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The Daughter of Einstein?
by Jeanette Cain
Did Einstein have a daughter? The book Einstein's Daughter: The Search for Lieserl by a 58 year old Greenwich painter and writer, Michele Zackheim, believes she has enough proof to justify her claim.
When Einstein began dating a fellow physics student who was older, of a different religion and from the Balkan backwaters, his mother, Pauline Einstein, offered stern and parental advice. According to Zacheim, Pauline said, "If she gets a child, you'll be in a pretty mess." The rebellious and independent Einstein ignored the comment and continued romancing Mileva Maric.
It is suggested that nine months after one of Einstein's and Maric's romantic weekends, Maric gave birth to a girl. This secret birth had taken place at the home of Maric's parents in Serbia. It is said that neither Einstein, nor Maric ever spoke of this child, not even to their closest friends. The baby girl named "Lieserl" seemed to have vanished.
The public became aware of this illegitimate child 30 years after Einstein's death. It appeared in 1987 with the first volume of his collected papers. What happened to Lieserl, and why didn't her parents take her to Switzerland and allow her birth to become legitimate? Some say she lived in Serbia, or had been given up for adoption, but Zackheim provides her personal theories in this book. More embarrassing information came to light with the publication of 7 more volumes of these Einstein papers. It would seem that he had several flirtations, affairs and a testy divorce from Maric. It is suggested that he had an affair with his second wife before divorcing Maric. Einstein did not have a healthy, parental relationship with his two sons, and one was diagnosed with schizophrenic. But, perhaps, the strangest and oddest part of the Einstein legend is the unknown daughter, Lieserl.
Zackheim's book states the belief that the daughter was retarded, possibly having Downs syndrome. During that time, it was not considered worth educating such a child. She also states that the daughter had been taken to Maric's parents home in the Vojvodina region of rural Serbia. Zackheim believes that this is where Lieserl died before the age of two with scarlet fever. She believes the death occurred September 15, 1903 during a solar eclipse. The oddity would be that this type of celestial event of sun and moon would provide the first proof of Einstein's ideas concerning space and time.
Zackheim traveled for 5 years on grants and loans in search of Lieserl.
Works Cited
Golden, Frederick. Time Magazine: Einstein's Lost Child. Time: NY. p89.
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