Einstein Year 2005

Germany celebrated Einstein Year in 2005 with a joint initiative launched by the Federal Government, and participants from science, industry and culture. The occasion was the 100th anniversary of the Theory of Relativity and the 50th anniversary of the death of the world-famous scientist. In 1905, Albert Einstein published five essays in quick succession which fundamentally changed our image of the world. These essays revolutionized the classical concept of space, time, matter and energy.

Einstein Year paid tribute to a man who continues to fascinate and inspire the world. Albert Einstein was a brilliant physicist, lateral thinker, pacifist, cosmopolite and visionary. At school Einstein thought about questions which his teachers did not ask. Later he revolutionized the foundations of physics.

Albert Einstein lived and taught in Berlin and Potsdam from 1914 until immigrating to the United States in 1933. These two cities were therefore the central venues for events during Einstein Year 2005. The Humboldt University Berlin, Einstein's summer house in Caputh and the Einstein Tower on "Telegraph Hill" in Potsdam were just a few of the many places on our walk in Einstein's footsteps through Berlin and Brandenburg. But throughout Germany, cities from Bremen to Munich and from Hanover to Ulm celebrated this great man and brilliant scientist.

100 years of the Theory of Relativity and the 50th anniversary of the death of Albert Einstein remind us of one of our most important qualities: the power to think and discover. After all, the future arises in our minds.