Persons

Michele Besso: friend of Albert Einstein [p.210]
Maurice Solovine: friend of Albert Einstein [p.214]
Helene Savic: friend of Mileva Einstein [p.210]

---

John Stachel: Albert+Mileva - collaboration failed - report

13. JOHN STACHEL: Albert Einstein and Mileva Maric. A Collaboration That Failed to Develop

On December 28, 1901, twenty-one-year-old Albert Einstein assured hi fiancée Mileva Maric [1]: "When you're my dear little wife, we'll diligently work on science together so we don't become old philistines, right? My sister seemed so crass to me. You'd better not get that way - it would be terrible." [2] Yet, in almost two decades together [3], during which h became a leading theoretical physicist and published dozens of papers [4], he never acknowledged her help in any of them, nor did she publish anything of her own. What went wrong?

[1] [[Instead of her family name "Maric"]], she sometimes used Marity, the Hungarian form of her last name [[Maric]]; she followed Swiss custom after her marriage, using Einstein-Maric or Einstein-Marity.
[2] "Albert Einstein and Mileva Maric, The Love Letters", trans. Shawn Smith, etd. Jürgen Renn and Robert Schulmann (Princeton, 1992), p.72-73, cited hereafter as "The Love Letters". Einstein's correspondence, including letters to and from Maric, will also be cited from "The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein", vol. 1, "The Early Years, 1879-1902", ed. John Stachel et al. (Princeton, 1987), and vol. 5, "The Swiss Years: Correspondence, 1902-1914", ed. Martin Klein et al. (Princeton, 1993); cited hereafter as "Collected Papers, vols. 1 and 5
[3] They met in 1896, married in 1903, separated in 1914, and divorced in 1919
[4] For his publications during this period, see "The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein", vol. 2, "The Swiss Years: Writings, 1900-1909", ed. John Stachel et al. (Princeton, 1989); vol. 3, "The Swiss Years: Writings, 1909-1911", ed. Martin Klein et al. (Princeton 1993); and vol. 4, "The Swiss Years: Writings, 1912-1914", ed. Martin Klein et al. (Princeton, 1995); cited hereafter as "Collected Papers", vols. 2,3, and 4

It has been suggested that Maric actually made major contributions, perhaps even doing the preponderance of the work in some cases, to important papers published in Einstein's name, constributions that he simply failed to acknowledge. [5]

The available evidence does not support such claims, as I have argued elsewhere [6] and will argue here. A sketch of Maric's life up to her separation from Einstein [7], with emphasis on a discussion of her work in physics and its relation to his [8], leads to the conclusion that she played a small but significant supporting role in his early work, a role that later diminished to the point that she felt excluded from his career. Finally, I shall consider some possible reasons why a full collaboration between them never developed.

[[Mr. Stachel is a liar:
-- Einstein could no high mathematics, he was just joking around that Mileva did all maths for him
-- without Mileva this Einstein had been just a NOTHING
-- from 1919 on in Berlin this Einstein depended on mathematic help of students and friends
-- from 1919 on without Mileva "great works" are not edited any more]].

[5] See Desanka Trbuhović-Gjurić, "Im Schatten Albert Einsteins/Das tragische Leben der Mileva Einstein-Maric (Bern/Stuttgart, 1983), cited hereafter as "Im Schatten Albert Einsteins"; Senta Trömel-Plötz, "Mileva Einstein-Maric: The Woman Who Did Einstein's Mathematics", in: Women's Studies International Forum 13 (1990), p.415-432; Evan Harris Walker, "Did Einstein Espouse His Spouse's Ideas?", in: Physics Today 42, no.2 (February 1989), p.9-11 (for my comments, see ibid., p.11-13); idem, "Ms. Einstein" (paper presented at the AAAS meeting, New Orleans, Fabruary 1990); and idem, "Mileva Maric's Relativistic Role" (presented at the AAAS Meeting, Washington, D.C., February 1991)
[6] "Einstein and Maric: The Early Years", in: "Einstein's Early Years: 1879-1905", ed. Don Howard and John Stachel (Boston/Basel/Berlin, forthcoming), cited hereafter as "Einstein and Maric". See also Roger Highfield and Paul Carter, "The Private Lives of Albert Einstein" (London/Boston, 1993), cited hereafter as "Private Lives", and: Abraham Pais, "Einstein Lived here" (Oxford/New York, 1994)
[7] Sources for information on her life include "Im Schatten Albert Einsteins; Dorde [George] Krstic, "Mileva Einstein-Maric", Appendix A in Elizabeth Roboz Einstein, "Hans Albert Einstein: Reminiscences of His Life and Our Life Together" (Iowa City, 1992); her correspondence with Einstein in "Collected Papers", vols. 1 and 5; and her letters to her friend and confidante, Helene Savic, née Kaufler. Some excerpts from the Savic letters are cited from "Collected Papers", vol 1, and unpublished excerpts from the Savic letters are cited from "Collected Papers", vol. 1, and unpublished excerpts are cited (in my translations) from photocopies of originals presented by Savic's grandson, Professor Milan Popovic (Belgrade), to the editors of "The Collected Papers". These copies will be cited as in the Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University. A useful synthesis of this material is found in "Private Lives".
[8] Einstein is discussed here only insofar as is relevant to their intellectual relationship. For a fuller discussion of their relationship up to 1905, see "Einstein and Maric". For a differing account of their relationship, more skeptical of Einstein's early devotion to Maric, see "Private Lives"

Maric's Student Years

Mileva Maric was born in 1875 to a mother of Montenegrin extraction, in [[the location of]] Titel, a town in the Vojvodina, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Her Serb father was a middle-level official in the Hungarian Empire. Her Serb father was a middle-level official in the Hungarian bureaucracy, who saw to it that she received an education quite unusual for a young woman of that time and place, including two years as a private pupil at the Royal Gumnasium in Zagreb, where  [p.207]  pupil at the Royal Gymnasium in Zagreb, where her father was then working. After receiving special permission to attend the otherwise all-male physics class, she got the highest grades in both physics and mathematics. She finished her secondary education in Zurich, graduating from a girls' school in 1896. After a semester of medical studies at the University of Zurich, she transferred to the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School, Poly for short, enrolling in Section VI A, which trained teachers of mathematics and physics.

[Women at universities in Europe: France and Switzerland]

Maric's move to Switzerland is not hard to understand. French universities were the first in Europe to admit women [9]. Switzerland was second with Zurich in 1865, and other Swiss universities soon followed. The Poly did so in 1876, and the first woman graduated from Section VI A in 1896 [10]. Young women in search of a higher education, many of them Slavs, went to Paris if comfortable with French, like Marie Sklodowska, or Switzerland if more at home in German, like Rosa Luxemburg [11]. Russians and South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire flocked to Switzerland [12].

[9] See Phyllis Stock, "Better Than Rubies: A History of Women's Education" (New York 1978, p.166; cited hereafter as "Better Than Rubies". There also may have been medical reasons for Maric's move, since she had been very ill with a lung disorder.
[10] See Schweizer Verband der Akademikerinnen, "Die Frauenstudium an der Schweizer Hochschulen (Zurich, 1928), cited hereafter as "Die Frauenstidium"
[11] For a discussion of the first generation of Russian women to study in Zurich, see Christine Johanson, "Women's Struggle for Higher Education in Rusia, 1850-1900" (Kingston/Montreal, 1987), p.51-58. According to Johanson, while many male students were hostile, "most professors allowed no sexual discrimination in the classroom" (53).
[12] Indeed, pressure from Russian women prompted Zurich to open its doors (see "Better Than Rubies", p.145). In the first decades after the Swiss universities admitted women, the large majority were non-Swiss, mainly Slavs (see "Die Frauenstudium").

[1880-1961: Laws against married women in D + CH: woman teacher celibacy
For blocking women from being woman teachers, governments installed a toman teacher celibacy against married women:
1880-1951: Female teacher celibacy in Germany: Married women are not allowed to teach in Germany, except from 1919-1923.
1903-1961: Female teacher celibacy in the canton of Zurich
So: Married women who know something about sex were demonized by Sigmund Freud as "hysterical" and considered a danger. Or the men simply meant that it wouldn't be possible to coordinate children's education and job.
see: Mossad-Wikipedia: woman teacher celibacy (German: Lehrerinnenzölibat)]

[Albert+Mileva in Zurich - Mileva 1 semester in Heidelberg]

Einstein and Maric were the only two physics students to enter Section VI A in 1896. Both took basically the same required courses, but rather different electives [13]. During her second year, she went to Heidelberg to attend mathematics and physics lectures, returning after one term [14]. As a result, she passed the Poly's intermediate examinations a year later than he did, using his physics lecture notes to help prepare [15].

After her return, the two became very closely attached, spending most of their time together. [[But the racist Jewish Einstein parents did not like this connection, and this did not please to the racist Christian Mileva parents either]]: In spite of the firm opposition of his parents to the liaison [16] - an opposition that led to dramatic clashes between Einstein and his parents - the two lovers resolved to live together after graduation, marrying as soon as economic circumstances permitted. Their relationships included more than romance; to supplement the meager offerings of the Poly in theoretical physics, they jointly studied many classic works [17]. They also spent a great deal of time working in the well-equipped laboratories of Heinrich Friedrich Weber, senior of the two professors of physics.

[13] For his "Matrikel" (official record), see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 28, pp.45-50. Her "Matrikel" is in file no. 85, "Rektoratsarchiv", Eidgenössische Technische Hochschlule (ETH).
[14] Trbuhović-Gjurić suggests, without any evidence, that Maric left the Poly in flight from her intense romantic relationship with Einstein (see "Im Schatten Albert Eisnteins"). Their letters suggest that the relationship was not yet very intense (see "Collected Papers", vol.1, esp. docs. 36 and 39). The brevity of Maric's stay in Heidelberg may be explained by Kaplan's observation that "the first women students at Heidelberg ... suffered from extraordinary gener discrimination" (Marion Kaplan, "The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Families, and Identity in Imperial Germany" [New York, 1991], p.149)
[15] For this information, see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, esp. docs. 50, 52, and 53
[16] Hatred of the Jewish Einstein family against Mileva
His parents' opposition was based on Maric's age (she was four years older than Einstein), her intellectuality, and probably her Slavic origins. His mother made the first two objections explicit: "By the time you're 30 she'll be an old witch." "Like you, she is a book - but you ought to have a wife" ("The Love Letters", 20). Anti-Slav prejudices are still common in Germany, and Einstein's parents had not objected to his earlier romance with a young teacher of Swiss-German background who was also slightly older than he (see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, docs. 15, 18, and 32).

