Albert Einstein [1879-1955]. Born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, in 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, the year he gained his diploma, he acquired Swiss citizenship and, as he was unable to find a teaching post, accepted a position as technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905 he published his seminal papers, and obtained his doctor's degree. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html After a number of false starts Einstein published, late in 1915, the definitive version of general theory. Just before publishing this work he lectured on general relativity at Göttingen and wrote: “To my great joy, I … succeeded in convincing Hilbert and Klein.” Hilbert submitted for publication, a week before Einstein completed his work, a paper which contained the correct field equations of general relativity. When British eclipse expeditions in 1919 confirmed his predictions, Einstein was idolized by the popular press. Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 but not for relativity; rather for his 1905 work on the photoelectric effect A third visit to the United States in 1932 was followed by the offer of a post at Princeton. Einstein accepted and left Germany in December 1932 for the United States. The following month the Nazis came to power in Germany and Einstein was never to return.

http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Einstein.html