The Forgotten Life of Einstein's First Wife
May 27, 2023 10:57 AM Subscribe
She was a physicist, too—and there is evidence that she contributed significantly to his groundbreaking science But who remembers this brilliant scientist? While her husband, Albert Einstein is celebrated as perhaps the best physicist of the 20th century, one question about his career remains: How much did his first wife contribute to his groundbreaking science? While nobody has been able to credit her with any specific part of his work, their letters and numerous testimonies presented in the books dedicated to her(1-5) provide substantial evidence on how they collaborated from the time they met in 1896 up to their separation in 1914. They depict a couple united by a shared passion for physics, music and for each other. So here is their story.
The first recognition came in 1908. Albert gave unpaid lectures in Bern, then was offered his first academic position in Zurich in 1909. Mileva was still assisting him. Eight pages of Albert’s first lecture notes are in her handwriting. So is a letter drafted in 1910 in reply to Max Planck who had sought Albert’s opinion. Both documents are kept in the Albert Einstein Archives (AEA) in Jerusalem. On 3 September 1909, Mileva confided to Helene Savić: “He is now regarded as the best of the German-speaking physicists, and they give him a lot of honours. I am very happy for his success, because he fully deserves it; I only hope and wish that fame does not have a harmful effect on his humanity.” Later, she added: “With all this fame, he has little time for his wife. […] What is there to say, with notoriety, one gets the pearl, the other the shell.”
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Meanwhile, Albert’s family strongly opposed their relationship. His mother was adamant. “By the time you’re 30, she’ll already be an old hag!”1 as Albert reported to Mileva2 in a letter dated 27 July 1900, as well as "She cannot enter a respectable family ”. Mileva was neither Jewish, nor German. She had a limp and was too intellectual in his mother’s opinion, not to mention prejudices against foreign people.3
1 How human for a mother to write this to her son. ("Human" defined here as "contemptible." See also "cowardly", as it was almost certainly not written also to Mileva)
2 How human for Albert to confide this to Mileva. ("Human" defined here as "contemptible." See also "devious." See also "low." See also "odious.")
3 How human. Utterly, completely human.
1-4 (Editorial commentary.)
~~~~~
Further reading
Should you find your interest piqued by this article, should you decide "Hey, I would like to know more about this, I believe that I'm going to fire up ol' DuckDuckGo and dig in." consider as you begin doing so that there exists a huge myth around this man and everything surrounding him, remember always that there exists a web of beautiful stories, some of which will make you glad that you are human and alive and sentient at this particular intersection of space-time that we call home, you will find bromides, homilies, truths, half-truths, straight-up dishonesties, side-grasping, deep-gasping, knee-slapping, howling-laughter type bullshit, head-clenching, rage-inducing lies and hypocrisies and cowardices and way more people and organizations than you can perhaps believe which exist solely to keep the shine on this jewel bright and unquestioned, right there with Truth, Justice, The American Way, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, etc.
Upon reading this linked story I was compelled to read more. As I have done so, as I have learned more about this entire situation, link by link, picture by picture, word by word, my anger has grown. I'm not going to go long here, I will say simply that I find myself with a large, warm headed toward heated very human desire to bonk Albert Einsteins knee hard with a nicely balanced hammer, and then, when I am certain I have his attention, bonk his other knee hard and call him a dick for being so dishonest in his close personal relationships. Aside from that, all that I'd want, really, is to hurl myself at Mileva's feet, and tell her that she is great, and tell her that she is good, and tell her that she is beautiful, and tell her that I, personally, really dig a woman who's got a limp happening, and tell her that even though I can't even do long division I'd sure love to do some quiet, lamp-lit physics with her on a chill night under a warm wool shawl, and tell her that just to be able to see her eyes is perfect proof of goodness beyond measure.
The first recognition came in 1908. Albert gave unpaid lectures in Bern, then was offered his first academic position in Zurich in 1909. Mileva was still assisting him. Eight pages of Albert’s first lecture notes are in her handwriting. So is a letter drafted in 1910 in reply to Max Planck who had sought Albert’s opinion. Both documents are kept in the Albert Einstein Archives (AEA) in Jerusalem. On 3 September 1909, Mileva confided to Helene Savić: “He is now regarded as the best of the German-speaking physicists, and they give him a lot of honours. I am very happy for his success, because he fully deserves it; I only hope and wish that fame does not have a harmful effect on his humanity.” Later, she added: “With all this fame, he has little time for his wife. […] What is there to say, with notoriety, one gets the pearl, the other the shell.”
~~~~~
Meanwhile, Albert’s family strongly opposed their relationship. His mother was adamant. “By the time you’re 30, she’ll already be an old hag!”1 as Albert reported to Mileva2 in a letter dated 27 July 1900, as well as "She cannot enter a respectable family ”. Mileva was neither Jewish, nor German. She had a limp and was too intellectual in his mother’s opinion, not to mention prejudices against foreign people.3
1 How human for a mother to write this to her son. ("Human" defined here as "contemptible." See also "cowardly", as it was almost certainly not written also to Mileva)
2 How human for Albert to confide this to Mileva. ("Human" defined here as "contemptible." See also "devious." See also "low." See also "odious.")
3 How human. Utterly, completely human.
1-4 (Editorial commentary.)
~~~~~
Further reading
Should you find your interest piqued by this article, should you decide "Hey, I would like to know more about this, I believe that I'm going to fire up ol' DuckDuckGo and dig in." consider as you begin doing so that there exists a huge myth around this man and everything surrounding him, remember always that there exists a web of beautiful stories, some of which will make you glad that you are human and alive and sentient at this particular intersection of space-time that we call home, you will find bromides, homilies, truths, half-truths, straight-up dishonesties, side-grasping, deep-gasping, knee-slapping, howling-laughter type bullshit, head-clenching, rage-inducing lies and hypocrisies and cowardices and way more people and organizations than you can perhaps believe which exist solely to keep the shine on this jewel bright and unquestioned, right there with Truth, Justice, The American Way, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, etc.
Upon reading this linked story I was compelled to read more. As I have done so, as I have learned more about this entire situation, link by link, picture by picture, word by word, my anger has grown. I'm not going to go long here, I will say simply that I find myself with a large, warm headed toward heated very human desire to bonk Albert Einsteins knee hard with a nicely balanced hammer, and then, when I am certain I have his attention, bonk his other knee hard and call him a dick for being so dishonest in his close personal relationships. Aside from that, all that I'd want, really, is to hurl myself at Mileva's feet, and tell her that she is great, and tell her that she is good, and tell her that she is beautiful, and tell her that I, personally, really dig a woman who's got a limp happening, and tell her that even though I can't even do long division I'd sure love to do some quiet, lamp-lit physics with her on a chill night under a warm wool shawl, and tell her that just to be able to see her eyes is perfect proof of goodness beyond measure.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Excessive and extremely personal editorializing/commentary in the last part of the post. Otherwise, should be good to repost without said material. -- Brandon Blatcher
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posted by y2karl at 11:21 AM on May 27, 2023