INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME
3
xvii
in time
for
him
to
take
up
his
professorial
duties in mid-October
of
that
year.
Einstein
liked
teaching, though
he found it
demanding
work. "I
am very
pleased
with
my
new
profession,"
he wrote to
a
friend in
December.
"Teaching
is
a great
joy,
even
if it
does also
give me a
lot
to
do
at first."[8]
Einstein had
more
than
enough
to
keep
him
busy
as
he lectured each
week
on
mechanics
for four
hours, on thermodynamics
for
two,
and in addition
led
a
one-hour
seminar. It
was,
in
fact,
more
work than he had
expected,
and
left
him
less free
time
than
he had had in
Bern.[9]
We
can judge
the effort
that
Einstein
put
into
preparing
his
classes
by
the
notes he wrote
for
his
own use.
This volume contains such
notes
for
his
courses on
mechanics,
on
the kinetic
theory
of
gases
and statistical
mechanics,
and
on
electricity
and
magnetism.
The
course
on
statistical mechanics
is
more
recognizably
Einstein's
than
those
on
mechanics and
electromagnetism.
We
know from
notes
taken
at
various times
by
students in
his classes
that Einstein
kept
this
course
up
to
date, incorporating
recent
developments
that
he found
interesting
or
significant, including
of
course
some
from his
own
research.[10]
Einstein's
teaching
at
the
University
of Zurich
must be
called
a success.
When there
was
talk in June
1910
of
his
leaving
to
accept
a
professorship
in
Prague,
fifteen
Zurich students drew
up
a
petition
to
the educational authori-
ties of the
canton
of Zurich
urging
that
everything possible
be done
to
hold
on
to
"this
distinguished
researcher and
teacher."[11]
These students
were
anxious
to
continue
a
position
specifically
devoted
to
theoretical
physics,
and
they thought
that
Einstein
was
the
right man
to
keep
in this
position.
"Profes-
sor
Einstein understands
admirably
how
to
present
the
most difficult
prob-
lems of theoretical
physics
so clearly
and
intelligibly
that it
is
a
great pleasure
for
us
to
listen
to his
lectures."
Nevertheless,
when Einstein did
receive
an
offer
in
January
1911
of
a
full
professorship
from the
German-language university
at
Prague,
he
accepted
it
promptly.[12]
Two months later the Einstein
family
left
Switzerland for the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. They
would
return to
[8]"In meinem
neuen
Beruf
gefallt es
mir
sehr
gut.
Das Lehren macht mir
viel Freude,
wenn
es
mir
für
die
erste
Zeit auch sehr
zu
thun
gibt."
Einstein
to
Lucien
Chavan, 19
December
1909.
[9]See
Einstein
to
Michele
Besso, 17
November
1909.
[10]See
the editorial
note,
"Einstein's Lecture
Notes," pp.
3-10.
[11]"diesen
hervorragenden
Forscher &
Dozenten"
...
"Herr
Prof. Einstein versteht
in be-
wunderungswürdiger
Weise,
die
schwierigsten
Probleme der teoretischen
Physik
so
klar
&
ver-
ständlich darzustellen,
dass
es
für
uns
ein
grosser
Genuss
ist,
seinen
Vorlesungen
zu folgen."
See
the
petition
of students
at
the
University
of
Zurich,
23
June
1910
(SzZSa,
U
110 b.2 [44]). Only
two
years earlier,
Kleiner had
attended
one
of Einstein's
classes
at
Bern
and
judged
it "not
particularly good,"
a
judgment in
which Einstein concurred: "Nachher meinte
er
mit
Recht,
es
sei
nicht sonderlich
gut
gewesen."
See
Einstein
to Michele
Besso,
6
March
1952.
[12]See
Count Karl
von Stürgkh
to Einstein,
13 January
1911.