Lieserl Einstein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lieserl Einstein (late January, 1902 – September, 1903?) was the first child of physicist Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić and, according to some sources, died in infancy. Her actual fate is unknown.
Contents |
[edit] Life
Lieserl was born, before her parents married in 1903, in Novi Sad, Mileva's parents' town. From letters exchanged by Albert and Mileva, it is thought that Lieserl stayed with Mileva's family for some time before perhaps being given up for adoption.
Lieserl's existence was unknown to biographers until 1986, when a batch of letters between Albert and Mileva was discovered by their granddaughter. Discussion of Lieserl by the couple ended in 1903, and she was never again mentioned in their correspondence.
Michele Zackheim, in her book on Lieserl, Einstein's daughter, states that Lieserl was mentally challenged at birth, and that she probably died of scarlet fever as an infant.
The couple's younger son, Eduard Einstein (1910-1965), suffered from schizophrenia and spent most of his life in a psychiatric sanatorium. Their elder son, Hans Albert Einstein, however, was a renowned professor of hydraulic engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
[edit] References
- Michele Zackheim, Einstein's Daughter: the Search for Lieserl, Riverhead (October 25, 1999), ISBN 1-57322-127-9.
