Einstein (4 page)

In the face of the skeptical attitude of a great many politicians and military men, Roosevelt had the vision to realize that the United States had now accumulated enough intellectual strength in science to be a match for the world champion. He gambled on his conviction that seven years of Nazi administration would be enough handicap for German science to ensure a United States victory in the race. There was a project to build “atomic weapons” based upon the most recent theories of physics: the theory of relativity, the quantum theory, and nuclear theory. Einstein, who had made decisive contributions to these theories, expressed the opinion that such weapons are feasible, and Roosevelt followed his advice. The result is known to the world. The first atomic bombs launched upon Japan (1945) put a sudden end to World War II. Forty years before this date (1905) Einstein had announced the law of the conversion of mass into energy and predicted that on this basis in some distant future incredible amounts of energy would be produced. Einstein’s theory was regarded then by most “practical people” as a kind of philosophical speculation, which might be very interesting but had no technical application. In 1945 the explosion over Hiroshima exploded also the argument of practical men by which they attempted to minimize the creative imagination of the speculative physicist. Moreover, the philosophy of science proclaimed by the spiritual leaders of the Nazis, about which much will be said in this book, exploded, too, in the mushroom-shaped cloud over Hiroshima. Einstein, the great dreamer among the physicists, and the great scientist among the pacifists, was now actively involved in the making of world history and in the actual political problem of how to avoid an atomic war.

In Einstein’s mind, his co-operation with the Zionist movement has been a part of his work for the understanding of nations and creeds. He has thought that the foundation of a home for the homeless Jewish people will appease most of the troubles that their spreading among other peoples has created. In 1948 the immediate goal of the Zionist movement was reached by the foundation of the state of Israel. The Biblical prophets announced again and again that the return of Israel to its old home would be connected with a general peace among the nations,
with a general victory of righteousness, and with the end of all quarrels among men.

We read, for instance, in Isaiah lx, 17–18: “I will make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.”

The spirit of these old prophecies was certainly alive in Einstein’s mind when he gave his backing to the cause of Zionism. But when in 1948 these dreams became true, it happened in an atmosphere of war and of hatred between the nations in the Holy Land. The rebirth of Israel as well as the conquest of atomic energy had been envisaged by the intellectual and spiritual leaders of mankind as milestones on the way to perpetual peace and happiness; but both materialized as a result of the struggle for power among the nations and have been surrounded from the start by clouds of mutual suspicion.

A great many people separate themselves from noble causes because their actual realization is tarnished by a good deal of meanness and foolishness. Einstein never made use of such pretexts, which are often hypocritical excuses for a lack of courage. Einstein has always been deeply convinced that there are pure results only in the realm of creative imagination. He has never been intimidated into denouncing the living results of his imagination because these results were affected by the lawlessness of all actual happening in the realm of human affairs. Every honest fighter for good causes has to be aware of this situation, which the great fighter for peace, according to the gospels, characterized by the words: “Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

As far back as Einstein’s memory extends, both his paternal and his maternal ancestors lived in small towns and villages of Swabia in southwestern Germany. They were small merchants, shopkeepers, and artisans, and none of them had ever attracted attention in consequence of any intellectual achievement. Einstein himself remarks on occasions when he is questioned about his ancestors: “The circumstances under which they lived were much too restricted to permit them to distinguish themselves.” They did not stand out in very bold relief against their environment.

This background of southwestern Germany is very important in the understanding of Einstein’s character. The Swabians merge almost imperceptibly with the French through the mediation of the neighboring Alsatians, and they are reflective, are practical in daily life, and participate joyfully in every kind of art and pleasure as well as in philosophical and religious speculations; but they are averse to any kind of mechanical order. Their nature is different from that of the sober, practical Prussians, interested in order and domination, and from that of the earthy, merry, sometimes rather coarse Bavarians.

The differences in the character of these people are quite evident from their dialects. The Swabian speech is melodic and flows slowly like a rippling, murmuring brook, unlike that of the Germans of the ruling class of officers and officials, which sounds like a bugle in a military camp. Neither is it like the cynical bleating of the Berliner, critical of everything in heaven or on earth, nor like the pompously precise literary German of the pastors and professors.

Elements of this friendly dialect are still to be heard in Einstein’s speech, although it has now been greatly blurred and almost obliterated by his travels in many different countries. In particular his speech contains an admixture of certain tones derived from the Swiss, which is indeed related to the dialect of
southwestern Germany, but has a somewhat rougher tone. But anyone listening to the speech of Einstein’s second wife, who is descended from the same family as her husband, could still hear the genuine, pleasantly agreeable Swabian idiom. For her he was always “Albertle,” the land was
“ländle,”
the city (
Stadt
)
“Städtle.”
Everything received the diminutive suffix
“le,”
which gives the dialect a quality of tenderness and affection.

The fact that Einstein’s ancestors were Jewish made a difference, but not to so large an extent as one might expect. During the period when his parents were growing up, the Jews in these small towns of Swabia did not differ greatly from the rest of the population in their mode and way of life. They no longer clung so firmly to their complicated customs and usages, which rendered difficult the growth of any intimacy between them and the rest of the population; and with the disintegration of these barriers they tended, to an ever increasing degree, to lose their position as a separate and unique group. The life of the Jews in these districts was not similar to that in Berlin, where there was a class of rich, educated Jews, who themselves developed a specific variant of Berlin culture. There was none of this in the small Swabian towns. Here the Jews, like the other inhabitants, led a quiet life, associated with their natural environment, and were but little influenced by the nervous hustle and bustle of the metropolis.

