Just check this link to be stunned by enormous power" of the German/Prussian Academy of Sciences. I f Albert Einstein has a typical academical career I doubt very much that under such pressure he could even think about the unorthodox approaches to the time/space and the role of gravity in bending even ray of light.

http://en.wikipedia.org        /wiki/Category:Members_of_the_Prussian_Academy_of_Sciences