Many celebrities have spent time in Munich, some for just a few years, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, others for decades or even their entire lives, like Bally Prell. The second group includes Albert Einstein, who lived and went to school here for almost 15 years. Traces of the physicist can still be found in our city today.
The Einsteins’ homes
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Württemberg, in 1879. The very next year, his parents decided to move to Munich, where his father and his brother founded and successfully ran a gas and water installation company. The company was so successful that it grew into the factory Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie , which supplied power stations in Germany and abroad. This company is said to have provided the festival lighting at the Oktoberfest in 1896 and Albert was involved. He is said to have been responsible for the work in the Schottenhamel tent.
The Einstein family lived at Müllerstraße 54 for the first five years before moving from Glockenbach to the Schlachthofviertel when the factory was founded. The property on which Albert lived with his parents and sister Maja extended from Adlzreiterstrasse 12 to Lindwurmstrasse 127. There is still a memorial plaque on the house in Adlzreiterstrasse with the inscription: “Albert Einstein spent his childhood and early youth in this house from 1885 to 1894”. However, this is incorrect in that the house in which the Einsteins lived was demolished immediately after it was sold in 1894. The current building was only erected afterwards.
Where Albert Einstein went to school
Albert attended the Königliches Luitpold-Gymnasium at Müllerstraße 7 near his old home from 1888 until he left Munich in 1894; before that, he went to the elementary school at Sendlinger Tor. The Luitpold-Gymnasium had only been founded a year earlier as the fourth humanistic grammar school in Munich. In 1918, it was merged with the Realgymnasium in Klenzestraße. Initially, the school was run in both buildings, but was later completely relocated to Müllerstrasse.
However, the building in Müllerstraße was destroyed during the Second World War, forcing the school to move. In the 1950s, construction of the campus in Harlaching began at the same time, where the grammar school is still located today. It now bears the name Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium, in honor of its famous and brilliant student. Ironically, Albert did not like going to school here and his teachers did not recognize his genius.
Honoring Albert Einstein
In addition to the memorial plaque in Adlzreiterstraße and the Albert Einstein Grammar School on the banks of the Isar , there is also Einsteinstraße in Munich. It begins at Max-Weber-Platz and merges into Töningerstraße in Bogenhausen. Until 1956 it was called Äußere Wiener Straße, but was renamed in honor of the physicist and American musician Alfred Einstein. There is also a subway station of the same name below the street.
There is a bust of Albert Einstein in the Walhalla near Regensburg, which was erected at the suggestion of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. There are many other busts and memorial plaques in the Hall of Fame that pay tribute to important German personalities. For €5, you can visit it and marvel at the temple and enjoy the view over the Danube.