EINSTEIN'S LECTURE NOTES
I
Immediately
after
he
took
up
his
position
as
Extraordinary
Professor
at
the Univer-
sity
of Zurich
in
October
1909,
Einstein
was
confronted with
a
considerable
teaching
load. In
his first
semester,
the winter
semester
1909-1910,
he
taught
seven
hours
a
week:
four hours of
mechanics,
two
hours of
thermodynamics,
and
a
physics
seminar
for
one
hour. For
someone
with
as
little
teaching experience
as
Einstein[1]
this
was a
heavy
load that
left
him little time
to
spend
on
other
things.
In
a
letter
to Besso
of
17
November 1909 he states
that
he
spends
so
much time
on
his
lectures
that
he
has
actually
less free
time than
he
had
as a
patent
clerk
in Bern.
But,
as
he
adds,
"one
learns much in the
process."[2]
For
Einstein, teaching
was
not
only something
to
be
taken
seriously,[3]
but also
an enjoyable
task. In
the
spring
of
1910
he wrote to
his
mother:
"My lecturing
has
begun,
and
it makes
me very happy."[4]
According
to
one
of
his
former
students,
Einstein
encouraged
his students
to interrupt
him with
ques-
tions and
quickly
established
good
relations with
them.[5]
After his
move
to
Prague
in
the
spring
of
1911
Einstein
seems
to
have found
less
pleasure
in
his
lecturing.
In
his
letters
he
complains
in
no
uncertain
terms
about
his
students and their lack of
interest.[6] After
his
return to
Zurich
in the
summer
of
1912
Einstein had
no
obligation
to
teach
general
courses
and could
concentrate
on
special-
ized
courses
for small
groups
of advanced
students.[7]
He
nevertheless
expressed
or
implied
a
dissatisfaction with
teaching
several
times, always
in
connection with
his
[1]At
the
time,
Einstein's
only teaching experience
derived from
two
courses
he had
taught
as
Privatdozent
at
the
University
of
Bern. See
Appendix
B,
"Einstein's Academic
Courses,"
pp. 598-600,
for
an
overview of the
courses taught by
Einstein
in
Bern,
Zurich, Prague,
and
Berlin.
[2]"man
lernt
viel
dabei." Einstein
to
Michele
Besso, 17
November
1909. See
also Einstein
to
Arnold
Sommerfeld,
19 January 1910,
where Einstein
explains
that
he has little time for
re-
search because
his
professorial
duties
are more time-consuming
than
he had anticipated.
[3]On
31
December
1909 he
wrote
to
Jakob Laub: "I take
my
lecturing
very
seriously
and
must
therefore
spend
much time
in
preparation" ("Ich
nehme
es
sehr
ernst
mit dem
Lesen,
sodass
ich viel
Zeit auf
die
Vorbereitung
verwenden
muss").
[4]"Meine
Vorlesungen
haben
begonnen
und
machen
mir
viel
Freude." Einstein
to
Pauline
Einstein, 28
April
1910.
There
are no
objective contemporary
sources
that
comment
on
the
quality
of Einstein's
teaching:
the
two existing-very positive-assessments
were
both
written
for
specific
purposes.
The first
one
is
a
student
petition,
written
in
the
summer
of
1910 in
an
attempt to prevent
Einstein's
planned
move
to
Prague
(Student
Petition, 23
June
1910);
the
second
one
is
a
letter
by
Heinrich
Zangger to
a
member of
the Swiss
Federal Council
in
support
of
Einstein's
appointment to
a new
chair of theoretical
physics
at
the ETH
(Heinrich Zangger
to
Ludwig Forrer, 9
October
1911).
[5]See
Seelig 1960, pp.
170-171. The
student
was
Hans Tanner.
[6]See, e.g.,
Einstein
to
Lucien
Chavan,
5-6
July 1911,
in
which
he
remarks
on
the
lesser
intelligence
of the
Prague
students,
and Einstein
to
Michele
Besso,
4
February
1912,
in which
he
complains
about
his
students' lack of interest.
[7]See
Robert Gnehm
to
eidg. Departement
des Innern, 23
January 1912,
(Sz Ar,
E
8(B),
Box
89,
Einstein
Dossier).
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