The secret of the illegitimate daughter 'seems to be invisible to the whole world' of genius Albert Einstein

So why was Lieserl's existence hidden? The reason is because she is an "out of wedlock".

Mileva Marić is one of two women in Albert Einstein's life. In 1901, Mileva Marić, a student majoring in physics and mathematics at the Federal Polytechnic University of Zurich – where Einstein attended – left school and returned to Serbia, where she gave birth to a daughter the following year. there. It was not until 1903, Einstein and Marić were married.

Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić with their first son, Hans Einstein, in 1904.

Strangely, Lieserl seemed to have disappeared from history, until both Mileva and Einstein died in 1948 and 1955, respectively, still no one knew about her. It was not until 1986, when historians found letters of communication between Einstein and his wife, that the world learned that Lieserl really existed.

So what happened to Lieserl Einstein, Albert Einstein's only daughter?

The Mystery of the Forgotten Child

The only thing that scientists are sure of about Lieserl Einstein is that she was born on January 27, 1902 in the city of Újvidék, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Hungary and now part of Serbia.

Lieserl's existence was so mysterious that historians didn't know anything until the letters were discovered in 1986, at this time, theories revolved around her only daughter. of Albert Einstein was just beginning to rise.

Albert Einstein with his first wife Mileva Marić in 1905

On February 4, 1902, Albert Einstein wrote to Mileva Marić: "I was really panicking when I received a letter from your father because I suspected there was some trouble here." By the time Mileva gave birth to Einstein's first daughter in his native Serbia, he was in faraway Switzerland.

"How is the baby? How was the baby's cry at birth? Which of the two of us will those little eyes look like?", the questions of the great physicist, over and over again and in In the last lines, he wrote: "Although I have never seen her once, I love her very much".

Mileva and Albert Einstein with their first son - Hans.

In the handwritten letter, he also begged his lover to get a picture of his daughter: "Can you draw me a picture of her when she gets better?. She must have cried, But to laugh, you need to learn more."

When Mileva and Einstein went to Bern, Switzerland to get married in January 1903, she did not bring Lieserl with her. The child seemed to disappear from this world without a single clue. In fact, none of the letters after 1903 contain the name Lieserl.

Searches

When scholars learned that Albert Einstein once had a girl named Lieserl Einstein, they began looking for information about the child. However, there is not a single document to prove Lieserl's existence including a birth certificate, medical records or even a death certificate.

Even the name "Lieserl" may not be her real name because in the letters of Albert and Mileva two names are mentioned "Lieserl" and "Hanserl", which are considered representative names. for girls and boys in the German language.

Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein in 1912, two years before they parted

While the mystery is still open, historians have tried to string together the following clues about Lieserl's life:

At the time of Lieserl's birth, Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić were still unmarried. As the only woman in her class, pregnancy disrupted her study plans and caused her to drop out of school.

Besides, the two also have to face difficulties from their families. "When you are 30 years old, that woman is already an old woman", Einstein's mother once did not accept her son's marriage to a woman 3 years older than her. Despite family skepticism, he still chose to marry Mileva, but she had to leave her daughter at home to be raised by her maternal family.

Einstein's act of hiding his daughter is believed to have been caused because at the time he was working at a Swiss patent office, and having an illegitimate daughter would cost him go to your job.

The last time Lieserl appeared in letters from his parents was in September 1903: "I am deeply saddened by the misfortune that befell our daughter Lieserl. The rash will easily leave complications for a long time. long".

From the above lines it can be seen that Lieserl apparently contracted the rash at about 21 months of age. However, the words in the letter imply that the girl survived: "If only this difficult time would pass quickly. What name will the child be registered under? We must watch out for trouble. could happen to the baby in the future."

Rare clues lead scholars to two theories: either Lieserl died of illness as a child, or the Einsteins gave her up for adoption.

What happened to Lieserl Einstein?

After years of searching for clues, in 1999, author Michele Zackheim published a book called "Einstein's Daughter: The Search for Lieserl", in that this author hypothesized.

The book "Einstein's Daughter: The Quest for Lieserl".

According to Zackheim, Lieserl was born with unexplained defects, which is why Mileva Marić left Lieserl with her family when she went to Bern to marry Einstein, even though Lieserl had died before she was a baby. second age. It is possible that Einstein never met his daughter because he never mentioned her after 1903.

Mrs. Mileva Marić and her two sons, Hans Albert and Eduard.

Another theory is that Einstein hid the existence of his daughter from his family. However, this theory contradicts the lines of letters his mother wrote a few weeks after Lieserl's birth: "This Miss Mileva is making me experience the most exhausting moments of my life, if I could, I would like to. She disappeared from my sight, I really don't like her at all."

In 1904, Mileva was pregnant again, and to his wife's apprehensions, the physicist said: "My dear wife, I am not at all angry knowing that we are I already have a baby. In fact, I'm really excited about it, will we have another lovely daughter?"

Just a few months after the name Lieserl "disappeared" from the letters, Einstein was thinking about a "new Lieserl". So what happened to Lieserl Einstein? So far, the existence of this girl is still an unsolved mystery.