Mileva Marić

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Mileva Marić (19 December 1875 – 4 August 1948; Serbian Cyrillic: Милева Марић) was a Serbian mathematician, and Albert Einstein's first wife. She was Einstein's companion, colleague, and confidante: the exact degree of her participation in his discoveries is up to present day unknown and is subject of many polemics.

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Biography

  • 19.Dec.1875 Maric is born into a wealthy family in Titel, Serbia. She is the oldest of three children.

The family owns land, but is not a farmer family, even though some Einstein biographers claim this. (Clark 1981).

Shortly after her birth, her father ends his military career and takes a job at the court in Ruma and later in Agram (today Zagreb).

  • 1886/87 High school for girls in Novi Sad.
  • 1888 Changed to a school in Sremska Mitrovica close to Ruma. This school was equipped with excellent laboratories for physics and chemistry. (Trbuhovic-Gjuric 1983)
  • 1890 Graduation. Mileva Maric's best grades were in mathematics and physics. (Krstic 1991)

Maric was accepted as a private student at the royal school in Agram. She received a special permission to participate in the physics class, usually only held for boys. (Trbuhovic-Gjuric 1983; Krstic 1991)

  • Summer 1896 Maric studies medicine for one semester at the University of Zurich.
  • Winter 1896 Maric starts studies in mathemathics and physics in Switzerland at ETH Zurich. This was the only University in the area to accept women for the final exams.

She is the fifth women to study physics at ETH, the only one in her year. During practical physics lessons, she gets to know Albert Einstein.

  • 1897 Studies in Heidelberg, Germany (Theory of numbers, analytical mechanics, differential and integral calculus, elyptical functions, theory of heat, electrodynamics. (Trbuhovic-Gjuric, 4. Auflage 1984,

p.49, and ETH-Archiv der wissenschaftlich-historischen Abteilung)

  • 1898 Back to Zurich. Intensive collaboration between Mileva Maric, Albert Einstein, Marcel Grossmann, Michele Besso.(Michelmore1968, p. 35, 36, 56).
  • 1901 Mileva Maric becomes pregnant by Albert Einstein. It remains a secret. [1]
  • 1901 Mileva Maric leaves ETH without a certificate, she does not continue her Ph.D. [2]
  • 1902 Birth of Lieserl in Serbia, daughter of Mileva Maric and Albert Einstein.
  • 1903 Marriage with Albert Einstein.
  • 14. May 1904 Birth of son Hans Albert.
  • 1910 Birth of son Eduard Tete. [3]
  • 1913/14 Mileva Maric remains in Zurich with her children, her husband leaves for a new job in Berlin.
  • 1919 Albert and Mileva are divorced. [4]
  • 1921 Albert Einstein wins the Nobel Prize, gives Mileva Maric the money. She invests it into medical care for her son Eduard who suffers from schizophrenia. [5]
  • 4.Aug.1948 Mileva Maric dies in Zurich.
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Annus Mirabilis Papers

The extent of Mileva's contribution to Einstein's Annus Mirabilis Papers is controversial. According to Evan Harris Walker, a physicist, the basic ideas for relativity came from Mileva [6]. Senta Troemel-Ploetz, a German linguist, says that the ideas may have been Albert's, but Mileva did the mathematics. On the other hand, John Stachel, keeper of Albert's letters, says that Mileva was little more than a sounding board. The case for Mileva as co-genius mostly depends on letters in which Albert referred to "our" theory and "our" work and on a divorce agreement in which Albert promised her his Nobel Prize money. He gave to Mileva the money from the Nobel Prize he received but he did not publicly acknowledge any putative scientific involvement by her in his work. Mileva used the award money to support their sons.

The Soviet scientist Abraham Joffe claimed to have seen the original manuscripts of Einstein's 1905 papers and that they were signed by Einstein-Marity. Marity is the hungarian form of the name Maric, a form that Mileva Maric only used for important documents. The original articles do not exist anymore, existing copies however are all signed by the name of Einstein. The Einstein scholars John Stachel and Alberto A. Martinez,who have each translated and quoted the passage in question written by A.Joffe, refute the existence of this original document.See: http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/17/4/2/1

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Pro and Contra: Main Arguments

In the beginning of the 1990’s, the discussion about the role of Mileva Maric in modern Physics started. The statements in the works of two authors are often discussed and cited:

  • "Collected Papers of Albert Einstein" edited by J.Stachel, physicist. It includes letters of Albert Einstein and some of his first wife. It gave new insight on Einstein when he was young.1987 (in english)
  • Monography on Mileva Maric, written by Desanka Trbuhovic-Gjuric, physician and mathematician. 1969 (in serbian) /1982 (in german)

She has done research in russian documents and contacted family, friends and physicians who had contact with Mileva Maric. Unill this book, most authors contributing to the discussion around Einsteins matter came from german or english speaking countries. However the evidence that Trbuhovic-Gjuric provides is based on research undertaken more than 50 years after the events in question and largely comprises of third or fourth hand rumour and gossip which cannot be reliably substantiated, as Allen Esterson has shown in an examination of her contentions: http://www.esterson.org/milevamaric.htm

  • D. S. Danin, Neizbezhnost strannogo mira 1962 (in russian), a book about the history of atomic physics. Stating that in 1905, three articles were published by Einstein, signed in the original with Einstein-Marity. Eye witness is the Russian physician A.Joffe (or Ioffe).

