Einstein's sea

Let the title of these notes not mislead the reader: it will not be about the new crater on the moon or hollow on Mars, named after the creator of the theory of relativity. No, we will talk about the bibliography of Albert Einstein. The word "bibliography" has several meanings. We understand it here as a list of books, articles, documents of various nature related to the name of the great scientist. A comparison of many books with a reservoir has long been rooted in the language, it is not for nothing that they say the "sea of ​​books." The use of the term “Sea of ​​Einstein” for its bibliography is quite justified - this is a lot of printed and electronic products so large that it is almost boundless.

Start

And the filling of this “reservoir” began with the first article of the recent graduate of the Zurich Polytechnic, published in the journal Annalen Der Physik in March 1901 (Einstein, 1966). Then the brook of his articles was not interrupted: in 1902-two articles, in 1903 and 1904-one more. An unexpected breakthrough occurred in 1905, when five of his works came out at once (and the sixth was filed to the editorial office of the magazine and went out next year). These five works turned classical physics from the head to their feet, became fundamental at once in three directions of modern physics. Having written at least one of these five articles, its author would be recognized as the genius of the twentieth century. And what to call the author of all five ingenious works? At the same time, it must be taken into account that the author was only 26 years old that year, he had not worked in his scientific position in any scientific or educational institution, he did not even have the first scientific degree of a doctor of philosophy, mandatory for a normal scientific career! It is no coincidence that historians of science and biographers Einstein call the 1905 “The year of miracles”.

The stream of scientific articles by Albert Einstein was not interrupted to his death in 1955. In total, he wrote three hundred scientific works, including books and preface to other people's publications. If we take into account the unscientific publications, then the number of his works exceeds 450 (Schilpp, 1951, p. 538).

Einstein’s own texts, as well as co -authorship with other scientists are included in the collected works and individual collections. For example, work on politics, the struggle for peace and the correct world order were included in the collection “Einstein about the world” (Einstein, 2004). Other thematic selections of the work of the great physicist, for example, “Puthery Diary” (Einstein, et al., 2018), Russian translation (Einstein, 2021) came out.

Scientific publications

But this stream of the scientist’s own texts, albeit significant, is not the only thing that is poured into the modern Einstein Sea. Almost immediately after the “year of miracles,” scientific articles and books of colleagues Einstein appeared, who commented, explained and developed his ideas. Here, first of all, it should be noted the report of Herman Minkovsky at the annual meeting of the Society of German Natural Sciences and Doctors in 1908 in Cologne. This report was released next year with a separate book in Leipzig (Minkowski, 1909). Minkovsky for the first time introduced into circulation the terms “space-time”, “light cone”, “world line” and put a special theory of relativity on a strong mathematical foundation. According to Abraham Pays, “ so the great formal simplification of the service station began. At first, this did not make a big impression on Einstein, he considered the recording of his theory in the tensor form “excessive scholarship”. However, in 1912, he learned tensor methods, and in 1916 expressed gratitude to Minkovsky for significantly facilitating the transition from a hundred to the general theory of relativity ”(Pait, 1989, p. 148).

Payce’s words can be slightly clarified: already in 1915, Einstein noted Minkovsky’s merits: “ The development of the theory of relativity was greatly accelerated due to the mathematical formulation of its foundations given by G. Minkovsky. At the same time, Minkovsky proceeded from the fact that the “temporary coordinate” will be included in the main equations of the theory of relativity in the same way as spatial coordinates, if instead of T to introduce an imaginary variable proportional to this value. Thanks to this, the equations of the theory of relativity become equations in four -dimensional space; At the same time, the formal properties of this four -dimensional world differ from the formal properties of the Euclidean geometry space only by the number of measurements ”(Einstein, 1965).

Among the books on the theory of relativity, it should be noted the work of Max von Lowe, who became one of the first supporters of the new theory and wrote the first monograph dedicated to the service station (Laue, 1911).

