ELSA EINSTEIN: The Untold Story OF AN ICON

Elsa Einstein

In addition to being Albert Einstein’s second wife, Elsa Einstein was also his first cousin through their respective mothers. After marrying her first husband, Max Lowenthal, in 1896, Elsa, who had been born with the surname Einstein, was no longer able to use it.

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Nevertheless, Elsa Einstein was able to regain it once she married Albert Einstein in the year 1919. Elsa, whose father was a textile manufacturer, formed a cordial relationship with Albert during their childhood. She, on the other hand, began to develop romantic feelings for him while he was still married to his first wife. In the aftermath of his divorce and their eventual union, Elsa became a steadfast and supportive partner to the physicist. She not only managed his profession and day-to-day life, but she also nursed him while he was in poor health.

Despite the fact that he had cheated on Elsa Einstein on multiple occasions, she opted to remain with him since she was a selfless wife who acknowledged his shortcomings. During the emergence of the Nazi party in Germany, the couple fled the country and relocated to the United States. Elsa passed away in the year 1936.

Elsa Einstein’s Infancy and Childhood

On the 18th of January in the year 1876, Elsa Einstein was born. She was a cousin of Albert Einstein on both of his parents’ sides. Her father, Rudolf Einstein, was a cousin of Hermann Einstein, Einstein’s father, and her mother, Fanny, was a sister of Pauline Einstein, Einstein’s mother.

In the small town of Hechingen, which is located in the southwestern region of Germany, Rudolf worked as a textile producer. He had a good deal of wealth. On multiple occasions, he assisted Hermann Einstein, Einstein’s father, in his economic endeavors.

Elsa possessed two siblings, Paula and Hermine. During the holidays and various vacations, Elsa’s family would travel to Munich to pay Einstein a visit at their residence. Elsa was three years older to Einstein, and they shared a companionship during their formative years. During the musical soirées, they frequently performed in unison.

Marriages

Elsa Einstein was a typical German girl with blue eyes and fair skin who took pleasure in living her life. In the year 1896, when she was twenty years old, she tied the knot with Max Lowenthal, a textile trader who had his business in Hechingen. With no airs of a scholar, she tied the knot with Max Lowenthal, a textile merchant from Hechingen, in 1896 when she was just twenty. During her time in Hechingen, Elsa resided with Lowenthal. In the end, she divorced him in the year 1908.

Almost immediately, she began cultivating a wide circle of acquaintances among the theatrical, literary, business, political, and even scientific groups, and in due time, she became a power in the elite circle of Berlin. Her vanity was a well-known trait in the community. Despite her bad eyesight, she declined to wear glasses, and it was rumored that at a dinner gathering, she mistakenly consumed a floral arrangement, believing it to be a salad.

In 1912, while still working as a professor at Prague University, Albert Einstein made a journey to Berlin that was planned in advance. He was in possession of the offer of a professorship at ETH Zurich at the time. By that time, he had a few friends there, including Walther Nernst, Fritz Haber, and Emil Warburg, amongst others. While he was in Berlin, it was only natural for him to pay a visit to his uncle Rudolf. It was during this visit that he was able to reestablish himself with Elsa.

Elsa was thirty-six years old at the time, had been divorced for four years, and was potentially considering getting married again. By that time, Einstein’s marriage had already fallen into disarray. Mileva’s sadness, gloominess, and continuous complaints caused her to become utterly estranged from Einstein. Einstein was looking for someone to love, and it was only natural that the two of them would be drawn to each other.

Over the course of his life, Albert Einstein was a womanizer. He was drawn to women, and the attraction was typically reciprocal. During his time in Berlin, he flirted not only with Elsa but also with Paula, who was her sister. On the other hand, he quickly became fixated on Elsa. Later on, he admitted his guilt to Elsa, stating that he had a difficult time comprehending how he could have developed feelings for Paula. On the other hand, it was not difficult at all because she was a young girl who was content with her situation.

He likely recognized that he had outgrown passionate romance and sought a comforting, nurturing love reminiscent of maternal affection, which he could not receive from Paula, but rather from Elsa Einstein. An excursion to the densely wooded region surrounding Wannsee Lake was taken by the two cousins. The trip to Lake Wannsee served to strengthen their relationship. Both of them, however, were conscious of the dangerous circumstances in which they found themselves. Given that Elsa Einstein was residing with her parents, it would be imprudent for Einstein to correspond with her, as his letters could potentially be intercepted.

Elsa came up with a covert method to covertly receive letters from Einstein, and she notified him of her plan as soon as he returned to Prague. In addition to that, she requested that Einstein destroy all of her letters, which he did. On the other hand, she personally preserved his letters. Einstein was pleased to discover that he could converse with Elsa Einstein.

Although Einstein’s divorce decree from his former marriage prohibited him from remarrying within two years, he did not wait long (since the decree was not effective in Germany) and married Elsa three and a half months later, on June 2, 1919. However, before his marriage to Elsa, there was a little bit of turbulence. It appears that Einstein was also pursuing Ilse, as evidenced by a letter written by Ilse Einstein, who is Elsa’s daughter. Now that he was free to remarry, the question of who he should marry emerged.

As it turned out, Einstein wed Elsa in June of 1919, and Ilse ended up being close to both of them throughout their lives. The second daughter of Elsa, Margot, had an interest in sculpting. As a result of her extreme shyness, she would occasionally conceal herself beneath the table if her father’s company visited.

In the year 1921, the couple went to the United States of America in order to contribute to the fundraising efforts for a particular cause. Elsa Einstein, a devoted and selfless wife, meticulously attended to Albert’s needs despite his shortcomings as a husband. She was able to bring him back to health in 1917 when he was suffering from a terrible illness. Elsa Einstein’s love for Albert was one that was devoid of any expectations. She embraced him without reservation, even after he admitted to her that he had been having extramarital affairs.

While he was still married to Elsa, he had affairs with a number of women, including Margarete, Margarita, Estella, Ethel, and Toni, among others. It is not known why Elsa Einstein remained faithful to Albert Einstein even as he was contemplating ending their engagement in order to propose marriage to Ilse, Elsa’s daughter. Ilse, on the other hand, did not accept his proposal because she regarded him as a “father figure” to her. After Albert Einstein’s passing, his personal letters were obtained from Princeton University, which led to the dissemination of this information to the general public.

Later Years

In 1933, Albert and Elsa Einstein made the journey to Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States of America. In the fall of 1935, they relocated to a house located at 112 Mercer Street, which they had purchased in August of the same year. However, not long after that, Elsa experienced an eye swelling and was diagnosed with heart and renal problems. Following the diagnosis of Elsa, Einstein made the decision to devote a significant portion of his time to his studies.

Elsa Einstein passed away on December 20, 1936, in the residence on Mercer Street, following a long and excruciating illness. In the book Einstein: His Life and Universe written by Walter Isaacson, it was claimed that Einstein felt that the reconciling, strengthening, and persistently strict angels that would take him through all of life’s difficulties were the arduous intellectual effort and looking into the nature of God. As a result, Einstein attempted to get away from his problems by concentrating on tasks that would divert his attention away from Elsa’s passing.