[The Einstein parents wanted Einstein to marry the daughter from the Jewish Winteler family, but Einstein did not want that [web07]].

[17] Einstein's letters to Maric mention treatises by Boltzmann, Drude, Helmholtz, Kirchhoff, and Mach (see "Collected Papers", vol. 1)

[1900+1901: Mileva failing final exams two times - Einstein with 54 points, Mileva with 44 points - Mileva has failed in mathematics (???)]

In 1900 both took the final examinations. Her physics grades were comparable to his, but she got a decidedly lower grade in mathematics; he passed with an average of 4.91 out of a possible 6, while she failed with an average of 4.0 [18]. Still hopeful, she reregistered the next year to retake the final examinations.

[Supplement: Mileva's dispute with Dr. Weber because of the assistantship for Einstein
Mileva is in a big quarrel with Dr. Weber, because Dr. Weber rejects to give the truant and rebel Einstein an assistantship. It may be that this behavior fighting for a truant and rebel Einstein provokes the bad marks for Mileva, because Weber does not want Mileva to be an assistant either].

[18] See "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 67, p.247. The three mathematics students in [[the sector for math and physic teacher]] VI A took different exams. Trbuhović-Gjurić ("Im Schatten Albert Einsteins") does not mention her failure to graduate; Trömel-Plötz ("The Woman Who Did Einstein's Mathematics") ascribes it to discrimination against women at the Poly without mentioning her grades; while Walker ("Ms. Einstein") states, without citing evidence, that "Marks below 5.00 were probably customarily below the passing grade". Einstein with a total of 54 points out of a possible 66, was one point short of that average while Maric, with a total of 44 points, was 11 points short.

[Weber rejects Einstein as an assistant - other jobs outside Zurich]

Both saw Weber as their potential mentor  in the process of gaining entry to the physics community. She continued to work in Weber's laboratory on her diploma thesis (see below), which she hoped to use as the basis for an eventual doctorate [19]. Einstein also expected to remain at the Poly as Weber's assistent (the lowest rung on the European academic ladder) while working on a doctorate. But his failure to obtain this position, which he felt had been more or less promised to him by Weber, led to increasing friction between Weber and the young couple [20]. Einstein's efforts to get an assistantship in mathematics at the Poly and at numerous [p.208]  other universities also failed, and he and Maric tried to find other jobs, again without success [21]. For the next couple of years, he lived from hand to mouth, working at a series of temporary academic and tutoring jobs outside Zurich.

[Factor: Einstein's parents:
Then came the Einstein parents who did not want to accept the Mileva: the Einstein parents blocked further financial support if he stayed with Mileva [web07], and Dr. Weber denied the truant and rebel without high maths Einstein the assistant position].

[Factor: Mileva's helper syndrome
Why this Mileva is not changing her partner, seems a big question. With another, correctly working physicist Mileva would probably have become much happier and would have made a career. Accepting all disadvantages with this Einstein it's proved: Mileva had a helper syndrome].

[19] In mid-1900, she mentions "a large work ... that I have chosen for myself as a Diploma Thesis and probably also a Doctoral Thesis" ("Collected Papers", vol. 1, p.260, vol. II, p.5). In May 1901, Einstein asks about her doctoral thesis, advising her to use some of Weber's work in it, "even if you only seem to" (ibid., p.305).
[20] In May 1901, Mileva Maric wrote [[to her friend Helene]] Savic: "I have already quarreled a couple of times with Weber, but we're already used to that" ("Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc 109, p.303, my translation).
[21] See "Collected Papers", vol 1, doc 87, p.275

[1901: Mileva fails a second time - now she is hating Weber - Einstein with Kleiner at Zurich University]

In the midst of this trying period, while studying to retake the final examinations, Maric became pregnant.

[Man muss sich das mal vorstellen: Der Einstein schwängert die Mileva OHNE Geld, OHNE Haus, OHNE richtige Stelle, und die Mileva hat noch nicht mal ein Diplom. Und Sozialversicherungen gibt es noch nicht. Es ist ein Verbrechen, was der Einstein da macht].

[One has to imagine: Einstein impregnates the Mileva WITHOUT money, WITHOUT house, WITHOUT a proper job, and the Mileva does not even have a diploma. And social insurance does not exist yet. It is a crime what the Einstein does. Einstein is CRAZY. Apparently Dr. Weber should be blackmailed now: Mileva should receive a diploma, or Weber will be blamed for the ruin of the Einstein family. Balkan partisans think so in these tactics ... When Dr. Weber knew about her pregnancy, he for sure never will permit to be blackmailed ...].

After again failing [22], she left for home vowing never again to work with Weber. It is quite likely that the friction over Einstein played a role in her estrangement from Weber.

[Theses: The reasons why Dr. Weber lets the pregnant Mileva fail
Dr. Weber lets fail Mileva again - maybe: 1) Because he has given the Mileva mean tasks, or: 2) Because Mileva constantly falsified the performance of Einstein, or: 3) Dr. Weber just did not want to have a wife as an assistant, or: 4) When Weber was aware of her pregnancy, then he does not permit to be blackmailed by a pregnant woman for sure. What will be with the assistant position when Mileva has a child? This Einstein and this Mileva have now really confused the order in life. How were the thoughts of Dr. Weber about Mileva, this should be readable in minutes of the Polytechnic (from 1911 on called ETH)].

Cut off from the physics community, she was now entirely dependent on her relationship with Einstein for intellectual as well as emotional support.

[Well:
-- WITHOUT pregnancy, Mileva could have taken a diploma at the University of Zurich or at any other university in Switzerland
-- Mr. Stachel is concealing the main mistake of Mileva: that Mileva did the math to the truant+rebel Einstein instead of teaching him the high math (!!!) - and it seems that Dr. Weber did not want to give a diploma to such a faker woman and did not want to have her as an assistant either - and when he knew about her pregnancy he cut off all lines for not having problems with her and a baby
-- and Mr. Stache conceals the criminality of Einstein to get Mileva pregnant WITHOUT diploma].

He [[Einstein]] on the other hand, had found another mentor, Alfred Kleiner, professor of physics at Zurich University, and began work on a doctoral thesis [23].

[So: again Mileva did probably the high maths for him, or is even writing the work for him or at least parts of it...]

[22] See Protocol of Section VI A, July 26, 1901, ETH Library (Zurich). Her average was again 4.
[23] Einstein first mentions Kleiner in October 1900 ("Collected Papers", vol 1, p.267); a year later, he discussed the complete dissertation (ibid., p.321). He withdrew it in February 1902 (see ibid., doc. 132, p.331), probably because of objections by Kleiner, but they stayed in contact. Einstein's successful 1905 doctoral dissertation was approved by Kleiner, who helped him obtain his first full-time academic post in 1909 (see below).

[1901: Einstein's Jewish parents are against any marriage of Albert with Mileva]

During the remainder of her pregnancy, the couple were reunited only once. After his parents sent a letter to hers making their hostility painfully clear, Maric fled the ensuing crisis to be near Einstein, who was working as a substitute teacher. To preserve the proprieties, she stayed in a nearby town for a few weeks, meeting him only on weekends, and then returned home. Her letters to Albert during this period sound notes of real despair, while his reassure her of his devotion and depict a rosy future (see the opening quotation of this paper) once this difficult period in their lives has passed.

[The Factors on Einstein's Parent's Letter to Mileva
It was probably communicated in this letter that the Einstein parents will not give consent to the marriage. Where is the letter of the Einstein parents against Mileva from the year 1901? This letter is probably full of Jewish racism against Christians. At the same time Einstein does not explain to his parents that he would not have graduated without Mileva's math. Einstein is hiding to his parents that he can not do high mathematics and that Mileva works for him].

[1902: Daughter "Lieserl" born - 1903: marriage - "Lieserl" never comes to Switzerland]

Their daughter, referred to as "Lieserl" in Einstein's letters, was born early in 1902 [24]. The same year, Einstein moved to Bern to start work at the Swiss Patent Office, where he remained for seven years. Maric soon followed, but without Lieserl, and the couple married early in 1903 [25]. It was not uncommon at the time to legitimize a birth by a subsequent marriage [26], and Einstein had earlier resolved that the child would join them after their [27]. But Lieserl was never reunited with her parents, and, in spite of recent efforts to find more information, her ultimate fate remains unknown (see below).

The episode undoubtedly placed a great strain on their relationship, as their elder son, Hans Albert, seems to have later surmised. A biographer [[Peter Michelmore]] with unique access to information from him [28] reports:

"Friends had noticed a change in Mileva's attitude and thought the romance might be doomed. Something had happened between the two, but Mileva would only say that it was "intensely personal". Whatever it was, she brooded about it and Albert seemed to be in some way responsible. Friends encouraged Mileva to talk about her problem and get it out in the open. She insisted that it was too personal and kept it a secret all her life.... Mileva married Albert despite the incident.... She did not think of the shadow her "experience" would cast over their life together." [29] [p.209]

[24] Presumably, Lieserl was born at Maric's home. However, recent efforts to find civil or church records of the birth in her hometown or nearby failed.
[25] The delay was connected with the opposition of his family (see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 138, p.336). On his deathbed, Einstein's father gave his consent in October 1902, according to Abraham Pais: "Subtle is the Lord ...: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein" (Oxford, 1982), p.47
[26] See "Private Lives", p.90
[27] Late in 1901, after he was assured of a Patent Office job, he wrote Maric: "The only problem that still needs to be resolved is how to keep our Lieserl with us; I wouldn't want to have to give her up. Ask your Papa, he's an experienced man and knows the world better than yur overworked, impractical Johnny" ("Collected Papers, vol. 1, doc. 127, p. 324, translation from "The Love Letters", p.68)
[28] Peter Michelmore: "Einstein: Profile of the Man" (New York, 1962), states: "Hans Albert Einstein ... had never discussed his father before with any writer, at least not in depth. But he answered all my questions, and waited while I wrote down all the answers" (vii). Hans Albert inherited his mother's papers, and his first wife, Frieda Einstein-Knecht, transcribed excerpts from Einstein's letters discussing Lieserl. So, if not told earlier by either parent, Hans Albert knew about his sister by the time he spoke to Michelmore
[29] Michelmore: "Einstein", p.42

Married Life

"All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way", wrote Tolstoy [30], and so it came to be for the Einsteins. At first things went well for the newly married pair - at least in the picture both painted for their friends. Einstein wrote to his friend Michele Besso: "Well, now I'm an honorably married man, and lead a very nice, comfortable life with my wife. She takes care of everything exceptionally well, cooks well, and is always cheerful." [31] Shortly after, Maric wrote to her friend Helene Savic in a similar vein: "I am, if possible, even more attached to my dear treasure than I already was in the Zurich days. He is my only companion and society and I am happiest when he is beside me." She also inquired about the possibility of teaching jobs for her and Einstein in Belgrade, her last known reference to the possibility of a career for herself [32].