The best review on the special and general theory of relativity is still considered the book by Wolfgang Pauli, which grew up from an article written for the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences in 1920 (Tom Encyclopedia was published in 1921 (Pauli, 1921), Russian translation in 1947 (Pauli, 1947)). It should be noted that Einstein himself highly appreciated the work of Pauli, specifically noting that the author was only 20 years old at the time of writing.

Discuss all the work of physicists on topics, open articles by Einstein, is absolutely hopeless. From a small stream, this stream turned into a full -flowing river, which brings hundreds and thousands of new articles and monographs to Einstein’s sea. I only note that the most important articles from time to time are combined into collections representing independent value for physics and history. One of the first such publications was the collection “Principle of relativity”, compiled from articles of three authors: G. A. Lorenz, A. Einstein, G. Minkovsky. He went out in Berlin in 1913 (Lorentz, et al., 1913) with the notes of Arnold Zommerfeld and the preface of Otto Blepentale. In the Russian translation of this collection, published in the series “Classics of Natural Sciences” in 1935, an article by Henri Poincare was added. Editors of the Russian translation - V.K. Fredericks and D. D. Ivanenko (Lorenz, et al., 1935).

Another historical collection of articles on Einstein and his scientific heritage was the Albert Einstein collection - philosopher and natural scientist, published by Paul Arthur Shilpp to the seventieth anniversary of the author of the theory of relativity (German translation was published in 1951 (Schilpp, 1951). The authors of the collection included the leading physicists of the twentieth century Arnold Zommerfeld, Louis de Broil, Wolfgang Pauli, Max Bourn, Niels Bor, Philip Frank, Max von Laue, Kurt Gödel and others. The anniversary itself wrote two articles for the collection.

Documents

As Einstein's glory and fame grew, a fund of photographs with the image of a scientist was replenished, in addition, some German departments organized a collection of documents about his social activity. On the basis of these materials from various archives, important documentary information collections were published for Einstein biographers and science historians. We note some of them.

The Japanese physicist and historian Kenji Sugimoto collected 486 photographs about Einstein’s life in the volume volume “Albert Einstein. Commented photo documentation ”(Sugimoto, 1987).

Almost two hundred documents - from Einstein’s reception, among the members of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and the appointment of an academy professor before his exit from the Academy, are collected in the first volume of the collection “Albert Einstein in Berlin, 1913–1933” (Kirsten, and others, 1979). In the second volume of this fundamental assembly, there is a description of more than half a thousand documents about Einstein from the archives of the GDR during his life in Berlin (Kirsten, and others, 1979a).

A huge three -volume document about Einstein’s life was edited by one of the leading modern biographers of the great scientist, director of the Institute of Natural Sciences of the Max Planck Society in Berlin Professor Yurgen Renn (Renn, 2005).

Albert Einstein’s archive at Jewish University of Jerusalem Zeve Rosenkranz (Rosenkranz, 2004), collected even more impressive.

After triumphal confirmation of the general theory of relativity in 1919, the attention of the whole world was focused on its author. Einstein was invited to make lectures in different countries. Politicians, crowned persons listened to his opinion. By decision of the Ministry of Culture, Science and Public Education, it was decided to collect a report on the public activity of the scientist in a separate case. This unspoken surveillance continued until the Nazis came to power in 1933. In 1998, a thick folder of reports was found by Siegfried Grundman in the archive of the ministry and published in the form of the book “Acts of Einstein” (Grundmann, 1998).

Unfortunately, there is practically no literature in Russian about Einstein.

Letters

Along with scientific texts, the scientist’s letters allow us to look into his creative workshop, to understand how he came to a particular important idea, where he was mistaken and how he coped with the problems that arose. Letters show what contribution to a particular theory was made by one or another scientist, they help to understand the subtle details of the priority.

For researchers of Einstein's work, his correspondence with his closest friends, Michele Besso and Maurice Solovin, plays a particularly important role. Fortunately, there are these letters in Russian. Correspondence with Solovin entered the fourth volume of the meeting of scientific works (Einstein, 1967). Transfer of correspondence with Michele Besso are published in three Einstein collections: 1974 (Einstein, 1976), 1975-1976 (Einstein, 1978) and 1977 (Einstein, 1980). Unfortunately, correspondence with other correspondents is poorly presented in Russian. And in the West, very informative collections of Albert Einstein's correspondence with Max Born (Einstein - Born, 1991), with Arnold Zommerfeld (Einstein - Sommerfeld, 1968), with Henry Zangger (Schulmann, 2012) ...

