Einstein family

The Einstein family is the family of the famous physicist Albert Einstein (1879–1955). The family history goes back many generations, with Jakob Weil being the oldest known relative, born in the late 1600s. The family line continues to this day.

Albert Einstein had three children with his first wife, Mileva Marić. One daughter, Lieserl, was born before they got married. Later, Albert married Elsa Einstein, who was related to him through both of their parents, making them close family even before they wed.

Etymology

The last name Einstein has two possible origins. It might come from places in Germany whose names are based on a Middle High German word meaning "to enclose, surround with stone." Alternatively, it could be a Jewish (Ashkenazic) version of a German name, or a decorative name using the ending "-stein," which means "stone."

Pauline Einstein (Albert's mother)

Pauline Einstein, born Koch, was the mother of famous physicist Albert Einstein. She was born in Cannstatt, part of Württemberg. Pauline grew up with an older sister named Fanny and two brothers, Jakob and Caesar. Her family was Jewish.

When she was 18, Pauline married Hermann Einstein in Cannstatt. They had two children: Albert, who became a well-known scientist, and their daughter Maria, called Maja. Pauline loved music and played the piano very well. She also taught Albert to play the violin when he was five years old.

Later, the family moved to Munich, but their business did not do well. Pauline spent her later years living with family members in different cities. She passed away in 1920 after becoming very ill.

Hermann Einstein (Albert's father)

Hermann Einstein (30 August 1847 – 10 October 1902) was the father of Albert Einstein. He was born in Buchau, Kingdom of Württemberg, to Jewish parents Abraham Einstein and Helene Moos.

Hermann married Pauline Koch in Cannstatt, Kingdom of Württemberg in 1876. They had two children: Albert, born in Ulm in 1879, and Maria (called Maja), born in Munich in 1881.

Hermann was an engineer and businessman. He helped start an electrical engineering company with his brother Jakob. The company made electrical devices and set up lighting systems, but it had trouble competing with bigger companies and eventually closed. Hermann encouraged Albert’s interest in science and engineering, often taking him on visits to factories. He passed away in Milan in 1902.

Maria "Maja" Einstein (Albert's younger sister)

Main article: Maja Einstein

Maria "Maja" Einstein was the younger sister of the famous scientist Albert Einstein. She was born on November 18, 1881, and was the second child of Hermann and Pauline Einstein. The family lived in Munich where Hermann worked with his brother in an electrical engineering company.

Maja went to school in Munich and later moved to Milan with her parents. She studied in Aarau and then went on to study languages in Berlin, Bern, and Paris. She graduated from the University of Bern in 1909.

In 1909, Maja married Paul Winteler, and they moved to Luzern and later to Colonnata near Florence, Italy. In 1939, because of difficult times in Italy, her brother Albert invited her to live with him in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States. She lived there with Albert until she passed away in 1951.

Lieserl Einstein (Albert's daughter)

Lieserl Einstein was the first child of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein. She was born on 27 January 1902 in Újvidék, Austria-Hungary, which is now Novi Sad, Serbia. Her parents cared for her for a short time before Einstein worked in Switzerland and Marić joined him there without taking Lieserl.

Lieserl's existence was unknown to many until 1986, when letters between Albert and Mileva were found. In their letters, they used the name "Lieserl" when talking about having a girl and "Hanserl" for a boy. The last mention of Lieserl was in September 1903, when Einstein worried about her health. What happened to her after that is still a mystery. Some think she may have passed away from an illness, while others believe she might have been adopted. A letter claiming to be from Einstein to his daughter is not real and was made up later.

Hans Albert Einstein (Albert's first son)

Main article: Hans Albert Einstein

Hans Albert Einstein was born on May 14, 1904, in Bern, Switzerland. He was the second child and first son of Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić. Hans studied at ETH Zurich and earned his doctorate in 1936. He later moved to the U.S. in 1938 and became a professor of Hydraulic engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he did important research on sediment transport.

Hans Albert had four children, including three sons and one adopted daughter named Evelyn Einstein. Among his biological sons, only Bernhard Caesar Einstein grew up. Bernhard was an engineer who had several inventions and had five children with his wife, Doris Aude Ascher.

Eduard "Tete" Einstein (Albert's second son)

Eduard Einstein was born on July 28, 1910, in Zürich, Switzerland. He was the second son of the famous physicist Albert Einstein and his first wife Mileva Marić. The family moved to Berlin in 1914, but soon after, Eduard's parents separated. Mileva took Eduard and his older brother back to Zürich.

Eduard was good at school and loved music. He wrote poems that were published in his school newspaper. He wanted to study medicine and become a doctor who helps people with their minds, but at age 21, he began struggling with a serious health issue. He needed to stay in a hospital for care many times after that. Sadly, Eduard and his father did not see each other again after Albert moved to the United States in 1933. Even so, they wrote letters to each other.

Eduard liked music, art, and writing poetry. He admired the famous thinker Sigmund Freud and kept a picture of him in his room. After his mother passed away in 1948, Eduard lived mostly in a hospital in Zurich. He died there in 1965 at the age of 55.