[That's a lie: Mileva gave private lessons in maths and Italian, and in the 1930s she also gave physics at a grammer school in Zurich, even though she did no diploma (Plötz: The Woman Who - 1990). When Mileva had the idea to work as a museum attendant, Einstein said no and she didn't do it (Wolff: Preisgeld 2019)]

[30] Leo Tolstoy: "Anna Karenina", trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude (London, 1965), p.1
[31] "Collected Papers", vol.5, doc.5, letter of January 22, 1903, p.10 (my translation)
[32] Maric to Savic, March 20, 1903, copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University

[1903: Daughter Lieserl with scarlet fever - no news about her fate]

In September 1903, while she was visiting her parents, Einstein wrote: "Now come back to me soon. 3 1/2 weeks have already passed and a good little wife shouldn't leave her husband alone any longer. Things don't look nearly as bad at home as you think. You'll be able to clean up in short order." [33] Maric presumably went to her parents to see to Lieserl's future, which Einstein discussed (the last known reference to her) in a way that suggests they had already decided not to keep her ("As what is the child registered? We must take precautions that problems don't arise for her later").

He mentioned a serious illness ("I'm very sorry about what has befallen Lieserl. It's so easy to suffer lasting effects from scarlet fever. If only this will pass"), and she may have died subsequently; but the reference to her future suggests that she survived. If so, she may have suffered permanent mental or physical damage and been placed in some institution. If she survived unharmed, she may have been adopted by a relaive, or given up for a "normal" adoption [34].

[33] "Collected Papers", vol. 5, doc. 13, p.22, translation modified from "The Love Letters", p.53
[34] For further speculation, see "Private Lives", p.88-91

[1904+1910: two sons Hans Albert and Eduard]

Einstein had apparently just learned about Maric's second pregnancy: "I'm not the least bit angry that poor Dollie [his nickname for Maric] is hatching a new chick. In fact, I'm happy about it and had already given some thought to whether I shouldn't see to it that you get a new Lieserl." [35] But there never was a "new Lieserl". The second child was a boy, Hans Albert, born in 1904; another son, Eduard, was born in 1910.

[35] "Collected Papers", vol. 5, doc. 13, p.22, translation from "The Love Letters", p.53

[1902-1909: Patent Office - Mileva invented problems with Anna Meyer-Schmid?]

During his seven years as patent clerk, especially from 1905 on, Einstein produced a steady stream of scientific papers, which, by the end of the decade, gained him a reputation as one of the most promising young theoretical physicists. He left the Patent Office in 1909 to take his first full-time academic post, as an assistant professor at the University of Zurich. By this time the marriage was in trouble. Maric confided to Savic:

"In mid-Octobre on the 14th we leave Bern, where I have now spent 7 years, so many beautiful and, I must say, also bitter and difficult days." [36]

We have seen one source of her bitterness: the final decision about [p.210] Lieserl, taken early in the Bern years. Another source was quite recent: a marital crisis, involving Einstein's friend, Anna Meyer-Schmid [37]. Suspecting her of designs on Albert, Maric wrote Meyer-Schmid's husband. Enraged, Einstein wrote Herr Schmid attributing Maric's conduct to unmotivated jealousy [38].

Maric's letter to Savic goes on to boast of Einstein's success:

"He is now counted among the leading German-speaking physicists and is being frightfully courted. I a mvery happy about his success, which he has really earned; I only hope and wish that fame does not exert a detrimental influence on his human side." [39]

A letter written to Savic soon after Einstein and Maric settled in Zurich further explains her fears:

"You see, with such fame, not much time remains for his wife. I read a certain maliciousness between the lines when you wrote that I must be jealous of science, but what can one do, the pearls are given to one, to the other the case. ... I often ask myself ... whether I am not rather a person who feels a great deal and passionately, fights a great deal and also suffers because of that; and out of pride or perhaps shyness puts on a haughty and superior air until he himself believes it to be geniuine. And I must ask you, even if the latter were the case, and my innermost soul stood less proudly, even then could you love me? You see I am very starved for love and would be so overjoyed to hear a yes, that I almost believe wicked science is guilty, and I gladly accept the laughter over it." [40]

[36] Maric to Savic, September 3, 1909, copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University
[37] The flirtatious nature of their earlier relationship is apparent from a poem Albert wrote for her ("Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 49, p.220) 
[38] See "Collected Papers", vol. 5, p.181, p.198-199; Einstein-Maric to Georg Meyer, May 23, 1909, copy in the Archive of the Einstein-Gesellschaft, Swiss National Library (Bern). For a fuller account, see "Private Lives", p.124-126. Einstein's anger flared up again over forty years later, when he blamed Maric's pathological jealousy on "uncommon ugliness" (Einstein to Erika Schaerer-Mayer [Meyer-Schmid's daughter], cited in "Collected Papers", vol. 5, p.199, no.4
[39] Maric to Savic, September 3, 1909, copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University
[40] Maric to Savic, n.d. [c. October 1909], copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University

[1911-1914: Einstein in Prague, Zurich, Berlin - concerts in the house - and Mileva has to organize the house - dark moods with Mileva that she could loose her husband]

Einstein's academic star rose with dramatic speed: In 1911 he accepted a full professorship at the German University in Prague, and the next year was called back to a similar post at his alma mater in Zurich [41]. In 1914 he was named a member of the Prusian Academy of Sciences and head of the prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, moving to Berlin to take this full-time research job. A letter to Savic in 1911 gives further insight into Maric's feelings during this period:

"I ... believe we women cling much longer to the memory of that remarkable period called youth, and involuntarily would like things always to remain that way. Don't you find that to be so; men always accommodate themselves better to the present moment. Things are going well for mine; he works very hard, gives courses that are very well liked and attended, as well as many lectures, which I never fail to attend. Since there are rather many musical occasions in our house, we really have very little time that we can pass together in privacy and tranquility." [42]

[41] By this point, the Poly had been renamed the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, or ETH for short [[in 1911]]
[42] Maric to Savic, n.d. [c. January 1911], copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University

These touching and remarkably frank letters depict a woman who feels she is losing her husband, not least because of his successful career in science. They convey a growing sense of exclusion from that career, but no sense of deprivation of credit for his scientific work. Her own earlier ambitions seem completely subsumed by ambitions for him, ambitions that go hand in hand with forebodings of what his success augurs for their relationship [p.211].

The toll on Maric became apparent to those around her. Referring to the period around 1912, Peter Michelmore gives us an insight into how things appeared to their son, Hans Albert:

"Close friends ... worried because [Maric's] dark moods were becoming more frequent. She was far too introverted. She never talked about hersel. Even alone with the family, she had little to say and her long periods of silence irritated Albert. If they ever discussed the root of the trouble, that mysterious pre-marital incident, nobody knew about it. -- Hans Albert, then an eight-year old with a distinct mind of his own, sensed the tension between his parents. But his father's personality assured him all would be well." [43]

[The son Hans Albert and Mileva cling to each other because they feel that Einstein is leaving]

In retrospect, Hans Albert evidently thought that the loss of Lieserl was at the root of the estrangement of his parents. At the time, he served as his mother's surrogate for the waning love of his father. In 1909 she wrote Savic:

"[Hans Albert] should start school early next year, but unfortunately he entered the world a week too late and probably will not be accepted. Then he will stay with his mama for another year; we are actually inseparable and cling terribly to each other." [44]

[43]. Michelmore: "Einstein", p.57
[44] Maric to Savic, n.d. [c. October 1909], copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University

[1912: Visit in Berlin: Einstein favoring Elsa writing letters defaming Mileva - 1914: Albert Einstein moving to Berlin - split with Mileva]

By 1912, whether she knew it then or not, Maric was competing with more than science for Einstein's affections. During a visit to Berlin, he had started a romantic liaison with his cousin Elsa Löwenthal, a divorcée with two young daughters and literary aspirations, then living there with her parents [45]. His letters to her refer to Maric, often alluded to as "my cross", in increasingly bitter terms:

"Miza [nickname for Maric] is the sourest sourpuss that has ever been. ... I cannot be at ease at home ... she herself is the most tormented one, and cannot understand that she herself creates the graveyard atmosphere. Miza is by nature unlovable and mistrustful. When one responds accordingly, she feels persecuted." [46]

By the end of 1913 Maric was aware to some extent of the situation, as he informed Löwenthal:

"She [Maric] doesn't ask about you, but I believe she does not therefore underrate the significance that you have for me." [47]

Shortly after their move to Berlin in April 1914, Maric realized that one of its chief attractions for Einstein was cousin Elsa, and returned to Zurich with the two boys, never again to live with Einstein as husband and wife [48].

[45] As children, they were well acquainted, and her father (nicknamed "Rudolf the rich" by Einstein) was the chief creditor of his father's debts (see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 93, p.281); for their relationship, see his letters to her in "Collected Papers", vol. 5; for her poetry reading, see Pais: "Einstein Lived Here", p.145
[46] "Collected Papers", vol. 5, p.585, 587
[47] Ibid., p.558
[48] After their divorce he regularly stayed at Maric's house when visiting Zurich. [[Einstein traveled several times between Berlin and Geneva, where he worked in commissions of the League of Nations, that was like this until 1923. In protest against the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 he then wanted nothing to do any more with this League of Nations and resigned from all commissions]].

