What about all the others, namely Planck? Mach? Doppler? The geologists doing seismology int the era (namely, same university)?
It was the spirit of the times (zeitgeist), for which he successfully claimed credit for through tedious propaganda (the old guard deceased with time, which also helped "new physics" to emerge)
I am at a loss as to how you seem to have read my first sentence, which named names of people who created various tools, as another claim that Einstein invented this all on his own.
It was not the spirit of the times. The spirit of the times was still grappling with some sort of absolute reference frame. If it was the "spirit of the times" it would have been discovered about 20 years earlier. It wasn't.
It was the spirit of the times (zeitgeist), for which he successfully claimed credit for through tedious propaganda (the old guard deceased with time, which also helped "new physics" to emerge)