Albert Einstein Wife
Albert Einstein’s wife was Mileva Marić, a Serbian physicist and mathematician born on December 19, 1875, in Titel, in what is now Serbia. Einstein later married a second time, to his cousin Elsa Einstein, but Mileva Marić was his first wife and the mother of his three children. Albert Einstein is famous worldwide as the physicist behind the theory of relativity and one of the most influential scientific minds in history.
This article covers everything known about Mileva Marić — her life, education, career, and relationship with Einstein — plus a closer look at Elsa Einstein, his second wife. Whether you searched for “Albert Einstein wife” out of curiosity about his personal life or to learn about the woman who studied physics alongside him, you’ll find the full story below, including a quick facts table and answers to common questions people ask about his marriages.
Who Is Mileva Marić?
Mileva Marić was born on December 19, 1875, in Titel, a town then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and now located in Serbia. She grew up in a well-off Serbian family that valued education, which was unusual for girls at the time. Her father made special arrangements for her to attend classes typically reserved for boys, including physics lectures she was initially barred from due to her gender.
Marić showed early promise in mathematics and science. She attended a Swiss boarding school before enrolling at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich (later known as ETH Zurich) in 1896, where she studied physics and mathematics. She was only the fifth woman admitted into the mathematics and physics section of the school. It was there that she met a fellow student named Albert Einstein, who was in the same academic program.
Marić faced significant obstacles as a woman in science during the late 1800s. She struggled to gain full recognition for her academic work, and after failing her final exams twice, she did not complete her diploma. Still, her intellectual partnership with Einstein during their university years is well documented through their surviving letters.
Mileva Marić’s Career & Professional Life
Mileva Marić trained as a physicist and mathematician, a rare achievement for a woman in her era. While at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic, she studied the same core subjects as Einstein, including thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and analytical mechanics. Historians and biographers have long debated how much she contributed to Einstein’s early scientific thinking, particularly during the years leading up to his 1905 “miracle year” papers, which included the special theory of relativity.
Marić did not publish research under her own name and did not pursue an independent academic career after leaving university without a diploma. After her marriage ended, she supported her family by giving private math and physics tutoring lessons in Zurich, where she lived for the rest of her life.
There is no verified net worth associated with Marić, since she lived over a century ago and left no public financial records. What historians do agree on is that she played a supportive intellectual role in Einstein’s life during his formative scientific years, even if the exact extent of her direct contribution to his published work remains debated among scholars today.
How Did Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić Meet?
Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić met in 1896 as students at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich. She was one of very few women studying physics and mathematics there, and the two shared classes together. Their relationship grew through shared academic interests, late-night study sessions, and an extensive exchange of letters that has since become an important historical record of their courtship.
Their letters, discovered and published decades later, reveal a deeply intellectual and emotional relationship. They discussed physics theories alongside their feelings for one another, and Einstein often referred to their scientific work as a shared pursuit.
The couple’s relationship was not without hardship. In 1902, before they married, Marić gave birth to a daughter named Lieserl, whose fate remains uncertain to historians; she may have died in infancy or been given up for adoption. Einstein and Marić married the following year, in January 1903, in Bern, Switzerland, after Einstein secured a position at the Swiss Patent Office.
Marriage & Wedding Details
Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić married on January 6, 1903, in a small civil ceremony in Bern, Switzerland. The wedding was modest, reflecting their limited financial means at the time, since Einstein was working as a patent clerk and had not yet gained scientific recognition.
The couple settled into a quiet domestic life in Bern during the early years of their marriage. It was during this period that Einstein wrote his groundbreaking 1905 papers, a time when Marić managed their household and reportedly helped review his mathematical calculations.
The marriage eventually became strained, and the couple separated in 1914. They officially divorced in February 1919. As part of the divorce settlement, Einstein promised Marić the future prize money from a Nobel Prize, which he won in 1921 for his work on the photoelectric effect.
Children & Family Life
Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić had three children together. Their first child, a daughter named Lieserl, was born in 1902 before their marriage; her ultimate fate is still unknown to historians. Their two sons, Hans Albert Einstein and Eduard Einstein, were born in 1904 and 1910.
Hans Albert Einstein went on to become a respected professor of hydraulic engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Eduard Einstein struggled with mental illness for much of his adult life and spent many years in psychiatric care in Switzerland, where he died in 1965.
After the divorce, Marić raised the two sons largely on her own in Zurich while Einstein moved to Berlin. She dedicated much of her later life to caring for Eduard as his health declined, balancing single motherhood with the ongoing financial and emotional demands of raising a son with severe mental health challenges.
Mileva Marić’s Legacy Today
Since Mileva Marić lived from 1875 to 1948, long before social media existed, there is no modern online presence to reference. Instead, her legacy survives through the hundreds of personal letters she exchanged with Einstein, many of which were published decades after her death and remain a key source for historians studying both her life and Einstein’s early career. Her story has since inspired books, documentaries, and academic research into the role women played in early 20th-century science.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Mileva Marić |
| Date of Birth | December 19, 1875 |
| Date of Death | August 4, 1948 |
| Nationality | Serbian |
| Profession | Physicist, mathematician, private tutor |
| Married to | Albert Einstein |
| Marriage Year | 1903 (divorced 1919) |
| Children | Lieserl, Hans Albert, Eduard |
| Net Worth | Not publicly documented |
FAQ Section
Q: What is Albert Einstein’s wife’s name?
A: Albert Einstein’s first wife was Mileva Marić, whom he married in 1903. He later married a second wife, Elsa Einstein, in 1919.
Q: How old was Mileva Marić when she married Einstein?
A: Mileva Marić was 27 years old when she married Albert Einstein in January 1903, since she was born in December 1875.
Q: What did Mileva Marić do for a living?
A: Mileva Marić studied physics and mathematics and later worked as a private tutor in Zurich, teaching math and physics lessons after her marriage ended.
Q: When did Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić get married?
A: They married on January 6, 1903, in Bern, Switzerland, and later divorced in February 1919 after separating in 1914.
Q: How many kids did Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić have?
A: They had three children together: a daughter named Lieserl, and two sons, Hans Albert Einstein and Eduard Einstein.
Who Was Elsa Einstein, Albert’s Second Wife?
Albert Einstein married a second time, to Elsa Einstein (née Löwenthal), on June 2, 1919, shortly after his divorce from Mileva Marić was finalized. Elsa was born on January 18, 1876, in Hechingen, Germany, and was Einstein’s first cousin on his mother’s side and second cousin on his father’s side.
Elsa had two daughters, Ilse and Margot, from a previous marriage, but she and Einstein did not have biological children together. She supported Einstein through his years of fame following his 1921 Nobel Prize and accompanied him when the family emigrated to the United States in 1933 to escape Nazi Germany. Elsa Einstein died on December 20, 1936, in Princeton, New Jersey, after a long illness. Like Marić, she left no modern digital footprint, since her life predates social media entirely by nearly a century.
Conclusion
Albert Einstein’s wife, Mileva Marić, was far more than a footnote in his biography — she was a trained physicist who shared his intellectual world during the years he developed some of his most important ideas. Their marriage ultimately ended in divorce, but their letters and shared history remain a fascinating window into the personal life behind one of science’s greatest minds. Einstein’s second wife, Elsa Einstein, later stood by him through his rise to global fame. Together, both women shaped different chapters of Albert Einstein’s life, leaving behind a story that still draws curiosity more than a century later.
