Albert Einstein is one of the greatest physicists in human history, yet his private life remained a mystery for many years—including the fact that he had a daughter named Lieserl Einstein.
So, why was Lieserl’s existence hidden? The reason is that she was born “out of wedlock.” In 1901, Mileva Marić, a physics and mathematics student at the Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich—where Einstein studied—left school and returned to Serbia, where she gave birth to a daughter the following year. It wasn’t until 1903 that Einstein and Marić got married.
Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić with their firstborn son, Hans Einstein, in 1904.
Strangely enough, Lieserl seemed to vanish from history. It wasn’t until both Mileva and Einstein passed away in 1948 and 1955 that anyone knew about her. It wasn’t until 1986, when historians discovered letters exchanged between Einstein and his wife, that the world learned Lieserl truly existed.
So, what happened to Lieserl Einstein, the only daughter of Albert Einstein?
The Mystery of the Forgotten Child
The only certainty scientists have about Lieserl Einstein is that she was born on January 27, 1902 in the city of Újvidék, which was then part of the Kingdom of Hungary under the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is now part of Serbia.
Lieserl’s existence was so mysterious that historians had no information until the letters were discovered in 1986, at which point theories about Albert Einstein’s only daughter began to emerge.
Albert Einstein with his first wife Mileva Marić in 1905.
On February 4, 1902, Albert Einstein wrote to Mileva Marić: “I was truly panicked when I received that letter from your father because I suspected there might be some trouble here.” At the time Mileva gave birth to their first daughter in her homeland of Serbia, he was far away in Switzerland.
“Is the baby healthy? How was her first cry? Whom will those little eyes resemble, you or me?” These were the repeated questions of the great physicist, and in the final lines of his letters, he wrote: “Though I have never seen her, I love her very much.”
Mileva and Albert Einstein with their firstborn son – Hans.
In his handwritten letters, he also pleaded with his lover for a picture of their daughter: “Could you draw me a picture of her when you are feeling better?… She must have cried, but she will need to learn to smile more.”
When Mileva and Einstein moved to the capital, Bern, Switzerland to marry in January 1903, she did not bring Lieserl along. The child seemed to have vanished from this world without a trace. In fact, there are no letters mentioning the name Lieserl after 1903.
The Searches
When scholars learned that Albert Einstein had a daughter named Lieserl Einstein, they began to search for information about the child. However, there was no documentation proving Lieserl’s existence, including birth certificates, medical records, or even death certificates.
Even the name “Lieserl” may not have been her real name, as Albert and Mileva’s letters mention two names: “Lieserl” and “Hanserl,” which are considered to represent daughter and son in German.
Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein in 1912, two years before their separation.
As the mystery remained unsolved, historians attempted to piece together clues about Lieserl’s life as follows:
When Lieserl was born, Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić were not yet married. Being the only woman in her class, her pregnancy interrupted her studies and forced her to drop out.
Additionally, both faced difficulties from their families. “When she is 30, that woman will be an old lady”, Einstein’s mother once disapproved of her son marrying a woman three years older. Despite family skepticism, he chose to marry Mileva, but she had to leave their daughter behind for her family to raise.
Einstein’s decision to hide his daughter is believed to be because he was working at a Swiss patent office at the time, and having an illegitimate daughter could jeopardize his job.
The last time Lieserl was mentioned in her parents’ letters was in September 1903: “I am very sad about the misfortune that has befallen our daughter Lieserl. The rash illness could lead to long-term complications.”
From these lines, it is clear that Lieserl had a rash illness at around 21 months old. However, the words in the letter imply that the girl survived: “I wish this difficult time would pass quickly. Under what name will the child be registered? We must be cautious about potential troubles that may arise for her later.”
The scarce clues led scholars to propose two theories: either Lieserl died from illness as a child, or the Einsteins put her up for adoption.
What Happened to Lieserl Einstein?
After many years of searching for clues, in 1999, author Michele Zackheim published a book titled: “Einstein’s Daughter: The Search for Lieserl”, in which she presented her hypothesis.
The book “Einstein’s Daughter: The Search for Lieserl”.
According to Zackheim, Lieserl was born with unspecified disabilities, which is why Mileva Marić left Lieserl with her family when she went to Bern to marry Einstein, even though Lieserl passed away before reaching her second birthday. It is possible that Einstein never met his daughter, as he made no mention of her after 1903.
Mileva Marić with her two sons, Hans Albert and Eduard.
Another hypothesis suggests that Einstein concealed his daughter’s existence from his family. However, this theory contradicts the letters his mother wrote a few weeks after Lieserl’s birth: “This Mileva is making me go through the most exhausting moments of my life; if I could, I would want her to disappear from my sight; I truly do not like her at all.”
In 1904, Mileva became pregnant again, and in response to his wife’s anxious attitude, the physicist said: “My dear wife, I have no anger at all upon learning that we have another child. In fact, I am very pleased about it; will we have another lovely daughter?”
Just a few months after the name Lieserl “disappeared” from the letters, Einstein was contemplating a “new Lieserl.” So, what happened to Lieserl Einstein? To this day, the existence of this daughter remains an unsolved mystery.
