Einstein Sea - 2

Galina Weinstein offers to divide all Einstein biographies into two categories: documentary and non -codes. Documentary biographies were written by people who knew Einstein personally and received information from him and from those who were in personal contact with him. These biographies can be additionally divided into two subgroups: written during Einstein’s life and written after his death. Among the first subgroups there are biographies that are viewed by Einstein - they are considered the most reliable. He considered others less reliable, and others considered the others as pure fiction (Weinstein, 2017).

Thus, it should be constantly borne in mind that the “documentary” of the biography is not a guarantee of its reliability and accuracy. However, non -cocked biographies sin by mistakes even more often than 1 .

Memories of Einstein's sister

Among the documentary biographies, the memories of Einstein's sister, Maya Wieter-Einstein, occupy a special place. Maya was two and a half years younger than Albert, she left with her parents to Italy, where she attended primary school in German. Then, on the recommendation of her brother, she moved to Aarau and graduated from the Teacher Seminar at the Cantonal School. In 1905, she received a teacher's license. Then she studied the Romanesque languages ​​at a number of European universities and in 1908 defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Berne at Switzerland in French philology. In March 1910, she married Paul Winterer, whom she met while studying in Aarau. According to the laws currently currently, thereby she lost the right to work as a teacher, since marriage and teaching at school were considered incompatible. In German-speaking countries, this ridiculous law that infringed on the rights of women was canceled only in the 1950s.

The memories of the great brother were brought to 1924 and remained unfinished. But about his childhood and the period of formation of the scientist is written in detail. As Abraham Pays noted, “ Maya’s biographical essay, completed in 1925, is the main source of information about the early years of Albert ” (Pays, 1989, p. 44). The original memoirs are stored in the Besso family, in the Princeton archive there is a copy (PAS, 1989, p. 55–56). If not for Maya’s memories, we would hardly have learned “about the fright of the mother at the birth of a son: the baby’s head was too large, with an angular nape (this rare shape of the skull was preserved for life); About the first words of the grandmother at the sight of a new member of the family: “Viel zu dick! Viel zu dick!” (“Oh, how fat!”); About parental fears: whether the child will not be inferior, he does not speak for too long. These fears turned out to be groundless ” (Pait, 1989, p. 44) .

The original Maya manuscript contains 36 pages. Pages from the 4th to the 16th are published in the first volume of the meeting of documents about Einstein (Einstein, 1987). Maya sympathizes with his brother and with pain notes the problems that he had to face the development of the scientist. For example, she writes that while he could not find a job, his nutrition was scarce, which is why he earned a disease of the stomach. Maya notes that after the publication in 1905, the famous article on the special theory of relativity, many scientists began to write letters to “Professor Einstein” and address them to the Bernean University, while the author of the theory of relativity still did not work at the university, but in the patent department of Switzerland, that is, he held an absolutely non -scientific position. It seemed to Maya that her brother was underestimated by his colleagues-physics.

She deliberately silent about some details of Albert’s biography, for example, he does not say anything about the fate of Lyserl, born out of marriage.

The work of Rudolf Kaiser

In 1930, the biographical portrait of Einstein (the subtitle of the book sounds) was written by the husband of his stepdaughter Ilsa, the historian of the literature, the senior editor of the Berlin Neue Rundschau Rudolf Kayser, who in this case under the pseudonym Anton Raiser 2 (Reiser, 1930). Einstein did not just approve his biography written by Kaiser, he wrote a preface to her, and individual episodes were clearly written in his words. In the preface to the book, Einstein writes: “I find the facts in this book quite accurate, and their descriptions throughout the text are as good as you can expect from a person who is not me” (Reiser, 1930, p. XI) .

Despite the positive assessment of the biography, Einstein did not allow permission to publish it in German, but to give a son-in-law to work, the book was transferred to English and published in 1930 in New York and in 1931 in London. Einstein explained the ban on publication in German by considering the publications of biographies and autobiographies of living people to be tasteless. In addition, in the book of Kaiser too much, according to Einstein, is paid to the attention of personal life, and not the scientific achievements of the scientist (Weinstein, 2017, p. 534).

In 1997, the widow of Kaiser, his second wife Eve, nee Urgis (EVA Urgiss), was asked to resolve the German edition of the book of her late husband. She replied that she had repeatedly discussed this issue with Rudolf and realized that he and Professor Einstein were categorically against the German edition. Therefore, she cannot allow him.

