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| # Albert Einstein | |
| **Nobel Prize in Physics 1921** | |
| Albert Einstein was only his years in Aarau and Berne employee of the Federal Patent Office that he looked back on fondly. “Einstein in Berne. His annus mirabilis fell in the middle of this period: in 1905 he published no less than five revolutionary papers. These included the Theory of Special Relativity and the Light Quanta Hypothesis, for which, among other achievements, he was later awarded the Nobel Prize.” Wolfgang Pauli wrote in an obituary in the *Neue Zürcher Zeitung*. | |
| Nonetheless, it appears he actually had a good time there. From 1896 to 1900, Einstein studied physics at ETH, then known as the Federal Polytechnical School. He appreciated the institution’s liberal spirit: as a student there, you could “more or less do as you liked.” So he put together a study plan entirely to his own taste: “Some lectures I followed with great interest. Otherwise, I skipped class often and stayed at home to study the masters of theoretical physics with holy fervor.” This self-study took place mainly in Hottingen, where Einstein rented lodgings from various landladies. He also spent much time in the Pension Engelbrecht at Plattenstrasse 50, where his friend, colleague, and later wife, Mileva Marić, had lodgings. | |
| In 1905, Albert Einstein submitted his groundbreaking paper *Eine neue Bestimmung der Moleküldimensionen* (A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions) as a dissertation at the University of Zurich. | |
| From 1909 to 1911, he was Professor for Theoretical Physics at the University of Zurich. Einstein’s favorite leisure activity was playing the violin. He was regularly invited by Alfred Stern, a historian at ETH, and his family, to enjoy meals and make music with them. In summer, he enjoyed sailing on the Lake of Zurich, and in winter, he loved hair-raising sledge rides on the Zürichberg. He could often be found happily sitting in the Café Metropol on the Stadthausquai. | |
| Einstein then moved back to Zurich a second time, when the University created an associate professorship in theoretical physics especially for him. Professor Einstein was usually ill-prepared: his lecture notes often consisted of a scrap of paper the size of a visiting card. But he was so selflessly devoted to his students that they wrote a letter of protest to the education department when he moved to Prague after only three semesters. | |
| Einstein returned to Zurich again in 1912, this time as Professor for Theoretical Physics at ETH. He was now well-established: he had few teaching responsibilities and a good salary, so he could afford an imposing apartment on the Zürichberg. Otto Stern had followed him from Prague to Zurich as his assistant and served as his sparring partner and “calculating machine.” But again, Einstein only managed to stay in Zurich for a year and a half. | |
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| **Nobel Prize in Physics 1921** | |
| “For his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the laws of the photoelectric effect.” | |
| *14 March 1879 in Ulm* | |
| *† 18 April 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey* | |
| 1905 was Einstein’s *annus mirabilis*: the physicist published no less than five revolutionary papers. | |