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Interviewer: Nick Howe
We all know the name Albert Einstein, but what if I said the name Mileva Marić? Well, Marić was a woman highly educated in physics and mathematics. She was also Albert Einstein’s first wife. As they both had similar education, there have been rumours for years that she made contributions to his work, including his famous theory of special relativity. This week in Nature, there is a review of a new biography of Marić. She was born in 1875 in what is now Serbia. Little is known about her early life, but what is known is she was determined to get a higher education. Sadly, in the late 19th century this was a rarity for many women, as Ruth Lewin Sime, a historian of women in science who contributed to the new biography, explains.
Interviewee: Ruth Lewin Sime
It was extraordinarily difficult. I mean the book details Mileva’s girlhood where she was a very bright student but education for girls ended usually at the age of 13 or 14.
Interviewer: Nick Howe
Mileva’s resolve was recognised by her father, Miloš Marić, and he assisted her getting the education required to attend university, an education that was typically not accessible for women.
Interviewee: Ruth Lewin Sime
He helped push for her to be admitted to boys』 schools where she basically got the same education as they did, and that permitted her to go to Switzerland where the universities were open for women, and she entered the university in Zurich at the Polytechnic Institute.
Interviewer: Nick Howe
It was here at the prestigious Zurich Polytechnic, that Marić met a young Albert Einstein. The two had classes together in physics and mathematics and eventually fell in love. At first the pair did similarly academically, but Marić’s grades fell and she was not awarded a diploma. When she went to retake her exams the following year, she was two months pregnant the couple’s first child. This made things difficult.
Interviewee: Ruth Lewin Sime
A pregnancy out of wedlock for a couple that was still trying to get a job and had no security, that was just impossible for them at the time.
Interviewer: Nick Howe
In the end, Marić failed to get her diploma for a second time, deterring her PhD ambitions, and ultimately, she dropped out. The pair lived together and during this period, Einstein had some of his most famous ideas, including special relativity. As such, there are claims that Marić contributed to Einstein’s research by adding ideas and assisting with the mathematics, or that she co-authored some of the early papers, but was never credited. Many of the claims centre on love letters sent between the two. For example, there is one where Einstein refers to 「our work on relative motion」, but historians debate the significance of this, as Marić never refers to the work in her responses. Allen Esterson is the co-author of the new biography and he is not convinced by these claims.
Interviewee: Allen Esterson
We do know that when he was working at the patent office, that was when he produced the great papers of 1905. He did have colleagues at the patent office that he exchanged ideas with, particularly Michele Besso who he acknowledged at the end of the relativity paper as someone who had made valuable suggestions. But as far as is known, we can’t say for sure Mileva made any contribution in that sense. I’m not saying she didn’t, but we simply have no evidence that she did.
Interviewer: Nick Howe
Other historians have said the opposite, arguing that with the two living together, it’s reasonable to think they would have exchanged ideas. The truth is, we’re unlikely to find out the real story. Many of Marić’s letters to Einstein are missing and anyone who may have known more has long since passed away. What is known is that although Marić was a staunch supporter of Einstein, she became unhappy.
Interviewee: Allen Esterson
They were both in love with each other, but once they were married, Einstein soon got totally wrapped up in his work and neglected her. She remained staunchly supportive of him and supplied all his needs, bought up his children, while he was utterly immersed in his work to the extent that he neglected her and that hurt her very badly as we know from letters she wrote to her closest friend.
Interviewer: Nick Howe
Marić wrote about enduring many 「bitter and hard days」 and with the release of Einstein’s famous work she wrote, 「I only hope and wish that fame does not have a harmful effect on his humanity」. Marić also appears melancholy about her lost career in science, and reconciling herself to a domestic role. Their marriage declined to such an extent that Einstein sent Marić a draconian list of demands to allow her to continue to stay with him and the children. These demands included requirements for his laundry to be done and his desk cleaned and that she would, without protest, stop talking to him whenever he demanded it. The pair separated in 1914 and ultimately divorced in 1919. Marić never remarried. She died in 1948, after many years caring for their son Eduard who had schizophrenia and had been institutionalised. Whether or not Marić contributed to Einstein’s work, there is a lot we can learn from her story. Here’s Ruth again.
Interviewee: Ruth Lewin Sime
So, she was in many ways in the forefront of the generation of women that pushed for university education for themselves and of course for other women and it succeeded. By the time that Mileva had finished at her university in Zurich, was just about the time that universities in Germany and Austria were finally opening their doors to women, and it was the accomplishment of women like Mileva that they were able to make this happen.
Interviewer: Nick Howe
That was Ruth Lewin Sime. You also heard from Allen Esterson. You can find a review of their biography of Mileva Marić at nature.com/news. ⓝ
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