I just finished reading a remarkable biography of the legendary physicist Albert Einstein written by Walter Isaacson.  Isaacson's book, "Einstein - His Life and Universe", covers Einstein's entire personal and professional life from his birth March 14, 1879, until his death April 18, 1955.  However, Einstein's story doesn't end with his death.   On a professional level his impact on mankind's understanding of the universe continues to evolve.  New information concerning some of the personal mystery surrounding Einstein's life became available just a couple of years before Isaacson's book was published.  Issacson's list of sources for his book is twelve pages long in the paperback edition of the book that I read.  The source list includes dozens of books and articles about Einstein as well as a large number of letters written by Einstein to his friends and family throughout his life.  One of the not so surprising things that I learned is that Einstein, his family and his associates were very proficient in spinning the Einstein story in a manner most favorable to Einstein.  Public image management was a critical part of Einstein's life, especially during his later years.  As more information has been discovered over the years the more interesting Einstein's personal story has become.   

As an engineering student in college I studied Physics and learned about Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and his many other discoveries.  Over the years I read bits and pieces about Einstein's life and beliefs in various places but it didn't make much of an impact on me.  Since Einstein died before my fifth birthday he was not a person that had any direct impact on me.  I always felt he was just one of many brilliant people that contributed to the development of science during the 20^th century. 

I knew that Einstein was a Nobel Prize winner.  I also knew that Einstein had come to the United States in his later years and had a minor role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.  It didn't really occur to me that Einstein's life coincided with an extremely tumultuous period in world history and his life was dramatically impacted by world events.  Einstein lived though World War I, the hyperinflation of the German Mark during the Weimar Republic of the 1920s, the Great Depression, the prewar persecution of Jews by the Nazis, World War II, the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, the early years of the Cold War and the McCarthyism years of US history.  I didn't have any appreciation for his complex personal life and what kind of man, husband, father and citizen he evolved into as he progressed through his life.  I came upon Isaacson's book by happenstance in a book store when I was just wandering around.  Reading the book was a remarkable journey.

Einstein's Scientific Achievements

I don't want to launch into a discourse on physics and review all the details of Einstein's scientific achievements.  However, Einstein's impact on theoretical physics was far broader than I had realized.  We know that Einstein created his most famous equation, Energy equals Mass times Velocity Squared, in 1905.  He also created the Special Theory of Relativity in 1905 and the General Theory of Relativity in 1915.  But he didn't receive his Nobel Prize for any of this work.  The Nobel Prize for Physics was given to Einstein for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, just one of the many areas of physics he explored, based on his 1905 paper on the subject.  Einstein's relativity theories were so controversial during this period that the Swedish Academy that administered the Nobel Prize was unwilling to give him the award he so richly deserved for his most well known work.  While Einstein won the "1921" prize, he didn't actually get selected until late 1922, when both the 1921 and 1922 prizes were award.

Einstein's Extremely Interesting Life

Here is a list of a few of the areas of Einstein's life that were interesting to me.

Independent Genius or Collaborative Builder?-  Einstein is considered a loner by many.  He did much of his most creative work by himself.  He wrote his first essay on theoretical physics at the age of 16.  However, Einstein built his theories on a foundation of work by other great physicists of his era and prior eras.  He lived in an age of incredible scientific discovery and developed personal relationships with intellectual giants such as Marie Curie, Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, Neils Bohr, Max Born, Hendrik Lorentz, Erwin Schrodinger, Robert Millikan and many others.  Einstein was continuously exchanging letters with other scientists and participating in debates on his theories.  As brilliant as Einstein was, it appears he needed some help with the rigorous mathematics need to express his discoveries.  Some experts that have studied Einstein's correspondence of this period believe that he received substantial help during his most highly productive period from his first wife, Mileva Maric, and his friend, Marcel Grossman.  There is some belief that Mileva, a high level physics student in her own right, should have been listed as a co-author on some of Einstein's extensive 1905 body of work.  It is only fair to point out that other experts believe Einstein did almost all the work himself and his wife contributed to his success by creating a supportive home environment that allowed Einstein to succeed.

