Einstein’s breakthrough in 1905 does not go unnoticed, but it is controversial and therefore not a firm foundation for an academic career. Einstein obtains a lectureship at the University of Bern but does not resign his post at the Patent Office until 1909, when he is offered a position as associate professor of theoretical physics at the University of Zürich.

This is when his career takes off: in 1910 he becomes a full professor at the German University of Prague, and in 1911 at the ETH in Zurich. During the summer of 1913, Planck and Nernst visit Einstein with offers of a position at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and of a directorship at the planned Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics. Einstein’s comment: The Berlin gentlemen are speculating on me like on a prizewinning hen, but I do not know if I can lay any more eggs.