Après une enfance passée entre le sud de l’Allemagne, l’Italie et la Suisse, il obtint son diplôme à l’École polytechnique fédérale (aujourd’hui connue sous le nom d’ETH) de Zurich et travailla plusieurs années à l’Office fédéral suisse des brevets à Berne : il ne fut rattaché à aucune institution universitaire avant 1908, date à laquelle il obtint un poste d’assistant à l’université de Berne.
En 1905, son annus mirabilis ou « année miracle », Einstein a publié quatre articles révolutionnaires, sur la relativité restreinte, l’effet photoélectrique, le mouvement brownien et l’équivalence masse-énergie. Sa célèbre équation E = mc² est issue de ses travaux sur la relativité restreinte. En 1915, alors qu’il était désormais installé à Berlin, il a publié sa théorie générale de la relativité, qui a fondamentalement changé notre compréhension de la gravité : elle a été décrite comme « la plus belle théorie de la physique ». En 2021, Christie’s a vendu le manuscrit Einstein-Besso, une ébauche de ses travaux sur la relativité générale, pour 11 656 560 €.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955).
Autograph manuscript signed (‘A. Einstein‘), ‘Altes und Neues zur Feld‐Theorie‘, [Berlin, before 3 February 1929], with two pages of scientific workings. In German. 14 pages, 290 x 229mm.
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955).
Autograph letter signed (‘A. Einstein’) to [Rudi W.] Mandl, [Princeton], 2 June 1936.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Series of 43 autograph letters signed ('Albert Einstein' (4), 'Albert' (23), the later letters with variations on the pet-name 'Johannzel', two letters lacking signature) to his first wife, Mileva Marić, [Zurich, Milan, Mettmenstetten, Melchtal, Winterthur, Schaffhausen and Bern, 16 February 1898 - ?19 September 1903]
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)
Autograph letter signed ('A. Einstein') to [Wander and Geertruida] de Haas ('Meine lieben De-Haasen!'), n.p. [Berlin], n.d. [before 15 November 1915].
The completion of the general theory of relativity
Berlin, 21 December 1915
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)
Autograph manuscript, n.p., n.d. [early 1940s], draft of a scientific paper on Unified Field Theory.
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)
'Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen.' Offprint from: Annalen der Physik , 4th Series, vol. 17. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1905.
God does not play dice
Princeton, 30 November 1949
'The great success of gravitation'
Berlin, 3 January 1916
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Autograph letter signed (with initials, 'A.E.') to Cornelius Lanczos, n.p., 21 March 1942
LORENTZ, Hendrik Antoon (1853-1928)
Large collection of scientific publications by the Dutch Nobel laureate, H.A. Lorentz, from his own private library.
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)
Autograph scientific manuscript incorporating a draft autograph statement signed (with initials, 'A.E'), 25 December 1925.
Closing in on general relativity
Zurich, March 1914
His 'boldest dreams' of general relativity
Berlin, 10 December 1915
'The universe only exists in one example'
Ahrenshoop (on the German Baltic coast), 20 August 1918
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)
‘Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig?’ Offprint from: Annalen der Physik, 4th Series, vol. 18. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1905
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Autograph manuscript signed (at conclusion, 'A. Einstein'), 'Einheitliche Feldtheorie von Gravitation und Elektrizität' [Unified Field Theory of Gravitation and Electricity], [Berlin, before 14 June 1928]
An attempt at a new unified theory
Geneva, 28 July 1925
Quantum equations
Zurich, 11 August 1926
Equations for a case in general relativity
Princeton, 14 May 1954
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)
Photograph signed ('A. Einstein') and inscribed to [A.C.] Robbins, 1951.
Quantum mechanics, field theory and relativity
Berlin, 30 October 1931
A 'dazzling demonstration' of the theory of general relativity
Berlin, 26 July 1920
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)
Autograph manuscript, section 3 of a paper on unified field theory, 'Spezialisierte Feldgleichungen für ein Feld, das einer Symmetriebedingung genügt' (Specialised field equations for a field satisfying a symmetry condition), n.p., n.d. [before 23 August 1943]
The 16-year-old prodigy
Aarau, 1895
On the nature of time, relativity and quantum theory
Princeton, 10 September 1952
His will and testament
Albert Einstein, May 1934
A dense exposition of unified field theory
Princeton, August 1942
On a mechanical proof for the theory of relativity
Albert Einstein, 1950-1954
His solitary working methods and a new unified field theory
Gatow, near Berlin, 5 January 1929
Speculation on the age of the universe
Caputh, near Berlin, 1 March 1931
Deep thought as an approach to God
Princeton, 15 April 1950
'A contradiction in the principle of relativity'
Albert Einstein. 23 July 1907
Hans Albert Einstein’s copy of one of his father’s earliest papers
Albert Einstein. 1904
His favourite books: Don Quixote and the Bible
Berlin, 15 March 1926
Inscribed to Estella Katzenellenbogen
Albert Einstein, 1945
On the subjective nature of time
Princeton, 13 July 1952
Einstein and the 'eternal riddle-maker'
Berlin, 9 March 1917
On America and the Jewish character
Princeton, 8 August 1938
'Great and noble things come from isolated figures'
Albert Einstein. 1934