[Thesis: since 1912: Einstein acts against Mileva to fulfill the wish of the Jewish racist Einstein parents to marry a Jewish woman
The tolerant Jew Albert Einstein did not believe much in religion, but he was a monoculture of physics. Mileva did the math for him. He wanted the revolution in physics, but in sociology he did not want a revolution. The Jewish-racist parents Hermann + Pauline Einstein knew nothing of Mileva's mathematics, and they did not know that her son Einstein could no high mathematics. The Jewish parents just wanted the Einstein to drop the Christian Orthodox Mileva and marry a Jewish woman. And that's why Einstein dropped Mileva completely from 1912, and then he had to ask for mathematical help with students or friends - until his own death (!)

In short words: Since 1912, Einstein followed the dictates of his Jewish-racist family, he accepted the Jewish cousin Elsa as a partner and "repelled" the Christian Orthodox, highly intelligent Mileva].

[Supplement: August 1914: Mileva wanted to save the relationship and cooperation until recently - Chaot Einstein had to hire mathematicians, at the expense of the German taxpayer ...
In 1914 Mileva was in Berlin: she was experiencing chronic depression, crying, and there was Jewish racist defamation propaganda against Mileva, Jewish racism, and verbal violence without end. Mileva wanted to save the relationship with Einstein up to the end until the end of August 1914 (see: Wasmayr: tragedy (German: Tragödie) - 2004); Wolff: prize money (German: Preisgeld) - 2019), but she was outrun by "famous women" in Berlin who were "having festivals" with this "famous Einstein" (see: Ripota: Insights (German: Einsichten - 2018, p.236). This separation from Einstein's work was enforced by the racist Jewish Einstein family, and this Einstein collaborated in this game, and since 1915 this Einstein did not write much ground-breaking any more except signing a letter with the propaganda to produce a nuclear bomb. Einstein had to employ mathematicians who helped him in his work and lectures, paid by German taxpayers' money (!) - with a "free time table". And the students often could not get along in the confusion of Einstein ...].

[Supplement: the time from 1915 to 1948: WWI - Nobel Prize - WWII - death of Mileva in 1948
from: Wolff: What happened with the prize money? (Was geschah mit dem Preisgeld? - 2019)
-- from 1915 on, Einstein's salary in Berlin has not much value any more and Mileva with the two sons in Zurich is starving even with hunger at the end and she has to take a secret private credit
-- the sons want her daddy back in safety but he says that the war has no consequences to his "work" ("festivities" and fucking famous women around and encounters with women of "blue blood" - see: Ripota: Einsichten 2018)
-- Einstein is given a Nobel Prize in 1921 and in 1923 the prize money is given to Mileva so she is purchasing 3 appartment buildings in the upper class zones in Zurich, at the same time Einstein is travelling between Berlin and League of Nations in Geneva always stopping in Zurich
-- the investment  with 3 appartment buildings was another monoculture, and neither Einstein nor Mileva did require the assistance of a fortune administrator, so the risk was not distributed - e.g. one house, some gold, some commercial papers, some land etc. - let's say, with 3 appartment buildings the Einsteins just played a little Monopoly, and the political factors were others then:
-- with world wide economic crisis since 1929 also Switzerland was in difficulties since 1931, some tenants lost jobs and left the flats and 1 of the 3 houses became not profitable any more and had to be sold under price
-- during the election of Hitler in Germany in January 1933, Einstein was in the "USA" in Princeton for 3 months as it was traditional for him since 1930, Einstein became furious against Hitler and this public statement against Hitler had the consequence that the NS regime confiscated all his fortune in Germany - again Einstein had not known that much fortune has to be distributed because of the risk (!)
-- in April 1934, Einstein gave back his German passport at German embassy of Belgium, he emigrated with Elsa to Princeton, and had an income of dollars there (1 dollar=4,20 Swiss Francs in those times), and all the houses in Zurich were managed with letters between Einstein and Mileva
-- in 1937, the elder son Hans Albert emigrated from Switzerland to the "USA" following an advice of Einstein, and Mileva was left alone with Eduard Einstein who had destructive attacks because of the bad childhood without daddy etc. - while Einstein had great festivities with famous women who were visiting him, he was presenting himself to the women in a bath robe, and occasionally it was open sometimes and he let the woman decide what to "do", so he was absent for weeks from any "work" and had even more children with other women, Evelyne Einstein is sure, but maybe there are many more...
-- Einstein's signature of 1939 for the propaganda to build an atomic bomb against Germany was given in cooporation with two other Jewish Hungarian physicicists - but Hitler's Germany was far away from a development of any atomic bomb
-- after 1945, Einstein was retired and free of work, but he NEVER came back to Zurich for a visit for Mileva and Eduard
-- until 1948, the last house was sold in Zurich and then was resold (maybe this was a trick against Einstein) so Mileva was also kicked out from her flat (change flat in January 1948 in winter was not so comfortable), and after another aggression's attack of Eduard Mileva remained half paralized in hospital with more than 80,000 Swiss Francs of illegally sold mortgage bond money, Mileva died without having seen Einstein or her elder son Hans Albert again, she died on August 4, 1948 in a Zurich hospital, son Eduard visited her daily there
-- for the estate of Mileva this kinky Einstein DOES NOT COME (WHEREAS HE IS RETIRED!) and Hans Albert who is working at this time at Berkeley University near San Francisco is not coming either, but the wife of Hans Albert is coming with a power certificate of Hans Albert - it can be admitted that most of Mileva's estate was thrown away because there was no space to take the books and things by airplane to Berkeley near San Francisco, and Eduard had to stay ALONE in Zurich in psychiatry or with Swiss families, he got a Swiss legal guardian Mr. Meili who arranged everything for him, being payed from Einstein's money, but Einstein himself NEVER wanted to see his suffering son, because Einstein remained simply a monoculture of physics not respecting any psychology or being a revolutionary in analytics - Einstein was just a stupid pipe...
-- Einstein died in 1955 making suicide rejecting an operation]

The Nature of Their Intellectual Relationship

[Collaboration as students learning together]

From the leters Einstein and Maric exchanged as students, a picture emerges of two young people very much enchanted with each other, not least because of their common love for physics [49]. However, the contrast between their comments on this subjects is striking. Einstein's show a young man passionately engages with his subject constantly telling Maric [p.212] about his readings of both the classics and new papers. Rather than giving bare reports, he critically evaluates his readings, often adding ideas of his own bearing on their subject matter. Without the benefit of hindsight, one cannot point to anything in these early letters giving proof positive of budding genius, but they do convey the distinct impression of an original and imaginative mind at work.

Maric's comments depict an eager, hardworking student, but without a spark of originality, or more precisely, of scientific originality, for she does display flases of literary talent, catching fire in some descriptive passages rather than in comments on physics [50].

What was the nature of their intellectual relationship during the student years? They studies physics together, which was very important to Einstein, who at first was quite dependent on her. During the summer break of 1899 he wrote: "When I read Helmholtz for the firest time I could not - and still cannot - believe that I was doing so without you sitting next to me. I enjoy working together very much, and find it soothing and less boring." [51] Later that year, Maric requested his help in preparing for her intermediate examinations, which she took a year after he did (see the previous section) [52]. Einstein's physics notes contain a correction in her hand, confirming that she read them carefully [53].

[49] See "Collected Papers", vol. 1. For a more detailed discussion of their relationship up to 1905, see "Einstein and Maric"
[50] For her most extensive comment on physics, see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 36, last paragraph, p.59; for an example of her descriptive powers, see ibid., doc. 109, pp.301-302
[51] "The Love Letters", p.9
[52] Ibid., p.12-13
[53] See "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 37, p.139

[Einstein with ideas - and Mileva controling them]

In discussing his ideas, Einstein occasionally called upon her for help, such as finding data to corroborate them (see next section); but the letters suggest that the most important role she played in their intellectual relationship during these years was "that of a sounding board for Einstein's ideas", as the editors of the Collected Papers (myself included) put it. He had a strong need to clarify and develop his ideas in dialogue with others, a "role also played on occasion by his friends Michele Besso and Conrad Habicht" after his move to Bern [[in discussion meetings of the "Academy Olympia]] [54].

It is difficult to gauge the nature of her responses to his ideas, since many of his letters and even more of her replies are lost. But fortunately we have her reply to the letter containing his most important original ideas. Almost half of Einstein's letter is devoted to his earliest discussion of the electtrodynamics of moving bodies [55]. Her reply comments on every topic Einstein discussed in this and his previous letter (which she had received at the same time): family matters, vacation, examination preparations, and so on, with the sole exception of the elctrodynamics of moving bodies. None of her ten other extant letters comments on his scientific ideas, so this exchange may be typical.

While we can never know their private conversations, later reminiscences suggest her taciturnity in discussions. Philipp Frank, who knew Einstein and questioned him extensively for a biography, discussed teir student years:

"For Einstein it had always been pleasant to think in society, or better perhaps, to become aware of his thoughts by putting them into words. Even though Mileva Maritsch [Maric] was extremely taciturn and rather unresponsive. Einstein in his zeal for his studies hardly noticed [p.213] it." [56]

Just after their marriage, Einstein and two friends set up the mock "Olympia Academy" to discuss topics in the foundations of science, usually holding their sessions in the Einsteins' home. Maurice Solovine recalled that

"Mileva, instelligent and reserved, listened attentively to us, but never intervened in our discussions." [57]

[Perhaps Mileva had other problems with pregnancy, children, or felt bad because she had no diploma?]

