Einstein’s Equal: The Genius of Mileva Marić
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS
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. By the time you are done listening to today’s podcast you are going to know so much about Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Marić.
Today, we step into the quiet brilliance and untold heartache of a woman whose name you may have only heard in passing: Mileva Marić, 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 twentieth century.
Let’s turn the archival pages of physics, peel back the silence, and rediscover the brilliant Mileva Marić.
Mileva was born in 1875 in Titel, 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 to her passion for physics and mathematics. This was an unusual 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. She thrived.
Eventually, Mileva became one of the first women to attend the prestigious Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich, now ETH Zurich, where she would meet the young, somewhat brash student named Albert Einstein.
It’s 1896. Zurich is buzzing with intellectual energy, and within the walls of the Polytechnic, 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 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, which made Mileva an accomplice to the vitriol. As a result, when it came time 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 far different. Though they both scored well in all the subjects, Mileva did not do so well in the theory of functions. In that 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 did not receive her PhD.[1] 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 affected her grades, possibly it was the stress of hiding her pregnancy because she was an unmarried woman, possibly it was because she was a woman and was 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.
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 child, a daughter named Lieserl, who was either given up for adoption or died in infancy around 1903 from Scarlet Fever. There is speculation that their daughter was adopted by Mileva’s dear friend Helene Savić. Helene also had a child name Zorka, which derives from the Russian word “Zvezda,” which means “star.” Zorka, born blind, died while young in the 1890’s. It was supposed that possibly Zorka was actually Lieserl, however the timeline doesn’t match up. Furthermore, Helene’s grandson, denied the rumor that Zorka was Lieserl.[2]
Einstein, Marić, and the “Academia Olympia”
After marrying in 1903, they settled in Bern, Switzerland, where Albert formed an informal study group with friends, nicknamed the Academia Olympia (Olympia Academy).[3] This group (which included Conrad Habicht, Maurice Solovine, Michele Besso, and others) met regularly at Albert’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 notes, though she “never intervened in our discussions,” according to Maurice Solovine, who was a member of Academia Olympia.[4] Her presence in these sessions indicates that science was a shared passion in their marriage. Historians note that “there is no doubt that Akademie Olympia played a significant role in [their] intellectual development” leading up to Albert’s miraculous year of 1905, and that Mileva “was immersed in all of Einstein’s activities and 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 the same table with Einstein, quietly, modestly and never in public view” on scientific problems.[5] This collaborative domestic routine, combined with the joint study sessions, set the stage for Mileva’s possible contributions to Albert’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. 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 Albert produced what would later be called his Annus Mirabilis papers in 1905. Four groundbreaking papers, including the one on special relativity, that forever altered our understanding of physics.
The question that still haunts historians is: Was Mileva involved?
Collaborative Studies and “Our Work” in Letters
Mileva was herself a talented physics student, the only woman in her class at the Zurich Polytechnic, and had a particular strength in mathematics.[6] 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 “a creature who is my equal”,[7] highlighting the deep intellectual bond between them. The two studied together extensively and even coordinated their diploma theses in 1900. A letter from Mileva’s friend Helene Kaufler from that time reported that “Miss Marić and Mr. Einstein have now completed their written works. They planned them together, but Mr. Einstein left the most beautiful part to Miss Marić.”[8] This suggests that even in their student projects, they collaborated closely, with Mileva taking on significant portions of the work.
Crucially, Albert’s own correspondence hints at joint research. In a March 27, 1901 letter, Albert, then still a student, wrote to Mileva about “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!”.[9] He used the plural “our” in describing their research, 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 “my investigations” but that “I gave him our paper,” and he spoke of “our investigation” into molecular forces. Such language suggests Mileva’s involvement in developing these ideas. While some historians have cautioned that Albert’s use of “our” might have been a romantic flourish, others note there is “no evidence elsewhere that the soon-to-be world famous physicist would mix up his ideas with other people’s”, implying 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 during their years together in Zurich and the early Bern period.
