PORTRAIT OF THE PHYSICIST AS A YOUNG MAN 45functions; 4.5 for an essay on heat conductivity (out of a maximum of 6). And so,
in August 1900, Einstein became qualified as a Fachlehrer, together with three
other students, who each immediately obtained positions as assistants at the ETH
[S5]. A fifth student, Mileva Marie, did not pass.* Einstein himself was jobless.
It was a disappointment for him. He never quite forgave Weber for holding out
an assistantship and then letting the matter drop.** In September he wrote to
Hurwitz, asking if he could be considered for a vacant assistantship [Ell]. A few
days later, he wrote again, 'I note with great joy that there is a prospect of obtain-
ing the position' [El2]. Nothing came of this, however. And so as the year ended,
he was still without work.
However, there were some satisfactions. In December 1900 he finished his first
scientific paper, dealing with intermolecular forces, and submitted it from Zurich
to the Annalen der Physik [E13]. On February 21, 1901, he was granted the
Swiss citizenship for which he had saved so long.f For the rest of his life, he
remained a citizen of Switzerland, 'the most beautiful corner on earth I know'
[S10].
Early in 1901 Einstein again tried to find a university position. 'I have been
with my parents [in Milan] for three weeks to seek from here a position as an
assistant at a university. I would have found one long ago if Weber had not played
a dishonest game with me' [E14]4 In March 1901 he sent a reprint of his first
paper to Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald in Leipzig, along with a letter in which he
inquired 'whether you perhaps might have use for a mathematical physicist who
is familiar with absolute measurements' [El5]. In April he wrote to Heike
Kamerlingh Onnes asking for a position in Leiden [E16]. Perhaps he never
received replies. Certainly his applications were unsuccessful. He was discour-
aged, as we know from a letter from his father to Ostwald§: 'My son is deeply
unhappy with his current state of unemployment. Day by day the feeling grows
in him that his career is off the track... the awareness weighs on him that he is
a burden to us, people of small means' [El7]. Hermann asked Ostwald to at least
send a few words of encouragement about his son's paper. Nine years later, Ein-
stein and Ostwald would both be in Geneva to receive honorary doctorates. The
year after that Ostwald would be the first to propose Einstein for the Nobel
prize. H
* Mileva made a second try in July 1901 and failed again.
**After Weber's death in 1912, Einstein wrote to a friend, in a way quite uncommon for him,
'Weber's death is good for the ETH' [E10].
fHe had formally applied for citizenship on October 19, 1899. On January 10, 1900, his father
made the required declaration that he had no objections to this application [F2]. On March 13, 1901,
he was declared unfit for the army (Untauglich A) because of flat feet and varicose veins.:(:'... wenn Weber nicht ein falsches Spiel gegen mich spielte.'
§The letters from the Einsteins to Ostwald have been reproduced in [K2].
f See Chapter 30.