44 INTRODUCTORY'Most of the time I worked in the physical laboratory, fascinated by the direct
contact with observation,' Einstein later wrote about his years at the ETH [E7].
However, his experimental projects were not received with enthusiasm by his pro-
fessor, Heinrich Friedrich Weber. In particular, Einstein was not allowed to con-
duct an experiment on the earth's movement against the aether [R8].* At one
point Weber is supposed to have said to Einstein: 'You are a smart boy, Einstein,
a very smart boy. But you have one great fault: you do not let yourself be told
anything' [S5]. Einstein's fascination with experiment must have been dampened.
It is recorded in the Protokollbuch of the mathematics-physics section of the ETH
that he received a strong warning (Verweis) because he neglected his laboratory
work.
Einstein, in turn, was not impressed with Weber's physics courses. He 'did not
care much for [Weber's] introduction to theoretical physics because he was dis-
appointed not to learn anything new about Maxwell theory.... As a typical rep-
resentative of classical physics, [Weber] simply ignored everything which came
after Helmholtz [S6]. He followed some other courses with intense interest, how-
ever.** On several later occasions, he singled out Adolf Hurwitz and Hermann
Minkowski as excellent mathematics teachers [R9, E6].f But on the whole Ein-
stein did not excel in regular course attendance. He relied far more on self-study.
As a student he read the works of Kirchhoff, Hertz, and Helmholtz; learned Max-
well theory from the first edition of Einfuhrung in die Maxwellsche Theorie der
Elektrizitat by August Foppl, which had come out in 1894 [Fl]; read Mach's
book on mechanics, 'a book which, with its critical attitudes toward basic concepts
and basic laws, made a deep and lasting impression on me' [S8]; and studied
papers by Lorentz and by Boltzmann.l Among other subjects which drew his
attention was the work of Darwin [R9].
'In all there were only two examinations; for the rest one could do what one
wanted ... a freedom which I thoroughly enjoyed ... up to a few months before
the examination' [E9]. These few-month periods were made easy for Einstein
because Marcel Grossmann made available his lecture notes, beautifully written,
meticulously organized. § Nevertheless, these times of working under orders
imposed by others were an ordeal to him. It took him a year after his final exam-
ination to fully regain his taste for physics [E9]. His final grades were 5 each for
theoretical physics, experimental physics, and astronomy; 5.5 for the theory of
*See Section 6d.
**For a complete list of Einstein's four-year curriculum, see [S7].fit is of interest for Einstein's later work on general relativity that he also attended some of Geiser's
lectures on differential geometry [Kl, RIO). I discuss Geiser's influence in Section 12b.
$1 have not found any evidence for the correspondence between Boltzmann and Einstein referred to
in [M9] and [S9].
§These lecture notes are now in the historical collection of the library in Zurich.