jimboston wrote:Einstein qualifies as he became an American Citizen in 1940 after fleeing Germany.
Chief Joseph would be considered “Native American” by today’s standards…but he would NOT have considered himself “American”.
Idiots be idiots.
Just out of curiosity I looked up Einstein's citizenship, because I couldn't remember if he was Swiss or German. Turned out both are true.
The full story is rather intricate. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/albert-einstein-german-swiss-and-american-einstein-archive/4QWRAvk1sh4A8A?hl=en
He was born German, renounced his citizenship, was stateless for five years, then took on Swiss citizenship.
Thereafter he applied for Austrian citizenship (in order to be allowed to teach in Prague) but although it was granted, he never completed the final step of swearing-in.
From 1922 to 1935 he several times changed his story about being German depending on circumstances at the time. He travelled for a while on a German diplomatic passport until finally renouncing his German citizenship for the second and final time. Thereafter he applied for and was eventually granted American citizenship. However, he never renounced the Swiss, and travelled on his Swiss passport until the end of his life.
Wikipedia divides his German claims into four different eras, so counting those separately it's eight different citizenships (four times German, stateless, Swiss, Austrian, and American) but even if you take out the fine nuance and only count two basic periods of German citizenship, and then discount the Austrian one that was never finalized, that's still five different citizenships.
The Swiss one was the one he used most often and most consistently, though. I really wouldn't think of him as an American.
