A decade later, his public image acquired another layer when he re-emerged as a Stoic sage and selfless humanitarian, a quasi-religious figure who saw himself as a modern-day Spinoza. Far from withdrawing, he threw himself into the political fray to become a symbol for international reconciliation during the early Weimar Republic. Surrounded by social and economic unrest in Berlin, he was caught between two worlds, one struggling to be born, another refusing to die. While downplaying his reputation as a revolutionary, Einstein proved he was well cast for the role of mild-mannered scientific genius. With his theory of relativity Einstein had overthrown outworn ideas about space and time dating back to Newton's day, no small feat. Through a remarkable confluence of events and circumstances, the mass media soon projected an image of the photogenic physicist as a bold new revolutionary thinker. Einstein's initial fame came in late 1919 with a dramatic breakthrough in his general theory of relativity.
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