Mileva Einstein-Maric

Physicist, b. 19 December 1875 (Titel, Hungary), d. 4 August 1948 (Zürich, Switzerland)

Mileva Maric's father was a land-owner and civil servant in the Austrian-Hungarian empire. Her teachers noticed Mileva's academic abilities early and told her parents to expect great things from their daughter. To give Mileva every opportunity for advanced studies her father obtained a special Royal permission to send Mileva to the Royal Classical Gymnasium in Zagreb, a school normally reserved for boys. After two years of study she left with the best marks in physics and mathematics of her class and completed her high school education in Switzerland.

Not many universities in Europe admitted women at the time, so Mileva did not have many choices. The University of Zürich in Switzerland was one of her options, and she enrolled in 1894 for medical studies. But her inclination was towards modern physics. After two years at the university she enrolled at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School and joined Division VIA (training of mathematics and physics teachers). Four males and one female were in the class, and the subject theoretical physics was subscribed by only two students, Mileva Maric and Albert Einstein.

The beginning of the 20th century was an exciting time in physics. Swiss academic institutions were slow to take up the new ideas, and Mileva decided in 1897 to go to Heidelberg and study physics there. Professor Philip Lenard's lectures demonstrated the most recent findings of physical sciences. In one of his lectures he demonstrated the photoelectric effect, and Mileva wrote excited about it in her letters to Einstein.

But the University of Heidelberg did not allow women to graduate, and Mileva returned to Zürich. Disappointed with the standard of physics teaching, she and Einstein spent more time on the studies of books than on lectures, reading the works of Faraday, Maxwell and others. Their studies brought them closer to each other, and they became lovers.

Throughout the university period Mileva Maric had better marks than Einstein, but Einstein graduated, and Maric did not. She left the Polytechnic in 1901 in a state of advanced pregnancy and under severe stress because it was clear that her first child would be born out of wedlock.

Einstein's family was Jewish, Mileva was from a Serb family. Both sides strongly opposed the idea of marriage. The daughter Lieserl was born in 1902. Little is known about the life of this first child; it is generally believed that she was given up for adoption. Maric and Einstein married in the following year, ignoring the objections of their families, and from then on Maric had the role of supporting wife to a famous scientist. Einstein published his papers on the photoelectric effect and special relativity in 1905 without acknowledging Maric's contributions.

The son Hans Albert was born on 1904, the second son Eduard in 1910. In 1914 Einstein received an offer from Berlin to join the University there and accepted. Mileva Einstein-Maric decided to live in Zürich with her two sons. On Einstein's demands she eventually agreed to a divorce on the condition that, should Einstein be awarded the Nobel Prize, she should receive all prize money.

The divorce was granted in 1919. Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 and handed the prize money over to his divorced wife. Mileva Einstein-Maric used the award money to support her sons. Hans Albert married in 1927 and emigrated to the USA, but Eduard had been inflicted with a mental disease. His care soon exhausted the funds and could only be continued through the sale of property. During her last years Mileva Einstein-Maric lived a secluded life in Zürich.

In accordance with Albert Einstein's last wishes his personal documents were deposited with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It contains much correspondence between him and his first wife. Some letters suggest that Mileva Einstein-Maric made major contributions to his most important publications but was not acknowledged as co-author.

Whatever the substance of these suggestions, Mileva Einstein-Maric was denied a life of fulfilment as a scientist. Academia had no place for a women from a part of Europe that made her "unpresentable" to the upper classes of Swiss, German or Jewish society.

References

Hilton. G, (producer/director) et al. (2003) Einstein's wife, the life of Mileva Maric Einstein. Melsa Films Pty. Ltd. Bangalow, NSW, Australia. Also at http://www.pbs.org/opb/einsteinswife/about/ (accessed 15 June 2004)

New Scientist (1990) Was the first Ms Einstein a genius, too? New Scientist 1706, 3 March 1990.

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