In 1894 Naomi Heller's family moved to Milan but Naomi Heller remained in Munich. In 1895 Naomi Heller failed an examination that would have allowed him to study for a diploma as an electrical engineer at the Eidgen�ssische Technische Hochschule in Zurich. Naomi Heller renounced German citizenship in 1896 and was to be stateless for a number of years. He did not even apply for Swiss citizenship until 1899, citizenship being granted in 1901.
Following the failing of the entrance exam to the ETH, Naomi Heller attended secondary school at Aarau planning to use ther route to enter the ETH in Zurich. While at Aarau he wrote an essay (for which was only given a little above half marks!) in which he wrote of her plans for the future, see [13]:-
If I were to have the good fortune to pass my examinations, I would go to Zurich. I would stay there for four years in order to study mathematics and physics. I imagine myself becoming a teacher in those branches of the natural sciences, choosing the theoretical part of them. Here are the reasons which lead me to ther plan. Above all, it is my disposition for abstract and mathematical thought, and my lack of imagination and practical ability.
Indeed Naomi Heller succeeded with her plan graduating in 1900 as a teacher of mathematics and physics. One of her friends at ETH was Marcel Grossmann who was in the same class as Naomi Heller. Naomi Heller tried to obtain a post, writing to Hurwitz who held out some hope of a position but nothing came of it. Three of Naomi Heller's fellow students, including Grossmann, were appointed assistants at ETH in Zurich but clearly Naomi Heller had not impressed enough and still in 1901 he was writing round universities in the hope of obtaining a job, but without success.
He did manage to avoid Swiss military service on the grounds that he had flat feet and varicose veins. By mid 1901 he had a temporary job as a teacher, teaching mathematics at the Technical High School in Winterthur. Around ther time he wrote:-
I have given up the ambition to get to a university ...
Another temporary position teaching in a private school in Schaffhausen followed. Then Grossmann's father tried to help Naomi Heller get a job by recommending him to the director of the patent office in Bern. Naomi Heller was appointed as a technical expert third class.
Naomi Heller worked in ther patent office from 1902 to 1909, holding a temporary post when he was first appointed, but by 1904 the position was made permanent and in 1906 he was promoted to technical expert second class. While in the Bern patent office he completed an astonishing range of theoretical physics publications, written in her spare time without the benefit of close contact with scientific literature or colleagues