Kaiser’s book and Memoirs of Maya Einstein are valuable in that their authors knew Einstein personally, saw him in a home environment, as Einstein himself put it, “in slippers” (Reiser, 1930, p. XI). In addition, these are the only books written at the time when Einstein still lived in Berlin.

Einstein Philip Frank

After his move to America in 1933, Einstein’s first biography was the book of Philip Frank Einstein. His life and his time ” 3 (Frank, 1979). Philip Frank also personally knew Einstein, he became his successor to the professor of theoretical physics of the German University in Prague. After 1938, Frank also emigrated to America and met again with Einstein. Then the idea appeared to write a biography of the great colleague. In the preface to the book, the author writes: “ Who at least to a small extent will comprehend Einstein’s personality, his work and their action, he will learn to better understand the world of our 20th century ” (Frank, 1979).

Einstein Frank began writing a biography in 1939 in New York, continued in 1940 in Chicago and finished the text in 1941 in Boston. The manuscript was written in German, but it was impossible to publish it in America in this form during the beginning of World War II. Therefore, at first, the book of Frank was published in 1947 translated into English, and in an abbreviated form. And only in 1949, Einstein’s biography appeared in German in full the author's manuscript.

Frank's book contains many interesting details and observations of an attentive person personally familiar with the hero of the biography. The author of the book emphasizes the unusual personality of Einstein and reinforces his conclusion with such a funny supervision.

Once Frank came to Princeton in the midst of winter. On the streets lay tall, but already beginning to tackle snowdrifts. Public transport did not work, and he needed to find the house of the famous German mathematician German Weil. The address Frank knew - house 270 on Mercer Street. Nevertheless, he asked a man who had raped snow from the street how to find this house. The man thought for a minute, and then joyfully said that this was Einstein's House. Einstein’s address - House 112 on the same street Mercer - Frank also knew well, so objected that the house he is looking for could not be Einstein’s home. Then the snow cleaner replied that this is the name of the 270 house, all the inhabitants of Mercer Street were called, and offered to bring Frank on the truck, on which he was snowing so that he himself could make sure of this. Frank willingly agreed, given that the weather did not have long walks. House 270 was built in the fashionable European style "Bauhaus" with a flat roof. He was strikingly different from the rest of the houses on the street (including Einstein’s dwelling), built in a traditional colonial style for America. The snow cleaner triumphed: "See, does this house look at all like the neighboring ones?" (Frank, 1979, S. 9–10).

The preface to the book was written by Albert Einstein himself. He admits that he does not really like to read biographies. Autobiography owes their appearance to either self -love of the author, or his negative attitude towards contemporaries. Biographies written by other people more draw the characteristics of their authors than the described person. So the image of the hero of the biography appears in the book as if in a crooked mirror (Frank, 1979, S. 5).

Despite the fact that Einstein was in principle against biographies, he nevertheless, according to him, inspired “ his old comrade professor Frank to write this book, which has the form of a biography ” (Frank, 1979, S. 6). Its author, according to Einstein, “ has an extraordinary instinct for psychological interdependents that underlie not only scientific ideas, but also assessments and political feelings of various generations ” (Frank, 1979, S. 6).

Einstein further describes the riddle for a long time: “He could never understand why the theory of relativity with its concepts and settings of tasks so far from life has been causing such a lively, even passionate resonance in the widest segments of the population. Nothing of the kind has happened since Galileo. But then the point of view authorized by the church was shaken by the church in space-the event of an outstanding cultural, historical and political significance-in the theory of relativity, we are talking about an attempt to clarify the basic physical concepts and the logical improvement of the hypotheses that underlie this science. What causes such a huge and indelible mental action here? ” (Frank, 1979, S. 6) .

The author of the theory of relativity himself cannot answer the question, but expresses confidence that Professor Frank can do this: “But I know that Dr. Frank can shed light on such interdependence, as it has philosophical and psychological intuition, as well as deep knowledge of modern physics and the history of the development of physical ideas. This is exactly what, coupled with my curiosity, as this happened, prompted me to inspire Dr. Frank on this book ” (Frank, 1979, S. 7) .

Einstein does not take the judge of whether the frank has coped with the task, but is firmly convinced that the reader can promise the following: “ He will find in the book a smart, interesting and convincing explanation, which will at least partially seem new and amazing ” (Frank, 1979, S. 7).

