| Einstein in English |
In 1914, Albert Einstein became a regular guest at the Russian-style home of the Ehrenfest family at the Witte Rozenstraat 57.
Paul Ehrenfest had been appointed professor of Theoretical Physics in 1912 as the successor of well-known Lorentz, who had accepted a position at the Teylerstichting in Haarlem.
In Europe at that time, mathematicians and physicists published extensively on the quantum theory. It was common that they visited each other at home to discuss their scientific progress. Einstein enjoyed staying at the home of the hospitable Ehrenfest family, as did many other scientists.
Ehrenfest always invited many guest speakers to his home for the Wednesday evening colloquium he organized for professors and students. At Ehrenfest, these gatherings were always very special.
The guests were seated in the living room around a blackboard, on which the speaker wrote his thoughts and ideas. There were strict houserules.Smoking was not allowed, and also alcohol and perfume were taboe. Guests from far, like Einstein, stayed overnight in the guestroom on the third floor. Many other distinguished scientists from that time stayed in that room and instead of signing a guest-book, they signed their name on the wall.
Sometimes, Einstein visited the neighbours at Jan van Goyenkade 44 (a "little castle"), where he met an old friend from the Polytechnical Schule in Zurich, Margarethe Nieuwenhuis-Baronesse Von Uexkull Guldenbandt. They chatted, bringing back old memories of their time as students. Margarethe spoke about that period in her interview with the NRC, which appeared for her 90th birthday in 1963.
Quoted from the NRC is the following:
"When Mrs Nieuwenhuis talks about Einstein she does so from her own experience, for she knew this scientist very well during two periods of her long life. First, as a student in Zurich and later, when they renewed their acquaintanceship when Einstein became professor in Leiden.
That he was "bad in math" is in Einstein's case obviously relative, because his work proved that he was (quoting Mrs. Nieuwenhuis) "a man of great insight" who did original research at the highest level. The gray-blue eyes of Mrs. Nieuwenhuis sparkle behind her glasses as she mentions that all her grades at the Polytech were half a point higher than those of Einstein. That shows you how relative grades are, she says with slight self-depreciation.
She sat across of him in lab and she was constantly worried that his well-known sloppiness would result in disaster. But this young man with the burning eyes and wild hair and Schiller-shirt, who loved to walk barefoot, was a gallant fellow student, who helped her out when needed.
One of her best friends from that period was Milena Maritsj, a student from Serbia, who later married Einstein. When Margarethe met Einstein again in Leiden, they talked a lot about their time as students. Einstein loved to play the violin, but he definitely kept his own beat.
When a well-known composer wrote a sonata in his honor and Einstein had played it, working with the composer, the composer complained afterwards, that it would have been nice if Einstein had learned to count to four. Ehrenfest, Lorentz, Einstein and other scientists met each month at the home of Ehrenfest in Leiden to discuss their progress in research. Then, before long, Margarethe in her neighboring villa at the Jan van Goyenkade could hear curious and unusual interpretations of the music of various famous composers."
Terug naar inhoudsopgave
|
 printversie
|
|
|
|
|
