A recommendation Otto Stoll sent to Heinrich Ernst on 4 March 1909, ranked the 30 year-old Einstein "among the most important theoretical physicists". Stoll's assessment has stood the test of time. Einstein's legacy as a physicist underpins our work at the Einstein Papers Project.
To learn more about the EPP, see Diana Kormos Buchwald interviewed on C-SPAN's Book TV, airing Saturday, March 2 at 4:30pm Pacific Time, or Sunday, March 3 at 11am Pacific Time on C-SPAN's American History TV.
Recognition was not immediate for Einstein. His first published scientific paper "Conclusions Drawn from the Phenomena of Capillarity" came out in the Annalen der Physik on 1 March 1901. At the time of publication Einstein, a recent graduate of the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School (ETH), was unemployed.
As noted by the editors on page 5 of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 2: "Offprints [of Einstein's first paper] were sent to several prominent physicists, notably Wilhelm Ostwald (who is cited in the paper), as part of Einstein's unsuccessful attempt during that spring to find a position as Assistent at some university." Then, in spite of a second note by Einstein"—and an effort some, in 2019, might deem an act of helicopter parenting—"Hermann Einstein himself wrote in April 1901 to Ostwald with an appeal that he send words of encouragement or even a job offer to Einstein. Ostwald did not respond." Of course, 4 years hence, much would change.