INTRODUCTION
TO
VOLUME
6
I
In the
period
covered
by
this
volume,
Einstein's life and
career
entered
a new
phase,
which
we
characterize
as
the Berlin
years.
His
appointment
as
salaried
member of the Prussian
Academy
of Sciences
placed
him
at
the focus of the
scientific
community
of his time-a
major change
from his
professorship at
the ETH in
more
peripheral
Zurich. This
new
appointment
also had
major
consequences
for his
personal
life:
during
the Berlin
years
Einstein became
more
and
more
of
a public
figure,
whose
opinion
on
nonscientific issues
was
sought
with
increasing frequency.
Indeed,
this first volume of
the
Berlin
years
already
contains
some
nonscientific
items, two
relating
to
the First World
War
(Docs. 8
and
20),
and
a
brief
statement
on
the
deleterious effect
of the
traditional
final
secondary
school
exam
in the
German school
system
(Ein-
stein 1917h
[Doc. 49]).[1]
The
early
months of the Berlin
years
also mark the
culmination of
an unhappy period
in
Einstein's
private
life: the
estrangement
from his
wife
Mileva,
which had started in
Zurich,
finally
led
to
a
separation.
After
only a
few months
spent
with
Einstein
in
Berlin,
Mileva and the
two
boys,
Hans Albert and
Eduard,
returned
to Zurich.[2]
During
the
war
years
Einstein's
relationship
with his
cousin
Elsa
Löwenthal,
whose
presence
there
had
helped
attract
him
to Berlin,
continued and
strengthened.
After his di-
vorce
from Mileva in
February
1919
he married Elsa
in
June of
the
same year.
The first Berlin
years
saw
the conclusion of
a
task that had
occupied
much
of Einstein's time and
energy
since his
return
from
Prague
to
Zurich in the
late
summer
of
1912:
the work
on a
theory
of
gravitation.
With the
publica-
tion in November
1915
of Einstein
1915f, 1915g,
and 1915i
(Docs.
21, 22,
and
25),
in
which
generally
covariant
field
equations
were
derived,
the
theory
was
completed.
Its successful
explanation
of
the
observed
anomaly
in
the
mo-
tion
of
the
perihelion
of
Mercury
in Einstein 1915h
(Doc. 24)
gave
the
theory
crucial
empirical support. Although
Einstein continued
to
work
out
further
[1]Einstein's
negative
views
on
examinations had been formed
at
least
by
the time that he
attended the ETH
as a
student
(see
Einstein
1979,
pp.
16
and
17).
[2]More
background
to
these and
other
occurrences
in Einstein's
private
life
is
provided
in
Vol.
8,
the
Correspondence
volume for the first Berlin
years.