Background
Aaron David Bernstein was born on the 6th of April, 1812 in Gdańsk, Poland.
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Aaron David Bernstein was born on the 6th of April, 1812 in Gdańsk, Poland.
In 1849 Aaron David Bernstein founded the Urwählerzeitung, in which (in 1851) he published some ultra-democratic articles which brought about his imprisonment. The paper was finally suppressed in 1853, and Bernstein established the Volkszeitung, a journal devoted, like its predecessor, largely to the dissemination of democratic views.
Aaron David Bernstein's History of Revolution and Reaction in Prussia and Germany from the Revolution of 1848 up to the present (German: Revolutions- und Reaktionsgeschichte Preussens und Deutschlands von den Märztagen bis zur neuesten Zeit. 3 vols, 1883–1884) was a collection of important political essays. In the middle of the 19th century Bernstein took an active share in the movement for synagogue reform in Germany.
Scientist His multivolumed book From the field of natural science (German: Aus dem Reiche der Naturwissenschaft. 1853-1856), later republished under the title Popular Books on Natural Science (German: Naturwissenschaftliche Volksbücher. 1880), was frequently reprinted and translated into nearly all the languages of Europe.
Already in the edition of 1855, Bernstein published ideas on space, time and the speed of light which had appeared in the anonymous treatise The Stars and the Earth (German: Die Gestirne und die Weltgeschichte) written by 'an unknown clear-sighted thinker.' It was not until 1874 when a new German edition appeared that the name of the author - Felix Eberty - was made public. When this edition was re-published in 1923, Albert Einstein wrote a preface. A story in volume 16 of Bernstein's Naturwissenschaftliche Volksbücher about riding along with the electricity travelling through a telegraph wire is often credited with inspiring the 16-year-old Albert Einstein to think about travelling along with a beam of light and seeing it stationary.