Born March 14, 1879

Ulm, Germany

Died April 18, 1955

Princeton, New Jersey

Physicist

Albert Einstein. Getty Images.

"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."

Albert Einstein was already a world-famous scientist when he immigrated to the United States in 1933. Over his lifetime, he had three nationalities: German, Swiss, and American. He also was Jewish, which led him to support the founding of the state of Israel. But as the top physicist in the twentieth century, Einstein in some ways rose above nationalities to become a citizen of the world. His story as a world citizen cast a different light on the larger subject of emigration and migration across national borders.

Not a Promising Young Student

Albert Einstein was the son of a middle-class Jewish businessman. Einstein was born in Germany, a country that had been unified into a single state only eight years...