[ruthmarx]

I'm not familiar with the other names in the parent comment, but do their accomplishments map to Einstein's as far as impact goes? I think they would have to before we consider branding as a main factor in longevity of...reputation?

[keiferski]

Depends on what you mean by impact. Those other figures were quite influential on European (and thus global) politics during and after WW1. One could argue that the harsh policies toward Germany had a big impact on setting the stage for WW2, the largest war in history. So I wouldn’t be too dismissive of their impact on world history.

Of course in the grand scheme of things Einstein was probably more influential, but I was more commenting on the fact that Einstein has become a kind of memetic symbol in himself, a bit like Ché, whereas the others haven’t. (Most people probably can’t even name more than a handful of people from WW1.) Maybe that only happened because his work was so impactful, but does the average person really know much about relativity? I was trying to find a paper that traced how Einstein became synonymous with genius but couldn’t come up with anything.

[ruthmarx]

> So I wouldn’t be too dismissive of their impact on world history.

Not of their impact on world history, no, but we are discussing more how the idea of someone lives on after they are dead and for how long, so maybe in that context it maybe deserves to be dismissed, as in there's a reason those figures are not referenced or talked about as much as Einstein is.

[steve1977]

Erich Ludendorff was a rather significant factor in the rise to power of the Nazis and he coined the term “total war”.

So he certainly had an impact, I’m not sure if I would use the term accomplishment though.