Einstein’s Berlin house to go back to heirs

Einstein lived in the fishing village of Caputh from 1929 to 1932, using the house as a retreat from the hustle of Berlin, 10 km away. There he found the quiet he needed to work, inspired by walks through the pine forest with fellow scientists like MaxPlanck and Otto Hahn.

Facing increasing anti-Semitic sentiment, Einstein left Germany one month before Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. He never returned. The house was confiscated by the Nazis in 1935 and transferred to the village of Caputh.Einstein initially gave permission for the house to be used by a neighbouring Jewish school. But the students and teachers were forced out after the “Night of Broken Glass” pogrom of 1938.

After the war, the house was used as a residence, then later as a guesthouse for the East German Academy of Sciences. After German unification in 1990, the village regained title.

Since 1994, the private Einstein Forum think tank has been allowed to use it during the week for seminars and other academic pursuits in exchange for paying maintenance costs. But on the weekends, the village opened the house to tourists, something Einstein Forum director Gary Smith said last year that Einstein would have opposed.

He has been supporting attempts by 11 Einstein heirs to reclaim thehouse. They include a distant relative of Einstein’s from New York, Jerusalem’s Hebrew university, an eye clinic in Princeton, New Jersey, and a US animal protection group.

The case dragged on for years because no one was able to produce an official certificate of heirship, Ewers said. In the end, she said she was forced to include the Jewish claims Conference among the heirs.