Albert Einstein is one of the most known people in human history especially for his very vast contributions to modern physics. Beyond his works that made him very known, he is equally known to have had a rather large family having been married twice with 3 children who went ahead to have their own broods. First among Albert’s children is his first daughter Lieserl Einstein who many did not know of because by unfortunate events, she did not live the life that would have had her share her father’s eventual glory.
Moreover, at the time she was allegedly born, her father was still relatively unknown and as such, the documentation that happens with most celebrity children did not come her way.
Meet Lieserl Einstein (Albert Einstein’s Daughter)
From information gotten based on the messages discovered to have been exchanged between Einstein and his first wife Mileva Marić back when they were still courting, Lieserl Einstein was allegedly born on the 27th day of January 1902, in Novi Sad, Vojvodina the year before her parents got married. But considering the fact that back then, Albert Einstein’s mother had sternly warned him against getting Maric pregnant and endangering his bright future, he kept the birth of his first daughter Lieserl a secret and only spoke about her in the letters he exchanged with Maric while he was away trying to earn a living in Switzerland.
While Maric was expecting Lieserl, she had exchanged letters with Albert about the sex of the child who they said would be named Hanserl if it was a boy and Lieserl if she was a girl. One year after she was birthed, Albert Einstein and Mileva Maric legalized their union in 1903 in Switzerland where Maric had gone to join him. According to the letters that were discovered by Evelyn, the granddaughter of Einstein by his first son Hans Albert Einstein, the couple last mentioned Lieserl in a letter Albert sent to his wife on September 19, 1903.
What Was Her Age Before Death?
The talks about the birth and death of Lieserl Einstein have been subject to many debates and controversies and debates over time concerning whether she actually existed or not and so far, the debate about her existence seems to hold more water. From all indications, it looked like Maric went back to Serbia after her marriage to Albert Einstein in 1903 which was why the letter correspondence between the two continued.
It was in one of the letters that Einstein enquired about the health of an infant Lieserl who from all timing and indication, had contracted scarlet fever which was rampant at the time. After this, there was no other mention of Lieserl Einstein which many took as a clear indication that she did not survive the fever. Following this line of thought, Lieserl died at infancy on the 18th of September 1903 at 20 months old.
A different theory concerning the existence of Albert Einstein’s daughter says Lieserl Einstein was born completely disabled due to the lack of care for the mother who had to keep her pregnancy a secret to avoid criticisms. The theory says she was born with Down syndrome, was mentally disabled and was not a good fit for any orphanage because her condition made her unable to receive any form of education. As such, she was given to her mother’s family who looked after her and did their best to watch over her till she contracted scarlet fever which she eventually died from.
A third theory concerning the death of Lieserl postulates that the circumstances surrounding her birth made it impossible for her parents to keep her especially since she was born before they got married and therefore out of wedlock. At the time, Albert’s career was just on the rise as he was working with a Swiss Patent Office which was where he began what would eventually become the celebrated theory that became the stepping stone to his many other career achievements. Following this line of thought, Lieserl was allegedly given up for adoption which prompted her parents to quickly get married in order to make her legal.
In the said adoption, the child was given up to Marić’s close friend Helene Savić who the couple thought would care for the child as well as they would have. Helena allegedly changed the baby’s name to Zorka Savić, but it was later discovered that Zorka is the name of Helena’s blind daughter who died in the 1990s.