Mileva Marić

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Mileva (Marić) Einstein
Mileva (Marić) Einstein

Mileva Marić (December 19, 1875 – August 4, 1948; Serbian Cyrillic: Милева Марић) was a Serbian mathematician, Albert Einstein's first wife (1903-1919), and mother of three children with him. She was Einstein's companion, colleague, and confidante. There are some claims that she may have contributed to Einstein's early research but the exact degree of her participation, if any at all [1], in his discoveries is uncertain, and is the subject of many polemics.

Contents

[edit] Timeline of Her Life

Mileva (Marić) Einstein
Mileva (Marić) Einstein

Shortly after her birth, her father ends his military career and takes a job at the court in Ruma and later in Zagreb (at the time also known by its German name, Agram).

  • 1888 Changed to a high-school in Sremska Mitrovica. This school was equipped with excellent laboratories for physics and chemistry. (Trbuhovic-Gjuric 1983)
  • 1890 Graduation. Mileva Marić's best grades were in mathematics and physics. (Krstic 1991)

Marić was accepted as a private student at the royal school in Zagreb. She received a special permission to participate in the physics class, usually only held for boys. (Trbuhovic-Gjuric 1983; Krstic 1991)

  • Winter 1896 Marić starts studies in mathemathics and physics in Switzerland at ETH Zurich. This was the only University in the area to accept women for the final exams.

She is the fifth woman to study physics at ETH, the only one in her year. During practical physics lessons, she gets to know Albert Einstein.

  • 1897 Studies in Heidelberg, Germany (Theory of numbers, analytical mechanics, differential and integral calculus, elliptical functions, theory of heat, electrodynamics. (Trbuhovic-Gjuric, 4. Auflage 1984,

p.49, and ETH-Archiv der wissenschaftlich-historischen Abteilung)

  • 1900 Mileva Marić fails Zurich Polytechnic teaching diploma examination, almost certainly because of her poor grade in mathematics. [The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Vol. 1, Ed. J. Stachel, 1987, p. 247]
  • 1901 Mileva Marić becomes pregnant by Albert Einstein. It remains a secret. [2]
  • 1901 Mileva Marić leaves ETH without a certificate, she does not continue her Ph.D. [3]
  • 1902 Birth of Lieserl in Serbia, daughter of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein.
  • 1903 Marriage with Albert Einstein.
  • 1913/14 Mileva Marić remains in Zurich with her children, her husband leaves for a new job in Berlin.
  • 1919 Albert and Mileva are divorced. [5]
  • 1921 Albert Einstein wins the Nobel Prize, gives Mileva Marić the money (the money was the condition of their divorce settlement). She spends it into medical care for her son Eduard who suffers from schizophrenia. [6]

[edit] Annus Mirabilis Papers

The extent of Mileva's contribution to Einstein's Annus Mirabilis Papers is controversial. According to Evan Harris Walker, a physicist, the basic ideas for relativity came from Mileva [7]. Senta Troemel-Ploetz, a German linguist, says that the ideas may have been Albert's, but Mileva did the mathematics. Both of this claims are not likely [8][9]. On the other hand, John Stachel, keeper of Albert's letters, says that Mileva was little more than a sounding board. The case for Mileva as co-genius mostly depends on letters in which Albert referred to "our" theory and "our" work and on a divorce agreement in which Albert promised her his Nobel Prize money (see explantions below) . He gave to Mileva the money from the Nobel Prize he received but he did not publicly acknowledge any putative scientific involvement by her in his work. Mileva used the award money to support their sons. Based on newly released letters (sealed by Albert's stepdaughter Margot Einstein until 20 years after her death), Walter Isaacson (Time 168(3):50-55, July 17, 2006) reported that Mileva invested Albert's Nobel Prize money in three apartment buildings in Zurich.

The contention that the Soviet scientist Abraham Joffe claimed to have seen the original manuscripts of Einstein’s 1905 papers is not borne out by an examination of the passage in question, in which he clearly attributes them to a single author. Joffe identifies Einstein as Einstein-Marity, the name by which he presumed Einstein was officially known in Switzerland at that time. This is clearly a single name, not two separate names, and there is no justification for stating that Joffe claimed the articles were co-authored, as Martinez shows: [1] John Stachel comprehensively refutes all the erroneous claims about Joffe in the editorial Introduction to Einstein’s Miraculous Year: Five Papers that Changed the Face of Physics (2005), pp. liv-lxxii.


There is not even one strong argument that supports the idea that Mileva had helped Einstein to develop his theories, and all of the evidence for this suggestion is weak. There are other Nobel winners, beside Einstein, who have shared their prize money with their ex-wife as a part of the divorce settlement and it is known that Mileva refused to sign the divorce papers until Einstein agreed to share with her the Nobel Prize money, along with other items of their common property. Mileva used this money to buy an apartment building and used the monthly rent to support herself and her children. Moreover, when Einstein's only living son was asked about his own mother's scientific contribution to the Theory of Special Relativity he couldn’t recall any. Additionally, Albert remained an extremely fruitful scientist for the rest of his life, producing many more works of great importance, long after divorcing Mileva. She, on the other hand, never published any significant work and was never mentioned, including by any of hers or Albert’s acquaintances, for having contributed any of her own original ideas to any of Einstein's work. Finally, Mileva herself never claimed that she took any important part in the scientific work attributed to Albert .[10]

