Einstein's Equal: The Genius of Mileva Marić

Episode Overview

In this episode of Math, Science, History, host Gabrielle dives deep into the extraordinary—yet often overlooked—life and legacy of Mileva Marić, Albert Einstein’s first wife and intellectual companion. Far more than a footnote in Einstein’s story, Mileva was a brilliant physicist and mathematician in her own right. Together, the couple studied, collaborated, and may have laid the foundation for some of the most revolutionary scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century.

Gabrielle uncovers newly re-examined letters, analyzes quotes from Einstein’s professors and contemporaries, and presents biographical findings that shed light on Marić’s intellectual contributions to Einstein’s early work—especially during the years leading up to his famous 1905 Annus Mirabilis.

3 Things You'll Learn in This Episode:

How Mileva Marić helped shape Einstein’s early scientific thinking—and what letters and biographies reveal about their collaboration.

What Einstein’s professors and colleagues really thought about his student days—and why Minkowski called him a “lazybones.”

Why historians now believe Mileva Marić’s role in Einstein’s 1905 papers may have been more significant than previously acknowledged.

Resources Mentioned:

The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein – Vol. 1: The Early Years, 1879–1902

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome to Math Science History. Today, I'm going to be talking about the woman who inspired Albert
Einstein so much that he might have even published some of her ideas under his name.
Hi, I'm Gabrielle Birchak. I have a background in math, science, and journalism, and by the time
you're done listening to today's podcast, you're going to know so much more about Einstein's first

(00:25):
wife, Mileva Maric. In the year 415, the infamous philosopher and mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria,
Egypt, was savagely murdered by church monks. This murder shocked the Roman community and its

(00:47):
government leaders. Hypatia was known far and wide as a respected philosopher, mathematician,
government advisor, and a professor. Hypatia, the sum of her life, is a book that I wrote that looks
not just at the circumstances surrounding her death, but also at the sum of her entire life.
I weave in the details of her education, disciples, Neoplatonic philosophies, female contemporaries,

(01:13):
and the many mathematics that she wrote and taught about. There is truly more to Hypatia's life
than her death. Hypatia, the sum of her life, written by me, Gabrielle Birchak, is now on sale
on Amazon. Buy your copy today. Today, we step into the quiet brilliance of an untold woman

(01:38):
whose heartbreak might be known in science circles. Her name you may have only heard in passing,
Mileva Maric, Einstein's first wife. But Mileva was more than a footnote in Einstein's biography.
She was a physicist, a mathematician, a mother, and possibly, just possibly, a contributor to the most
famous scientific papers of the 20th century. Let's turn the archival pages of physics,

(02:05):
peel back the silence, and rediscover the brilliant Mileva Maric. Mileva was born in 1875
in Tito, Serbia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From a young age, it was clear that she
was gifted. Her parents were forward-thinking and believed in the power of education for women.
As a result, she was encouraged to pursue her passion for physics and math. This was an unusual

(02:29):
path for a girl at the time, especially in Eastern Europe. She enrolled in the Royal Serbian High
School for Girls, where she excelled in science. Recognizing her talent, her father sought
permission for her to attend an all-boys school so she could continue her studies in mathematics
and physics. And she didn't just attend the school, she thrived there. Eventually, Mileva became one of

(02:52):
the first women to attend the prestigious Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich, now known as ETH
Zurich, where she would meet the young, somewhat brash student named Albert Einstein. Imagine this,
it's 1896, Zurich is buzzing with intellectual energy, and within the walls of the polytechnic,

(03:13):
two students strike up a friendship over a shared love of physics. Albert and Mileva sat in the
same lectures, studied under the same professors, and passed notes filled with equations rather
than flirtations. They were academic equals. Some of their correspondence reveals a dynamic that was
not just romantic, but intensely intellectual. For a time, it seemed like they were destined to take

