Einstein at home / Friedrich Herneck ; translated, with an introduction by Josef Eisinger ; foreword by Alice Calaprice.

ISBN:

9781633881471

Title:

Author:

Herneck, Friedrich, author.

Personal Author:

Herneck, Friedrich, author.

Uniform Title:

Einstein privat. English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Contents:

Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication Page; CONTENTS; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Time Line; Chapter 1: Introductory Remarks; Chapter 2: Friedrich Herneck, Historian of Science in Difficult Times, by Dieter B. Herrmann; Chapter 3: Einstein's Road to Berlin-and Beyond, by Josef Eisinger; Early Years (1879-1895); Student in Zurich (1896-1901); Patent Clerk in Bern (1902-1908); Zurich and Prague (1909-1913); Berlin (1914-1932); The War Years, Divorce, and General Relativity; Fame, Politics, and the Gyrocompass; Zionist and Voyager; Einstein at Fifty: Caputh and Pasadena; Two Weeks at Home

Weimar Culture and SciencePrinceton (1933-1955); Farewell to Europe; Coda; Chapter 4: Einstein at Home, Herta W. Recalls the Years 1927 to 1933, by Friedrich Herneck; First Conversation: The Apartment in the Haberlandstrasse; Second Conversation: Frequent Visitors and Rare Guests; Third Conversation: Family-Vacations-Foreign Journeys; Fourth Conversation: Summer House and Sailboat in Caputh; Fifth Conversation: The House Searched and Plundered-Interrogation; Photo Insert; Notes; Select Bibliography; Index

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Personal Subject:

Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955.

Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955

Subject Term:

Physicists -- Biography.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Science & Technology.

SCIENCE -- Energy.

SCIENCE -- Mechanics -- General.

SCIENCE -- Physics -- General.

Physicists

Added Author:

Eisinger, Josef, 1924-

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

http://ezproxy.angliss.edu.au/login?url=http://ezproxy.angliss.edu.au/login?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=1053728

Publication Date:

2016

Publication Information:

Amherst, New York :

Prometheus Books,

2016.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
530.092	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

These intimate, candid descriptions of the private life of Albert Einstein come from a series of interviews with Herta Waldow, a housekeeper who lived with Einstein and his wife and daughter from 1927 to 1933 at their residence in Berlin. After World War II, science historian Friedrich Herneck interviewed Ms. Waldow and published the conversations in the former East Germany. Unavailable in English till now, these five interviews offer fascinating glimpses into the great scientist's daily routines while he lived as a celebrated scientist in Weimar Germany.Einstein's well-known idiosyncrasies come to life in these conversations: his disheveled hair that was only poorly trimmed by his myopic wife, his love of classical music, his playing of the violin to help him think, his delight in sailing, his wide circle of friends and many social engagements, and his female companions besides his wife. Many celebrity acquaintances are also mentioned: from movie star Charlie Chaplin and conductor Erich Kleiber to writers Thomas and Heinrich Mann and fellow scientists Max Planck, Max Born, and Erwin Schrödinger.With a detailed introduction that puts these interviews in context, these colorful conversations create a vivid picture of Albert Einstein the man.

Author Notes

Friedrich Herneck (1909-1993) was a German historian of science. Among his many books were Einstein and His Worldview and Einstein and the Atom Bomb .

Josef Eisinger is the author of Einstein on the Road and the translator of Brahms's letters in Johannes Brahms, Life and Letters , by Styra Avins. A native of Vienna, he is a physicist whose research has ranged from nuclear physics to molecular biology and from the history of medicine to music history. He is professor emeritus in the Department of Structural and Chemical Biology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, the author of some two hundred articles in professional journals and books, and the recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships.

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

In 1978, Herneck, the noted German science historian and author of several books about Albert Einstein, interviewed Herta Waldow, the Einstein family's live-in housekeeper in Berlin between 1927 and 1933. Published in German as Einstein privat, the interviews exposed the personal life of the twentieth-century's most celebrated scientist. Here, in Einstein at Home, Eisinger translates those five conversations into English and adds a concise synopsis of Einstein's life that helps put this period into context. We know from surviving letters that the family was quite fond of Herta and worried about her safety during the war. She, in turn, found them to be compassionate and generous employers. Particularly harrowing is her account of facing a Nazi interrogation about Einstein's habits and visitors and of hurriedly packing up their apartment before it, their summer home, and his precious sailing boat were seized. Even though Herneck had spent many years researching and writing about Einstein, he was obviously delighted to learn new tidbits about his favorite subject. Eisinger's translation opens a new window into Einstein's rich personal life prior to WWII so that English speakers can gain a fuller understanding of the man behind the public persona and grandfatherly visage.--Kaplan, Dan Copyright 2016 Booklist

Library Journal Review

German historian Herneck (1909-93) (Einstein and His Worldview; Einstein and the Atom Bomb), as translated by Eisinger (dept. of structural & chemical biology, Mt. -Sinai Sch. of Medicine; Einstein on the Road), provides an intimate view into the life of Albert Einstein (1879-1955). Many biographies of Einstein cover his schooling, marriage, and move to the United States. This text discusses these topics but also lists the man's preferred foods and other personal details that add humanity to a figure who is often elevated above the common individual. Some sections are written in an essay or lit-review format; others are transcriptions of interviews between Herneck and Herta Waldow (née Schiefelbein), the Einsteins' live-in housekeeper. VERDICT This brief portrait of Einstein will appeal to readers who want a more rounded or three-dimensional view of a private person who led a public life, as well as to those who might not otherwise be interested in the more technical or scientific side of the physicist.-Dawn Lowe-Wincentsen, Oregon Inst. of Technology, Portland © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.