Berliners years of Einstein – ElLitoral.com

The author of the General Theory of Relativity

Berliners years of Einstein

The physical reach the pinnacle of fame and would be consecrated worldwide. In the photo, posing in a building in New York. Photo: Archive Litoral

Rodrigo Zuleta

cultura@ellitoral.com

EFE

The years he spent in Berlin Albert Einstein ended up making it the most famous scientist of the twentieth century and the development of the General Theory of Relativity in 1915 was a key step in that process.

Max Planck, the father of quantum theory that Einstein had extended his hypothesis that light was composed of photons had been the key to Einstein came to Berlin in 1915 as a teacher without obligations as teachers-character member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

The road to that appointment had started ten years ago when, in his call annus mirabilis of 1905, Einstein rocked the world of physics a number of key publications, among which was the Special Theory of Relativity, being a “technical expert third class” of the patent office in Bern.

But , those gains only led to Einstein became celebration in a small circle of scientists. His fame beyond the boundaries of academia, would come later.

The first thing achieved Einstein after raising the Special Theory of Relativity was that the patent office it ascended to technical expert second class in 1906.

Later, in 1908, Einstein was appointed extraordinary professor in Zurich where a step-after Prague between 1911 and 1912 he would go to Berlin in 1914, released from the obligation to teach.

While Europe was bleeding in the fields of battle-and I had broken World War, Einstein concentrated in what for him would be the most important project of his life, it would be the generalization of the theory of relativity.

Einstein did not join the war fever that spread to -including many German scientists Max Planck and his mentor, he wrote, watched the war “with horror and pity.”

But his main occupation in its first year Berlin was not the anti-war activism though pacifists to sign statements when someone but what pediatricians mathematical development for the generalization of the theory of relativity.

In November -the 1915 on 11, 18, 25 and 2 December-, Einstein had reached the goal and presented their findings to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, in several sessions, and these were published for the first time in the memories of the institution .

While others spent their talent in the midst of the confrontation in the production of poison gas, Einstein had stepped in pure science, a theory that, at least currently had no direct profit nor the military field or anywhere else.

So it is not surprising that, as the director of the Max Planck Institute for History of Science says Jürgen Renn, in an interview published in the magazine Der Spiegel in its issue this week, that the publication of the theory in 1915 woke only the interest of some specialists.

Things changed in 1919, when he first became an experimental verification of Einstein’s theory.

“The First World War had ended, German science was isolated in the Foreign. The Einstein pacifist was almost the only German scientist with which people spoke in Paris or London, “Renn said.

In addition, the fact that they had been British scientists who had achieved experimental test Einstein’s theory somehow undid the border between nations that until recently were enemies.

“The public saw this as a new beginning, scientific cooperation for peaceful purposes was possible. Than it was to understand the cosmos and no poison gas was “Renn said.

Einstein then became the icon of what looked like new times science and the overnight, into something like a pop star, perhaps the first in the history of science.

In his apartment in Berlin , Charlie Chapin were actors, writers and politicians like Gerhard Hauptmann and Walter Rathenau. His photographs -in which almost always appears despeinado- made his face one of the famous in the world and, as Einstein himself would say later, everything he said became headline.

“Berlin is the city with which I am most bound by scientific and personal ties,” Einstein once said.

But Berlin left to be his city in 1933 when the Nazis came to power and he was lecturing in the US, she decided not to return. In any case, since 1916, in an article against the war, Einstein had written for him membership in either State was not any emotional element.

If today Google is searched with “Einstein” and “Berlin” are the first thing is the different branches of coffee Einstein. However, the river Spree there are a bust with a quote where he says you can not solve a problem using the same logic that generated it.

While Europe was bleeding in the fields of battle-and had broken Einstein World War I concentrated on what for him would be the most important project of his life, would be the generalization of the theory of relativity.

Young Albert Einstein. When he is fighting for space with his General Theory. Photo: Archive Litoral

While others spent their talent amid confrontation with the production of poison gas, Einstein had stepped in pure science, a theory that had no direct use or military camp or elsewhere.