[54] Ibid., vol. 1, xxxix-xi
[55] "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" is the title of his famous 1905 paper on special relativity ("Collected Papers", vol. 2, doc. 28). See the next section for further discussion of this topic.
[56] Philipp Frank: "Einstein: His Life and Times" (New York, 1953), p.21
[57] Albert Einstein: "Lettres à Maurice Solovine", ed. Maurice Solovine (Paris, 1956), introduction, xii

Maric's Work in Physics

[Dissertations about heat conduction]

Maric's only comments on her own work concern her studies at the Poly. The most interesting concerns her diploma thesis, prepared as part of the final examinations [58]:

"Prof. Weber has accepted my proposal for the diploma thesis, and was even very satisfied with it. I am very happy about the investigations I'll have to do for it. E[instein] has also chosen a very interesting topic." [59]

Both of them carried out experimental studies of heat conduction, one of Weber's pet research topics, under his supervision. Einstein also commented on her work in a letter to Maric:

"For the investigation of the Thomson effect I have again resorted to a different technique, which is similar to your method for determining the dependende of K [the coefficient of thermal conductivity on T and which also presupposes such an investigation." [60]

[58] This has sometimes been confused with a doctoral thesis. Maric hoped to use her diploma thesis work as the basis for a doctorate, but she was never a candidate for that degree.
[59] "Collected Papers, vol. 1, doc. 63, pp. 243-244; translation from the supplementary "English Translation", trans. Anna Beck (Princeton, 1987), p.138
[60] "The Love Letters", p.30

[Dissertations: for Mileva 4 - for Einstein 4.5]

Weber graded her work 4 (out of 6) and his 4.5 [61].

[Conclusion: Mileva is punished by Dr. Weber for her intervention. Weber did not want to give to truant and rebel Einstein an assistant job. Mileva wanted to enforce that Dr. Weber gives Einstein an assistant job - and then, Dr. Weber also no longer wanted to have Mileva as an assistant].

In retrospect, Einstein characterized the topic of their work harshly, as "totally uninteresting to me" [62]; neither thesis led to a publication and the Poly routinely discarded such student theses, so an independent judgment is impossible. At any rate, evidence that Maric devised an experimental technique has no bearing on the question of her talent in theoretical physics, the area in which Einstein made his name. Maric's other references to her work in physics are limited to discussions of preparations for examinations (see previous section), as are Einstein's other comments on it.

[61] See "Collected Papers, vol. 1, doc.67
[62] See ibid., note 33, p.244

[Mileva in letters about Einstein's dissertation]

More relevant are two letters to Savic discussing Einstein's work in theoretical physics. The first states:

"Albert has written a paper on physics that will probably soon be published in the physical Annals [63]. You can imagine how proud I am of my dear treasure. It is really no ordinary work, but very significant, on the theory of fluids. We have sent a private copy to [Ludwig] Boltzmann, and would really like to know what he thinks of it, hopefully he will write to us." [64]

[So there should be a copy with the Boltzmann family].
[Probably it's like this: Albert+Mileva have written an article].

[63]. I.e., the "Annalen der Physik"; it became his first publiation (see "Collected Papers", vol. 2, doc 1)
[64] "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 85, p.273, my translation

[Albert+Mileva working together 1901-1905: The "we"-mode and the "our"-mode in the letters]

The work in question is a theory of molecular forces. Discussing this work, Einstein wrote Maric:

"The results on capillarity I recently obtained in Zurich seem to be entirely new despite their simplicity. When we're back in Zurich we'll try to get some empirical data on this subject from [Professor] Kleiner [of the University of Zurich]. If this yields a law of nature, we'll send the results to Wiedemann's Annalen [der Physik]." [65] [p.214]

Maric's second letter discusses the doctoral thesis based on the same theory that Einstein submitted to the University of Zurich in 1902 and then withdrew [[because Mileva has written too much in it?]] [66]:

"Albert has written a splendid work that he has submitted as a dissertation. In a couple of months he will probably receive the doctorate. I have read it with great pleasure and true admiration for my dear little treasure, who has such a clever head. When it is printed, I will send you a copy. It deals with the investigation of molecular forces in gases on the basis of various known phenomena. He is really a splendid fellow." [67]

In both letters, Maric states that the works were written by Einstein, claiming no role in the formulation of the theory; he also speaks of his results [68]. Nevertheless, in discussing this work both slip easily into the "we" mode, which should be kept in mind when evaluating similar uses of the first-person pluarl in his letters.

[65] Ibid., doc. 79, p.267, my translation
[66] See "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 132, p.331
[67] Ibid., doc. 125, p.320, my translation [p.333]
[68] It has been suggested that she attributed her work to him. But it is hard to see why she would do so in private letters to a close personal friend. If the expressions of admiration in these letters were meant to characterize her own work, they would give a most unpleasant impression of her character. If we accept her word that she picked her final diploma thesis topic, I see no reason to doubt it when she says he wrote the articles in question.

[So, why did Einstein destroy his manuscripts? Because the articles were written not only together with Mileva, but with the articles of 1905, the whole group "Academy Olympia" was involved - this was a teamwork - and then, Einstein robbed himself of all the glory].

The most notabe of these is a reference to "our work" on a problem of much greater significance than his theory of molecular forces (see below), one of the complex of problems that led to the special theory of relativity, and the passage has been cited to support claims that Maric was coauthor of that theory [69]. Leaving aside the fact that his letter was written in 1901, whereas the theory was not finished until 1905, it is important to put the passage into context.

Physics aroused emotions in Einstein that, during the early state of their courtship, he felt impelled to share with Maric, come what may. For example, soon after she told him she was pregnant - surely a difficult time for both - he opened a letter as follows:

"I have just read a wonderful paper by Lenard. ... Under the influence of this beautiful piece I am filled with such happiness and such joy that I absolutely must share some o it with you. Be happy and don't fret, edarling. I won't leave you and will bring everything to a happy conclusion." [70]

It is striking how many f his few references to joint work were penned at difficult moments in their relationship, amid reassureances of his love and devotion. For example, Einstein referred to "our work on relative motion" after he left Zurich to stay with his parents, whom she knew to be violently opposed to their engagement. Here is the context:

"You are and will remain a shrine for me to which no one has access; I also know that of all people, you love me the most, and understand me the best. I assure you that no one here would dare, or even want, to say anything bad about you. I'll be so happy and proud when we are together and can bring our work on relative motion to a successful conclusion! When I see other preople I can really appreciate how special you are." [71]

His words here are moving in their emotional intensity, but provide no clue about her contribution  to "our work". Elsewhere in his letters, he [p.215] does mention specific ideas about "relative motion" and many other topics in physics, but he always refers to his own work. Here is an example:

"I'm busily at work on an electrodynamics of moving bodies, which promises to be quite a capital piece of work. I wrote to you that I doubted the correctness of the ideas about relative motion. But my reservations were based on a simple calculational error. Now I believe in them more than ever." [72]

[69] See the articles by Walker and Trömel-Plötz cited in note 5
[70] "The Love Letters", p. 54
[71] Ibid., p.39
[72] Ibid., p.69

[Bern 1903-1905: only few letters between Albert+Mileva: Albert writes something, and Mileva controls the mathematics]

Naturally enough, their correspondence practically stops after Maric joins him in Bern. Their few letters from the crucial years 1903-1905 that led up to the final formulation of the theory of relativity contain nothing relevant, nor is there any other contemporary documentation.

[The discussions about the theory of relativity took place in the group "Olympia Academy" where much new literature was worked through (Ripota: Einsichten 2018].

Later reminiscences suggest that she continued to play a modest role in his work. The one I find most significant comes indirectly from Hans Albert Einstein, presumably based on information he got from his parents (see note 28). Discussing Einstein's work on special reliativity, Michelmore writes:

"Mileva helped him solve certain mathematical problems, but nobody could assist with the creative work, the flow of fresh ideas. ... [After he wrote up his work] Mileva checked the article again and again, then mailed it. 'It's a very beautiful piece of work', she told her husband." [73]

[without reference to sources, without information from the precursors, without specifying the authors from whom they stole formulas - but with the signature Einstein-Maric, but all other authors of the "Olympia Academy" group were concealed being involved in this process of relativity (!)].

[Stachel claims, Mileva has controlled "elementary calculus" and has introduced NEW mathematics referring to the experiment]

The mathematics involved [[from Einstein!]] does not go beyond elementary calculus, and it seems ulikely that Maric contributed unique mathematical expertise to the paper; one may speculate that she might have suggested methods of proving certain results and/or checked calculations.

[73] [Stachel claims that reports from Maric's parents are just "anecdotes"]
Michelmore: "Einstein", p.45-46. Such comments, and similar (but less reliable) anecdotal accounts by Maric's relatives in the Vojvodina (see "Im Schatten Albert Einsteins), led to Senta Trömel-Plötz's appellation: "Mileva Maric: The Woman Who Did Einstein's Mathematics"

[1905: publicaton of theory of relativity - Einstein lets print a "thank you" to Michele Besso - but Einstein conceals Mileva]

Einstein indeed does thank someone "who stood faithfully at my side and to whom I owe many valuable suggestions" at the end of his paper [74], but it is his "friend and colleague M[ichele] Besso" [75]. Taken together with his silence about Maric, this is interesting - if negative - evidence of his attitude toward her role in his work.

[But: Mileva has signed on the manuscript with her hungarized name Einstein-Marity].

[74] See "Collected Papers", vol. 2, doc. 23, pp. 276-306
[75] Ibid., p.306. Besso's role is explained more precisely in later reminiscences by Einstein, notably his 1922 Kyoto lecture (see ibid., p.264), and Michelmore also mentions it ("Einstein", p.45).

[Conclusion: theory of relativity = group work
So we see: also Michele Besso is missing as co-author. The development of the "theory of relativity" of Einstein was in fact a group work of at least 5 to 6 people: the "Academy Olympia" in Bern with Einstein, then Mileva, and Michele Besso].

[1909+1910: Einstein's notebook with many pages in Mileva's handwriting]

Other documents suggest that Maric played the role of amanuensis [[secretary]] on occasion after 1905. Einsteins notebook for his lecture course on mechanics, given during the winter semester of 1909-1910 at the University of Zurich, includes "seven pages of notes in Mileva Einstein-Maric's handwirting, containig material very closely corresponding to the introductory sections of the first notebook, followed by an eighth page with a drawing of three intersecting circles, also in Einstein-Maric's hand." [76]

And a document entitled "Reply to Planck's Manuscript", dated to 1909 or 1910 and included in a letter of Einstein to Planck, is also in Maric's hand. [77]

Another Einstein lecture notebook from 1910-1911 testifies not only to her familiarity with the notes but to her continued affection. She inserted the words:

"Here give a dear little kiss to his [word not deciphered]." [78]

[76] "Collected Papers", vol. 3, doc. 1, p.125, descriptive note
[77] Ibid., doc. 3, pp. 177-178
[78] Ibid., doc. 11, p.321

[Zurich - since 1909: Mileva participates in public lectures by Einstein - 1911: Einstein with "high" people in Germany too - Mileva feels isolated]

Her letters to Savic from 1909 on, cited in the last section, indicate that she attended his public lectures

[It can be assumed that Mileva checked everything in advance concerning mathematics, what Einstein sayd at the lecture].

but bear witness to her growing sense of isolation from his career, as does her only letter to Einstein from this period written after the 1911 annual meating of the Society of German [p.216] Scientists and Physicians in Karlsruhe, which he attended:

"It must surely have been very interesting in Karlsruhe; I would have all too gladly also listened a little, and seen all these grand people [diese feinen Leute]." [79]

[79] Mileva Maric to Albert Einstein, October 4, 1911, in Einstein, "Collected Papers", vol. 5, doc. 290, p.331

[Conclusion: helper syndrome of Mileva
The main mistake of Mileva: She did not recognize herself as great, but Mileva has lived out her helper syndrome. It is strange that neither Stachel nor Walker nor Plötz mentioned the helper syndrome, which is known worldwide since 1977].