(03:39):
on the world together, partners in both love and science. But things, as they often do, grew more
complicated. No doubt they were on par with each other. Mileva excelled in her subjects and scored
high grades. Albert and Mileva also had the same thesis advisor, Heinrich Friedrich Weber. Ironically,
both Mileva and Albert did not like Weber. Albert even went so far as to tell him that to his face,

(04:04):
which made Mileva an accomplice to the vitriol. As a result, when it came for their finals,
both Mileva and Albert scored the lowest essay grades in the class, with Albert receiving a 4.5
and Mileva receiving a 4.0. Regardless, their final grades were very different. Though they both
scored well in all the subjects, Mileva did not do so well in the theory of functions. In that

(04:28):
assessment, she scored a 2.5. As a result, her final average grade was a 4.0 and Albert's was a 4.9.
Mileva's grade was the lowest in the class and she did not receive her degree. Regardless, she was
still determined to go back and retake it a year later, which she did. However, she was three months
pregnant and scored even worse the second time around. Possibly, it was the pregnancy brain that

(04:54):
affected her grades. Possibly, it was the stress of hiding her pregnancy because she was an unmarried
woman and possibly it was because she was a woman and under greater scrutiny. There are accounts
suggesting her male professors were less than enthusiastic about her presence in the program
and it's difficult not to wonder whether gender bias played a role in her academic setback.

(05:18):
As Albert's star began to rise, Mileva's dreams began to dim. She was the only woman in her physics
cohort at the Polytechnic and despite her abilities, she faced intense scrutiny. In 1901, Mileva gave
birth to Albert's first child, a daughter named Lieserl, who was either given up for adoption

(05:39):
or died in infancy from scarlet fever around 1903. There is speculation that their daughter
was adopted by Mileva's dear friend Helene Savic. Helene also had a child named Zorka, which derives
from the Russian word zvezda, which means star. Zorka, born blind, died while young in the 1890s.

(06:00):
It was believed that possibly Zorka was actually Lieserl. However, the timeline doesn't match up.
Furthermore, Halin's grandson denied the rumor that Zorka was Lieserl. After marrying in 1903,
they settled in Bern, Switzerland, where Albert formed an informal study group with friends
nicknamed the Academia Olympia, also known as the Olympia Academy. This group, which included

(06:25):
Conrad Habicht, Maurice Solovine, Michele Besso, and others, met regularly at Einstein's apartment
to read and discuss scientific and philosophical works. Mileva was very much part of this intellectual
milieu. She attended most meetings of the Olympia Academy, listening intently and even taking detailed

(06:46):
notes, though she never intervened in the discussions according to Maurice Solowin,
who is a member of the Academy. Her presence in these sessions indicates that science was a shared
passion in their marriage. Historians note that there was no doubt that the Academy played a
significant role in both of their intellectual developments, and this led up to Einstein's

(07:08):
miraculous year of 1905. They also noted that Mileva was immersed in all of Einstein's activities
and also underwent a similar intellectual development during this period. As noted by the
science historian Estelle Asmodelle, in addition to the group meetings, accounts suggest that during
quiet evenings alone, Mileva regularly worked, mostly in the evenings and during the nights, at

(07:33):
the same table with Einstein, quietly, modestly, and never in public view on scientific problems.
This collaborative domestic routine, combined with the joint study sessions, set the stage
for Mileva's possible contributions to Einstein's early research. By 1903, Albert and Mileva married.
Their first son, Hans Albert, was born the following year. Their second son, Eduard, was born in 1910,

(07:59):
but in those early years, the couple lived in modest circumstances. Albert was working in the
Swiss patent office in Bern, and they struggled to make ends meet. And yet, this was the period
during which Einstein produced what would later be called his Annus Mirabilis Papers in 1905.
Annus Mirabilis means miraculous year. Four groundbreaking papers, including the one on

(08:24):
special relativity, that forever altered our understanding of physics. The question that still
haunts historians is, was Mileva involved? Well, Mileva was herself a talented physics student,
the only woman in her class at Zurich Polytechnic, and had a particular strength in mathematics.

