Who Was Albert Einstein? The Physicist Behind Relativity and E = mc2, with an English Practice Exercise
Albert Einstein, German-born physicist of relativity: his early life, the 1905 papers, the move to the United States, and a three-sentence English exercise.
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist best known for developing the theory of relativity. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his services to theoretical physics and his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 arises from special relativity and has been called the world's most famous equation.
This article follows his life in order: childhood, schooling in Switzerland, the 1905 papers, the years in Berlin, and the move to the United States. It closes with a small English writing exercise built only from the verified facts, so you can practice the vocabulary of biography while keeping the details straight. Every factual sentence carries a source link, and the only saying reported here is the one the source itself reports.
Born in Ulm: Einstein's Early Years
Einstein was born in Ulm in the Kingdom of Württemberg, part of the German Empire, on 14 March 1879. The family moved to Munich in 1880, where his father and uncle founded an electrical equipment company. Keep that setting in mind as you read on: a household connected to an electrical business, in a city the family reached when he was still a baby.
As a child he was fascinated by electromagnetism after his father gave him a compass when he was five and sick in bed. From age twelve he taught himself algebra, calculus and Euclidean geometry. Before turning thirteen he found an original proof of the Pythagorean theorem. These are three separate facts, and it helps to learn them as a sequence: a compass at five, self-study from twelve, a proof before thirteen.
At thirteen, Einstein was introduced to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, which became his favorite philosopher. In 1894 the family's Munich company lost a lighting contract and they moved to Italy. Einstein moved to Switzerland in 1895. Reading the timeline side by side, the family's relocation to Italy and Einstein's move to Switzerland are one year apart, which is a useful detail for the timeline exercise suggested at the end.
Failing an Exam, Finishing in Aarau, Becoming Swiss
In 1895 Einstein failed the general part of the entrance examination for the Zurich federal polytechnic school, but he did well in physics and mathematics. The source draws a clear line between the general part, which he failed, and physics and mathematics, where he did well. A short summary that says only 'he failed the exam' would lose that distinction, so it is worth keeping both halves of the sentence.
He graduated from the Argovian cantonal school in Aarau in 1896 and then enrolled at the Zurich polytechnic. The sequence therefore runs from the failed examination in 1895 to graduation from the Aarau school and enrollment at the polytechnic in 1896. He acquired Swiss citizenship in 1901 and kept it for the rest of his life.
After graduating he secured a permanent position at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. The source lists this step between his studies and his famous papers, but it does not describe his daily work there, so this article does not either. For language practice, notice the verb phrases 'secured a permanent position' and 'acquired citizenship', which are typical of biographical writing.
1905: The Year of Four Papers
In 1905, his annus mirabilis, Einstein published four groundbreaking papers covering the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and mass-energy equivalence. The Latin phrase annus mirabilis is the source's own label for that year. Writing the four topics from memory, one short sentence each, is a good way to check that you have them straight.
The four topics connect to other facts in the source in different ways. His E = mc2 formula arises from special relativity. His 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics was given for his services to theoretical physics and his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. As the source words it, the prize citation names the photoelectric effect, while relativity, the topic he is best known for, does not appear in that wording.
In 1915 he proposed a general theory of relativity that extended his mechanics to incorporate gravitation. His 1916 paper on general relativity introduced the cosmological constant and is regarded as the first step in modern theoretical cosmology. Set beside 1905, the order is clear: special relativity first, and a theory that brought in gravitation ten years later.
Berlin, Lasers and Quantum Statistics
In 1914 Einstein moved to Berlin to join the Prussian Academy of Sciences and Humboldt University, becoming director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in 1917. The timeline places the move in 1914, the general theory in 1915 and the directorship in 1917, in that order. That is a handy chain of three dates to rehearse when you retell this part of his life.
In 1917 he introduced the concepts of spontaneous emission and stimulated emission, the latter the core mechanism behind the laser and maser. The timeline lists the paper introducing stimulated emission in the same year as the directorship. With physicist Satyendra Nath Bose he laid the groundwork for Bose–Einstein statistics.
After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 while Einstein was visiting the United States, he decided to remain there. He was granted American citizenship in 1940. Seven years separate the decision from the citizenship. The source also says he kept his Swiss citizenship for the rest of his life, so the two citizenship facts should be recorded as separate entries in any timeline.
A Letter, a Dead End and a Lasting Name
Einstein endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning of a potential German nuclear weapons program and recommending US research, later carried out as the Manhattan Project. The source's verb is endorsed, so a careful summary should use that same verb rather than a stronger one. Precise verbs are one of the quiet skills of good biographical writing.
Late in his career he objected to quantum theory's fundamental randomness, saying God does not play dice. The sheet gives this as a paraphrase, so it is not set in quotation marks here. The source also characterizes his attempt at a unified field theory, extending gravitation to include electromagnetism, as unsuccessful, and says it left him increasingly isolated from mainstream physics.
In 1999 he was named Time's Person of the Century. The element einsteinium is named after him. Together with the Nobel Prize, these are the recognitions this article can document from its source.
Practice Exercise: Summarize a Life in Three Sentences
Here is a task to try. Using only facts from this article, write three sentences that summarize Einstein's shift from Germany to the United States. Use the past simple tense, at least one linking word such as while or after, and a verb phrase such as was granted. Check each sentence against the source before you keep it.
Here is a model answer, written for this article and not a statement by Einstein:
Why this answer works: the first sentence uses an infinitive of purpose, 'to join'. The second uses 'while' with the past continuous, 'was visiting', to mark a background action, and then 'decided to remain' for the choice he made. The third uses the passive, 'was granted', which fits an act done by an authority. Each sentence also carries one checkable claim. As a variation, try rewriting the second sentence to begin with 'After Hitler came to power in 1933'.
If you use an app for study, check what it actually says about itself. The 'Retriever and Language Study' app says it teaches English, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese through the life stories of historical figures. The source does not say which figures are included, so this article makes no claim about Einstein appearing in it. The app's chat-with-figure feature is an AI recreation of the figure and does not reflect actual statements. Treat any chat-style replies as practice material, not as evidence of what a real person said.
As a follow-up, you could choose which of those four languages you would study first and say why, then try the same three-sentence summary in that language. You could also write a short timeline of Einstein's life with the year and place of each move. These are suggestions you can try on your own, not a claim that any app supports this exercise or guarantees a result.