Quantum_ Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality - Manjit Kumar [68]
One of those who unwittingly contributed to the mystique surrounding general relativity was Sir J.J. Thomson, the president of the Royal Society. 'Perhaps Einstein has made the greatest achievement in human thought,' he told a journalist afterwards, 'but no one has yet succeeded in stating in clear language what the theory of Einstein's really is.'44 In fact, by the end of 1916 Einstein had already published the first popular book on both the special and general theories.45
'The general theory of relativity is being received with downright enthusiasm among my colleagues', Einstein reported to his friend Heinrich Zangger in December 1917.46 However, in the days and weeks that followed the first press reports, there were many who came forth to pour scorn on 'the suddenly famous Dr Einstein' and his theory.47 One critic described relativity as 'voodoo nonsense' and 'the moronic brainchild of mental colic'.48 With supporters like Planck and Lorentz, Einstein did the only sensible thing; he ignored his detractors.
In Germany, Einstein was already a well-known public figure when the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung gave over its entire front page to a photograph of him. 'A new figure in world history whose investigations signify a complete revision of nature, and are on a par with insights of Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton', read the accompanying caption. Just as he refused to be riled by his critics, Einstein kept a sense of perspective about being anointed the successor of three of history's great scientists. 'Since the light deflection result became public, such a cult has been made out of me that I feel like a pagan idol', he wrote after the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung hit the newsstands. 'But this, too, God willing, will pass.'49 It never did.
Part of the widespread public fascination with Einstein and his work lay in a world still coming to terms with the upheavals in the aftermath of the First World War, which ended at 11am on 11 November 1918. Two days earlier, on 9 November, Einstein had cancelled his relativity course lecture 'because of revolution'.50 Later that day, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and fled to Holland as a republic was proclaimed from a balcony of the Reichstag. Germany's economic problems were among the most difficult challenges facing the new Weimar Republic. Inflation was quickly on the rise, as Germans lost confidence in the mark and were busy either selling it or buying anything they could before it fell further.
It was a vicious circle that war reparations sent spiralling out of control, and the economy went into meltdown as Germany defaulted on its payments of wood and coal towards the end of 1922, and 7,000 marks bought one US dollar. However, that was nothing to the hyperinflation that occurred throughout 1923. In November that year, one dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 marks, a glass of beer cost 150 billion marks and a loaf of bread 80 billion. With the country in danger of imploding, the situation was brought under control only with the help of American loans and a reduction in reparation payments.
Amid the suffering, talk of warped space, bending light beams, and shifting stars that only '12 wise men' could comprehend fired the public imagination. However, everyone thought they had an intuitive grasp of concepts like space and time. As a result, the world appeared to Einstein to be a 'curious madhouse' as 'every coachman and every waiter argues about whether or not relativity theory is correct'.51
Einstein's international celebrity and his well-known anti-war stance made him an easy target for a campaign of hate. 'Anti-semitism is strong here and political reaction is violent', Einstein wrote to Ehrenfest in December 1919.52 Soon he began receiving threatening mail and on occasions suffered verbal abuse as he left his apartment or office. In February 1920, a group of students disrupted his lecture at the university, one of them shouting, 'I'm going to cut the throat of that dirty Jew.'53 But the political leaders of the Weimar Republic knew