(08:44):
In fact, her biographers argue she may have been even more mathematically gifted than Albert.
During their student years, Albert clearly regarded Mileva as an intellectual peer.
In one love letter, he called her, quote, a creature who is my equal, unquote, highlighting the deep
intellectual bond between them. The two studied together extensively and even coordinated their

(09:09):
diploma thesis in 1900. A letter from Mileva's friend, Helene Kauffler, from that time reported
that Miss Maric and Mr. Einstein have now completed their written works. They planned
them together, but Mr. Einstein left the most beautiful part to Miss Marich. This suggests
that even in their student projects, they collaborated closely, with Mileva taking on

(09:33):
significant portions of the work. Crucially, Albert's own correspondence hints at joint
research. In a March 27th, 1901 letter, Albert, then still a student, wrote to Mileva about,
quote, how happy and proud I will be when the two of us together will have brought our work
on relative motion to a victorious conclusion. He used the plural, our, in describing their research,

(09:58):
a striking choice that many interpret as evidence of genuine collaboration on early ideas related
to what would become the theory of relativity. In other letters from this period, Albert likewise
shifts between my and our when discussing scientific investigations. For example, he told
Mileva that Professor Weber was pleased with, quote, my investigations, but that, quote, I gave

(10:22):
him our paper, unquote, and he spoke of, quote, our investigation, unquote, into molecular forces.
Such language suggests Mileva's involvement in developing these ideas.
We'll be right back after a quick word from my advertisers. While some historians have cautioned
that Albert's use of the word our might have been a romantic flourish, other historians,

(10:48):
like Asmodelle, note that there is, quote, no evidence elsewhere that the soon-to-be world-famous
physicist would mix up his ideas with other people's, unquote. Asmodelle implies that the most
natural conclusion is that he was referring to several ideas. Some were his, others were theirs.
In short, the surviving letters strongly hint that Mileva acted as Albert's research partner

(11:14):
during their years together in Zurich and the early Bern period. So there are some testimonies
of peers and family that I will go into. Several contemporaries and later witnesses also spoke to
Mileva's role in Albert's early work. Perhaps the most famous anecdote from their circle comes from
the Zurich school, Zurich ETH itself. It has been described as common knowledge that Albert once

(11:41):
admitted, quote, my wife solves all my mathematical problems, unquote. This striking quote, if accurate,
underscores Mileva's mathematical prowess and direct assistance in Albert's calculations.
While the remark is anecdotal, it aligns with other observations at the time.
Albert's mathematic professor, Hermann Minkowski, was astonished at his former student's later

(12:04):
success in theoretical physics, reportedly saying to physicist Max Born, quote, this was a big
surprise to me because Einstein was quite a lazybones and wasn't at all interested in
mathematics, unquote. So given Albert's known disdain for rigorous math during his university days,
Minkowski's surprise hints that someone else might have helped fill the mathematical gaps, Mileva

(12:30):
being the obvious candidate. Another colleague from Zurich, Marcel Grossman, would later help
Albert with advanced math for general relativity. But in the 1900 through the 1905 period, Mileva
was Albert's closest confidant and likely mathematical sounding board. Friends of the
young couple also noted Mileva's behind-the-scenes role, noting that some of Mileva's and Albert's

(12:53):
classmates felt that Albert exploited her too much during their student years. This suggested
that Mileva was informally tutoring or assisting Albert with his work as far back as 1899 and
through 1901. Years later, Mileva's own brother recalled that during the marriage, the two
scientists frequently discussed physics late into the night at Albert's desk. These personal

(13:17):
testimonies paint a picture of a partnership where scientific ideas were constantly exchanged,
debated, and developed jointly within the marriage. There are also accounts from Serbian colleagues
and family friends. For example, Draginja Bogdanović, a mathematician in Belgrade, who knew Mileva
affirmed that she, quote, helped her husband a great deal, especially with the mathematical