[edit] Pro and Con: Main Arguments

In the beginning of the 1990’s, the discussion about the role of Mileva Marić in modern physics started. The statements in the works of two authors are often discussed and cited:

  • Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, edited by physicist J. Stachel. It includes letters of Albert Einstein and some of his first wife. It gave new insight on Einstein when he was young. It was published (in English) in 1987.
  • Mileva Einstein, written by Desanka Trbuhovic-Gjuric, physician and mathematician. It was published in 1969 (in Serbian), and translated to German in 1982. Trbuhovic-Gjuric has done research in Russian documents and contacted family, friends and physicians who had contact with Mileva Marić, unlike many prior books which focused on sources written in German and English. The evidence that Trbuhovic-Gjuric provides is based on research undertaken more than fifty years after the events in question, however, and largely comprises third- or fourth-hand rumour and gossip which cannot be reliably substantiated, as Allen Esterson has shown in an examination of her contentions [11].

Other contributors to this discussion include:


  • Alberto A. Martínez, Center for Einstein Studies, Boston University (Article in April, 2004, issue of Physics World, on page 14). He argues that Mileva Marić did not contribute to Albert Einstein's work on the special theory of relativity of 1905.
  • D. S. Danin, Neizbezhnost strannogo mira 1962 (in Russian), a book about the history of atomic physics. Stating that in 1905, three articles were published by Einstein, signed in the original "Einstein-Marity". Eye witness is the Russian physician A. Joffe (or Ioffe).
  • Senta Trömel-Plötz, a German linguist and author who argues that Mileva Marić did not bring the basic ideas to Albert Einstein's work, but that she developed the mathematical proofs for him. ("Mileva Einstein-Maric, Die Frau, die Einsteins mathematische Probleme löste", Basler Magazin, Nr. 16, April 21, 1990, p. 7). However, in a detailed examination of her article Allen Esterson has shown that her claims are not sustainable: http://www.esterson.org/Who_Did_Einsteins_Mathematics.htm
  • John Stachel describes Marić in his book Collected Papers of Albert Einstein as a “sounding board”. He sees no evidence to prove any claims of Marić having helped her husband to his fame. (Letter in Physics Today, February 1989)
  • Allen Esterson examines the claims about Mileva Marić's alleged contributions to Einstein’s early scientific achievements and finds them devoid of credible supporting evidence [12].

[edit] Children

Einstein and Marić had two sons and a daughter; their daughter Lieserl, born before their marriage, is variously said to have been given up for adoption or to have died in childhood; her actual fate is unknown. Hans Albert Einstein, their older son, became a professor in hydraulic engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. The other son, Eduard Einstein, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized; Mileva cared for him until she died in 1948.

[edit] Memorials to Mileva Marić

There are only three known sculptoral busts, and a few memory reliefs of Mileva Marić (mostly on houses where she lived). However, all of them are located in different towns only in Vojvodina, Serbia. The newest of the busts, one in her high-school town, Sremska Mitrovica, was placed in December 2005. One high-school in Novi Sad is also named after her.

[edit] References

  • Maurer, Margarete: "Weil nicht sein kann, was nicht sein darf...'DIE ELTERN' ODER 'DER VATER' DER RELATIVITÄTSTHEORIE? Zum Streit über den Anteil von Mileva Maric an der Entstehung der Relativitätstheorie". Published in: PCnews, Nr. 48, Jg. 11, Heft 3, Wien, Juni 1996, S. 20-27. Electronic Version of RLI-Homepage (im RLI-Web): August 2005
  • Ronald W. Clark: Albert Einstein. Leben und Werk, Munich, (1981). English Original: Einstein, the Life and Times, 1973).
  • Dord Krstic: "Mileva Einstein-Maric", in: Elizabeth Roboz Einstein: Hans Albert Einstein. Reminiscences of His Life and Our Life Together, Iowa Cita (Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research) 1991, S. 85-99.
  • R.S. Shankland: "Conversations with Albert Einstein", in: American Journal of Physics, Vol. 31, 1963, S. 47-57.
  • Desanka Trbuhovic-Gjuric: Mileva Einstein, Editions des Femmes (1991). ISBN 2721004077.
  • Desanka Trbuhovic-Gjuric: Im Schatten Albert Einsteins. Das tragische Leben der Mileva Einstein-Maric, Bern: Paul Haupt, (1983). ISBN 3258047006.
  • Stachel, J. (2002). Einstein from 'B' to 'Z'. Boston: Bïrkhauser, pp. 26-38; 39-55.
  • Stachel, J (ed.) (2005). Einstein's Miraculous Year: Five Papers That Changed the Face of Physics. Princeton, pp. liv-lxxii.
  • Stachel, J. et al (eds.) (1987): The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein: Volume 1. (With English commentary).
  • Havas, P. (ed.) (1987): The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein: Volume 1 (English translation).
  • Popovic, M. (ed.) (2003): In Albert's Shadow: The love Life and Letters of Mileva Maric.
  • Martinez, A: "Handling Evidence in History: The Case of Einstein's Wife," in School Science Review (March 2005).

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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