Připravil Brian Kenety.
Natočeno 2020. Premiéra 1. dílu 14. 2. 2020 (ČRo Radio Prague, 12 min).
Lit.: Kenety, Brian: “Einstein in Bohemia” – part 1: how a Prague sojourn sparked his theory of general relativity, journey of self-discovery. In web ČRo Radio Prague, 14. 2. 2020 (článek + nahrávka k poslechu) – Cit.: Albert Einstein’s tenure as a professor of theoretical physics in Prague is often noted in passing – as an “interlude” or a “sojourn” of no great significance, even though it was in the Czech capital where his most extraordinary work, the theory of general relativity, truly began to emerge. With his new book Einstein in Bohemia, Princeton University history professor Michael D Gordin makes a compelling case that not only did Einstein’s time in Prague shape the science, literature, and even politics of the city for decades to come, the same is true in reverse: the acquaintances Einstein made in Bohemia and ideas he was first exposed to there continued to occupy him. Einstein arrived in Prague to take up a post at the German University in April 1911 with his first wife Mileva Marić, herself a physicist, and two sons. He only taught there for three full semesters – and at first didn’t warm to the city. But apart from first fully devoting his time to positing what would be his greatest discovery, while in Prague Einstein was compelled to think differently about his own identity – as an atheistic German-born Jew with Swiss citizenship, wary of nationalism, the Zionist movement included.
Before receiving a review copy of his book, I had heard a lecture by Prof. Gordin on Einstein in which he said he started looking into his time in Prague at first thinking he would write a “micro-history” about that year and a half, and then “an intellectual urban history” of the Bohemian capital, before gravitating towards a hybrid of the two. I began by asking Prof. Gordin what drew him to the subject and how and why his concept for his book Einstein in Bohemia evolved. (more…)