Damon’s Library: Einstein for Beginners
Part II: Monopolization & Einstein’s Childhood
Germany and Austria, which were once a part of Prussia, were rather strange and wondrous places. You could say they were the birthplaces of modern militarism, socialism, capitalism, and even fascism. All these ideas sprang from there and gave shape to 20th century politics and industry.
As discussed in our last edition in Part I, the electro-chemical industry was booming fast. Hermann, Albert’s Father, and his brother Jacob go into business together in 1881 in the suburbs of Munich. Jacob was an accomplished engineer, and under Hermann & Jacob, they would produce dynamos, electrical instrumentation, and arc lights. However, their field of work was rapidly undergoing a period of aggressive monopolization which would ultimately result in their business to fail.
The book gave a simple tree diagram in how this process took place. Some of the names listed should seem familiar to you, as those corporations are still around.
Let us start off with the top of the tree which lists businesses within the electrical industry prior to 1900. Felten & Guillaume, Lahmeyer, Union A.E.G, Siemens & Halske, Schuckert & Co., Bergmann, and Kummer (failed in 1900).
Fast forward a few years, and we get Felten & Lahmeyer, A.E.G (General Electric Co.), Siemens & Halske-Schuckert, and Bergmann. See what happened? Felten & Guillaume merged with Lahmeyer and Union A.E.G became General Electric.
In 1880, Gerald Waldo Hart formed the American Electric Company of New Britain, Connecticut, which merged, a few years later with Thomson-Houston Electric Company, led by Charles Coffin, In 1887, Hart left to become superintendent of the Edison Electric Company of Kansas City, Missouri.[20] General Electric was formed through the 1892 merger of Edison General Electric Company of Schenectady, New York, and Thomson-Houston Electric Company of Lynn, Massachusetts, with the support of Drexel, Morgan & Co.[19] Both plants continue to operate under the GE banner to this day.[21]
Edison had his hands all over the electrical business and sought to maintain his control over such a burgeoning and lucrative enterprise. He even had interests with Bergmann & Company, which as you know was included in the list of companies bound to merge or fail with one another in the early 20th century.
By 1912, our tree consolidates to only two entries, A.E.G (General Electric) and Siemens & Halske-Schuckert. Both General Electric and Siemens & Halske-Schuckert have been in close cooperation since 1908, which would make them a cartel.
General Electric Co. controlled half of the world’s trade in electro-chemical products. The other half was in German hands.
The book lists the “controlling banks” known at the time as the four “D” banks: Darmstadter Bank (1853), Diskontogesellschaft Bank (1856), Deutsche Bank (1870), and Dresden Bank (1872).
There was no way for Hermann and Jacob to compete with the forces of money and consolidated corporate power.
Let us talk briefly about one of the major giants of the electro-chemical industry, Siemens & Halske.
Werner Von Siemens was born in 1816 and lived until 1892. He was sired by a prominent Hanover family. He received his education from the Prussian Army Artillery and Engineering School. He invented the modern dynamo in 1867, but his first invention was an improved process for electroplating gold and silver, which was big business.
“Siemens joins the circle of Berlin University scientists. He develops an improved telegraph system. This is a method of covering the wire with seamless insulation made of cheap material (gutta-percha: a rubber-like plant substance.)” — Einstein for Beginners, pg. 16
Johann Georg Halske was born in 1808 and lived until 1886. He was a scientific instrument maker at the University of Berlin. He partnered with Siemens in 1847.
“In 1847, [Siemens] founds Telegraphen Bauenstadt von Siemens und Halske to manufacture and install telegraph systems.” — pg. 16
What follows on the right side of the same page is a rather exciting and electric headline related to Siemens and Halske’s new venture.
“THE WONDER of the AGE!!
INSTANTANEOUS COMMUNICATION.
Under the special Patronage of Her Majesty & H.R.H. Prince Albert.