In progressive circles at this time the reading of the Bible and other books dealing with the doctrines of the Jews was no longer the only source of truth. The Bible was read like other belles-lettres and edifying literature, and in Jewish families the classical German authors appeared beside the prophets as teachers of morality and conduct. Schiller, Lessing, and Heine were honored like the preacher Solomon and the Book of Job. Friedrich Schiller particularly, with his moral, almost Biblical pathos and glorification of a general love of mankind, became extremely popular among Jewish families and was an important element in the education of their children. That he was a Swabian was another reason for regarding him as something of a close relative. In Einstein’s family this Schiller cult and the admiration for the Enlightenment, which was bound up with it, also played a large part in the training of the younger generation.

The writer Berthold Auerbach, who was active between 1840 and 1870, is perhaps characteristic of the life and intellectual temper of the Jews in Swabia in the time of Einstein’s parents
and grandparents. He was the first to portray the daily life of the peasants of the Black Forest. These
Schwarzwälder Dorfgeschichten
(
Tales of the Black Forest
) are probably somewhat too idealized and artificial for present-day taste, but they were considered by contemporaries to be a gratifying counterpoise to what was later called “Berlin gutter literature” and was regarded as a characteristic contribution of the Jews to German literature.

It must also be mentioned that after 1871, as a result of the Franco-Prussian War, Prussia became the predominant power in Germany, and has profoundly affected and influenced the character of the Germans. The unification of the majority of the German tribes and the restoration of a powerful German Empire was not initiated by the intellectual class. Writers and scholars had long dreamed and sung of this goal, but they had hoped that, as the Swabian poet Uhland put it, “the Imperial crown of the new Germany would be anointed with a drop of democratic oil.” But the dream did not come true. Bismarck carried out his work not with “democratic oil,” but with “blood and iron,” and with methods that were opposed by all the intellectually progressive groups in Germany. Furthermore, the new Germany did not arise from the national elements possessing an older culture: the Swabians, Rhinelanders, and Austrians who had produced Schiller, Goethe, Mozart, and Beethoven. The rulers came from the tribes of the east, which were composed of those who had settled on soil won by conquering, Germanizing, and partially exterminating the original Slavic population, and of those descended from the subjugated tribes. They thus formed an amalgamation of oppressors and oppressed well able to command and obey.

This situation placed the intellectual groups of all Germany, and particularly those of the older, cultural sections, in an ambiguous and partially mortifying position. They could not avoid admitting that the methods of the new rulers were more effective than their own, since they had been so successful; yet they could not overcome their aversion to the adoration of force and the glorification of order as ends in themselves. Such an empty mechanical arrangement of life was repugnant to them, with their inclination and aptitude for art and science. The new masters were not to their liking, but they were compelled to admire and to some extent to imitate them. The German scholars acquired a feeling of inferiority toward the Prussian officers, and learned to restrict themselves to their own “subject,” to leave
public life to the ruling group as their “subject,” and to stand at attention, even intellectually, at the sound of a commanding voice.

All this was equally true of the Jews. They, too, admired the new Empire and the energetic methods of its rulers. Even though in their homes they cultivated the intellectual tradition of the Jews and of the German classical period, yet in public life they tried to assimilate themselves to the ruling class in conduct and ideas.

Only for those who were strong enough not to accord recognition to outward success and who could not be compensated by any external manifestation of power for the loss of freedom and the cultural atmosphere was it possible to maintain an independent attitude and to resist the prevailing trend. We shall see that from his youth Einstein belonged to these people. Even though later he frequently came into conflict with the prevailing tendencies in Germany, yet he always retained a certain attachment for his Swabian homeland and its people.

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 at Ulm, a middle-sized city in the Swabian part of Bavaria. This city is of no significance in his life, however, since a year after his birth the family moved to Munich. A year later a daughter was born and there were no other children. Munich, the city in which Albert spent his youth, was the political and intellectual center of southern Germany. Thus the family had already departed from the romantic nooks of Swabia and had made a transition to a more urban life. Their house, however, was a cottage surrounded by a large garden in the suburbs. Albert’s father, Hermann Einstein, had a small electrochemical factory that he operated with the aid of his brother, who lived with the family. The former attended to the commercial side of the enterprise, while the latter acted as technical director.

Hermann Einstein was an optimistic person who enjoyed life. He was not a particularly good business man and was frequently unsuccessful, but such failures did not change his general outlook on life. His mode of life and his
Weltanschauung
differed in no respect from those of the average citizen in that locality. When his work was done, he liked to go on outings with his
family into the beautiful country around Munich, to the romantic lakes and mountains, and he was fond of stopping at the pleasant, comfortable Bavarian taverns, with their good beer, radishes, and sausages. Of the traditional Jewish fondness for reading edifying literature he had retained only a love for German poetry, especially that of Schiller and Heine. The dietary laws and other customary usages of the Jewish community were to him only an ancient superstition, and in his house there was no trace of any Jewish custom. Or, to put it more concisely, the ancient customs themselves had disappeared, but several humane usages connected with them were retained. For instance, every Thursday the Einstein family invited a poor Jewish student from Russia to share their midday meal with them — a reflection, no doubt, of the old Sabbath custom. Similarly, their preference for the dramas and poems of Schiller, replete with moral pathos, was a substitute for the reading of the Bible. In his political views, too, Einstein’s father, like most others, was afraid of the dominant Prussians, but admired the new German Empire, its Chancellor Bismarck, General Moltke, and the old Emperor Wilhelm I.