What this edition is made from

How the edition treats its sources

• The English translation is the edition’s own, made from the German, sentence by sentence.
• Published translations are cited only as comparison witnesses. None is reused, and a reading taken from one names it.
• A machine draft is labelled as a draft wherever it appears, and nothing is marked reviewed until a named person has checked it against the German. The English translation has begun with the mass and energy paper: 43 passages, all drafted by a machine, and none reviewed yet.

Whose text this is

The papers were printed in the Annalen der Physik in 1905 and 1906, and the correction in 1911. Einstein died in 1955, so the German text is in the public domain and may be copied, transcribed and translated freely.

A scan is a separate thing from the text: the library or archive that made it can set terms of its own. Each scan’s terms are recorded in its entry above, with the date they were read.

The English translation on this site is its own, made from the German. The published translations (Perrett and Jeffery, 1923; Cowper, 1926; Arons and Peppard, 1965; Beck, 1989) are not reused. They serve only as witnesses to compare readings against, and a reading taken from one will name it. The two older ones are in the public domain in the United States by date of publication but not necessarily elsewhere, and the two newer ones are in copyright. This is an editorial choice, not a legal opinion.

Rights, layer by layer

Each part of the edition carries its own terms, as the edition’s notice records them. The license for what is written here was decided on 16 September 2026, under authority the owner delegated; the owner has not yet ratified it, and may reopen it.

Einstein's German text

The historical German texts of Albert Einstein's 1905–1906 papers in Annalen der Physik are in the public domain worldwide.

The scans

Facsimile page scans are not the historical text itself. The pinned scans are Internet Archive preservation copies of the bound Annalen der Physik volumes; each scan's source, retrieval date and SHA-256 are recorded in its provenance receipt. No publisher PDF is pinned. From their receipts: Offered under its host’s open terms (six of the six scans). Each scan’s terms are in its entry above.

The English translation

Copyright (c) 2026 Jeffrey Emanuel and contributors. License: MIT License with OpenAI/Anthropic Rider (see LICENSE).

The explanations

Copyright (c) 2026 Jeffrey Emanuel and contributors. License: MIT License with OpenAI/Anthropic Rider (see LICENSE).

The code

Copyright (c) 2026 Jeffrey Emanuel and contributors. License: MIT License with OpenAI/Anthropic Rider. See LICENSE for complete terms.

FrankenSim's compiled physics

Copyright (c) 2026 Jeffrey Emanuel. License: MIT License with OpenAI/Anthropic Rider.

The fonts

Newsreader: SIL Open Font License 1.1 (Production Type / Lucas Sharp). Plus Jakarta Sans: SIL Open Font License 1.1 (Tokotype / Gumpita Rahayu). JetBrains Mono: SIL Open Font License 1.1 (JetBrains). KaTeX Fonts: SIL Open Font License 1.1 (KaTeX Authors).

The libraries the site runs on

The site’s dependencies in its package.json, each under the license its own package declares: js-yaml (MIT), katex (MIT), next (MIT), react (MIT), react-dom (MIT). Every package, the tools that build the site included, is listed with its license in the third-party notices.

Figures and photographs

Authored figures and SVGs: Copyright (c) 2026 Jeffrey Emanuel and contributors. Licensed under MIT License with OpenAI/Anthropic Rider. Photographs: Public-domain historical photographs, such as the patent-office portrait of Albert Einstein, about 1905, held by ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv (Portr_05937, doi:10.3932/ethz-a-000495740). ETH's record gives the photographer as unknown; the portrait is often attributed to Lucien Chavan. Per the project owner's decision (2026-09-14), public-domain photographs are credited to their archival source.

Historical datasets

Raw empirical data and experimental measurements from historical publications (Perrin 1908/1909, Bancelin 1911, Millikan 1913/1916, etc.) are objective scientific facts and belong in the public domain. Curated digital dataset representations, schemas, and companion annotations are licensed under the MIT License with OpenAI/Anthropic Rider.

How far the text has got

No transcription has yet been reviewed by a second reader. A draft is shown as a draft wherever it appears, and the explanations on this site are new writing in modern notation, marked as awaiting review. The English translation has begun with the mass and energy paper: 43 passages, all drafted by a machine, and none reviewed yet.

Corrections

Each suspected misprint in the German is recorded against the page it is on, with what was printed and what was probably meant. The German text keeps what was printed: a correction is offered beside it, never made in it. A correction that turns out to be wrong is withdrawn, and kept with its reason.