THE GALVANIC AND ELECTRO-MAGNETIC TELEGRAPHS,
on the
GT. WESTERN RAILWAY.”
I do not know about you, dear reader, but I found that headline rather riveting. It epitomizes the wonderment and optimism at the time for new-fangled inventions and the inevitable “march” towards progress.
The Prussian government was intrigued by the telegraph, and at Siemens’ behest, contracted with Siemens & Halske in 1848 to build telegraph networks in Northern Germany. He “loses the Prussian contract in 1850. But in Russia he succeeds in selling the Tsar on an extensive system.” — pg. 17
A comic showed the railway office being choked with soot and smoke from a passing train as it reads off a telegraph. The operator reads from the telegraph that the Frankfurt Revolutionary assembly elected their king to be emperor. Someone else overhears in the office and replies, “Bah! Some revolutionaries they are!”
There is a lot of historical background this book leaves out for brevity, but it is worth a look.
Germany during the 19th century was tumultuous to put it mildly. The modern German state had yet to be realized, but it was during this period it was beginning to form.
Someone over the wire says, “Thanks to Siemens we can find out how the Crimean War is doing.” A soldier on the field falls off his horse as he was about to be hacked to pieces exclaims, “Aren't scientists great!” It is now around 1854 to 1856 thereabouts, and Siemens uses his new found fortune to build a transatlantic cable for telegraphy. The first cable descends into the ocean between 1857 to 1868. “Siemens organizes the Indo-European telegraph in 1870. It connects London-Berlin-Odessa-Teheran and Calcutta. He becomes consultant to the British government. His ship, the Faraday, lays 5 transatlantic cables between 1875–1885.” — pg. 19
Electric power fast approaches being a commodity and the first market for electricity was lighting docks, railways, and streets.
Across the ocean, Thomas Edison in the US was the Wizard of Menlo Park. He was the electric guru of the Victorian era that everyone knew. However, if Edison was the electrical magician, then Nikola Tesla was the magician’s magician. Nikola Tesla was the principal inventor extraordinaire we owe our modern lifestyle to. That is, however, a story for another time. I just wanted to give Tesla some love.
Picking up where we left off, Edison operated out of New Jersey and worked closely with Siemens & Halske-Schuckert.
“Edison organizes construction of the first central generating station in 1882. Perl St. Station of Edison Electric Illuminating Company.” — pg. 20
The whole world becomes electrified. Electricity becomes this wondrous technology and commodity which solves humanity’s most pressing problems, such as deafness, curly hair, cures for dementia, arthritis, … electric cigarettes? Electricity even spurred scientific inquiry and advancement into the farthest bounds of knowledge.
In 1887, Hermann Von Hemholtz of the University of Berlin and friend to Siemens became head of the German physics department known then as the Physikalische Technische Reichstanstalt (Imperial Institute for Physics & Technology). This institute was like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. Research was conducted there in the exact sciences and precision technology. Siemens himself donated 500,000 marks to the newly formed institute.
This was the wondrous new age Albert was born into, an age of scientific discovery, new inventions, conveniences, and political change. The commitment of the German state to technical education and state-sponsored research would also heavily influence our young Einstein.
When Einstein was a young boy, it became apparent to Hermann and Pauline that Albert was different. He was described as a slow dreamy child at around age 9. His sister, Maja, was born in 1881. Maja became Einstein’s closest friend and confidant.
Germany’s last emperor was Wilhelm I. Arms expenditures explode between 1870 and 1890. The officer corps increases to 22,500 from 3000. “Three year military service is compulsory. Socialist literature is forbidden. Youths are subjected to fear and humiliation.”
Hey, this sounds like the American, individualist paradise I have heard so much about in mussitations in polite company and in loud declarations over the radio and TV. Yet look where it all landed in the end.
The US has the VA and USO. Germany during the late 19th and early 20th at the time also had state subsidized veterans organizations. “Membership increases from 27,000 in 1873 to 400,000 in 1890 and 1,000,000 in 1900.”