There are other opinions about who prompted Frank to write Einstein's biography. Gerald Holton, whose Philip Frank was a supervisor at Harvard University, told the chef that it was Franc's wife who advised him to write a biography of Einstein (Holton, 2006, p. 300). It is difficult to say exactly who was the initiator of the new biography of the great scientist; It is possible that both the wife of Frank and Einstein himself sought the same.

Holton evaluated the book of Frank very highly, especially for the historical, philosophical and cultural context, although he read an English translation, strongly cut in comparison with the German original. Frank told Holton that the American publisher of the book Alfred Knopf instructed the manuscript editing an American named Georg Rosen, who knew English, but did not understand physics, and Japanese Suyty Kusaka, who knew physics, but did not own English. (Weinstein, 2017, p. 536). As a result of the work of two editors, the manuscript was significantly reduced, and the publisher threw Einstein's preface from the American publication. Fortunately, in the German edition of 1979, the book was published without bills and with Einstein's preface (Frank, 1979).

Einstein's biographies written by Karl Zelig

Another documentary of Einstein, written during his life after moving to the United States, was the book of the Swiss journalist and writer Karl Seelig (Carl Seelig), Albert Einstein and Switzerland, 1952, published in 1952 at the EUROPA Verlag Publishing House. It was followed by the augmented biography of the scientist Albert Einstein. Documentary biography ”in the same publishing house (Seelig, 1952a). Subsequently, she was processed several times and began to be called Albert Einstein. The life and works of the genius of our time ”(see, e.g., (Seelig, 1960)).

Zelig, unlike Philip Frank, was neither a physicist nor acquaintance of Einstein. This is confirmed by Einstein himself in a letter to Maurice Solovin on May 7, 1952: “Zelig seems to me a pleasant person. I judge entirely by his actions, because personally he is not familiar with him ” (Einstein, 1967, p. 571) .

Zelig has long been looking for contact with the author of the theory of relativity, corresponded with him and his friends, often visited his sick son Einstein Edward, collected funny stories, jokes, stories about the great scientist. His interest in the Berlin professor woke up in 1919 after the experimental confirmation of the conclusions of the general theory of relativity, when the world glory of the crusher of the theory of the great Newton came to Einstein. At first, Zelig was going to publish Einstein's selected popular science works in his publishing house. It came even to a tempting business proposal: for Einstein’s book, edited by Zeliga, the author will receive a good fee of two thousand marks for the thousand copies sold (Weinstein, 2017, p. 537). Einstein thanked for the offer and politely refused.

In the collection of materials related to the life of the scientist, Zelig sometimes crossed the boundaries that Einstein was going to adhere to. The scientist, not without reason, was afraid that Zelig could not competently tell about his scientific contribution, but he would bring to the public the details of his personal life, which should not be taken out. Einstein answered some questions from Zeliga, but in general, Albert decided to refuse from preparing the biography, which the Swiss journalist spoke about in the early 1950s. Moris Solovin on March 30, 1952, Einstein, wrote: “As for Karl Zeliga, he is an honest person. Unfortunately, he treats his task excessively seriously and documents it for the whole world. You can talk to him about anything and bypass everything that you consider necessary. It’s not good only, to say neutrally, to appear in a naked public in a naked form. What you need to do, decide for yourself and do not inform me, because I do not even want to indirectly interfere with this enterprise. True, I answered him on some questions ” (Einstein, 1967, p. 568) .

Zelig began actively collecting information for the biography of Einstein in the early 1950s. Since Einstein refused to respond to the flow of Zeliga letters, the Swiss journalist chose the closest friend of Einstein Michel (Michel) Besso.

Zelig wrote the first letter Besso on February 11, 1952. It had many questions about Einstein. Zelig introduced himself as the editor of the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitschrift and the author of a number of biographies. Besso responds to his letter on February 19. Then, new letters of Zeliga (February 24 and March 11) followed with new lists of questions that Besso answered in detail (Einstein, 1980, p. 42).

Zeliga Besso told Einstein about questions in a letter of February 20:

“A certain writer - Karl Zelig - writes about Einstein in Switzerland; Dr. Saurus told him some information and addressed him to me <...>. Zelig asks which of the professors of physics in Bern opposed the appointment of you as an assistant professor. It could only be Gruner 4 , which, despite this, became Amende Honorable 5 thanks to the visual geometric clarification of the special theory of relativity (in fact, Saauters 6 ).