Einstein -Citizen of the World- Even though Einstein built his reputation and career in the field of theoretical physics, his intellectual curiosity of world affairs developed at a very young age.  Einstein was born a German citizen but purposely gave up his citizenship in 1896 at the age of 16.  Einstein became a Swiss citizen in 1902 when he got his first professional job at the Swiss patent office.  Einstein was stateless for about 6 years.  Einstein accepted Austro-Hungarian citizenship, in addition to his Swiss citizenship, in 1911 when he took a professorship in Prague.  When Einstein took a job as a Berlin University professor in 1914, he became a German citizen again.  When Einstein left Germany in 1933 to escape Nazi persecution of Jews he renounced his German citizenship for a second time.  Einstein became a US citizen in 1940 after living continuously in the US since 1933, except for a very short period in 1935 when he lived in Bermuda in preparation for returning to the US to begin the official process of becoming a citizen.  Einstein never returned to Europe after he left for the US in 1933. 

Einstein, born a Jew, never practiced the Jewish faith after his teenage years.  However, he did everything he could to support the Jewish race during the persecution of Jews in Europe.  Einstein clearly distinguished his race from the practice of religion.  Einstein supported civil rights and freedom for all citizens and was very vocal in his support of the efforts of African Americans to assert their rights.

Einstein - Pacifist or Communist?

Einstein was called a communist by some people and a pacifist by many at different times during his life.  There is no doubt that in his early years he was a pacifist.  He was anti-military and joined and supported pacifist organizations.  However, when he fully realized the evil presented to the world by Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party he changed his views.  He knew that it would take a mighty military effort to defeat the Nazis.  He willingly encouraged and supported US development of the atomic bomb when he thought his former colleagues in Germany might develop the bomb first and use it in support of Hitler's objectives.

Einstein was never a communist.  He never supported Stalin or the USSR communist party.  He recognized the negative aspects of communism.  However, there is no doubt that he was a socialist.  Einstein lived a very comfortable life after he achieved a level notoriety in Europe.  Einstein never built a business or managed any organization of consequence.  Einstein was provided a nice living by society because of his intellectual brilliance and his celebrity.  Once he left the Swiss patent office he lived in a world far different from the vast majority of people.

Einstein's Women and Family Life- The discussion of Einstein's relationships with women and the description of his family life was the most surprising element of Isaacson's book.  I never heard anything about those aspects of Einstein's life during my college Physics class.  I think the appropriate words to describe Einstein in today's vernacular are "babe magnet".  Isaacson didn't use that term in his book but his description of Einstein relationships with women can fairly be described in those words.

Einstein had serious girl friends as a teenager but his first committed relationship was with Mileva Maric.  Mileva, a Serbian, was about four years older than Einstein.  They met while both were studying physics in college in Zurich, Switzerland.  Mileva became pregnant with Einstein's child before they were married.  Lieserl, a girl, was born in Mileva's home town in Serbia in 1902.  The existence of Lieserl was not known to the academic community until 1986, when some letters between Einstein and Mileva from this period of their lives were discovered.  The Einstein family had suppressed and hidden the letters for more than 30 years after Einstein's death.  Einstein never visited his girl friend and the baby in Serbia.  Einstein never met his daughter to the best of anyone's knowledge.  No one knows exactly what happened to Lieserl.  The most likely scenario appears to be that she was given up for adoption in Serbia and may have died in 1903 from scarlet fever.  What is clear is that Einstein, Mileva and others did everything they could to erase the existence of Lieserl from history.  What is also clear that Einstein's failure to fully support his future wife and daughter created emotional issues for Mileva that negatively impacted her for the rest of her life.

Einstein finally married Mileva in January, 1903, in a civil ceremony in Switzerland with no family members present.  Hans Albert Einstein, Albert Einstein's first son, was born in May of 1904.  1905 is called Einstein's miracle year by Isaacson.  Einstein was incredibly productive in a happy home environment with his wife and son.  In July of 1910 Mileva gave birth to their second son, Eduard after a move to Zurich, Mileva's favorite city.  This was Einstein's most productive period of his life from a theoretical physics perspective.  However, his ability to shut out all distractions while he worked to develop his various theories also included tuning out his wife and children.  During this time Einstein's academic reputation was on the rise and he was noted as being a rising star in European academic circles.  Einstein's desire for personal recognition and promotion set the stage for the destruction of his marriage to Mileva.  Einstein moved his family to Prague, which his wife hated, for a short period.  The next major move was to Berlin. Mileva hated the idea of living in Germany, when she loved living in Switzerland, especially Zurich.

