The Life of Albert Einstein Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Southern Germany. One year after his birth his fathers business failed, so the family moved to Munich, and began a new business manufacturing electrical parts. His parents Hermann and Pauline were of Jewish descent, but were very lax regarding religion. The Einsteins sent Albert to a Catholic grade school. Alberts first scientific revelation came when he was five years of age, and his father showed him a pocket compass. This occurrence left a long lasting impression on Albert. Otherwise Albert was not an extraordinary learner. At the age of nine Albert was unable to speak fluently, and his grades were poor. His parents and teachers thought he might even be mildly retarded. When Albert was ten he began secondary school, at which he still failed to excel. He disliked the regiment of school, and the strictness of his teachers. Einsteins hunger for learning was aroused by science books and magazines. His mother passed her passion for music on to Albert. He began violin lessons at the age of six and although he was never a musical genius he carried a passion for music for the rest of his life.1 In 1894 Alberts fathers business failed again so the family moved to Milan in order to get a fresh start. Alberts father left him behind so that he would be able to finish school and receive a diploma. Less than a year later, Albert left school, without receiving his diploma, to be with his family in Milan. At the age of sixteen, Einstein took the entrance exam for a school that would give him a degree in electrical engineering, and failed. Einstein attended a Swiss school to prepare to take the exam again, and found that he so much preferred the less regimented system of teaching and the Swiss democratic attitude that he relinquished his German citizenship. On his second attempt to enter the University, one year later, he passed and was admitted for a degre...