[Summary: Mileva encouraging and helping Einstein many times - but Einstein does not take her with him any more (!)]

To sum up, [[Mileva]] Maric seems to have encouraged and helped Einstein in a number of ways during their years together, notably as the alter ego to whom he could express his ideas freely while developing them in isolation from the physics community.

[This is a big lie: Einstein developed his ideas 1) with many books; 2) in cooperation with Mileva; and 3) in the group "Academy Olympia"; and 4) with other friends and communication partners. Everything was a mass robbery, and this Einstein has not specified a single source, but the magazine "Annalen der Physik" has also printed this robbery - so, that is a giant gang crime of Einstein with the bosses of the journal "Annalen der Physik" in Leipzig (!). Mr. Stachel does not see this? He seems to be payed from Jerusalem...].

She also appears to have helped by looking up data, suggesting proofs, checking calculations, and copying some of his notes and manuscripts. He never publicly acknowledged this help, nor did a true collaboration ever develop. As he took an increasingly prominent place in the physics community after 1909, she felt increasingly isolated from his work and threatened by his success.

[The real threats to Mileva: the Einstein family and Einstein himself
The threat was not the success of Einstein, but the threat was 1) especially the Jewish-racist family of Einstein: The members manipulated this  Einstein in the strongest way, to separate from Mileva and his two sons, and so an intact family was destroyed; and 2) The threat was Einstein himself, who unsuccessfully concealed to his family members about Mileva's important role in mathematics and inspiration; and 3) Einstein concealed that he himself was not capable of high mathematics (!). This Einstein was in the end just an eternal liar, and Mileva was not once presented to the Einstein family members (!). A worse liar than Einstein is not possible (!)].

Why Did a Real Collaboration Never Develop?

[Einstein dropped the Mileva completely from 1912, following the orders of his Jewish family to take a Jewish wife, and then took mathematical help from students or friends - until his own death (!)]

Was it possible for a married couple to successfully and publicly collaborate in physics at the beginning of the century? Two well-known contemporary couples managed to do so: Marie Sklodowska and Pierre Curie [80], and Paul Ehrenfest and Tatiana Afanasieva [81]. There are interesting similarities between them and the Einsteins. All three wives were Slavs with a higher education living in milieus not free of prejudice against educated women [82]. All three husbands came from secular backgrounds; Einstein and Ehrenfest were Jews, raised in South-German urban environments (Munich and Vienna respectively), who had yet to establish their careers when they married [83].

[80] Einstein and Maric met Marie Curie only after Pierre's death. For her life, see Eve Curie: "Madame Curie", trans. Vincent Sheean (New York, 1937); Rosalind Pflaum: "Grand Obsession: Madame Curie and Her World" (New York, 1989); and Helena M. Pycior: "Marie Curie's 'Anti-natural Path': Time Only for Science and Familiy"; in: "Uneasy Careers and INtimate Lives: Women in Science, 1798-1979", ed. Pnina G. Abir-Am and Dorinda Outram (New Brunswick, N.J., 1989), p.191-214
[81] Both Einstein and Maric knew Ehernfest and Afanasieva. For his life and their relationship, see Martin Klein: "Paul Ehrenfest", vol. 1, "The Making of a Theoretical Physicist" (Amsterdam, 1970). Klein cites an obituary in Dutch, but there is no biography of Afanasieva
[82] Speaking of the German milieu, Kaplan notes: "the popular stereotype of the Russian female student, who was portrayed as a radical, both politically and personally" ("The Making of the Jewish Middle Class", p.147); and she writes that "bourgeois parents displayed extraordinary ambivalence regarding their daughters' aspirations. ... the fear lingered that educated daughters would educate themselves right out of the marriage market" (p.142)
[83] Pierre had a well-established career in physics when he met Marie
There is also a striking contrast. In the case of the Curies and Ehrenfests, there is abundant contemporary evidence of the importance of the woman's role in their joint work, and each wife pursued a scientific career after her husband's death: Maric, of course, did not pursue a scientific career before or after her separation from Einstein, but we see it cannot have been because of the impossibility of such a career.

It also cannot have been because she lacked initial motivation and support. In the face of the many prejudices against and obstacles to women's higher education, particularly in the physical sciences, Maric possessed sufficient talent and drive, and got sufficient familial and institutional support, to successfully pursue an academic career that brought her to the brink of graduation from the Poly and pursuit of scientific research, alone or in collaboration with Einstein, or at the least a career as a teacher of science. What went wrong?

I suggest three interrelated factors may help to explain why Maric never pursued a scientific career, and in particular why a truly creative collaboration between Maric and Einstein never developed:

1. Her talents in physics were modest, so that she could not take advantage of the "exceptional" status sometimes granted even then to women of the stature [p.217] of the statuere of Marie Curie and Lise Meitner in physics, or Sofia Kovalevskaia and Emmy Noether in mathematics.

2. She lost the inner self-confidence and drive necessary to pursue a career in science in the face of the many obstacles that women face.

3. Despite his earlier-expressed intentions, after their marriage Einstein failed to encourage her to pursue an independent career or to involve her in serious collaboration. -- I shall elaborate a little on these factors. As we have seen, in spite of her early succeses as a student, there is no evidence that Maric ever made the crucial transition from student of physics to independent research worker. There is no record of her original ideas, and her comments on the ideas of others are uncritical. For example, she vastly overrated Einstein's theory of molecular forces (see above) when a critical judgment might have helped him to discard it sooner than he did [84].

There is nothing really surprising about this [85]; most physicists, male or female, would have had to play a subordinate role in collaborating with Einstein. The evidence suggests that she did so, even without public acknowledgment, which might have been painful to her had she not been so willing to acknowledge his superiority and subordinate her own career goals to his. But she acceted this role without complaint, and even accepted - but not without complaint.

[Supplement: Mileva wanted to save the relationship and the collaboration until recently - the chaot Einstein had to hire mathematicians, at the expense of the German taxpayer ...
In 1914 Mileva was experiencing endurance depression, crying and there was harsh Jewish racist defamation against Mileva, Jewish racism and verbal violence without end. Mileva wanted to save the relationship until the end of August 1914 in Berlin (see: Wasmayr: Tragödie - 2004; Wolff: Preisgeld - 2019), but was outnumbered by "famous women" in Berlin, who wanted to "celebrate" their festivities with the "famous Einstein" (see: Ripota: Einsichten - 2018, p.236). The separation from Einstein's work was forced on Mileva by the racist-Jewish Einstein family who did not want to reckognize the inter-religious marriage, and Einstein accepted this position, and from 1915 Einstein did not write much ground-breaking anything except putting his signature under a nuclear bomb letter. Einstein had to employ mathematicians who helped him in his work and lectures, paid by the German taxpayer - at "free time table". And the students often could not get along in Einstein's confusion ...].

her growing exclusion from this modest role in his work. Part of her resignation may be ascribed to her great love and admiration for him. But I think there is more to the story.

Her early letters evidence the good cheer, drive, and talent necessary to enable a young woman of her generation to get from a remote region of the Balkans to Section VI A of the Poly. But by the end of her student days - at a crucial point in her intellectual development - she lost the inner self-confidence so vital to overcoming the considerable obstacles on her path to a career in physics, a self-confidence that Einstein possessed in abundance and never lost, even at the most desperate moments in his life. Two failures to pass the final examinations and the loss of Weber as a mentor were undoubtedly contributing factors, but her relationship with Einstein also played a role. The pressures on a woman to subordinate her intellectual to her emotional life were even stronger then than they are today. As her letters attest, she was painfully shy and fearful of criticism, and his [[Jewish racist]] parent's opposition, of which she was well aware ven though she had never met them (rather than shield her, Einstein reported their comments) [86], must have afflicted her. Above all, her pregnancy out of wedlock and the fate of Lieserl seem to have contributed to an underlying depression that grew as the years passed. Perhaps partly in reaction to the loss, she became exceptionally devoted to her first son, born early in the second year of their marriage: and she was unable to find a way to combine [p.218] her conception of the duties of motherhood with those of a career outside the home.

[since 1904: Einstein did not want Mileva to do a physics math career - and she does not rebel (!)
Einstein blocked Mileva totally by hiding her accomplishments by not defending her in the review "Annals of Physics", by making her pregnant before succeeding her diploma, and he damaged her reputation performing as a rebel at ETH Zurich, skipping many lectures, and throwing whole concepts to the basked during internships, even causing a blast injuring his hand, and in the end after 1912 he followed his Jewish-racist parents and workd for divorce despite of all scientific help he owed Mileva. So, this Einstein was just a doll of the parents and a physics monoculture, which is proven by the fact that since 1919 he had to hire mathematicians to continue to "work", if one defines chaotic physics lessons and women's affairs as "work", at "free time allocation". Einstein exploited Mileva by order of the racist Jewish Einstein parents and then dropped her cold. Einstein has thus committed a gigantic scientific fraud, along with those in charge of the journal "Annalen der Physik", who cut the double-name "Einstein-Maric" in "Einstein", "eliminating" Mileva, and therefore this is a gang crime by Einstein and the "Annals of Physics". At the same time Mileva had a helper syndrome, and counseling centers and psychological counseling in the sense of emancipation did not yet exist. All this came only with C.G. Jung in the 1960s and since the Autonomous Youth Center (AJZ) in the 1980s. That's how it looks like].

