Einstein in Berlin

Rating:
Summary: Einstein's genius and personal flaws
Review: There is a view of human history that believes that the trends are so strong, that no one person can significantly alter what is destined to occur. An opposing view is that there are so many potential paths that the differences that drive movement from one path to another are very small. Not only can one person provide the impetus from one path to another, but also the differences between the paths can be enormous. This book is primarily about Albert Einstein, one who had a dramatic effect on history. His development of new physics in the first decade of the twentieth century completely altered our view of the universe and was revolutionary.
The best measure of how revolutionary is the oft-repeated statement of astronomer Arthur Eddington. When told that he was one of only three people in the world who understood relativity, Eddington seemed puzzled. He was asked if he disagreed with the statement and he responded, "No, I was just trying to think of who the third person would be." Such revolutionary ideas that describe nature will eventually be discovered, but it is clear that Einstein was decades ahead of everyone else in his understanding of the universe.
Another one of the unforgettable people who changed the course of history is a secondary topic of the book. That person is of course Adolph Hitler, whose pathological Nazi movement eventually forced the Jewish Einstein from Germany. In 1913, as a consequence of Einstein's incredible work while a patent clerk in Switzerland, Walther Nernst and Max Planck went to visit Einstein. Their purpose was to offer him the best scientific job in the world, a professorship with no teaching responsibilities at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin. The offer was an incredible one, but it was fitting, given Einstein's stature. He accepted and arrived in Berlin shortly before the outbreak of World War I. Outside of his traveling, he stayed there until forced out when Hitler rose to power.
This is a chronicle of Einstein, but it is also a history of Germany in the years from 1914 until 1932. While the events in Europe as a consequence of the rise of Hitler are well known, the situation in Germany during those years is not well known. Few people are aware of the social tension due to deprivation that took place in Germany from 1914 until the rise of Hitler. Near-starvation was universal in the last two years of the First World War, and there was chaos immediately after. The hyperinflation of the early twenties was incredible, it is hard to believe that things were so bad that the exchange rate was one Trillion marks to the dollar. After a few years of relative stability, the onset of the depression at the end of the 1920's once again reduced a large percentage of the population to destitution. There are documented cases of people growing rich by killing people and marketing their flesh as pork. No wonder so many people were willing to surrender their freedom to starve to death and their political freedom for the opportunity to eat regularly. In his criticisms of the German people, which often happened, the well-fed and secure Einstein displayed a social naivete.
Even though it does not cover his entire life, this is one of the best biographies of Einstein the man. While no biography can avoid his physics and this one does not, there is an emphasis on his other activities. The image we have of him now is that of a transcendent genius with wild hair and a wise, grandfatherly manner. He was one of the first celebrities of the media age, and he played to the public fairly well. The personal Einstein was often not a pleasant man. His sudden fame doomed his first marriage to Mileva Maric, and his actions in casting her off were crude at best. Even years after their separation and divorce, he referred to her in very derogatory terms, even to people who were friends to both of them. Throughout his life, even after his marriage to his cousin Elsa, he entertained a sequence of mistresses. His attitude towards Elsa was that she had to leave him to do what he wanted, her feelings in the matter were of little consequence. Her purpose was to cook, keep house and accompany him when needed. Einstein's relationship with his children was also strained at best. He did try to be a part of their lives, but never seemed able to empathize with the problems in their lives.
Einstein is often characterized as strictly a theoretician; it was refreshing to learn that he had real mechanical ability. He received several patents, two of which were for a navigational device for ships and the other for a refrigerator. The international royalties from the patents were one of the ways he was insulated from the monetary disaster of the early twenties.
While the saintly genius that we all know comes through in this book, the other aspects of Einstein's life will likely change your attitude towards him. Yes, he was a great man, perhaps the greatest intellectual genius of the last three hundred years. However, after his rise to prominence, he was largely incapable of forming emotional relationships beyond friendship and at times, he showed a tendency to be contemptuous towards the German people. While some of that was deserved, the Germans were no different than others and many of them were just trying to stay alive.

