Authors: Philipp Frank
The world around Einstein has changed very much since he published his first discoveries. He began his work during the time of the German Kaiser in the environment characteristic of the German and Swiss petty bourgeoisie; he lived during the second World War in the last bulwark of democracy, the United States of America. He was able to make a substantial contribution toward an earlier conclusion of the war than had been expected, and is now anxious to help in making the peace a lasting one. But his attitude to the world around him has not changed. He has remained a bohemian, with a humorous, even seemingly skeptical approach to facts of human life, and at the same time a prophet with the intense pathos of the Biblical tradition. He has remained an individualist who prefers to be unencumbered by social relations, and at the same time a fighter
for social equality and human fraternity. He has remained a believer in the possibility of expressing the laws of the universe in simple, even though ingenious mathematical formulæ, but at the same time doubting all ready-made formulæ that claim to be the correct solution for human behavior in private and political life.
When a visitor whom he has known in the old country comes to his home in Princeton, Einstein often says: “You are surprised, aren’t you, at the contrast between my fame throughout the world, the fuss over me in the newspapers, and the isolation and quiet in which I live here? I wished for this isolation all my life, and now I have finally achieved it here in Princeton.”
Many famous scholars live in the distinguished university town, but no inhabitant will simply number Einstein as one among many other famous people. For the people of Princeton in particular and for the world at large he is not just a great scholar, but rather one of the legendary figures of the twentieth century. Einstein’s acts and words are not simply noted and judged as facts; instead each has its symbolic significance — symbolic of his time, his people, and his profession.
People in Princeton tell many anecdotes about Einstein. It is related that one of his neighbors, the mother of a ten-year-old girl, noticed that the child often left the house and went to Einstein’s home. The mother wondered at this, whereupon the child said: “I had trouble with my homework in arithmetic. People said that at number 112 there lives a very big mathematician, who is also a very good man. I went to him and asked him to help me with my homework. He was very willing, and explained everything very well. It was easier to understand than when our teacher explained it in school. He said I should come whenever I find a problem too difficult.” The girl’s mother was alarmed at the child’s boldness and went to Einstein to apologize for her daughter’s behavior. But Einstein said: “You don’t have to excuse yourself. I have certainly learned more from the conversations with the child than she did from me.”
I do not know, nor have I made any effort to check, whether this story is true. People tell it in different versions together with the much simpler story that in summer Einstein is often to be seen walking through the streets of Princeton in sandals without stockings, in a sweater without coat, eating an ice-cream cone, to the delight of the students and the amazement of the professors.
Since not only Einstein’s personality but also his times and
environment should be described in this book, all such stories are certainly true. Even if they do not tell us anything that is factual about Einstein, they are a true description of the world in which he has lived.
In 1945 Einstein retired from his position as professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. This change in his official status, however, did not mean any change in his actual work. He continues to live in Princeton and to carry on research at the Institute.