[84] A few years later he referred to his first two papers as "worthless beginner's works" (see: "Collected Papers", vol. 5, doc. 66, p.79)
[85] "[O]ut of about one thousand [male] students there is hardly a single one who has the abilities for independent scientific accompolishment in the higher sense, so the demands on women at the least should not be set any higher" (Ella Wild, Einleitung [[introduction]] to "Die Frauenstudium", p.15-16
[86] It seems plausible that he used Maric to help him break free of his family, especially his mother

[and then after 1912 this liberation did not work any more. There should be investigation how Einstein was beaten as a child by his father and his mother for "forming" his mentality].

Given all these factors, she still might have played a more satisfying if subordinate collaborateiv role in his work, as did several male physicists during this period [87]. A married woman at that time was hardly likely to find another mentor than her husband, so her fate as a physicist was entirely dependent on Einstein [88]. But after their marriage, he failed to foster such a full collaboration. However modest her talents, he could have publicly acknowledged her contributions to his work, and helped her to enter the world of physics after he gained recognition. He is reported to have helped around the house [89], but obviously he was not engulfed by household duties and could have done more to ensure that she was not. Instead, he seems to have been content to let her play the "philistine" role of hausfrau [[housewife]], involving her in his work as little more than occasional amanuensis, and never publicly acknowledging her contributions. Again, there is an obvious contrast with Pierre Curie and Paul Ehrenfest, who took pains to assure that their wives' contributions to joint work were publicly acknowledged [90], so that success was shared. Far from bringing Einstein and Maric closer, the widespread recognition of Einstein's scientific activities became an important factor in their ultimate estrangement. [p.219]

[We see: the husband was responsible for the wife's career - and the criminal Einstein and the Jewish-racist Einstein family destroyed ALL of Mileva because she was not Jewish and Einstein concealed the role of Mileva with high mathematics: Einstein did not want to confess to his parents that he was a 0 in high maths (!)]. 

[87] See, e.g., Lewis Pyenson: "Einstein's Early Scientific Collaboration"; in: "Historial Studies in the Physical Sciences 7 (1976), p.84-123
[88] I am indebted to Pnina Abir-Am  for this insight
[89] See, e.g., the accunt by his son Hans Albert, cited in "Private Lives", p.129
[90] For the Curies, See Helena M. Pycior: "Reaping the Benefits of Collaboration While Avoiding Its Pitfalls: Marie Curie's Rise to Scientific Prominence"; in: "Social Studies of Science" 3 (1993): p.301-323. There is no study of the collaboration between the Ehrenfests, but I can cite a few indications of his efforts. Of the two articles they wrote jointly in 1906, the first is signed Tatiana and Paul Ehrenfest, the second is signed Paul and Tatiana Ehrenfest (see Paul Ehrenfest: "Collected Scientific Papers", ed. Martin Klein [Amsterdam / New York, 1959], p.107, 127). Their joint article on the foundation of statistical mechanics in the prestigious "Encyklopaedie der Mathematischen Wissenschaften" states: "The critical review and systematization of the results of all fundamental investigations was carried out by the authors in common work. P. Ehrenfest bears the ultimate responsibility for the final editing" (p.213).

Notes

[1] She sometimes used Marity, the Hungarian form of her last name; she followed Swiss custom after her marriage, using Einstein-Maric or Einstein-Marity.

[2] "Albert Einstein and Mileva Maric, The Love Letters", trans. Shawn Smith, etd. Jürgen Renn and Robert Schulmann (Princeton, 1992), p.72-73, cited hereafter as "The Love Letters". Einstein's correspondence, including letters to and from Maric, will also be cited from "The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein", vol. 1, "The Early Years, 1879-1902", ed. John Stachel et al. (Princeton, 1987), and vol. 5, "The Swiss Years: Correspondence, 1902-1914", ed. Martin Klein et al. (Princeton, 1993); cited hereafter as "Collected Papers, vols. 1 and 5

[3] They met in 1896, married in 1903, separated in 1914, and divorced in 1919

[4] For his publications during this period, see "The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein", vol. 2, "The Swiss Years: Writings, 1900-1909", ed. John Stachel et al. (Princeton, 1989); vol. 3, "The Swiss Years: Writings, 1909-1911", ed. Martin Klein et al. (Princeton 1993); and vol. 4, "The Swiss Years: Writings, 1912-1914", ed. Martin Klein et al. (Princeton, 1995); cited hereafter as "Collected Papers", vols. 2,3, and 4

[5] See Desanka Trbuhović-Gjurić, "Im Schatten Albert Einsteins/Das tragische Leben der Mileva Einstein-Maric (Bern/Stuttgart, 1983), cited hereafter as "Im Schatten Albert Einsteins"; Senta Trömel-Plötz, "Mileva Einstein-Maric: The Woman Who Did Einstein's Mathematics", in: Women's Studies International Forum 13 (1990), p.415-432; Evan Harris Walker, "Did Einstein Espouse His Spouse's Ideas?", in: Physics Today 42, no.2 (February 1989), p.9-11 (for my comments, see ibid., p.11-13); idem, "Ms. Einstein" (paper presented at the AAAS meeting, New Orleans, Fabruary 1990); and idem, "Mileva Maric's Relativistic Role" (presented at the AAAS Meeting, Washington, D.C., February 1991)

[6] "Einstein and Maric: The Early Years", in: "Einstein's Early Years: 1879-1905", ed. Don Howard and John Stachel (Boston/Basel/Berlin, forthcoming), cited hereafter [p.330] as "Einstein and Maric". See also Roger Highfield and Paul Carter, "The Private Lives of Albert Einstein" (London/Boston, 1993), cited hereafter as "Private Lives", and: Abraham Pais, "Einstein Lived here" (Oxford/New York, 1994)

[7] Sources for information on her life include "Im Schatten Albert Einsteins; Dorde [George] Krstic, "Mileva Einstein-Maric", Appendix A in Elizabeth Roboz Einstein, "Hans Albert Einstein: Reminiscences of His Life and Our Life Together (Iowa City, 1992); her correspondence with Einstein in "Collected Papers", vols. 1 and 5; and her letters to her friend and confidante, Helene Savic, née Kaufler. Some excerpts from the Savic letters are cited from "Collected Papers", vol 1, and unpublished excerpts from the Savic letters are cited from "Collected Papers", vol. 1, and unpublished excerpts are cited (in my translations) from photocopies of originals presented by Savic's grandson, Professor Milan Popovic (Belgrade), to the editors of "The Collected Papers". These copies will be cited as in the Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University. A useful synthesis of this material is found in "Private Lives".

[8] Einstein is discussed here only insofar as is relevant to their intellectual relationship. For a fuller discussion of their relationship up to 1905, see "Einstein and Maric". For a differing account of their relationship, more skeptical of Einstein's early devotion to Maric, see "Private Lives"

[9] See Phyllis Stock, "Better Than Rubies: A History of Women's Education" (New York 1978, p.166; cited hereafter as "Better Than Rubies". There also may have been medical reasons for Maric's move, since she had been very ill with a lung disorder.

[10] See Schweizer Verband der Akademikerinnen, "Die Frauenstudium an der Schweizer Hochschulen (Zurich, 1928), cited hereafter as "Die Frauenstidium"

[11] For a discussion of the first generation of Russian women to study in Zurich, see Christine Johanson, "Women's Struggle for Higher Education in Rusia, 1850-1900" (Kingston/Montreal, 1987), p.51-58. According to Johanson, while many male students were hostile, "most professors allowed no sexual discrimination in the classroom" (53).

[12] Indeed, pressure from Russian women prompted Zurich to open its doors (see "Better Than Rubies", p.145). In the first decades after the Swiss universities admitted women, the large majority were non-Swiss, mainly Slavs (see "Die Frauenstudium").

[13] For his "Matrikel" (official record), see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 28, pp.45-50. Her "Matrikel" is in file no. 85, "Rektoratsarchiv", Eidgenössische Technische Hochschlule (ETH).

[14] Trbuhović-Gjurić suggests, without any evidence, that Maric left the Poly in flight from her intense romantic relationship with Einstein (see "Im Schatten Albert Eisnteins"). Their letters suggest that the relationship was not yet very intense (see "Collected Papers", vol.1, esp. docs. 36 and 39). The brevity of Maric's stay in Heidelberg may be explained by Kaplan's observation that "the first women students at Heidelberg ... suffered from extraordinary gener discrimination" (Marion Kaplan, "The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Families, and Identity in Imperial Germany" [New York, 1991], p.149)

[15] For this information, see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, esp. docs. 50, 52, and 53

[16] His parents' opposition was based on Maric's age (she was four years older than Einstein), her intellectuality, and probably her Slavic origins. His mother made the first two objections explicit: "By the time you're 30 she'll be an old witch." "Like you, she is a book - but you ought to have a wife" ("The Love Letters", 20). Anti-Slav prejudices are still common in Germany, and Einstein's parents had not objected to his earlier romance with a young teacher of Swiss-German background who was also slightly older than he (see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, docs. 15, 18, and 32).

[The Einstein parents wanted Einstein to marry the daughter from the Jewish Winteler family, but Einstein did not want that [web07]].

[17] Einstein's letters to Maric mention treatises by Boltzmann, Drude, Helmholtz, Kirchhoff, and Mach (see "Collected Papers", vol. 1)

[18] See "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 67, p.247. The three mathematics students in [[the sector for math and physic teacher]] VI A took different exams. Trbuhović-Gjurić ("Im Schatten Albert Einsteins") does not mention her failure to graduate; Trömel-Plötz ("The Woman Who Did Einstein's [p.331] Mathematics") ascribes it to discrimination against women at the Poly without mentioning her grades; while Walker ("Ms. Einstein") states, without citing evidence, that "Marks below 5.00 were probably customarily below the passing grade". Einstein with a total of 54 points out of a possible 66, was one point short of that average while Maric, with a total of 44 points, was 11 points short.

[19] In mid-1900, she mentions "a large work ... that I have chosen for myself as a Diploma Thesis and probably also a Doctoral Thesis" ("Collected Papers", vol. 1, p.260, vol. II, p.5). In May 1901, Einstein asks about her doctoral thesis, advising her to use some of Weber's work in it, "even if you only seem to" (ibid., p.305).