Maybe you remember the name of an anatomy professor, who for a long time rejected the theory of relativity as an illogical, and even earlier opposed your associate professor? I also did not find the name of the Zurich university professor who took you from Bern.

А как звали учившегося вместе с нами студента, который благодаря своему прилежному и точному конспектированию лекций облегчал тебе сложности с экзаменами?» (Эйнштейн, 1980, с. 41–42) .

В ответе Эйнштейна от 6 марта 1952 года явно слышен типичный швабский юмор, столь характерный для рожденного в Ульме физика: « Я уже слышал об этом „бездушном“ 7 Зелиге, занимающемся моим детским трупом » (Эйнштейн, 1980, с. 42). Но дальше Эйнштейн положительно оценивает усилия Зелига осветить именно швейцарский период его становления: «Но эта деятельность чем-то оправдана, поскольку о последующих годах бытия уже с некоторой подробностью сообщалось, а вот о швейцарском периоде ничего нет. Это может привести к неправильным выводам, ну, например, будто я родился прямо в Берлине!» (Эйнштейн, 1980, с. 42–43) .

И уже серьезно подходя к поставленной задаче, Эйнштейн перечисляет важные моменты того времени, которые необходимо отразить в биографии: «Следует рассказать о том, что мы ежедневно, возвращаясь домой со службы, обсуждали научные проблемы. Нужно также упомянуть о дружбе с Морисом Соловиным (сейчас он в Париже) и с братьями Конрадом и Паулем Габихтами, с которыми я познакомился во время обучения в Шафхаузене. Пауль Габихт недавно умер. Он конструировал для меня электрофоры, используемые для статических измерений малых напряжений методом умножения. С К. Габихтом и Соловиным мы регулярно встречались по вечерам в Берне, посвящая их чтению и дискуссиям; занимались мы главным образом Д. Юмом (в достаточно хорошем немецком издании). Эти занятия оказали довольно значительное влияние на мое развитие — наряду с Пуанкаре и Махом» (Эйнштейн, 1980, с. 43) .

Далее Эйнштейн отвечает на конкретные вопросы Бессо, исправляя по ходу дела его неверные представления: «А теперь твои вопросы. Против доцентуры выступал не Грюнер, а тогдашний ординарный профессор физики, некий Форстер, о некомпетентности которого среди молодых людей циркулировали злые истории (Грюнер всегда относился ко мне дружелюбно). О каком-либо профессоре анатомии в этой связи я ничего не припоминаю. Так уж часто случается, что на маленьких факультетах парочка старых хрычей (таких, как мы сейчас), держась друг за друга, всем верховодят» (Эйнштейн, 1980, с. 43) .

С теплотой вспоминает Эйнштейн своего научного руководителя по первой диссертации, защищенной в Цюрихском университете: «Цюрихский профессор, который забрал меня тогда в Цюрих, — это профессор Клейнер (университетский физик), у которого я затем выполнил докторскую диссертацию. Он специально приехал в Берн, чтобы послушать меня — новоиспеченного приват-доцента. (Ты и Шаван были моими единственными слушателями.) А потом он справедливо заметил, что лекция моя была не очень и хороша. Я согласился, но сказал — не без лукавства, — что они и не обязаны приглашать меня к себе. Но он всё же сделал это» (Эйнштейн, 1980, с. 43) .

Не забыл Эйнштейн и своего близкого друга и однокурсника Марселя Гроссмана: «Наш сокурсник, чьи отличные конспекты для меня явились спасением на экзаменах для получения диплома, впоследствии стал преемником Фидлера в Политехникуме. Его имя Марсель Гроссман; вместе с ним я позднее работал в Цюрихе над общей теорией относительности, в те времена еще мало кому известной. Он умер еще в молодые годы из-за рассеянного склероза. Он был моим близким другом. Его отец рекомендовал меня Галлеру, с которым был дружен. Случись иначе, я оказался бы, по всей видимости, в плачевном положении» (Эйнштейн, 1980, с. 43–44) .

Так что в биографии Зелига личный вклад Эйнштейна несомненен.