Testimonies of Peers and Family
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 Zürich’s ETH (Federal Polytechnic) itself: it has been described as “common knowledge” there that Albert once admitted “My wife solves all my mathematical problems.”[10] 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 mathematics professor, Hermann Minkowski was astonished at his former student’s later success in theoretical physics, reportedly saying to physicist Max Born: “This was a big surprise to me because Einstein was quite a lazybones and wasn’t at all interested in mathematics.”[11] 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 being the obvious candidate. Another colleague from Zurich, Marcel Grossmann, would later help Albert with advanced math for general relativity; but in the 1900 through 1905 period, Mileva was Albert’s closest confidante 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 classmates felt that Albert exploited her too much during their student years, suggesting that Mileva was informally tutoring or assisting Albert with his work as far back as 1899 through 1901. Years later, Mileva’s own brother and one of her sons with Albert recalled that during the marriage the two scientists frequently discussed physics late into the night at Albert’s desk.[12] These personal 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 “helped her husband a great deal, especially with the mathematical foundation of his theory,” though Mileva herself was modest and “always avoided talking about it.”[13] 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 built the apparatus, and then Albert (working at the Swiss Patent Office) wrote up the description for publication.[14] The resulting paper, “
A New Electrostatic Method For Measuring Small Amounts Of Electricity” (1907), was published under Albert’s name alone, and the patent filed for the device listed only Albert and Habicht (omitting Mileva). When one of the Habicht brothers asked Mileva why she hadn’t put her own name on the patent, she replied: “What for? We are both only one stone (Einstein).” 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, 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 not uncommon for women in science at the time.
As a side note I referenced this in a previous podcast about Eunice Foote, 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 suffragette 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 1905 “Annus Mirabilis” Papers and Mileva’s Influence
The question of Mileva’s contribution becomes especially poignant for Albert’s 1905 papers, the extraordinary quartet on Brownian motion, the photoelectric effect, special relativity (“On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”), the work on the equation E=mc², plus his PhD dissertation, all completed during their early years in Bern. Desanka Trbuhović-Gjurić, a Serbian physicist who authored Mileva’s first biography, makes a strong case that Mileva was deeply involved in these breakthroughs. In In the Shadow of Albert Einstein (original 1969, German ed. 1983), Trbuhović-Gjurić asserted that Mileva was in fact even more gifted than Einstein in mathematics and that the 1905 relativity paper “unfairly omitted one of its co-authors,” referring to Mileva herself. Trbuhović gathered numerous recollections to support this. Notably, she cites the famed Russian physicist Abram F. Joffe, who as an assistant to editor Wilhelm Röntgen reportedly saw the original manuscripts of the 1905 papers. In his later reminiscences, Joffe wrote that the author of the relativity paper was “Einstein-Marity”, Marity being Mileva’s maiden name (Marić) in Hungarian . According to Trbuhović-Gjurić, “the original manuscripts for these [1905] papers were signed Einstein-Marić.” This remarkable claim 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 pathbreaking papers. During a visit to her family in Serbia, with Albert in tow, Mileva confided to her father: “A short while ago we finished a very important work which will make my husband world-famous.”[15] The timing and context strongly indicate this “important work” was one of Albert’s 1905 papers (likely the special relativity paper completed that summer). Her phrasing “we finished” again points to joint effort. Indeed, 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 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 paper’s style and execution. She marvels at its mathematical elegance and simplicity, writing: “It’s so pure, so unbelievably simple and elegant in its mathematical formulation, of all the revolutionary progress physics has made in this century, this work is the greatest achievement… One cannot but be proud that our great Serbian Mileva Einstein-Marić participated in the discovery and helped edit [these papers]. Her intellect lives in those lines.” She 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 Trbuhović’s account, Mileva did not necessarily originate the key physical ideas, “she was not the co-creator of his ideas… no one else could have been”, but “she did 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.” In other words, Mileva acted as a sort of collaborator and sounding board who tightened the theoretical work with her mathematical insight. Trbuhović also describes Mileva as the 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 “this is a great, very great and beautiful work,” after which Albert submitted it to Annalen der Physik. All these points underscore the view, particularly held by Serbian scholars and echoed by Troemel-Ploetz, that Mileva Marić was an unacknowledged co-author in all but name.
Historical Outcome and Significance
Despite these numerous indications of Mileva’s involvement, it is important to note 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 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.”[16] This remark, half-joking and half-serious, implies that Mileva’s 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.
Senta Troemel-Ploetz, in her 1990 analysis of the Einstein-Marić collaboration, situates this story in the broader context of women’s hidden contributions in science. She observes that “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.” Albert became the celebrated genius, while Mileva’s scientific role faded into obscurity, a fate common for talented women of that era. Troemel-Ploetz argues that if not for biases and what she calls “the cultural imperialism of the U.S. academic establishment,” more people would know what is taken as fact in Mileva’s native country, that Mileva Einstein-Marić was the scientific collaborator of her husband. Even the editors of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein only briefly acknowledge this. They wrote that “her personal and intellectual relationships with the young Einstein played an important role in his development.” This is a description Troemel-Ploetz finds woefully understated given the evidence of collaboration.
The Decline of the Marriage
So, needless to say, as Albert’s fame grew, so did the strain on 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 included:
- That his “clothes and laundry are to be kept in good order.”