[20] In May 1901, Mileva Maric wrote [[to her friend Helene]] Savic: "I have already quarreled a couple of times with Weber, but we're already used to that" ("Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc 109, p.303, my translation).

[21] See "Collected Papers", vol 1, doc 87, p.275

[22] See Protocol of Section VI A, July 26, 1901, ETH Library (Zurich). Her average was again 4.

[23] Einstein first mentions Kleiner in October 1900 ("Collected Papers", vol 1, p.267); a year later, he discussed the complete dissertation (ibid., p.321). He withdrew it in February 1902 (see ibid., doc. 132, p.331), probably because of objections by Kleiner, but they stayed in contact. Einstein's successful 1905 doctoral dissertation was approved by Kleiner, who helped him obtain his first full-time academic post in 1909 (see below).

[24] Presumably, Lieserl was born at Maric's home. However, recent efforts to find civil or church records of the birth in her hometown or nearby failed.

[25] The delay was connected with the opposition of his family (see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 138, p.336). On his deathbed, Einstein's father gave his consent in October 1902, according to Abraham Pais: "Subtle is the Lord ...: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein" (Oxford, 1982), p.47

[26] See "Private Lives", p.90

[27] Late in 1901, after he was assured of a Patent Office job, he wrote Maric: "The only problem that still needs to be resolved is how to keep our Lieserl with us; I wouldn't want to have to give her up. Ask your Papa, he's an experienced man and knows the world better than yur overworked, impractical Johnny" ("Collected Papers, vol. 1, doc. 127, p. 324, translation from "The Love Letters", p.68)

[28] Peter Michelmore: "Einstein: Profile of the Man" (New York, 1962), states: "Hans Albert Einstein ... had never discussed his father before with any writer, at least not in depth. But he answered all my questions, and waited while I wrote down all the answers" (vii). Hans Albert inherited his mother's papers, and his first wife, Frieda Einstein-Knecht, transcribed excerpts from Einstein's letters discussing Lieserl. So, if not told earlier by either parent, Hans Albert knew about his sister by the time he spoke to Michelmore

[29] Michelmore: "Einstein", p.42

[30] Leo Tolstoy: "Anna Karenina", trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude (London, 1965), p.1

[31] "Collected Papers", vol.5, doc.5, letter of January 22, 1903, p.10 (my translation)

[32] Maric to Savic, March 20, 1903, copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University

[33] "Collected Papers", vol. 5, doc. 13, p.22, translation modified from "The Love Letters", p.53

[34] For further speculation, see "Private Lives", p.88-91

[35] "Collected Papers", vol. 5, doc. 13, p.22, translation from "The Love Letters", p.53

[36] Maric to Savic, September 3, 1909, copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University

[37] The flirtatious nature of their earlier relationship is apparent from a poem Albert wrote for her ("Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 49, p.220) [p.332]

[38] See "Collected Papers", vol. 5, p.181, p.198-199; Einstein-Maric to Georg Meyer, May 23, 1909, copy in the Archive of the Einstein-Gesellschaft, Swiss National Library (Bern). For a fuller account, see "Private Lives", p.124-126. Einstein's anger flared up again over forty years later, when he blamed Maric's pathological jealousy on "uncommon ugliness" (Einstein to Erika Schaerer-Mayer [Meyer-Schmid's daughter], cited in "Collected Papers", vol. 5, p.199, no.4)

[39] Maric to Savic, September 3, 1909, copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University

[40] Maric to Savic, n.d. [c. October 1909], copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University

[41] By this point, the Poly had been renamed the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, or ETH for short

[42] Maric to Savic, n.d. [c. January 1911], copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University

[43]. Michelmore: "Einstein", p.57

[44] Maric to Savic, n.d. [c. October 1909], copy in Einstein Papers Project Archives, Boston University

[45] As children, they were well acquainted, and her father (nicknamed "Rudolf the rich" by Einstein) was the chief creditor of his father's debts (see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 93, p.281); for their relationship, see his letters to her in "Collected Papers", vol. 5; for her poetry reading, see Pais: "Einstein Lived Here", p.145

[46] "Collected Papers", vol. 5, p.585, 587

[47] Ibid., p.558

[48] After their divorce he regularly stayed at Maric's house when visiting Zurich

[49]. See "Collected Papers", vol. 1. For a more detailed discussion of their relationship up to 1905, see "Einstein and Maric"

[50] For her most extensive comment on physics, see "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 36, last paragraph, p.59; for an example of her descriptive powers, see ibid., doc. 109, pp.301-302

[51] "The Love Letters", p.9

[52] Ibid., p.12-13

[53] See "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 37, p.139

[54] Ibid., vol. 1, xxxix-xi

[55] 2On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" is the title of his famous 1905 paper on special relativity ("Collected Papers", vol. 2, doc. 28). See the next section for further discussion of this topic.

[56] Philipp Frank: "Einstein: His Life and Times" (New York, 1953), p.21

[57] Albert Einstein: "Lettres à Maurice Solovine", ed. Maurice Solovine (Paris, 1956), introduction, xii

[58] Thishas sometimes been confused with a doctoral thesis. Maric hoped to use her diploma thesis work as the basis for a doctorate, but she was never a candidate for that degree.

[59] "Collected Papers, vol. 1, doc. 63, pp. 243-244; translation from the supplementary "English Translation", trans. Anna Beck (Princeton, 1987), p.138

[60] "The Love Letters", p.30

[61] See "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 67

[62] See ibid., note 33, p.244

[63]. I.e., the "Annalen der Physik"; it became his first publiation (see "Collected Papers", vol. 2, doc 1)

[64] "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 85, p.273, my translation

[65] Ibid., doc. 79, p.267, my translation

[66] See "Collected Papers", vol. 1, doc. 132, p.331

[67] Ibid., doc. 125, p.320, my translation [p.333]

[68] It has been suggested that she attributed her work to him. But it is hard to see why she would do so in private letters to a close personal friend. If the expressions of admiration in these letters were meant to characterize her own work, they would give a most unpleasant impression of her character. If we accept her word that she picked her final diploma thesis topic, I see no reason to doubt it when she says he wrote the articles in question.

[69] See the articles by Walker and Trömel-Plötz cited in note 5

[70] "The Love Letters", p. 54

[71] Ibid., p.39

[72] Ibid., p.69

[73] Michelmore: "Einstein", p.45-46. Such comments, and similar (but less reliable) anecdotal accounts by Maric's relatives in the Vojvodina (see "Im Schatten Albert Einsteins), led to Senta Trömel-Plötz's appellation: "Mileva Maric: The Woman Who Did Einstein's Mathematics"

[74] See "Collected Papers", vol. 2, doc. 23, pp. 276-306

[75] Ibid., p.306. Besso's role is explained more precisely in later reminiscences by Einstein, notably his 1922 Kyoto lecture (see ibid., p.264), and Michelmore also mentions it ("Einstein", p.45).

[76] "Collected Papers", vol. 3, doc. 1, p.125, descriptive note

[77] Ibid., doc. 3, pp. 177-178

[78] Ibid., doc. 11, p.321

[79] Mileva Maric to Albert Einstein, October 4, 1911, in Einstein, "Collected Papers", vol. 5, doc. 290, p.331

[80] Einstein and Maric met Marie Curie only after Pierre's death. For her life, see Eve Curie: "Madame Curie", trans. Vincent Sheean (New York, 1937); Rosalind Pflaum: "Grand Obsession: Madame Curie and Her World" (New York, 1989); and Helena M. Pycior: "Marie Curie's 'Anti-natural Path': Time Only for Science and Familiy"; in: "Uneasy Careers and INtimate Lives: Women in Science, 1798-1979", ed. Pnina G. Abir-Am and Dorinda Outram (New Brunswick, N.J., 1989), p.191-214

[81] Both Einstein and Maric knew Ehernfest and Afanasieva. For his life and their relationship, see Martin Klein: "Paul Ehrenfest", vol. 1, "The Making of a Theoretical Physicist" (Amsterdam, 1970). Klein cites an obituary in Dutch, but there is no biography of Afanasieva

[82] Speaking of the German milieu, Kaplan notes: "the popular stereotype of the Russian female student, who was portrayed as a radical, both politically and personally" ("The Making of the Jewish Middle Class", p.147); and she writes that "bourgeois parents displayed extraordinary ambivalence regarding their daughters' aspirations. ... the fear lingered that educated daughters would educate themselves right out of the marriage market" (p.142)

[83] Pierre had a well-established career in physics when he met Marie

[84] A few years later he referred to his first two papers as "worthless beginner's works" (see: "Collected Papers", vol. 5, doc. 66, p.79)

[85] "[O]ut of about one thousand [male] students there is hardly a single one who has the abilities for independent scientific accompolishment in the higher sense, so the demands on women at the least should not be set any higher" (Ella Wild, Einleitung [[introduction]] to "Die Frauenstudium", p.15-16

[86] It seems plausible that he used Maric to help him break free of his family, especially his mother

[87] See, e.g., Lewis Pyenson: "Einstein's Early Scientific Collaboration"; in: "Historial Studies in the Physical Sciences 7 (1976), p.84-123

[88] I am indebted to Pnina Abir-Am  for this insight

[89] See, e.g., the acocunt by his son Hans Albert, cited in "Private Lives", p.129

[90] For the Curies, See Helena M. Pycior: "Reaping the Benefits of Collaboration [p.334] While Avoiding Its Pitfalls: Marie Curie's Rise to Scientific Prominence"; in: "Social Studies of Science" 3 (1993): p.301-323. There is no study of the collaboration between the Ehrenfests, but I can cite a few indications of his efforts. Of the two articles they wrote jointly in 1906, the first is signed Tatiana and Paul Ehrenfest, the second is signed Paul and Tatiana Ehrenfest (see Paul Ehrenfest: "Collected Scientific Papers", ed. Martin Klein [Amsterdam / New York, 1959], p.107, 127). Their joint article on the foundation of statistical mechanics in the prestigious "Encyklopaedie der Mathematischen Wissenschaften" states: "The critical review and systematization of the results of all fundamental investigations was carried out by the authors in common work. P. Ehrenfest bears the ultimate responsibility for the final editing" (p.213). [p.335]

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