Opponents in the discussion are among others:

  • Evan Harris Walker, Cancer Research Institute. Suggests that Mileva and Albert were working together as a team, that Mileva Maric made important contributions to today’s physics. (Letter in Phisics Today, February 1991)
  • Alberto A. Martínez, Center for Einstein Studies, Boston University (Article in April, 2004, issue of Physics World, on page 14)

Argues that Mileva Maric did not contribute to Albert Einsteins work on special theory of relativity of 1905.

  • Senta Trömel-Plötz, a german linguist and author who argues that Mileva Maric did not bring the basic ideas to Albert Einstein’s work, but that she developed the mathematical proofs for him. („Mileva Einstein-Maric, Die Frau, die Einsteins mathematische Probleme löste“, Basler Magazin, Nr. 16, April 21, 1990, p. 7) But this contention is highly dubious in the light of the fact that in the mathematical component of the Zurich Polytechnic final diploma examination in 1900 Mileva Maric obtained less than half the grade of the candidates immediately above her. (Collected Papers of Albert Einstein [1987], ed. J. Stachel, p. 247)
  • John Stachel describes Maric in his book "Collected Papers of Albert Einstein" as a “sounding board”. He sees no evidence to proof any claims of Maric having helped her husband to his fame. (Letter in Phisics Today, February 1989)
  • Christopher Jon Bjerknes, author of “Albert Einstein: The Incorrigible Plagiarist.” Defends Mileva Maric in backing up proofs that she actually contributed significantly to the work, published under the name of Albert Einstein only. He also argues that, in his articles, Albert Einstein did not give reference to his colleagues working on the same matter. (Infinite Energy Magazine, Volume 8, Number 49, (May/June, 2003), pp. 65-68) However Bjerknes's disinterestedness is called into question by his referring to Einstein as "the chief racist" among the political Zionists, and his assertion that Einstein "hated non-racist Jews," as well as by his contention in the same context that "Jewish racists helped to put Hitler into power in order to herd up the Jews of Europe and force them into segregation": http://www.codoh.com/newsite/articles/bjerkneschristopher/adoc01a.html

Alberto A. Martinez refutes the claims about Joffe, and much else, in "Handling evidence in history: the case of Einstein's Wife": http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=183 (Copyright 2005, Alberto A. Martínez and School Science Review.)

Allen Esterson examines the claims about Mileva Marić's alleged contributions to Einstein’s early scientific achievements and finds them devoid of credible supporting evidence: http://www.esterson.org/milevamaric.htm

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Children

Einstein and Marić had two sons and a daughter; their daughter Lieserl, born before their marriage, is variously said to have been adopted, and to have died in childhood: her actual fate is unknown. Hans Albert Einstein, their older son, became a professor in hydraulic engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. The other son, Eduard Einstein, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized; Mileva cared for him until she died in 1948.

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Memorials to Mileva Marić

There are only three known sculptoral busts, and a few memory reliefs of Mileva Marić (mostly on houses where she lived). However, all of them are located in different towns only in Vojvodina, Serbia and Montenegro. The newest of the busts, one in her high-school town, Sremska Mitrovica, was placed in December 2005. One high-school in Novi Sad is also named after her.

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References

  • Maurer, Margarete: Weil nicht sein kann, was nicht sein darf...DIE ELTERN" ODER "DER VATER" DER RELATIVITÄTSTHEORIE? Zum Streit über den Anteil von Mileva Maric an der Entstehung der Relativitätstheorie. Published in: PCnews, Nr. 48, Jg. 11, Heft 3, Wien, Juni 1996, S. 20-27. Electronic Version of RLI-Homepage (im RLI-Web): August 2005
  • Ronald W. Clark: Albert Einstein. Leben und Werk, München, 4. Auflage 1981. english Original: Einstein, the Life and Times, 1973).
  • Dord Krstic: Mileva Einstein-Maric, in: Elizabeth Roboz Einstein: Hans Albert Einstein. Reminiscences of His Life and Our Life Together, Iowa Cita (Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research) 1991, S. 85-99.
  • R.S. Shankland: Conversations with Albert Einstein, in: American Journal of Physics, Vol. 31, 1963, S. 47-57.
  • Desanka Trbuhovic-Gjuric: Im Schatten Albert Einsteins. Das tragische Leben der Mileva Einstein-Maric, Bern und Stuttgart (Paul Haupt) 2. Auflage 1983; 4. Auflage 1988.
  • Stachel, J. (2002). Einstein from 'B' to 'Z'. Boston: Bïrkhauser, pp. 26-38; 39-55.
  • Stachel, J (ed.) (2005). Einstein's Miraculous Year: Five Papers That Changed the Face of Physics. Princeton, pp. liv-lxxii.
  • Stachel, J. et al (eds.) (1987): The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein: Volume 1. (With English commentary).
  • Havas, P. (ed.) (1987): The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein: Volume 1 (English translation).
  • Popovic, M. (ed.) (2003): In Albert's Shadow: The Life and Letters of Mileva Maric.
  • Martinez, A: "Handling Evidence in History: The Case of Einstein's Wife," in School Science Review (March 2005).
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See also

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External links

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