The Immigrant Experience Of Albert Einstein

NameProfessorCourseDateThe Immigrant Experience of Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was born in 1879 in the city of Ulm, Germany (Calaprice and Lipscombe 12). Originally a German national, Einstein is most well-known for his contributions to cosmology and physics, including the theory of relativity that transformed our understanding of gravity and spacetime. In 1933, Einstein ultimately immigrated to the United States, becoming a citizen in 1940 (Hoffman 88). The reason for his immigration was his refusal to live in Germany, which had fallen under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler in 1933. By the time he decided to emigrate to the United States, Einstein was already a well-known intellectual and academic, so his experience is perhaps not typical of many immigrants during this era. Nevertheless, despite his fame, Einstein was still subject to the same persecutions that other immigrants did face in Germany, particularly because of his Jewish heritage. Einstein’s parents were Jewish, although they were not religious practitioners of the Jewish faith (Hoffman 30). Einstein himself was not a practicing Jew, although his heritage made him susceptible to the rampant discrimination and oppression that was occurring in Germany by the 1930s (Hoffman 62).