Germany was a very militaristic place. Military tradition was everywhere. It was so bad, it turned the young Einstein ill. “Heads of state all appear in military uniform. Even the taxi drivers wear uniforms.” — pg. 27
There was a segment in the book where he remarked to his father how he cannot inure all the militaristic pomp. It reminds me of a Monty Python skit from the film, The Meaning of Life, where the Sergeant Major weeds out all the cadets who emphatically do not wish to go “Marching Up and Down the Square” with him.
In this regard, Germany was alway poised to be in the thrall of a fascist despotic regime despite the tenants of democracy remaining strong up until the end.
Fascism is a very simple ideology to grasp. This quote by Henry A. Wallace in an article called “The Danger of American Fascism,” written for the New York Times, from 1944 encapsulates this ideology brilliantly, though it would behoove you to read the entire thing.
“A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.” ~ Henry A. Wallace, The Danger of American Fascism, 1944
A capitalist ethno-state is the end state. Violence and power are both ends in of themselves to the fascist. The state is just one of the means by which this comes about. Corporations working with the state both feeding the populace fascist narratives is how the fascist maintains absolute hegemony.
Einstein, though born into a Jewish household, was not forced to adhere to kosher traditions. His father was secular and regarded kosher dietary laws as superstition. Even so, young Einstein learned quickly what it meant to be a Jew in German society. When Albert attended Catholic school, he was the only Jew in his class, and Jews were treated with suspicion. “Albert had a much better time at home playing with his sister Maja.” — pg. 27
The Einsteins had a close-knit and hospitable family. Friends and relatives were always popping by paying the Einsteins a visit. It was Einstein’s uncle Jacob who introduces his inquisitive young nephew to Algebra. His mother introduced him to literature and music. The book displays a young Einstein groaning at his music lessons because they remind him too much of school. As was custom in Jewish tradition in Southern Germany, the Einsteins invited a poor Jewish medical student in Munich, Max Talmey, to their home. While in their company, Talmey would bring home with him popular best-sellers in science which Einstein would quickly gobble up. He even brought over a book on geometry, Spieker Lehrbuch der ebenen Geometrie. Max helped young Albert work through theorems and Spieker’s Plane. This later led to an interest calculus. Much of what Einstein learned about mathematics was self-taught. Quite an accomplishment. However, Albert’s interests in science and math did not appear comforting to his parents, as they thought he read too much and constantly day-dreamed.
Naturally, all that reading freed his mind from the constraints placed on him by society. Thus began his distrust of authority.
Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much of the stories in the bible could not be true. The consequence was a positive fanatic orgy of free thinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the State through lies. It was a crushing impression. Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude towards the convictions which were alive in any specific social environment — an attitude which never left me, even though later on, because of a better insight into causal connections, it lost some of its original poignancy. ~ Albert Einstein
Later on, the book shows young Einstein struggling with school and its overbearing teachers. He was quoted saying his regular teachers were like sergeants, and in the gym, they were like lieutenants. There is a teacher admonishing Einstein calling him a disruptive influence and that he will stay for detention. In the back, there is another teacher sounding off the various Emperor Charles with the dates.
By 1894, the family business fails and everyone packs and leaves for Milan, Italy. Everyone that is, except for Albert. His parents bade him stay in a boarding house and finish school to obtain his diploma. But after two months on his own, Albert receives a doctor’s certificate explaining that he was on the verge of a nervous break-down. The school authorities had no choice but to dismiss him. After revealing his plans to his family to renounce his German citizenship, Albert decides to happily stay in the mountains with his cousins for a year in Genoa, Italy. The family business fails again in Italy. “The family moves to Pavia where again it fails!” — pg. 35
I hoped you enjoyed this installment. Sorry it took so long, but I hope you look forward to some more. Do not be surprised to see me start on other books. There is lots to cover and so much to learn. Let us learn together.