It is extremely important for the study of the early period of the formation of Einstein-scientist his “love correspondence” with Milevo Marich, who became his wife in 1903. These letters - 40 Einstein letters and 11 letters of Marich - became available to researchers at the end of the twentieth century. They are published by a separate book (Einstein - Marić, 2005) and were included in the first volume of the collection of documents of Albert Einstein (Einstein, 1987).

Another correspondence of Einstein from his “Swiss years” (1902–1914) entered the fifth volume of the collection of documents (Einstein, 1993). Accordingly, letters of other periods fell into other volumes of this grandiose publication. There is nothing like this in Russian.

The first biography

Of course, the biographies of great people are most popular among the general public. No wonder there are such large circulations of book series like "Life of wonderful people." Albert Einstein fell into the category of “wonderful people” in the eyes of the majority of the Earth in 1919 after triumphal confirmation of the general theory of relativity. And his first biography was released two years later, it was written by the scandalously famous journalist Alexander Moshkovsky. In Berlin, he organized a literary circle gathered at the Bristol Hotel, where he invited Einstein. They turned out to be neighbors on the table and conducted conversations on various topics. From these conversations, the book was obtained, which Moshkovsky called “Einstein. Understanding the world of his thoughts ”(Moszkowski, 1921).

When Einstein's friends learned that Moshkovsky’s book was preparing for the publication, they were horrified. The situation in Germany in 1920 was heated by anti -Semitism, and Albert Einstein was on the tip of the attacks. On the one hand, a group of professors, led by the Nobel laureate, Philip Lenard, tried to discredit the theory of relativity and its author. On the other hand, Einstein was subjected to direct attacks by anti -Semites, led by the rogue Paul Weland, who created the “Society of German Naturalists in Supporting Pure Science” and in the largest hall Berlin publicly shook Einstein as a liar and deceiver. The matter came to the point that Einstein’s name was in the “black list” of people sentenced by the Nationalists to death after the foreign minister of foreign affairs, Valter Ratenau, who was killed in the summer of that year. Fearing a direct attempt, Einstein abandoned a long -planned performance in Leipzig at the congress of the Society of German Naturalists and Doctors (see about this in my book “Albert Einstein in the focus of the history of the twentieth century” (Berkovich, 1918, p. 52–74)).

In such an environment, the appearance of a book written by a Jew about Einstein, based on conversations with him, enemies could use the scientist of self -promotion for accusations. In addition, the reputation of Moshkovsky gave a reason to be afraid that the book would make a cheap advertising trick. Moreover, the author of the book did not submit to Einstein the manuscript.

Most of all, the upcoming exit of Moshkovsky’s book was concerned about Max Borna Hedwig's wife. Her father studied with Moshkovsky and talked about him differently. In a letter to Einstein dated October 7, 1920, Hedwig urgently advises this permission to publish the book to immediately take back and by registered letter to demand not to publish a book about himself (Einstein - Born, 1991, p. 61). With the same counseling, Einstein and Max Born turned to Einstein in a letter of October 10: “ Sorry to persistent my letter, but we are talking about the fact that I (both the bar and Laue, etc.) is expensive. You don’t understand this, you are a small child. They love you, and you must obey, and it is prudent people (and not your wife) ”(Einstein - Born, 1991, p. 64).

The link to the wife is not accidental here: Elsa liked her husband's fame and she greeted the book about him. In addition, she felt sorry for the poor man of Moshkovsky, a sick and on the verge of poverty. The arguments of Hedwig and Max Borna appeared, and Einstein the very next day answered his friend: “ Because of Mr. H., your wife wrote to me an urgent letter. Objectively, she is right, even if she was mistaken in the too severe sentence of H. In the end, I sent him a letter in which he said that his magnificent opus could not be printed ”(Einstein - Born, 1991, p. 65).