(13:40):
foundation of his theory, unquote. Though Mileva herself was modest and always avoided talking
about it. And this aligns with Mileva's self-effacing character. She was passionate about
science but shunned the spotlight. In one telling incident, Mileva collaborated with Albert and
Conrad Habicht in 1907 on designing a device to measure tiny electric charges. She and Habicht

(14:04):
built the apparatus and then Albert, working at the Swiss patent office, wrote up the description
for the publication. The resulting paper, titled A New Electrostatic Method for Measuring Small
Amounts of Electricity, was published under Albert's name alone. And the patent filed for
the device listed only Albert and Habicht. This omitted Mileva. When one of the Habicht brothers

(14:30):
asked Mileva why she hadn't put her own name on the patent, she replied,
What for? We are both only one stone, which means they were both Einsteins. Her response,
equating their unity to a single name on the work, suggests that Mileva herself acquiesced
to remaining invisible, considering their contributions as a single unit. However,

(14:52):
as a result, Mileva's authorship was given to her husband, possibly without her knowledge.
The patent story is a microcosm of how Mileva's contributions could vanish into Albert's name,
a pattern which is not uncommon for women in science at the time.
As a side note, I referenced this in a previous podcast about Eunice Foote,

(15:14):
who also had written a handful of patents that she had to publish under her husband's name.
It was only after a conversation with Elizabeth Stanton, one of the women who headed up the
movement, that Foote began to publish patents in her own name. So, the invisibility of a woman's
brilliance was very common at this time, and also very unfortunate. The question of Mileva's

(15:38):
contribution becomes especially poignant for Albert's 1905 papers, The Extraordinary Quartet
on 1. Brownian Motion, 2. The Photoelectric Effect, 3. Special Relativity, 4. The Work
on the Equation, 5. E equals mc squared, and, in addition to all of that, his PhD dissertation,

(16:01):
all completed during their early years in Bern. A Serbian physicist by the name of
Disanka Trebihovic-Djuric authored Mileva's first biography, and she makes a strong case
that Mileva was deeply involved in these breakthroughs. The book In the Shadow of
Albert Einstein, written by Trbuhović-Gjurić , asserted that Mileva was, in fact, even more

(16:26):
gifted than Einstein in mathematics, and that the 1905 relativity paper, quote,
unfairly omitted one of its co-authors, unquote, referring to Mileva herself. Trbuhović-Gjurić gathered
numerous recollections to support this. Notably, she cites the famed Russian physicist Abraham
Jaffe, who, as an assistant to the editor Wilhelm Röntgen, reportedly saw the original manuscripts

(16:51):
of the 1905 papers. Jaffe wrote that the author of the relativity paper was Einstein Marity,
Marity being Mileva's maiden name Maric in Hungarian. According to Trebihovic-Djuric,
the original manuscripts for these 1905 papers were signed Einstein Meric. This remarkable claim

(17:13):
implies that Mileva's name initially appeared alongside Albert's. Historians have debated
Joffe's testimony. Some suggest he was referring to Albert's married surname convention, not a true
co-authorship, but it remains a tantalizing piece of evidence that Mileva's hand was in the early
drafts. Mileva's own words from 1905 also suggest collaborative work on these path-breaking papers.

(17:39):
During a visit to her family in Serbia, with Albert in tow, Mileva confided to her father,
saying, quote, a short while ago, we finished a very important work which will make my husband
world famous, unquote. The timing and context strongly indicate this important work was one

(17:59):
of Albert's 1905 papers, like the special relativity paper completed that summer. Her
phrasing, we finished, again points to a joint effort. Indeed, another historian by the name of
Senta Troemel-Ploetz notes that of the five papers Albert published in 1905, including his dissertation,
two of them were written in Zurich during their student days, and the other three were written

(18:24):
in Bern while Albert Einstein was at the patent office and were written together with his wife.
In other words, all of Albert's 1905 works coincided with the period of his closest
partnership with Mileva. Trbuhović-Gjurić goes further in her analysis of the special
relativity papers style and execution. She marvels at its mathematical elegance and simplicity,

