Lieser Einstein was the first daughter between the German physicist Albert Einstein and his first wife, the Serbian Mileva Marić, although she was born before the marriage between the two scientists. Apart from her birth, little is known about Lieserl Einstein, about whom there are only assumptions about her life.
Lieserl is a diminutive used to refer to Elizabeth. She was born in Serbia, when Albert Einstein was 22 years old. Her birth was known to very few. Neither Mileva nor Albert spoke about her publicly.
Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein, father of Lieserl Eisntein. Source: ETH Library, via Wikimedia Commons.
Since it was frowned upon to have a child out of wedlock, Einstein was able to keep the news a secret so as not to jeopardize his nascent career in science.
It took more than 80 years for it to be known that Lieserl Einstein existed. The discovery was thanks to the appearance of some letters that Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein exchanged during their lives. References to Lieserl were rare and the fate of the baby has not yet been discovered.
Biography
On January 27, 1902, the birth of Lieserl Einstein occurred. The first daughter between Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić was born when her parents had not yet married. At the beginning of the 20th century, a child out of wedlock was frowned upon.
Under Swiss law, Lieserl would have ceased to be considered an illegitimate daughter as soon as Einstein and Marić married, which happened months later.
When Lieserl was born, Einstein was working in Switzerland, while his mother, Mileva, was in Serbia, giving birth at her parents' home.
Lieserl's delivery is estimated to have been difficult. There is no record that makes reference to the baptism of the baby, although a private ceremony was probably held to welcome him to the Orthodox religion.
Einstein had not yet met Mileva Marić's parents when Lieserl was born. Because of this, Marić asked the German scientist to accompany her to visit her parents in Serbia to meet them and give them the news of the pregnancy. The German refused and preferred to spend a vacation with his mother. Mileva's parents found out about the birth when the girl was three months old.
Einstein never met his first daughter in person. Together with Mileva he had two other children who did not get to know Lieserl. Hans Albert was the first male of the couple, who was born two years after Lieserl, followed by Eduard Einstein in 1910. Lieserl was then the only daughter to have the physicist.
Hypothesis about your life
As there are not many references to Lieserl, and his existence was only known more than 80 years after his birth, the assumptions about his life are multiple.
Some believe that Albert Einstein's first daughter was born with Down syndrome and that that prevented her from being given up for adoption, so she stayed with Mileva's family. Others, based on letters between Einstein and Marić, claim that he died in September 1903 from scarlet fever.
The option of her being given up for adoption shortly after birth is also being handled, specifically to Helene Savić, a very close friend of Mileva's. Savić's grandson, Milan Popović, a renowned psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, denied this option.
The questions and the mystery about Lieserl Einstein have inspired some books. Perhaps the most important was that of Michel Zackheim, who spent several years researching Einstein's first daughter and captured everything in a book that was published in 1999 and was called Einstein's daughter: the search for Lieserl.
Letters
The life of Lieserl Einstein was only known by the appearance in 1986 of letters between Einstein and his first wife. The letters were discovered by Evelyn, one of Albert Einstein's granddaughters and Hans Albert's daughter.
Lieserl was first mentioned in a letter Albert wrote to Mileva in May 1901. In the letter, Einstein refers to the unborn baby. The name is known because Marić mentions it in one of her writings later, in November of the same year, where she made it clear that she wanted a girl.
Einstein showed joy at the presence of Lieserl in their lives in a letter dated December 1901 and acknowledged that he secretly hoped it was a boy, responding to the diminutive of Hanserl. Although there is no confirmation, it has been determined that January 27, 1902 was the day that Lieserl Einstein was born.
Einstein learned of the birth of his first daughter from a letter from Milos Marić, Mileva's father, which was lost or destroyed.
In February 1902, already learning of Lieserl's birth, Einstein asked for details about his daughter and asked to have her photograph taken whenever possible. Furthermore, he implies that the delivery was complicated by the news he received from Marić's father.
Einstein wrote two other letters during that February of 1902, but none of them mention Lieserl, although both are missing the last pages.
It was more than a year and a half before Lieserl was named again in a letter from Einstein. In September 1903 the German physicist wrote that he felt sorry for what happened to Lieserl. He made reference to scarlet fever and asked how it was registered.
From this letter arises the hypothesis that she was adopted or that she later died from the aftermath of the disease. This is the last record that exists about the life of Lieserl Einstein.
References
- Milentijević, R. (2010). Mileva Marić Einstein. New York: United World Press.
- Phillips, C., & Priwer, S. (2018). 101 things you didn't know about Einstein. Massachusetts: Adams Media.
- Popović, M. (2003). In Albert's shadow. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press
- Priwer, S., Phillips, C., & Crespo, P. (2005). Everything about Einstein. Barcelona: Ma Non Troppo.
- Smith, P. (2011). Einstein (1st ed.). Alfragide: Text Editors, LDA.