Rating:
Summary: A misnomer, but worth the effort...
Review: ...only reason I gave this 4 and not 5 was because the title really doesn't live up to its name--most of this book is not just about Einstein but rather of how he is defined by, or defines, world events surrounding him---nonetheless, it gives great non-technical, easy-to-read summaries of his theory of relativity, causes and effects of WW1, Germany in the inter-war years, anti-Semitism and how it affected his work (including one literally chilling scene in which he is snubbed, ignored by his non-Jewish colleagues at a regular meeting of one of his professional groups) and much more---fascinating!! buy it!!

Rating:
Summary: Well worth reading
Review: Einstein in Berlin needs no hype. It's an elegantly written narration of Einstein's years in Berlin--years that were vital to his development as a great scientist and humanist, and to Berlin and Germany's descent from post-World-War-I chaos to the madness of the Holocaust. It's not a book for someone wanting yet another idealized portrait of Einstein. But it's a must-read for anyone seeking a genuine understanding Einstein as a man, as a scientist, and as a remarkably influential figure during a critical historical period. Levenson has produced an insightful biography and a sophisticated history, and has woven them together masterfully.

Robert Adler, Ph.D., author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (John Wiley & Sons, September 2002).

Rating:
Summary: Einstein, scientist and pacifist, against a canvas of war
Review: Focussed on the Berlin years this biography of Einstein has a lot of detail that moves in a broader dimension than the tale of the mythical scientist we see in most accounts. While the public 'story' is by and large accurate, a closer focus reveals some refreshing details, to say nothing of yielding some insights into how science is done, at least how science is done Einstein-style. From the discovery of relativity to the completion of the general theory a slightly different picture from the usual one emerges, as we see Einstein the intuitive problem solver more than Einstein the mathematician, a triumph of breakthrough synthesis. He complains about Minkowski's mathematical rendition, and behind General Relativity lurks Grossman. Einstein seems to be thinking on a different plane and summons the math to assist the gedanken experiment in his own mind.
Most of all we trace his path through the years of the first world war, Weimar, the hyperinflation, the coming of the Nazis, up to his final departure as Hitler takes control, interleaved with his interactions with the physics and physicists of his time.
A bad period for a pacifist, and Einstein was in the frontlines for almost the entire period.

Rating:
Summary: GENIUS AT WORK
Review: I'm glad I read Thomas Levenson's EINSTEIN IN BERLIN in spite of its atrocious publisher's blurb: "In a book that is both biography and the most exciting form of history, here are eighteen years in the life of a man, Albert Einstein, and a city, Berlin, that were in many way the defining years of the twentieth century." What "the most exiting form of history" may be is never explained. Fortunately, the book is better written than its jacket. Levenson, a documentary filmmaker who produced a two-hour biography of Einstein for Nova, can paint memorable pictures with words too. In general, he does better by Einstein than he does by Berlin.

Levenson strikes a good balance between the details of Einstein's private life, his scientific work, and his political activities. The book's greatest strength is its rendering of Einstein's contributions to theoretical physics into a form digestible even by a scientific illiterate. Levenson shows the process as well as the final result; the failures as well as the triumphs. He explains the ongoing debate between Einstein and Niels Bohr over arcane aspects of quantum mechanics. I was intrigued by the "mind experiments" Einstein used to test his theories and those of other phyicists. The chapters summarizing Einstein's life before and after Berlin give the reader sufficient context for understanding his "defining" years. Some aspects of his personal life get short shrift: his activity as an amateur musician, for example. We learn that his friendship with Queen Elizabeth of Belgium began when they played chamber music together, but we never are given a glimpse of him playing, nor any sense of the time he devoted to this pastime.

Levenson is more impressionistic in his portrayal of Berlin. It is not so much Einstein's Berlin we are shown as that of his friend Count Harry Kessler, a liberal bon vivant whose Diary of a Cosmopolitan is quoted extensively. The reader learns almost nothing about the university that employed Einstein for eighteen years beyond the small circle of scientists with whom he associated. Levenson describes the nightlife and popular culture of Berlin at length, but shows little of its high culture. Much space is devoted to Josephine Baker and Fritz Lang, but Schonberg, Schnabel, Kadinsky and Lotte Leyna are mentioned only when they became refugees. Levenson is thorough in detailing political and economic events in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany, but provides little insight into the daily life of ordinary Berliners.

