Sunday, February 22, 2009

SparkNotes: Albert Einstein: Times of Peace and War

In the years just preceding Hitler\'s rise to power in Germany in 1933, Einstein spent less and less time in Berlin until he ultimately left the country for good, spending the final two decades of his life at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. However, one of the major reasons that for Einstein\'s early absences from Germany was not political but health-related; Einstein was consistently falling sick. In February of 1928 he became seriously ill on a visit to Switzerland. To assist him with his correspondence, he hired as his personal secretary Helen Dukas, an intelligent and efficient woman from Swabia. Helen traveled with the Einsteins on lecture tours, moved with them to the United States in 1933, and cared for Einstein after the death of his second wife Elsa in 1936.

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