Einstein in Berlin

By Thomas Levenson

Albert Einstein's Berlin years capture in microcosm the odyssey of the twentieth century. It is a century that opens with extravagant hopes - and climaxes in unparalleled calamity. These are tumultuous times, seen through the life of one man who is at once witness to and architect of his day - and ours.

Life in turmoil

Albert Einstein is present at the events that will shape the journey from the commencement of the Great War to the rumblings of the next one. We begin with the eminent scientist, already widely recognized for his special theory of relativity. His personal life is in turmoil, with his marriage collapsing, an affair under way. Within two years of his arrival in Berlin Albert Einstein makes one of the landmark discoveries of all time: a new theory of gravity - and before long is transformed into the first international pop star of science.

Symbol of the hope of reason

Albert Einstein flourishes during a war he hates, and serves as an instrument of reconciliation in the early months of the peace. Albert Einstein becomes first a symbol of the hope of reason, then a focus for the rage and madness of the right. And throughout these years Berlin is an equal character, with its astonishing eruption of revolutionary pathways in art and architecture, in music, theater, and literature. Its wild street life and sexual excesses are notorious. But with the debacle of the depression and Hitler's growing power, Berlin will be transformed, until by the end of 1932 it is no longer a safe home for Albert Einstein.

Jewish physics

Once a hero, now vilified not only as the perpetrator of 'Jewish physics' but as the preeminent symbol of all that the Nazis loathe, he knows it is time to leave.

Publication

Einstein in Berlin by Thomas Levenson
Publisher: Bantam Books, 2003
ISBN: 055310344X

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