Einstein: Release of Volume 9, The Berlin Years

Caltech News Release
For Immediate Release
November 10, 2004

Einstein: Release of Volume 9, The Berlin Years

PASADENA, Calif. - Early in the 20th century, scientists were
grappling with a controversial and complex new theory from Albert
Einstein: defying Newton's Principia that stated space was fixed and
time was absolute, inexorably ticking away, Einstein's general theory
of relativity held that matter actually changes the shape of a
combined space-time. Further, that curved space-time tells matter how
to move. Not only was his theory conceptually perplexing, at the time
the observable consequences of it were few and minute.

In 1919 British astrophysicist Arthur Stanley Eddington took
advantage of a natural phenomenon, a solar eclipse, to test
Einstein's theory. The eclipse would allow him to observe the way the
mass of the sun bent the path of light traveling from distant stars.
Eddington led an expedition to the island of Principe, off the
Atlantic coast of Africa, to observe the eclipse. If Einstein was
right, the thinking went, the light would be bent twice as far as
conventional Newtonian physics would allow.

While they were gone, Einstein waited anxiously in Berlin. Finally,
months later in November 1919, Eddington announced that Einstein was
indeed right, instantly making him the first science celebrity of our
age.

Set in the turbulent post-World War I period, The Collected Papers of
Albert Einstein, Volume 9, The Berlin Years: Correspondence, January
1919-April 1920, is the latest publication issued by the Einstein
Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology.

The present volume shows that Einstein was involved in numerous other
issues, both personal and professional, during this period of his
life. Piqued by early suggestions of a unified field theory, says
Caltech's Tilman Sauer, one of five editors who worked on Volume 9,
Einstein also pondered how to unify gravitation and electromagnetic
field theory, and worked to resolve contradictions between the new
quantum physics and relativity. "He also had many open-minded
exchanges with colleagues," says Sauer, "that may challenge his later
image as the stubborn critic of quantum mechanics."

The book also shows the nonscience side of Einstein, he says. "He was
deeply engaged in discussing social and political issues, he
participated in humanitarian efforts, and he intervened on behalf of
intellectuals condemned to death after the fall of the Bavarian
Soviet Republic," says Sauer. He also faced anti-Semitic outbursts,
reflected increasingly on his own identity as a Jew, and assisted in
efforts toward the establishment of the Hebrew University. As an
internationalist opponent of war, and a German-speaking Swiss citizen
whose renown was sealed by the Englishman Eddington's confirmation of
relativity, Einstein mitigated postwar hostility toward German
scholars.

Correspondence with family and friends documents his divorce,
remarriage to his cousin, and his closeness to his two sons. Evidence
in newly uncovered material shows there were efforts to lure Einstein
back to Switzerland and also to the Netherlands. However, Einstein,
entertaining high hopes for the young Weimar Republic, remained in
Berlin. This volume reveals new facets of Einstein as he
constructively participated in German and European scientific,
academic, and cultural life.

Volume 9 is the second volume that the Einstein Papers Project has
put out since it came to Caltech three years ago; some 20 more
volumes are in preparation. The project has been described as the
most ambitious publishing venture in the history of 20th-century
science.

The overall project requires research into more than 60,000
documents, including correspondence, scientific writings, speeches on
science and social issues, notebooks, diagrams, photos, as well as
various contemporary materials and letters about Einstein penned by
family members, colleagues, and the press. The collection of
photocopies is housed in seven large, fireproof filing cabinets, each
the weight of a baby grand piano. (Most of the originals are located
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the beneficiary of Einstein's
literary estate.)

The editors are already working on Volume 10, which will be another
volume of correspondence that will enrich the image of Einstein the
scientist, philosopher, but also humanist, colleague, friend,
husband, and father.


MEDIA CONTACT: Mark Wheeler
(626) 395-8733


More on the Einstein Project: www.einstein.caltech.edu, and
www.alberteinstein.info