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Conrad Habicht (December 28, 1876 in
Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimat ...
– October 23, 1958 in Schaffhausen) was a Swiss mathematician and close personal friend of
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...
.


Association With Einstein

Together with Maurice Solovine, the three founded the Olympia Academy, an informal circle of friends who met together in Bern from 1902 to 1904 to discuss physics and philosophy. Habicht and Solovine were the only two witnesses to Einstein's 1903 wedding to Mileva Marić. Habicht was the recipient of Einstein's 1905 letter in which Einstein described his
Annus Mirabilis papers The ''annus mirabilis'' papers (from Latin '' annus mīrābilis'', "miracle year") are the four papers that Albert Einstein published in ''Annalen der Physik'' (''Annals of Physics''), a scientific journal, in 1905. These four papers were major c ...
. Habich also received Einstein's letter about quanta. Einstein and Solovine lost contact with Habicht but regained contact in 1947. A book of letters between Einstein and Habicht in German Language was published in 2000.


Early Life

Habicht came from a middle class family in Schaffhausen and grew up there with four brothers and sisters. Son of Johann Conrad Habicht, merchant, and Susanna Elisabetha Oechslin, from Schaffhausen. In 1913 he married Anna Margarethe Kehlstadt, teacher, from Basel. He studied mathematics and physics in Zurich, Munich and Berlin, earning a doctors degree in 1903 at Bern, writing a dissertation on series of circles by Steiner. He studied violin. Conrad's brother Paul was active in early development of automobile engines and had many Swiss patents.


University And School Teacher

Habicht taught university master's level mathematics and physics 11 years at Schiers in the Canton of the Graubünden where he also played violin. Then he taught mathematics and physics 33 years at Schaffhausen Canton high school, retiring in 1948. Habicht and Einstein invented a meter for measuring very small electric potentials in millivolts with Conrad's brother Paul. Einstein wrote to Habicht about his first attempt to explain the perihelion advance of Mercury. Habicht wrote and published a book in Swiss German, biography of Gustav Kugler 1874-1939 a Rector of the Schaffhausen Canton school. He also published 5 editions of his mathematics in addition to his dissertation. Between 1943 and 1947 Habicht published another 6 books in 10 editions about the Swiss view of the world around them. He also published an education article about technical supervision of students. Habicht only published in Swiss German language.


Later Life

Habicht was in retirement from teaching ten years, continuing to direct a local music academy until 1958. He died four years after injury in an accident, survived by his wife, four children and ten grand children.


Literature

* Autor: Thomas Franz Schneider * Jürgen Neffe: ''Einstein. Eine Biografie''. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2006. * Maurice Solovine: ''Freundschaft mit Albert Einstein''. In: ''
Physikalische Blätter ''Physik Journal'' is the official journal of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. Before 2002 it was named ''Physikalische Blätter''. History The ''Physikalische Blätter'' was founded in 1943 by Ernst Brüche, who was also the editor fro ...
'' 15 (1959), 3, S. 97–103. * Albert Einstein: ''Eine neue elektrostatische Methode zur Messung kleinster Elektrizitätsmengen''. In: '' Physikalische Zeitschrift'' 7 (1908), S. 216–217.


Web Links

* Hans-Josef Küpper
''Akademie Olympia''
bei Einstein.de * * German Language Page

* French Language Page


References

1876 births 1958 deaths 20th-century Swiss mathematicians People from Schaffhausen {{Europe-mathematician-stub