Levenson gives the reader more of WWI and Adolf Hitler's part in it than seems necessary for this book. Details of the major battles and of Corporal Hitler's medals are unnecessary to an understanding of Einstein's opposition to the war or of Berlin's experience during the war. It was Hitler the politician, not Hitler the soldier, who impacted Berlin and Einstein so profoundly in later years.

Rating:
Summary: GENIUS AT WORK
Review: I'm glad I read Thomas Levenson's EINSTEIN IN BERLIN in spite of its atrocious publisher's blurb: "In a book that is both biography and the most exciting form of history, here are eighteen years in the life of a man, Albert Einstein, and a city, Berlin, that were in many way the defining years of the twentieth century." What "the most exiting form of history" may be is never explained. Fortunately, the book is better written than its jacket. Levenson, a documentary filmmaker who produced a two-hour biography of Einstein for Nova, can paint memorable pictures with words too. In general, he does better by Einstein than he does by Berlin.

Levenson strikes a good balance between the details of Einstein's private life, his scientific work, and his political activities. The book's greatest strength is its rendering of Einstein's contributions to theoretical physics into a form digestible even by a scientific illiterate. Levenson shows the process as well as the final result; the failures as well as the triumphs. He explains the ongoing debate between Einstein and Niels Bohr over arcane aspects of quantum mechanics. I was intrigued by the "mind experiments" Einstein used to test his theories and those of other phyicists. The chapters summarizing Einstein's life before and after Berlin give the reader sufficient context for understanding his "defining" years. Some aspects of his personal life get short shrift: his activity as an amateur musician, for example. We learn that his friendship with Queen Elizabeth of Belgium began when they played chamber music together, but we never are given a glimpse of him playing, nor any sense of the time he devoted to this pastime.

Levenson is more impressionistic in his portrayal of Berlin. It is not so much Einstein's Berlin we are shown as that of his friend Count Harry Kessler, a liberal bon vivant whose Diary of a Cosmopolitan is quoted extensively. The reader learns almost nothing about the university that employed Einstein for eighteen years beyond the small circle of scientists with whom he associated. Levenson describes the nightlife and popular culture of Berlin at length, but shows little of its high culture. Much space is devoted to Josephine Baker and Fritz Lang, but Schonberg, Schnabel, Kadinsky and Lotte Leyna are mentioned only when they became refugees. Levenson is thorough in detailing political and economic events in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany, but provides little insight into the daily life of ordinary Berliners.

Levenson gives the reader more of WWI and Adolf Hitler's part in it than seems necessary for this book. Details of the major battles and of Corporal Hitler's medals are unnecessary to an understanding of Einstein's opposition to the war or of Berlin's experience during the war. It was Hitler the politician, not Hitler the soldier, who impacted Berlin and Einstein so profoundly in later years.

Rating:
Summary: Einstein in Context
Review: This book gives a context to science that I have not seen before. Scientists do not work in an isolated bubble (though this one wished he had), but in a home and cultural environment.

Berlin, which prided itself on its science, went through dramatic changes, and the cowardice of the so-called intellectual elite was stunning. Yet Einstein himself seemed unsurprised by this. He was forever enthusiastically working toward the betterment of society, but had no faith in the people in it. He found people predictably disappointing.

The book contrasts his public commitment to his private cruelties. He himself was a disappointing individual, but not in the usual ways of public cowardice. Instead he had a callousness and seeming indifference to his families that he never showed the strangers he worked so hard to enlighten. He was not someone you would want to be married to or have as your father. But he would be great to kibitz with.

Still, his brilliance was not isolated to physics. He had brilliant philosophies and political observations. When I went to the Boston Museum of Science to see his exhibit, I was shocked to learn that he earned himself a file at our own FBI for his views, which I do not remember the book mentioning. It seems he was also brilliantly dangerous, and his disdain for authority was found equally unsettling to both the Nazi and the American governments.

This is a cover-to-cover read, educational historically as well as on Einstein himself and his physics. I have read a few books on Einstein and found this one of the best.