5 things you didn’t know about Einstein the ‘Genius’
NatGeo’s 10-episode series reveals little-known facts
Here’s what you probably know: Albert Einstein is the mastermind behind E=mc2 and the Theory of Relativity. Here’s what you likely weren’t taught in school: The Nobel Prize winner also was a violin-playing womanizer who failed university entrance exams.
That is what you’ll learn in National Geographic’s Genius, a scripted series about Einstein executive produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, and starring Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Flynn as the elder and younger Einstein. The first of 10 episodes premieres Tuesday (9 ET/PT).
The miniseries, which jumps forward and backward in time and is largely based on Walter Isaacson’s biography Einstein: His Life and Universe, fills in the blanks of some aspects of Einstein’s life that weren’t depicted in books or his letters, but is otherwise “very historically accurate” says executive producer Ken Biller. It shows everything from the thinking behind his greatest scientific advancements, to his heartlessness in dealing with intimate relationships.
Here are five things about Einstein, as seen in the series, that would surprise the casual fan.
HE WAS A PHILANDERER Based on Einstein’s letters, it’s clear that the teenage Albert still had a girlfriend, Marie Winteler, when he had a tumultuous affair with Mileva Marić, a fellow classmate whom he married and had children with.
They divorced, but not before Einstein had an affair with his soon-to-be second wife, Elsa, who was his cousin.
“While married to Elsa, he had extramarital affairs, and ended up coming to an accommodation where affairs were part of their marital arrangement,” Biller says. “Einstein had very unconventional ideas about monogamy and marriage, and had a very active sex life with fascinating women.”
HE LEFT GERMANY AGAINST HIS PARENTS’ WISHES When Einstein was a teenager, his parents and sister left him to finish school in Germany while they moved to Italy to deal with his father’s fledgling business. But Einstein hated his school, so, as
Genius tells it, he had a doctor — who was a family friend — give him a medical discharge from school.
“He showed up unannounced on parents’ doorsteps and said, ‘I’m never going back to Germany,’ ” Biller says. That’s not the only time Einstein would ignore his father’s wishes. After all, Einstein Sr. wanted Albert to be an engineer.
HE FAILED EXAMS AND ANGERED TEACHERS Einstein excelled in science, but not in all subjects.
Genius recounts Einstein failing his exams in literature, politics and French when applying to study at Zurich Polytechnic.
Einstein later successfully retook the exams, but he wasn’t a perfect pupil: He once blew up a lab during an experiment, and was uninterested in rote learning.
“Ultimately, he was able to pass all of his exams and get his degree, ( but) there were professors who wanted him booted out of school,” Biller says.
HE WAS BARRED FROM TRAVELING After Einstein became a teacher and physicist, he wasn’t invited to participate in science gatherings because he was Jewish and had lived in Berlin during World War I, when Germans weren’t allowed at Brussels’ Solvay Conferences.
When Einstein decided to escape Germany and its rising anti- Semitism before World War II, he had trouble getting a visa, because of accusations that he was a communist. “It’s true that the FBI under (J. Edgar) Hoover kept a file on Einstein and investigated and surveilled Einstein for many years,” Biller says. “We speculate in a very plausible way about why Einstein did what he did to procure that visa.”
HE WAS A TALENTED MUSICIAN In Genius, Einstein is shown expertly playing the violin, because “by many accounts, he was quite good at playing,” Biller says. “He said that if he hadn’t been a scientist, he might’ve been a musician.”