Albert Einstein as a Baby

I imagine what Albert Einstein must have been like as a baby.

What was Albert Einstein like as a baby? Little is known about Albert’s infant years. Einstein was a smart child, even teaching himself Geometry at a very early age. But he was a bit of a brat and often acted out.

As an adult, Einstein once said, “I have never had a difficult day, a bad day, a day when I did not enjoy some form of play. The idea that enjoyment should be a means to an end is foreign to me.”

When he was only four years old, Albert asked his parents why there is a sky? His mother gave him an answer that is probably typical of many parents who have children who ask such questions.

His father, however, took a different approach: “I don’t know.”

When Einstein was a boy, the village of his birth, Ulm in Germany, was in the center of the land that would become the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As it happened, this empire would collapse only a few years after Einstein was born.

He lived with his parents, Pauline and Hermann, and his two younger brothers, in a comfortable house in the suburbs of Ulm.

Pauline, the youngest daughter of a Jewish family, was only a year older than Albert, but was already married. She and her husband were very fond of each other, and they loved their son.

Hermann Einstein was a professor of philosophy. He was a well-known scholar, but also a man who liked to keep up on the latest literature. He was quite famous as a speaker at the university, and he was quite well-known in Ulm.

Albert was not a particularly good student. He did well in some subjects but not others.

Albert’s father was very concerned about his son’s lack of motivation, which he thought stemmed from Albert’s intellectual abilities. So Hermann Einstein began to tutor Albert at home.

His father often praised Albert’s intelligence, but he was also aware of his son’s short attention span. Once he complained to his wife, Pauline, that he would like to take Albert with him on a trip, but Albert would soon get tired of riding in a coach and demand to be allowed to walk instead.

In the summer of 1881, Hermann was offered an excellent opportunity to lecture at the University of Prague. He accepted the offer and went to Prague with his wife. He would leave his son with his sister-in-law, who would take care of him while his parents were away.

But Albert did not take the situation well.

He missed his father and his brothers terribly. His aunt could not fill his shoes, and he did not like her. In the end, it took him only three days to convince his mother to allow him to go with his father and uncle.

On the day they were scheduled to leave, Albert was not ready. He was still getting dressed. Finally, after several minutes had passed, he rushed into the room where his father and uncle were waiting. He threw his coat around him and dashed out the door, without bothering to fasten the buttons or adjust the collar or sleeves.

They got to Prague safely, but Albert was miserable. His father and uncle could see that he was unhappy, but they were not sure what to do about it. They had not expected this. Albert did not seem to have any particular problem adjusting to life at the university, and he had not complained about it since he had arrived in Prague.

For weeks after arriving at the university, Albert was so miserable that he refused to leave his room. Finally his father decided that enough was enough. He went to his son’s room one morning and demanded that Albert get out of bed. Albert protested. His father insisted that Albert get out of bed and come down to breakfast with him.

Albert came downstairs grumpily. He sat at the table and started to eat his breakfast without saying a word.

As he ate, he noticed that his father and uncle were staring at him. It was obvious that they were waiting for some sort of reaction from him. But Albert did not feel like talking. He finished his breakfast and returned to his room. He lay down on his bed and fell asleep.

The next day, his father repeated his demand that Albert come downstairs for breakfast. Again, Albert grudgingly came down to the table and sat there in silence. But this time his father did not say anything.

Here’s another imagination of Albert as a baby. Not really sure what’s going on with the extra fingers.