While living in Prague Einstein traveled extensively throughout Europe.  On a trip to Berlin he reestablished contact with his divorced cousin, Elsa (Lowenthal) Einstein, a mother of two daughters with her first husband.  Einstein was clearly looking for new companionship.  When Einstein accepted a prestigious position in Berlin in 1914 it is apparent that he wanted to advance his career and establish a more direct relationship with Elsa.  Einstein did not care about the desires and needs of his wife and children.  Einstein and Mileva separated and Mileva and their two sons moved back to Zurich.  Einstein shared a home with Elsa and moved forward.  Einstein eventually divorced Mileva and married Elsa in June of 1919.  The story of Einstein's failures as a father and his unwillingness to make any substantive effort to create a relationship with his two sons is astounding.  How could such a brilliant man treat his first wife and children so badly?

During his time in Berlin from 1914 until 1933 Einstein flaunted relationships with other women in public.  Einstein did not appear to care about his second wife's feelings concerning his conduct. Einstein was now a celebrity and many women were chasing after him.  However, Elsa liked being Mrs. Albert Einstein and tolerated his relationships with other women in exchange for her position in society as his wife.

After moving to the US, Einstein continuously lived with a group of women.  The group initially included Elsa, Elsa's daughter Margot and Helen Dukas, Einstein's secretary and all around household support person.  Elsa died in 1936.  Elsa was replaced in the household by Einstein's sister, Maria, who left her husband in Italy to live with her brother.  After Elsa's death Einstein had a number of female relationships.  Age and infirmity did not stop him from enjoying female companionship beyond the group of women living with him at his home in Princeton, NJ.

Einstein's first son, Hans Albert, moved to the US in 1938.  Hans Albert and his first wife adopted a daughter, Evelyn, who was born in 1941.  It appears that that the circumstances surrounding Evelyn's birth are murky.  It is suspected that she is in fact Albert Einstein's daughter from one of his relationships of that period and that he arranged for his son and his wife to adopt his child.  It appears that DNA testing that would prove or disprove this theory can't or hasn't been done.

You can make your own judgments concerning Einstein's personal conduct during his life.  One thing is for sure.  He enjoyed his life to the fullest once he achieved fame and fortune.

Einstein's Unfinished Business

All of Einstein's primary work in theoretical physics was completed before he turned 40 years old.  During Einstein's life most of his work was purely theoretical.  The technology did not exist to prove or disprove most of his theories by experiment.  As technology has advanced over the decades a substantial percentage of Einstein's theories have been proven to be correct by experiment.  Einstein has been proved to be a visionary like few others in the history of science.

Beginning in the 1920's Einstein embarked on a quest to develop "a more complete explanation of the universe - unified field theory that would tie together electricity and magnetism and gravity and quantum mechanics."  Einstein debated the merits of his unified field theory with the great scientific minds of his time.  He spent the rest of his working life unsuccessfully attempting to find the answers that he felt were waiting to be discovered.  He continued to work on this effort until the day he died.

The effort by physicists to determine if a unified field theory exists continues to this day.  In addition physicists are now attempting to develop a Theory of Everything which will unify not only electromagnetism and gravity, but also the nuclear interactions and other potential physical forces including "dark energy".  Was Einstein actually right about the existence of the unified field theory and simply ran out of life energy before he could discover it or is unified field theory only a small part of a much larger and complex set of physical forces that are present in the universe?  Sometime in the future we will find out the answer. 

Conclusion

I suggest that anyone with an interest in the life and universe of Albert Einstein read Walter Isaacson's book.  I found Einstein's personal story fascinating.  In some ways Einstein was a great man that we should all admire.  In other ways his personal conduct was disconcerting.  He lived during a tumultuous period in world history and had a long and productive life.  Hopefully, we can all learn from Einstein in more ways than one.

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