Lieserl Marić

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Lieserl Marić (also Lieserl Einstein ; * January 1902 in Novi Sad , Vojvodina , then Austria-Hungary ; † unknown) was the first child of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein . The existence of the child only became known in 1987 after the publication of Einstein's letters to his girlfriend and later wife Mileva Marić, discovered in 1986, in which the child is mentioned and referred to as "Lieserl". The child's real name and fate are unknown.

Einstein and Marić's relationship

Einstein had met Marić in 1896 at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich, where they both attended the same lectures and became friends. In the spring of 1901, Marić became pregnant. The correspondence shows that Marić wanted a girl, "a Lieserl", while Einstein wanted a boy, "a Hanserl". At the end of May 1901, Einstein first asked about the child in a letter from Winterthur with the question: “What is the boy doing?” He also promised Marić a future together: “Be of good cheer, my love, and don't make yourself a barbecue. I'm not leaving you and I will bring everything to a happy end ”. Einstein was without a permanent job after completing his studies at the Polytechnic, and his parents disapproved of his friendship with Marić.

Marić, three months pregnant, repeated her diploma examination at the Polytechnic, which she had taken at the same time as Einstein the previous year but failed, but failed the second time. At the end of 1901 she traveled to her parents in Novi Sad. In a letter, Einstein wrote to her: "... and look forward to our dear Lieserl, whom I would prefer to secretly (so that the doxerl [nickname for Marić] doesn't notice) as Hanserl"). At the end of 1901 Einstein was offered a permanent position at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern . In February 1902 he moved to Bern and took up his position at the Federal Patent Office in June.

Lieserl's birth

Shortly before the birth of the child and in anticipation of the job in Bern, Einstein raised the question, “How could we take our Lieserl to us? I don't want us to have to give it up. ”The child was probably born in January 1902. The 22-year-old Einstein was informed of the birth by letter from Marić's father; Marić was too exhausted to write himself after complications in childbirth. Einstein was happy about the birth of the child. "Is it also healthy and is it screaming a lot?" He asked. “What kind of Augerl does it have? Which of us is more like it? [...] I love it so much & don't even know it. [...] Can it soon turn its eyes to something? ”Marić returned to Switzerland at the end of 1902, without“ Lieserl ”.

Einstein and Marićs marriage

Albert and Mileva Einstein (1912)

On January 6, 1903, Marić and Einstein married at the registry office in Bern. There were no wedding guests from either Einstein's or Marić's family. From all that is known, the child's existence was kept secret from Swiss friends and acquaintances.

In the summer of 1903, the Einstein couple decided to finally separate from their daughter “Lieserl”, who is believed to have remained in the care of Marić's family in Vojvodina. The reasons for this decision ultimately remain in the dark. It would be plausible that Einstein did not want to jeopardize his position at the patent office. In August 1903, Marić went to her parents' house in Novi Sad. From the correspondence it appears that the child was sick with scarlet fever . In September Einstein asked how the child was now registered and urged caution so that the daughter would not suffer any disadvantages later, which suggests the assumption that the child should be given up for adoption. During the trip, Marić had discovered that she was pregnant again, which Einstein was very pleased with. Marić and Einstein's second child, Hans Albert was born in Bern in 1904, their second son Eduard in Zurich in 1910 - his first child - his only daughter - however, as far as is known, Einstein never saw.

Lieserl's fate after 1903

The child is mentioned for the last time in a letter from Einstein on September 19, 1903. It is generally believed that the child was baptized and put up for adoption and contracted scarlet fever in 1903 . Despite an intensive search, however, neither entries in church registers nor civil files were found.

In her book "Einstein's Daughter" , published in the USA in 1999, Michele Zackheim argues that "Lieserl" was mentally handicapped from birth, lived with Marić's family and died in September 1903 as a result of a scarlet fever infection. Another assumption preferred by Robert Schulmann , the co-editor of the Einstein Papers Project , is that “Lieserl” was adopted by Marić's friend Helene Savić and with Zorka Savić, who was blind in her childhood and who lived until the 1990s has, is identical. Helene Savić's grandson Milan Popović doubts that Zorka Savić is "Lieserl" and takes the view that "Lieserl" Marić died in September 1903.

literature

  • Albrecht Fölsing : Albert Einstein: a biography . Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1995, ISBN 3-518-38990-4
  • Ulla Fölsing: Mileva Maric . In: Ulla Fölsing: Nobel women. Portrait of women scientists . CH Beck, Munich, 4th expanded edition, 2001, ISBN 3-406-47581-7
  • Milan Popović (Ed.): In Albert's shadow. The life and letters of Mileva Marić, Einstein's first wife . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2003, ISBN 0-8018-7856-X (English)
  • Jürgen Renn and Robert Schulmann (eds.): I'll kiss you orally on Sunday. The love letters 1897–1903 / Albert Einstein, Mileva Marić . (Ed. Of the German edition: Armin Hermann). Piper, Munich 1994 (English 1992) ISBN 3-492-03644-9
  • Michele Zackheim: Einstein's daughter . (From the American by Bernd Rullkötter). List, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-471-79215-5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Armin Hermann: Einstein. The wise man and his century. A biography. Piper, 1994, ISBN 3-492-03477-2 , pp. 119-120
personal data
SURNAME Marić, Lieserl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Einstein, Lieserl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Daughter of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein
DATE OF BIRTH January 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Novi Sad , Serbia
DATE OF DEATH after August 1903