics. During this time, he used to build models and mechanical devices, but those were for mere entertainment.

It was at the age of ten that Einstein’s fantasy for the mathematics grew, when he was handed over popular books on science, mathematical texts and philosophical writings by Max Talmund. These included Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and Euclid's Elements.

Post graduating, Einstein spent two years in search of a job in the teaching sector, but could not secure even one. Finally, with the help of his former classmate’s father, he bagged the chair of an assistant examiner at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property, the patent office.

It was in 1903 that Einstein became a permanent officer therein. His job involved evaluating patent applications for electromagnetic devices.

His work was mostly related to questions about transmission of electric signals and electrical-mechanical synchronization of time. It was through this that Einstein made his conclusion about the nature of light and the fundamental connection between time and space.

Most of Einstein’s strikingly remarkable works came during this period. He utilized his free time by engaging himself in scientific research. In 1901, he published the paper ‘Folgerungen aus den Kapillaritat Erscheinungen’ (Conclusions from the Capillarity Phenomena) in the most prominent scientific journal, Annalen der Physik.

Four years thence, in 1905, he completed his thesis by presenting a dissertation which was entitled “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions”. For the same, he was awarded a PhD by the University of Zurich. However, the degree was just the beginning of the many more things that were waiting to come up.

Year 1905, fondly called the Annus Mirabilis or the miracle year in the life of Einstein, saw the birth of Einstein as innovator and creator, for it was during this year that he published his four ground-breaking papers.

The papers provided information on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of matter and energy. They not only changed the way the world looked at time, space and matter, but also contributed and laid foundation for the growth of modern physics. Additionally, the papers brought Einstein to the limelight.

As expected, post the publication of the papers, Einstein became instantly famous and was recognized as the leading scientist. In 1908, he was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Bern. However, Einstein quit this position as well as the one he was holding at the patent office to take up the profile of physics docent at the University of Zurich.

In 1911, he became a full-time professor at the Karl-Ferdinand University in Prague.

Three years later, in 1914, he returned to Germany as he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics and a professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin, with a special clause in his contract that freed him from most teaching obligations.