Нужно отметить еще один сборник статей в память об Альберте Эйнштейна, изданный в 1956 году под редакцией Карла Зелига в его издательстве Europa Verlag: это книга «Светлое время — темное время» (Seelig, 1956). Сборник содержит ценные воспоминания, документы, письма современников, знакомых, друзей великого физика, скончавшегося за год до выхода книги в свет. Особенно важными мне показались воспоминания однокурсника Эйнштейна по цюрихскому Политехникуму Луи Коллроса (Louis Kollros), рассказывающие о студенчестве Альберта.

Биографии Эйнштейна, составленные Карлом Зелигом, получили высокие оценки специалистов. Так, Бенеш Хоффман и Элен Дюкас называют Зелига « одним из самых значительных биографов Эйнштейна » (Хофман и Дюкас, 1983, с. 14). Академик Виталий Лазаревич Гинзбург считал сокращенный перевод с немецкого книги Карла Зелига «Эйнштейн» (Зелиг, 1964) « лучшей известной нам биографией Эйнштейна, изданной на русском языке » (Гинзбург, 2014, с. 132).

Evgeny Berkovich

To be continued

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Frank Philipp. 1979. Einstein. Sein Leben und seine Zeit. Braunschweig/Wiesbaden: Friedr: Vieweg&Sohn, 1979.

Reiser Anton. 1930. Albert Einstein. A Biographical Portret. New York: Albert and Charles Boni, Inc., 1930.

Seelig Carl (Hrsg.). 1956. Helle Zeit — Dunkle Zeit. Zürich-Stuttgart-Wien: Europa Verlag, 1956.

Seelig Carl. 1952. Albert Einstein und die Schweiz. Zürich, Stuttgart, Wienn: Europa-Verlag, 1952.

Seelig Carl. 1952a. Albert Einstein. Eine dokumentarische Biographie. Zürich: Europe Verlag, 1952.

Seelig Carl. 1960. Albert Einstein. Leben und Werk eines Genies unserer Zeit. Zürich: Europa Verlag, 1960.

Weinstein Galina. 2017. Einstein's Pathway to the Special Theory of Relativity (2nd Edition). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholar Publishing, 2017.

Гинзбург Виталий Лазаревич. 2014. О теории относительности. Ed. 2-е. М.: ЛЕНАНД, 2014.

Зелиг Карл. 1964. Альберт Эйнштейн. Сокр. перевод с немецкого . М.: Атомиздат, 1964.

Пайс Абрахам. 1989. Scientific activity and life of Albert Einstein. М.: Наука, гл. Ed. physical. лит., 1989.

Хофман Б. и Дюкас Э. 1983. Альберт Эйнштейн: творец и бунтарь. М.: Прогресс, 1983.

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

Эйнштейн Альберт. 1980. Переписка А. Эйнштейна и М. Бессо, 1903–1955 // У. И. Франкфурт (сост.). Эйнштейновский сборник, 1977 . С. 5–112 . М.: Наука, 1980.

1 Продолжение. Начало в ТрВ-Наука № 370. trv-science.ru/2023/01/more-einsteina

2 Заглавный персонаж психологического романа Карла Филиппа Морица (1756–1793), вышедшего на русском языке в издательстве «Отто Райхль» в 2014 году. - approx. Ed.

3 На корешке книги почему-то другое название, чем на титуле и в выходных данных: «Альберт Эйнштейн. Его жизнь и его время».

4 Бессо ошибается, см. ответ Эйнштейна от 6.03.1952.

5 «Аманд онорабль» (фр. amende honorable; букв. «штраф почетный») — в старом французском правовом законодательстве публичное признание своей неправоты или вины. Профессор Пауль Грюнер прочитал в Бернском университете курс по общей теории относительности (в 1922 году).

6 В «Эйнштейновском сборнике. 1977» (Эйнштейн, 1980) письмо Бессо переведено с характерной ошибкой. В нем фигурирует коллега Эйнштейна по патентному ведомству в Берне доктор Йозеф Заутер (Josef Sauter) и непонятный персонаж Саутерс, который на самом деле тот же Заутер, только с иным (неверным) переводом фамилии. В 1903 году именно Заутер привел Эйнштейна в Общество естествоиспытателей Берна, где познакомил со своим другом Паулем Грюнером, в то время приват-доцентом теоретической физики Бернского университета, сыгравшим определенную роль при защите Эйнштейном второй докторской диссертации в Бернском университете.

7 Игра слов, созвучных фамилии Зелиг (Seelig): Seele — душа, unselig — бездушный, злосчастный, окаянный.