Associate Professor at the Universiy of Zurich and professor in Prague (1909–1912)

In 1905 Einstein obtained a doctorate from the University of Zurich with the work "Eine neue Bestimmung der Moleküldimensionen" under Professor Alfred Kleiner. Four years later, in February 1909, he held a lecture on electrodynamics and the relativity principle in the lecture hall of the Physics Institute of the University of Zurich, to which the Physics Society of Zurich had invited him. Thereafter Alfred Kleiner mentioned the possibility of employment at the University of Zurich to Einstein and recommended him to the faculty for a newly-created professorship in theoretical physics. On May 7th 1909 the "Regierungsrat des Kantons Zürich" appointed him associate professor from the 15 th October 1909 with an annual salary of CHF 4500.

Already since April 1910 the German University of Prague had endeavoured to employ the young physicist. Although the students and the "Regierungsrat des Kantons Zürich" would have liked to have kept him in Zurich, Einstein accepted the offer of a post as professor for theoretical physics (annual salary: approximately CHF 9100) from September 1910.