Description:

Einstein Albert

Albert Einstein on Money Troubles, Two Years before Receiving the Nobel Prize

 

Signed and autographed postcard, 5.5" x 3.5". Dated "23.XII" (December 23), and signed by Albert Einstein as "Albert." Written entirely in Einstein's hand in his native German. Postmarked from Berlin 24.12.19 (December 24, 1919). Near fine with overall evening toning commensurate with age. Provenance: Ex-Christies, Ex Paul Winteler, Einstein's brother-in-law.

 

A wonderful piece, with extensive correspondence by Einstein to his brother-in-law, Paul Winteler. Unpublished. Einstein expresses his concerns for caring for his terminally-ill mother in Berlin, and money-troubles in Switzerland, only two years before receiving the Nobel prize.

 

The struggle to find proper accommodation for Pauline Einstein has concluded successfully: 'We have the room for Mama for sure, so that I do not have to evacuate my study. It was a hard slog. We hope we have now overcome all the difficulties'. He sends greetings to Maja, and wonders if they plan to visit in Berlin. The principal subject of the card is to ask his brother-in-law to send some funds [from an investment in the Schweizerische Auer-Aktien Gesellschaft, which Paul managed to the Zurich Kantonalbank as soon as possible, as he urgently needs it for his family [his first wife, Mileva, and their children Hans Albert and Eduard. He is worried that Paul did not receive his previous letter on this subject. 

It is hard to grasp Einstein's money concerns, as today he is considered not only the most famous and impactful scientist in his field, (and he is even known as the fifth highest earning dead celebrities of all time). However this letter was written in the midst of his career acceleration which was all coming together circa 1920, leading to his Nobel prize in 1921.

Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. He published the theory of special relativity in 1905 , and then realized that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and he published a paper on general relativity in 1916 with his theory of gravitation. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, he applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the "photoelectric effect", a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory.

However as Einstein was also in the midst of divorcing his wife, in order to convince Maric to sign the divorce papers, which she was at first reluctant to do, Einstein offered her all of the money that came with the Nobel prize, if he were to win. Back then, the prize winnings were 37 times more than she earned in a year.

 

But then we all know money was not what drove Einstein, although his early years were known to be financially difficult for him and his family.



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