The Reception of the Special Relativity in Europe

In the previous three chapters, it was established that Poincaré had laid the foundations of the special theory of relativity long before Einstein. Nevertheless, it is under the name of Einstein’s theory of relativity that it is known today. The aim of this chapter is therefore to analyze the reception of Poincaré’s and Einstein’s work in the scientific community in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Italy, based on the presence or absence of quotations from their 1905 contributions. We’ll show how Einstein’s name came to be associated with this theory, rather than Poincaré’s.