(18:50):
writing, quote, it's so pure, so unbelievably simple and elegant in its mathematical formulation.
Of all the revolutionary progress physics has made in the century,
this work is the greatest achievement. One cannot but be proud that our great Serbian
Mileva Einstein Maric participated in the discovery and helped edit these papers. Her

(19:14):
intellect lives in those lines. Trbuhović-Gjurić argued that the clear, minimalist mathematical
style of Albert's 1905 relativity paper almost beyond a doubt reflects Mileva's own approach to
math and life. In the historian's account, Mileva did not necessarily originate the key physical
ideas, saying she was not the co-creator of his ideas. No one else could have been, but she did

(19:41):
examine all his ideas, then discussed them with him and gave mathematical expression to his ideas
about the extension of Planck's quantum theory and about the special theory of relativity, unquote.
In other words, Mileva acted as a sort of collaborator and sounding board who tightened
the theoretical work with her mathematical insight. Trbuhović-Gjurić also describes Mileva as the

(20:07):
first critical reader of Albert's manuscripts. According to her biography, when Albert finished
writing the special relativity paper in 1905, Mileva was the one to review it and recognize
its significance, telling him, quote, this is a great, very great and beautiful work, after which
Albert submitted it to the journal Annals of Physics. We'll be right back after a quick word

(20:32):
from my advertisers. All of these points underscore the view, particularly held by
Serbian scholars and echoed by Troemel-Ploetz that Mileva Maric was an unacknowledged co-author
in all but name. Despite these numerous indications of Mileva's involvement, it is important to note

(20:54):
that Mileva never claimed public credit for Albert's work during her lifetime. All the 1905
papers and others from that era were published under Albert's name alone. After 1905, Albert's
career soared. He obtained academic positions and by 1914 moved to Berlin, while Mileva, occupied

(21:15):
with raising their two sons, saw her scientific ambitions sidelined. The couple's relationship
rapidly deteriorated. In later years, Albert made a comment that offers a poignant coda to their
scientific partnership. He quipped, I'm glad my second wife doesn't understand anything about
science because my first wife did. This remark, half joking and half serious, implies that Mileva's

(21:42):
deep engagement with his scientific life was something he consciously avoided in his subsequent
marriage. It inadvertently acknowledges that Mileva did understand science deeply enough to be
involved in his work to a degree that perhaps caused friction as Albert's fame grew. The historian
Tromo Ploetz, in her 1990 analysis of the Einstein marriage collaboration, situates this story in the

(22:08):
broader context of women's hidden contributions in science. She observes that, quote, we see in the
two life stories the familiar patterns that lead to the construction of success for men and the
deconstruction of success for women, unquote. Albert became the celebrated genius while Mileva's
scientific role faded into obscurity, a fate common for talented women of that era. Senta Troemel-Ploetz

(22:34):
argues that if not for biases and what she calls, quote, the cultural imperialism of the United
States academic establishment, more people would know what is taken as fact in Mileva's native
country, that Mileva Einstein marriage was the scientific collaborator of her husband. Even the

(22:55):
editors of the collected papers of Albert Einstein briefly acknowledge this. They wrote that
her personal and intellectual relationships with young Einstein played an important role in his
development. This is a description that the historian Tromo Ploetz finds woefully understated
given the evidence of collaboration. Needless to say, as Albert's fame grew, so did the strain on

(23:21):
their marriage. By the 1910s, Albert had moved to Berlin and Mileva remained in Zurich with the
children. The separation turned emotional and then deeply painful. Eventually, Albert sent Mileva a
list of conditions she would need to meet if they were to continue living together. These conditions
included that his clothes and laundry are to be kept in good order, that he received three meals

(23:46):
a day in his room, that his bedroom and study are to be cleaned but she had to leave his desk alone,
that he can come and go when he wants but she won't be able to join him, and that she not expect
any intimacy from him or make the moves on him. My goodness, what a jerk.

