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Albert Einstein’s Magic Mountain: An Aarau Education*

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Abstract

For economic reasons, the electrotechnical factory J. Einstein & Cie. (co-owned by Albert Einstein’s father Hermann) had to be closed in the summer of 1894. While Albert’s parents emigrated to Italy to build a new existence, he remained in Munich to complete his studies at the Gymnasium. Left behind, however, he had a difficult time with what he considered the rigid educational practices at the Munich Luitpold-Gymnasium and quit without a diploma. The present article discusses Einstein’s richly winding path to the Aargau Cantonal School (Switzerland), especially its history and educational philosophy during the time of his stay in Aarau. There, Einstein met some outstanding teachers, who could serve him as models of scholars and human beings. In spite of Einstein’s distinct independence of mind, these personalities may well have had a significant influence on the alignment of his inner compass.

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Notes

  1. To avoid confusion, note the distinction between the town of Aarau and the Swiss canton of Aargau of which it is the capital.

References

  1. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, ed. John Stachel (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987), 1:lxiii.

  2. Th. Müller-Wolfer, Die Aargauische Kantonsschule in den vergangenen 150 Jahren (Aarau, Switzerland: H. R. Sauerländer & Co., 1952), 19.

  3. Ibid., 29.

  4. See also Festschrift 200 Jahre Aargauische Naturforschende Gesellschaft 1811–2011 (Aarau, Switzerland: Aargauische Naturforschende Gesellschaft, 2011).

  5. A. Hartmann, “Prof. Dr. August Tuchschmid,” in Jahresbericht Aarg. Kantonsschule 1939/1940 (Aarau, Switzerland: H. R. Sauerländer & Co., 1940), 7.

  6. Lewis Pyenson, The Young Einstein: The Advent of Relativity (Boston: Adam Hilger Ltd, 1985), 13.

  7. Festschrift zur Eröffnung des neuen Kantonsschulgebäudes in Aarau (Aarau, Switzerland: H. R. Sauerländer & Co. 1896), 53.

  8. Ernst Meissner, Prof. Dr. Heinrich Ganter, Separatdruck Jahresbericht Aarg. Kantonsschule 1915/1916 (Aarau, Switzerland: H. R. Sauerländer & Co., 1916), 10.

  9. Alexis Schwarzenbach, Das verschmähte Genie—Albert Einstein und die Schweiz (Munich: Collection Rolf Heyne, 2012), 24.

  10. Pyenson, Young Einstein (ref. 6), 16.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Erika Gautschi for her careful translation and her husband, Prof. Walter Gautschi, Purdue University, for his valuable comments. I thank Peter Pesic for a number of suggestions that substantially improved this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alte Kantonsschule Aarau, Bahnhofstrasse 91, 5001, Aarau, Switzerland

    Herbert Hunziker

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  1. Herbert Hunziker
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Correspondence to Herbert Hunziker.

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A revised and extended version of the English translation by Erika Gautschi, edited by Peter Pesic, of the German original published in ANG Fokus (Zeitschrift der Aargauischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft), No. 2, 58–70, September 2013.

** Herbert Hunziker is a teacher of mathematics at the Aargau Cantonal School (today named Alte Kantonsschule Aarau, AKSA) in Aarau, Switzerland. He completed his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Zurich.

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Hunziker, H. Albert Einstein’s Magic Mountain: An Aarau Education*. Phys. Perspect. 17, 55–69 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-014-0153-5

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