In this three-part book David C. Cassidy and I have examined the story of Mileva Einstein-Marić from different perspectives. In part I, Cassidy introduced Marić and the story of her relationship with Einstein as revealed in a narrative he based on old and new documentary evidence. In part III, I provided a critical examination of the Mileva Story that has been disseminated widely over the past nearly three decades regarding her supposed scientific collaboration with Einstein before and during their marriage. This necessitated a thoroughgoing survey of relevant documents and the scholarly literature, together with the close reading of a variety of publications promoting the Mileva Story. Between these chapters, in part II, Ruth Lewin Sime contributed an insightful account of the broader struggle of women like Mileva Marić to enter scientific fields during the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century.
My critique undermines many of the claims that have been repeated in support of the Mileva Story. Cassidy's account constitutes, we believe, a more realistic and compelling portrait of this remarkable woman as she sought to overcome many obstacles in her determination to pursue a career in science. Tragically, as we have seen, for a variety of reasons she did not achieve her full potential as a scientist, or as a science teacher, nor did she realize her hopes and dreams in marriage and in life.
Hers is a story that is not often told. Yet, when closely examined, it provides important and valuable insights into the struggles of this determined woman then, and for some even nowadays, for status and recognition in science. On the other hand, it is ironic, as Gerald Holton (2000, 191) has pointed out, that the accounts exaggerating Marić's academic prowess and her purported role in Einstein's publications “only detract both from her real and significant place in history and from the tragic unfulfillment of her early promise. For she was one of the pioneers in the movement to bring women into science, even if she did not reap its benefits.”
The various published accounts have thus far been problematic because most authors have taken too much on trust from the earliest book on the subject of Mileva Marić, a biography by the Serbian academic Desanka Trbuhović-Gjurić, published in Yugoslavia in 1969, and later issued in more widely accessible German and French language editions in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1990 a lengthy article in English published by the linguist Senta Troemel-Ploetz summarizing the essence of Trbuhović-Gjurić's biography drew attention to her book. Whatever its shortcomings, Trbuhović-Gjurić's biography had the considerable merit of belatedly drawing attention to the existence of Einstein's first wife, who was previously given only a passing mention in biographies of the great physicist. Unfortunately, since the publication of Troemel-Ploetz's article, several book chapters about Marić have been published by authors who evidently made no effort to seek out reliable documentary material to check the numerous contentions made by Trbuhović-Gjurić and repeated by Troemel-Ploetz.
To gain an insight into Mileva Marić's place in history it is necessary to summarize her life story, as has been ably accomplished by Cassidy. Born at a time when women faced high hurdles for entering into higher education and careers in science, she had the added disadvantage of a congenital dislocated hip, which left her with a lifelong limp that was to be a cause of inner withdrawal during her early education. But, on the other hand, she had the advantage of a very supportive father who recognized her early gifts for language and simple calculations, and who encouraged her through to the end of her secondary schooling, where her academic achievements were generally good, though not outstanding. After that the most fateful event was her entry into the Zurich Polytechnic in 1896 at the same time as Albert Einstein. They both majored in physics and joined a small group studying for a teaching diploma (the other students in the class majored in mathematics). By the second year of their acquaintanceship, the letters exchanged between them during vacations reveal that she had struck up a burgeoning relationship with the scientifically ambitious young Einstein. During the second year of the four-year course, Einstein became dissatisfied with the material presented by the head physics professor, Heinrich Weber, as it failed to encompass up-to-date theoretical advances of which his extracurricular reading had led him to be aware. From then on, at Einstein's instigation, the couple studied books by eminent physicists together, and he enthusiastically communicated to Marić in his letters his ideas on a variety of physics topics. Unfortunately, evidence is lacking of any contributions that Marić may have made to these ideas at that time since Einstein did not save most of her letters. However, Einstein's own letters give no indication that in the discarded letters she had made any contributions to his theorizing. (As I have previously noted, in the two cases where we have her letters responding directly to Einstein's which contain passages about his latest ideas on his extra-curricular researches, Marić made no response to these and wrote only of personal matters [E-M, 10–11, 12–13, 47–48, 48].)
Marić's career ambitions were set back by her failing the final diploma examinations in 1900, largely due to her poor grade in the mathematics component (theory of functions), plus her mediocre, heavily weighted, grade for her diploma thesis. She failed again when she retook the exams the following year, at a time when she was some three months pregnant with Einstein's child and suffering considerable emotional distress because of the long periods when she was unable to see him. (He was either with his parents in Italy, or, later on, elsewhere in Switzerland where he had managed to obtain temporary teaching posts.) In addition, her attempt to complete a doctoral dissertation, based on extending her 1900 diploma thesis, was prematurely ended following disagreements with her physics adviser, Heinrich Weber. Einstein was eventually able to obtain a post at the Bern Patent Office in June 1902. Marić, soon to lose her out-of-wedlock infant daughter (to scarlet fever or possibly adoption), joined him in Bern in January 1903, in which month they were married in a ceremony at which none of their respective parents attended. Their married life began with Marić, although elated at her long-delayed union, still carrying the mental scars of her lost daughter and her academic failures. There soon followed the birth of their first son, Hans Albert, a source of joy for Marić. Although there is no hard evidence to this effect, it is very likely that she would have undertaken essential tasks to assist Einstein with his theoretical work, such as proofreading papers, checking out physics texts, and so on. However, she made no mention of any scientific assistance given to her husband when relating her current preoccupations in letters to her closest friend Helene Kaufler Savić. In addition to the practical help she likely gave Einstein in relation to his scientific work, during these earlier contented years together she provided a loving and stable home life that was absolutely essential for Einstein if he was to be able to immerse himself in his researches in addition to his full-time employment (albeit not too arduous), six days a week, at the patent office. To what extent Einstein discussed his ideas with her in the early years of their marriage is impossible to ascertain from the available evidence. Be that as it may, she certainly maintained a close interest in Einstein's scientific achievements that continued up to their separation in 1914 and beyond. What can be said with certainty is that her role was invaluable in providing the circumstances that were essential to enable the coming to fruition of the ideas that flowed abundantly from Einstein. Together with this crucial contribution, her determination to obtain a scientific education, almost unique for young women in that era, merits for her a permanent place in the history of physics in the early years of the twentieth century.