- That he receive 3 meals a day in my room.
- That his bedroom and study are to be cleaned, but to leave his desk alone.
- That he can come and go when he wants, and she won’t be allowed to join.
- That she not expect any intimacy from him, nor (ahem) make the moves on him.
It reads less like a letter to a partner and more like a contract from an employer. Mileva refused. I don’t blame her. What a jerk. 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, 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 of only 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 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 at Huttenstrasse. She developed the other two buildings into apartments from which she utilized as an income.
Sadly, in the year 1930, their son Eduard was diagnosed with schizophrenia. This was at a time when such a diagnosis was 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.
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 shows the world how we can normalize the diagnosis of schizophrenia. It’s not a diagnosis to be afraid of. Additionally, I truly believe that the diagnosis of schizophrenia should 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. Truth is, none of us live normal lives.
Sorry, I digressed.
So, back to the year 1930, Edward was diagnosed with schizophrenia. This was during a time when doctors did not know how to effectively treat this mental condition. As a result, the cost of Eduard’s 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 Power of Attorney over the house.
A Quiet Legacy
Mileva spent her later years in Zurich, where she gave private tutoring lessons to make ends meet. She never returned to 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 named in her honor. 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, deserves to be remembered in its own right.
Reflections
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 son, long after the world had turned its attention elsewhere.
But perhaps the greatest injustice is not whether her 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 Marić have become if she’d had the same freedom and recognition as her male counterparts? My work on this podcast shows me 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. All are worth rediscovering.
Thank you for joining me on this episode of Math, Science, History.
Until next time, carpe diem!
[1] Asmodelle, Estelle. “The Collaboration of Mileva Maric and Albert Einstein.” arXiv, November 14, 2023. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1503.08020.
[2] Einstein-Marić, Mileva. In Albert’s Shadow: The Life and Letters of Mileva Marić, Einstein’s First Wife. JHU Press, 2003, 11.
[3] Troemel-Ploetz, Senta. “Mileva Einstein-Marić: The Woman Who Did Einstein’s Mathematics.” Index on Censorship 19, no. 9 (October 1990): 33–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/03064229008534960.
[4] Asmodelle, Estelle. “The Collaboration of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein.” Asian Journal of Physics 24, no. 4 (2015).
[5] Asmodelle, Estelle. “The Collaboration of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein.” Asian Journal of Physics 24, no. 4 (2015).
[6] Carroll, Hannah. “Does Mileva Einstein-Marić Deserve Credit for Albert Einstein’s Discoveries?” Accessed April 14, 2025. https://www.lostwomenofscience.org/post/does-mileva-einstein-maric-deserve-credit-for-albert-einsteins-discoveries.
[7] Asmodelle, Estelle. “The Collaboration of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein.” Asian Journal of Physics 24, no. 4 (2015).
[8] Asmodelle, Estelle. “The Collaboration of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein.” Asian Journal of Physics 24, no. 4 (2015).
[9] Asmodelle, Estelle. “The Collaboration of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein.” Asian Journal of Physics 24, no. 4 (2015).
[10] Troemel-Ploetz, Senta. “Mileva Einstein-Marić: The Woman Who Did Einstein’s Mathematics.” Index on Censorship 19, no. 9 (October 1990): 33–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/03064229008534960.
[11] Weinstein, Galina. “Max Born, Albert Einstein and Hermann Minkowski’s Space-Time Formalism of Special Relativity.” arXiv, October 25, 2012. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1210.6929.
[12] Carroll, Hannah. “Does Mileva Einstein-Marić Deserve Credit for Albert Einstein’s Discoveries?” Accessed April 14, 2025. https://www.lostwomenofscience.org/post/does-mileva-einstein-maric-deserve-credit-for-albert-einsteins-discoveries.
[13] Troemel-Ploetz, Senta. “Mileva Einstein-Marić: The Woman Who Did Einstein’s Mathematics.” Index on Censorship 19, no. 9 (October 1990): 33–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/03064229008534960.
[14] Troemel-Ploetz, Senta. “Mileva Einstein-Marić: The Woman Who Did Einstein’s Mathematics.” Index on Censorship 19, no. 9 (October 1990): 33–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/03064229008534960.
[15] Troemel-Ploetz, Senta. “Mileva Einstein-Marić: The Woman Who Did Einstein’s Mathematics.” Index on Censorship 19, no. 9 (October 1990): 33–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/03064229008534960.
[16] Trbuhovic-Gjuric, Desanka. Im Schatten Albert Einsteins. Das Tragische Leben Der Mileva Einstein-Maric, 1988.