Now it’s hard to understand why Einstein's friends were so concerned about the release of the book of Moshkovsky, called in the letters “Mr. X”. Now no one is surprised by the numerous interviews of scientists published in newspapers and magazines shown on television. At the end of the XIX - early twentieth centuries, the situation was completely different. Only the largest discoveries were mentioned in the press. According to Max Bourne, when the press discussed the opening of Wilhelm Conrad X-ray X-rays in 1896 1 , not a word was said about the author of the discovery (Einstein-Born, 1991, p. 67). Bourne gives a significant example from his own practice. The first edition of his book “Einstein's theory”, published in the same 1920, contained a photo next to the title page, and at the end - Einstein’s short biography, in which Borne described not only scientific activity, but also affected the personality of the author of the theory of relativity. Immediately after the book was published, Bourn received a letter from Max von Laue, in which he reported that he, as well as his other colleagues, caused outrage in the scientific book in the scientific book. This is inappropriate in a scientific or educational publication, even if it is addressed to a wide range of readers. The shameful Max Bourne removed the photo and biography from the subsequent publications of the book (Einstein - Born, 1991, p. 67).

That is why Moshkovsky’s intention in one book to collect conversations with Einstein, containing both scientific issues and everyday, caused such an acute reaction of the scientist's friends. This contradicted the customs of that time.

It was not possible to prevent the release of the book. The book still saw the light, and nothing terrible happened. Einstein quickly reconciled with this, although he stopped all sorts of relations with Moshkovsky. He categorically refused to sue advice, rightly believing that such an action was only giving a scandal. He wrote to Max Born on October 26, 1920: “ I am not worried about the cries and opinions of all people. Nothing will happen to me ... In general, X is nicer than Lenard and wine. Since the latter are squabble from love for squabbles, and the first, on the contrary, is only to make money (which is wiser and better). I will survive everything that awaits me as an indifferent viewer, and I will not allow myself to be so excited as in Naukhaim 2 . For me, it is unbearable that I, because of a bad society, lose so much a sense of humor ”(Einstein-Born, 1991, p. 65–66).

We must pay tribute to Max Born - he knew how to recognize mistakes. Twisting the published book by Moshkovsky, he found it not at all as bad as he was afraid to see. Of course, the author’s scientific reasoning is primitive and not always true. However, the book contains many truly funny descriptions and jokes clearly in Einstein's spirit. They will in new books about Einstein more than once quote and will become generally accepted. Born emphasizes that emotional correspondence about Moshkovsky’s book was meaningless. The fears that the book will increase Einstein’s anti -Semitic injury, turned out to be unfounded. Anti -Semitism as a phenomenon develops according to its laws and does not depend much on the presence or absence of such books.

Moshkovsky’s book was translated into English the same year, and only a year later a Russian translation was published (Moshkovsky, 1922). Here is efficiency worthy of repetition!

Einstein A. Investigation from the phenomena of capillary. A collection of scientific works in four volumes. Volume III, p. 8–17. M.: Science, 1966.

SchilPP PA (HRSG.). Albert Einstein Als Philosoph und Naturforscher. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 1951.

Einstein A. über den frieden. Weltordnung Oder Weltuntergang? Neu Isenburg: Abraham Melzer Verlag, 2004.

Einstein A., Rosenkranz Z. The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein: The Far East, Palestine, and Spain, 1922–1923. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.

Einstein A. Puthevnaya Diary. Япония, Палестина, Испания. 6 октября 1922 года — 12 марта 1923 года. Ed. Зеэва Розенкранца. М.: АСТ, 2021.

Minkowski, Hermann. Raum und Zeit. Leipzig: Teubner, 1909.

Пайс А. Научная деятельность и жизнь Альберта Эйнштейна: Пер. from English. / Ed. Acad. А. А. Логунова. M.: Science, ch. Ed. physical. лит., 1989.

