EDUARD EINSTEIN: BIOGRAPHY - BIOGRAPHIES - 2024

Eduard Einstein was the youngest son of the famous scientist Albert Einstein (1879-1955). Despite having been a child with weakness and a certain tendency to get sick, he had great artistic and scientific talent. However, he had to interrupt his career due to suffering from schizophrenia.

His life story has been overshadowed by the emphasis that has been placed on his father's personality. His existence is just one of the gruesome anecdotes of the personal life of Albert Einstein, a man who forever changed our notion of time and space.

Eduard Einstein excelled in the fields of literature, music and psychiatry. Source: Getty Images

Eduard's mental and physical health problems became one of his father's greatest concerns, despite the distant and conflictual relationship they maintained throughout their lives.

Ultimately, Eduard Einstein was a man whose destiny was cut short by illness, isolation, and depression, caused to some extent by being in the shadow of his father, one of the most popular figures of the 20th century.

Biography

Family background

Eduard's parents met at the Zurich Polytechnic Institute in 1896, after being admitted to study in the physico-mathematical section.

His mother, the Serbian Mileva Marić (1875-1948), was the only woman studying at that institution at that time. Her intellect and family influences allowed her this opportunity, normally forbidden to females.

Mileva worked together with Albert in his investigations. It is considered that his contribution was fundamental to formulate the theory of relativity. However, Marić received virtually no recognition for her status as a woman. Albert took all the credit for the joint work.

First children

Marić and Einstein had Lieserl (their first daughter) in 1902, a year before they married. The couple went through various family and academic problems during this extramarital pregnancy. Albert's family did not accept their son's relationship with a foreigner; Furthermore, Marić had to drop out of school when she became pregnant.

The firstborn disappeared from their lives under unknown circumstances. She could have been given up for adoption or died ill before reaching her first year of age; there is still no confirmed information in this regard.

Shortly after this loss, on May 14, 1904, the first male child of the Einstein-Marić marriage, Hans Albert, was born. Growing up, he became a highly recognized engineer in the United States.

Eduard Einstein is born

In Switzerland, specifically on July 28, 1910, Eduard was born, who was given the affectionate nickname "Tete." The sound of this word resembles the French word petit, which means "small."

In 1914, when Eduard was barely four years old, the family moved from Zurich to Berlin on Albert's initiative. Soon after, Mileva filed for divorce and returned to Zurich with her children.

The reason for this separation was that Albert, being immersed in his work and research, spent little time with the family, which affected his relationship with Mileva, Hans and Eduard. It is also known that during the marriage Albert had relationships with his cousin Elsa, a fact that surely made the couple's situation worse.

It was not until February 14, 1919, that the separation was legalized. Almost immediately, Albert married Elsa Einstein. Albert's new family life further weakened his ties with his children, limiting himself to a few visits, correspondence and financial aid. This situation affected the temperament of Hans and Eduard.

Rugged growth

Since he was born, Eduard was a weak and sickly child, a fact that deprived him even more of sharing time with his father since his delicate state of health prevented him from visiting him or accompanying him on his travels. In a letter to a classmate dated 1917, Albert Einstein expressed concern that his son might not grow up as a normal person.

Despite everything, at an early age Eduard began to excel academically, showing interest in areas such as literature, music and, perhaps motivated by his own pathologies, psychiatry. He was a great admirer of Freud, and thanks to the influence of his parents he enrolled at the Zurich Institute to study medicine.

However, studying in the same place as his father was difficult for him. Records of self-analysis exercises reveal that young Einstein acknowledged having low self-esteem due to constant comparisons with his father.

The psychological break

It was during these college years plagued with social frustrations that Eduard suffered a psychological breakdown. In 1930, at the age of 20, he tried to commit suicide. The examinations carried out after this event reveal that the young man suffered from schizophrenia.

In 1932 Eduard Einstein was admitted to Burghölzli, the sanatorium of the University of Zurich, where he was treated with electroshock therapy. According to his brother Hans, these therapies were the ones that ended up destroying his mental health, destroying his cognitive abilities and his ability to communicate.

His father claimed that his son's condition was inherited from his mother's family. Despite these allegations - as we know from Elsa Einstein's testimony - Albert never stopped feeling guilty about his son's condition.

The loneliness of his last years

In 1933, after Hitler seized power in Germany, Albert - recognized at the time as one of the world's greatest minds - was forced to emigrate to the United States to avoid the Nazis' persecution of Jews. This exile permanently separated him from his son, who had to remain confined in Zurich.

His brother Hans and the rest of the family were also forced to flee to American territory. Only Mileva stayed in Zurich to monitor her son's health, which she did until the day of his death in 1948. Then Eduard was left completely alone, confined to the coldness of the sanatorium and the generosity of those who cared for him.

Eduard and his father never saw each other again; however, they corresponded. Albert would be in charge of sending money for his maintenance for the rest of his life.

After spending more than thirty years in the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital, Eduard Einstein died at the age of 55 from a stroke.

References

1. Dimuro, G. "Eduard Einstein: The Story Of Albert Einstein's Forgotten Son Who Spent His Days In Insane Asylums" (November 11, 2018) from All That's Interesting. Retrieved on May 26, 2019 from All That's Interesting: allthatsinteresting.com
2. Highfield, R.; Carter, P. "The Private Lives of Albert Einstein" (1993). London: Faber and Faber.
3. Kupper, HJ "Short life history: Eduard Einstein" (No date) by Albert Einstein In The World Wide Web. Retrieved on May 26, 2019 from Albert Einstein In The World Wide Web: einstein-website.eu
4. Kupper, HJ "Short life history: Hans Albert Einstein" (No date) by Albert Einstein In The World Wide Web. Retrieved on May 26, 2019 from Albert Einstein In The World Wide Web: einstein-website.eu
5. Mejía, C. “Mileva Marić, the woman who knew the dark side of Albert Einstein” (March 14, 2018) in De10.MX. Retrieved on May 26, 2019 from De10.MX: de10.com.mx
6. Navilon, G. “Eduard Einstein: The tragic life of Albert Einstein's forgotten son”) May 2019) at Ideapod. Retrieved on May 26, 2019 from Ideapod: ideapod.com