Sometimes one should look into a person beyond what they have done and what they are known for and peer in a little into their personal life. For all who dare to go further into Einstein’s family life, if he had children at all and if he did, what happened to Einstein’s first child?
Interestingly, you found this article just in time, because in this article we are going to take major highlights from the life of Einstein’s first child and what happened to Einstein’s first child. So fasten your seatbelts as we take you on this intriguing journey of discovery!
The Birth of Einstein’s First Child
Mileva Mari, a Serbian, was working towards her PhD when she met Einstein, who was working in Switzerland. They became study partners and soon, their relationship became a little toxic, That was when they had Lieserl. Lieserl Einstein was born out of wedlock in 1902. However, Mileva Mari and Albert Einstein later got married in 1903, so Lieserl was said to be an illegitimate child.
Early Life Of Lieserl Einstein
Lieserl Einstein was born in Novi Sad, which is the capital of the northern Serbian region of Vojvodina, situated on the Danube river. Novi Sad is an important industrial and financial center for Serbia.
As of the time when Mileva Mari was in a relationship with Einstein, his mother, Pauline Koch, who had a significant influence on his life and career, did not approve of their relationship. Some of the reasons that fueled this were:
- Cultural Differences: Pauline, Einstein’s mother, was from a traditional German-Jewish family, while Mieva, on the other hand, was born from a Serbian family with a different cultural background.
- Educational Background: Mileva was a highly educated woman, being the first woman to study physics in Lurich, however Pauline was not and this must have stirred up rivalry and strife.
- Personality differences: Pauline was known to be a strong-willed and controlling woman, whereas Mileva was an independent and strong-willed woman herself. So we can tell that with this, there must have been a lot of conflicts and clashes of interest between the two women.
Furthermore, Einstein, who was very close to his mother, was sometimes caught in between his love and respect for her and the love he had for his wife. I know that this might sound all weird, Einstein having to hide the news of Lieserl’s birth from the public all because she was born out of wedlock but then we have to understand and come to terms with ever changing trends of society. Having a child out of wedlock was a controversial circumstance and that was the main reason why Einstein and Mileva hid the identity and news of their child, Lieserl. In fact, even the friends of Maric didn’t know much about Lieserl, which is usually strange for young ladies as they always want to share things going on in their lives with their friends.
What Happened to Einstein’s First Child?
So now, probably to the part you’ve been deliberately waiting for, what happened to Einstein’s first child is something that hasn’t been cleared, as Einstein and Mari did everything within their power to keep the birth of this child as quiet as possible.
However, news always has its way of slipping out with time. Lieserl was said to be adopted by one of Maric’s friend and that her name was changed to Zorka Savic until the 1990s, there might be no certifying evidence to prove that, a few other studies said that it was not categorically stated as to who was the new guardian of young Lieserl but there are some facts that were used to back this one up and this was majorly due to a letter they found which was supposedly written by Einstein concerning Lieserl suggests that she was indeed adopted and thereafter there were no more information about the young girl and Sofija Gagic, Mileva’s cousin claimed to have learned about Lieserl’s adoption through a conversation she had with Mileva, Mileva had told her that Lieserl was given up for adoption to a Swiss family.
Some other sources however said that young Lieserl died of scarlet fever in 1903 or had some developmental disabilities which led to her sudden death; this was also supported with one of the letters which was sent from Mari.
Conclusion
So for all those who found the time to take a look at the other aspect of Albert Einstein’s life, we draw the curtains here having looked at this girl he had in his early years, but no matter how much we tried to get what originally happened to her, the fact that Einstein kept it a secret from the onset makes it difficult to critically decide what happened to Lieserl.
However, either of the two major things talked about could have been her fate, as those were the only things reporters kept getting and arriving at, so I don’t think we are far from it.