Эйнштейн А. Теория относительности. Собрание научных трудов в четырех томах, т. I, с. 410–424. М.: Наука, 1965.

Laue M. Das Relativitätsprinzip. Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1911.

Pauli W. Relativitätstheorie. В книге: Felix Klein (Hrsg.). Encyklopädie der Mathematischen Wissenschaften. Bd 5. — Part 2. — S. 539. Leipzig: Teubner, 1921.

Паули В. 1947. Теория относительности. М. — Л.: ОГИЗ Государственное издательство технико-теоретической литературы, 1947.

Lorentz GF, Einstein A., Minkowski H. Das Relativitätsprinzip. Leipzig; Berlin: Teubner, 1913.

Лоренц Г. А. и др. Принцип относительности. Л.: ОНТИ — Главная редакция общетехнической литературы, 1935.

Sugimoto K. Albert Einstein. Die kommentierte Bilddokumentation. Gräfelfing vor München: Verlag Moos & Partner, 1987.

Kirsten Ch., Treder H.-J. (Hrsg.) Albert Einstein in Berlin. 1913–1933. Teil I. Berlin: Akademia-Verlag, 1979.

Kirsten Ch., Treder H.-J. Albert Einstein in Berlin, 1913–1933. Teil II, Spezialinventar. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1979a.

Renn J. (Hrsg.) Albert Einstein — Ingenieur des Universums. In drei Bänden. Berlin: WILEY-VCH, 2005.

Rosenkranz Z. Albert Einstein: privat und ganz persönlich. Jerusalem: Jüdische National- und Universitätsbibliothek, 2004.

Grundmann S. Einsteins Akte. Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 1998.

Эйнштейн А. Письма к Морису Соловину. Собрание научных трудов в четырех томах, т. IV, с, 547–576. M.: Science, 1967.

Эйнштейн А. Переписка А. Эйнштейна и М. Бессо, 1903–1955. В книге: У. И. Франкфурт (сост.). Эйнштейновский сборник 1974. М.: Наука, 1976.

Эйнштейн А. Переписка А. Эйнштейна и М. Бессо, 1903–1955. В книге: У. И. Франкфурт (сост.). Эйнштейновский сборник 1975–1976. М.: Наука, 1978.

Эйнштейн А. Переписка А. Эйнштейна и М. Бессо, 1903-1955. В книге: У. И. Франкфурт (сост.). Эйнштейновский сборник 1977. М.: Наука, 1980.

Einstein A., Born M. Briefwechsel 1916–1955. Kommentiert von Max Born. München: Nymphenburger Verlaghandlung GmbH, 1991.

Einstein A. / Sommerfeld A. Briefwechsel. Herausgeben und kommentiert von Armin Hermann. Basel; Stuttgart: Schwabe & Co Verlag, 1968.

Schulmann R. (Hrsg.) Seelenverwandte. Der Briefwechsel zwischen Albert Einstein und Heinrich Zangger (1910–1947). Zürich: Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2012.

Einstein A., Marić M. Am Sonntag küss' ich Dich mündlich. Die Liebesbriefe 1897–1903. München; Zürich: Piper, 2005.

Einstein A. The collected papers of Albert Einstein. Volume 1: The Early Years, 1879–1902. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.

Einstein A. The collected papers of Albert Einstein. Vol. 5: The Swiss Years: Correspondence, 1902-1914. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Moszkowski A. Einstein. Einblicke in seine Gedankenwelt. Hamburg; Berlin: Hoffmann und Campe; F. Fontane& Co., 1921.

Berkovich E. Albert Einstein in the focus of the history of the twentieth century. M.: URSS, 2018.

Мошковский А. Альберт Эйнштейн: беседы с Эйнштейном о теории относительности и общей системе мира. М.: Работник просвещения, 1922.

Evgeny Berkovich

To be continued

1 Открытие рентгеновских лучей произошло в 1895 году.

2 В Наухайме в 1920 году состоялось заседание Немецкого физического общества, на котором Эйнштейн дискутировал с Филиппом Ленардом. В результате отношения между ними были окончательно разорваны.