Readings are given as each record writes them, which is not always the printed spelling: some records write ä as ae and Greek letters by name. The page image is the authority.

The German text

1. Recorded 24 September 2026 · Light quanta, page 135

   Printed: welche die anderen Groessen A bez. x besitzen, unabhaengig ist.

   Proposed: welche die anderen Groessen A bez. alpha besitzen, unabhaengig ist.

2. Recorded 22 September 2026 · Special relativity, page 912

   Printed: Man sieht, daß — im Gegensatz zu der üblichen Auffassung — für v = - ∞, ν = ∞ ist.

   Proposed: Man sieht, daß — im Gegensatz zu der üblichen Auffassung — für v = - ∞, ν' = ∞ ist.

3. Recorded 21 September 2026 · Light quanta, page 142

   Printed: - d(E - T S) = p d v = T d S = R (n/N) (d v / v) ;

   Proposed: - d(E - T S) = p d v = T d S = R (n/N) T (d v / v) ;

4. Recorded 21 September 2026 · Light quanta, page 142

   Printed: keine Voraussetzung ueber das Gesetz zu machen braucht, nachdem sich die Molekuele bewegen.

   Proposed: keine Voraussetzung ueber das Gesetz zu machen braucht, nach dem sich die Molekuele bewegen.

5. Recorded 21 September 2026 · Light quanta, page 144

   Printed: es muss also die Bezeichnung gelten:

   Proposed: es muss also die Beziehung gelten:

6. Recorded 21 September 2026 · Light quanta, page 146

   Printed: Wir erhalten Pi . 10^7 = 4,3 Volt

   Proposed: Wir erhalten Pi . 10^-8 = 4,3 Volt

7. Recorded 21 September 2026 · Light quanta, page 147

   Printed: ist P E stets bedeutend groesser als R beta nu

   Proposed: ist Pi E stets bedeutend groesser als R beta nu

8. Recorded 21 September 2026 · Brownian motion, page 557

   Printed: φ(x) = φ(-x)

   Proposed: φ(Δ) = φ(-Δ)

9. Recorded 21 September 2026 · Special relativity, page 899 · withdrawn

   Printed: Eine analoge Ueberlegung - auf die H- und Z-Achse angewandt - liefert ...

   Proposed: WITHDRAWN. No correction is proposed. The printed H is correct.

   Withdrawn on 21 September 2026: The printed H is correct and no correction is needed.

10. Recorded 21 September 2026 · Special relativity, page 908

    Printed: ... Vektoren der elektrischen und magnetischen Kraft ((X', Y' Z') und (L', M', N')) des bewegten Systems k die Gleichungen gelten:

    Proposed: ... Vektoren der elektrischen und magnetischen Kraft ((X', Y', Z') und (L', M', N')) des bewegten Systems k die Gleichungen gelten:

11. Recorded 19 September 2026 · Special relativity, page 899 · withdrawn

    Printed: auf die H- und Z-Achse angewandt

    Proposed: auf die Y- und Z-Achse angewandt

    Withdrawn on 21 September 2026: The printed H is correct and no correction is needed.

12. Recorded 19 September 2026 · Special relativity, page 902 · withdrawn

    Printed: das Stück der H-Achse des Systems k ... Dieses Stück der H-Achse

    Proposed: das Stück der Η-Achse (Y-Achse) des Systems k ... Dieses Stück der Y-Achse

    Withdrawn on 21 September 2026: The printed H is correct and no correction is needed.

13. Recorded 19 September 2026 · Special relativity, page 907

    Printed: II. Eektrodynamischer Teil.

    Proposed: II. Elektrodynamischer Teil.

14. Recorded 19 September 2026 · Special relativity, page 910

    Printed: § 7. Theorie des Doppelerschen Prinzips und der Aberration.

    Proposed: § 7. Theorie des Doppler'schen Prinzips und der Aberration.

15. Recorded 19 September 2026 · Special relativity, page 920

    Printed: W = ∫ eps X dx = ∫_0^v beta^3 v dv = mu V^2 { 1/sqrt(1-(v/V)^2) - 1 }

    Proposed: W = ∫ eps X dx = mu ∫_0^v beta^3 v dv = mu V^2 { 1/sqrt(1-(v/V)^2) - 1 }

The English translation

No correction has been recorded against it yet.