(24:09):
This reads less like a letter to a partner and more like a contract from an employer.
Mileva refused and I don't blame her. This was one of many reasons why their marriage declined.
They separated in 1914 and the marriage officially ended in divorce in 1919. As part of the settlement,

(24:30):
Albert agreed to give Mileva the money from any future Nobel Prize he might win. It was an
interesting settlement wherein Mileva and Albert decided to put the money in a trust to take care
only of their two boys. Mileva was only allowed to draw on the interest of the money.
Unfortunately, she could not draw on the capital unless she had Albert's permission. Still, the

(24:52):
interest was a great deal of money. She took that and purchased three apartment buildings in Zurich.
Mileva lived in one of the buildings which was a five-story house in Hüttenstrasse. She developed
the two other buildings into apartments from which she utilized as income. In the year 1930, their
son Eduard was diagnosed with schizophrenia. And this was at a time when such a diagnosis was

(25:16):
considered a shameful mental illness. It came with stigma and was often concealed. Even today,
schizophrenia comes with negative stereotypes and discrimination. And it's amazing how in the
circles that understand schizophrenia, there are so many individuals who struggle with it,
yet it is perfectly manageable and they are able to cognitively and healthfully survive in the world.

(25:39):
And I'm going to do a little digression here, but as a side note, there is a podcast by Rachel
Star Withers that I absolutely love to listen to called Inside Schizophrenia. She pulls back the
veil and she shows the world how we can normalize the diagnosis of schizophrenia. And it's not a
diagnosis to be afraid of. Additionally, I truly believe that the diagnosis of schizophrenia should

(26:02):
be normalized because truthfully, we're all dealing with something inside of our head.
Heck, I struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder. We all have something inside of our
head that makes us unique and amazing just the way we are. And so if you have a loved one with
schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, give them a hug and compliment them on how well they are doing

(26:24):
with their lives. The truth is none of us live normal lives. And now my digression is over.
Back to the year 1930. Eduard was diagnosed with schizophrenia. This was during a time when
doctors did not know how to effectively treat this condition. As a result, the cost of Eduard's

(26:44):
care was extensive. Mileva could not afford it. And so she had to sell the two homes that brought
her income and ended up transferring the ownership of the third house to Albert so that she would
not lose it. Mileva still maintained a power of attorney over the house. Mileva spent her later
years in Zurich, where she gave private tutoring lessons to make ends meet. She never returned to

(27:08):
academic life. Her son Eduard remained in her care for as long as she was physically able.
On August 4, 1948, Mileva suffered a severe stroke and passed away. Today, she has become a symbol,
a reminder of how many women in science never received credit, not for lack of brilliance,
but because they were born in the wrong era. Schools and buildings across Serbia have been

(27:33):
named in her honor, and rightly so. A crater on Venus bears her name. And yet the debate continues.
What exactly did she contribute? The truth may be hidden in letters, in lost drafts, in conversations
that were never recorded. But whether she co-authored Albert's theories or not, there is no
question, Mileva was a gifted physicist. Her life, full of promise, brilliance, hardship, and resilience,

(28:01):
deserves to be remembered in its own right. There's something about Mileva's story that sticks
with me. Maybe it's the way she was sidelined by a system not built for her. Maybe it's the love
letters turned cold contracts. Maybe it's the quiet care she gave to her two sons, long after
the world had turned its attention elsewhere. But perhaps the greatest injustice is not whether her

(28:25):
name was left off a paper. It's that we're still asking, over a century later, whether she deserved
to be remembered. That stated, I ask myself, who might Mileva Maric have become if she had the
same freedom and recognition as her male counterparts? My work on this podcast shows me

(28:46):
time and time again that the history of science isn't made up of discoveries. It's made up of
people. Some of them are remembered and some are completely forgotten. But all are worth rediscovering.
Thank you for joining me on this episode of Math Science History. And until next time, carpe diem.