Original: While spacetime can be viewed as a consequence of Albert Einstein's 1905 theory of special relativity, it was first explicitly proposed mathematically by one of his teachers, the mathematician Hermann Minkowski, in a 1908 essayHermann Minkowski, "Raum und Zeit", 80.
Simplified: Albert Einstein's 1905 theory of special relativity is the beginning of the concept of spacetime, but the first mathematical theory of spacetime was proposed by one of his teachers, the mathematician Hermann Minkowski, in a 1908 essay. Hermann Minkowski, "Raum und Zeit", 80.