Einstein family
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UnclaimedA European Jewish family best known through the life and relatives of physicist Albert Einstein.
Last updated August 24, 2026
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Overview
The Einstein family is the extended family of the physicist Albert Einstein (1879–1955), a German-born Jewish scientist whose work and public life made the family name internationally recognizable. The family’s documented ancestry reaches back to Jakob Weil, described as Albert Einstein’s fourth-great-grandfather and born in the late seventeenth century. The wider family included merchants, engineers, academics, musicians and other professionals in German-speaking Central Europe, and its history reflects the mobility and upheavals experienced by many Jewish families between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Albert Einstein was the son of Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch. Hermann was born in Buchau, Württemberg, trained as a merchant and later became an entrepreneur in the electrical industry. With his brother Jakob, he established Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie. in Munich. The company manufactured electrical equipment and participated in lighting projects, but struggled against larger competitors. Its difficulties led the family to relocate operations and residences to northern Italy during the 1890s. Hermann later ran another electrical business in Milan, but his health deteriorated and he died there of heart failure in 1902. Pauline Einstein was born Pauline Koch in Cannstatt. She came from a Jewish family that had become prosperous through the grain trade. A cultivated and accomplished pianist, she encouraged music in the household and arranged violin instruction for Albert during his childhood. Albert’s younger sister, Maria, known as Maja, was born in Munich in 1881. Maja studied Romance languages and literature, completed a doctorate at the University of Bern in 1909, and married the Swiss philologist Paul Winteler. She later lived in Italy and emigrated to the United States in 1939 after Albert invited her to join him in Princeton. A stroke in 1946 left her bedridden; she died in Princeton in 1951. Albert’s first marriage, to mathematician Mileva Marić, produced three children. Their first child, Lieserl, was born before the couple married. Her existence became known publicly only after correspondence between her parents was discovered in 1986. The surviving letters indicate that Lieserl may have died in infancy or early childhood, possibly from scarlet fever, although her complete identity and fate remain unresolved. Albert and Marić later had sons Hans Albert and Eduard. Hans Albert became a civil engineer and professor, while Eduard studied medicine and experienced severe mental illness. Albert’s second wife was Elsa Einstein. Their relationship had an unusually close family connection: Elsa’s mother, Fanny Koch, was Pauline’s sister, while Elsa’s father descended from a branch of the Einstein family related to Albert’s paternal line. Albert and Elsa were therefore first cousins on their mothers’ side and second cousins on their fathers’ side. Elsa accompanied Albert during his years of increasing international prominence and during the family’s departure from Germany after the Nazi rise to power. The family’s history is therefore not a commercial brand history but a genealogical and biographical subject. Its significance derives from documented kinship, migration, education, business activity, Jewish identity, persecution and the extraordinary public legacy of Albert Einstein. The family continues through later generations, although the Wikipedia subject centers on the family relationships and historical biographies rather than on a unified organization or business.
History
The Einstein family’s recorded ancestry extends to Jakob Weil, identified as Albert Einstein’s fourth-great-grandfather and born in the late seventeenth century. The surname Einstein may derive from German place names associated with stone enclosures, from an Ashkenazi Jewish adaptation, or from an ornamental surname ending in “stein.” The family’s documented nineteenth-century history is rooted in Württemberg and other parts of German-speaking Europe. Hermann Einstein, Albert’s father, was born in Buchau in 1847 to Abraham Einstein and Helene Moos. Although he showed an interest in mathematics, family finances led him into commercial training rather than university study. He married Pauline Koch in Cannstatt in 1876. The couple first lived in Ulm, where Hermann became involved in a bedding-related business, before moving to Munich in 1880 at the initiative of Hermann’s brother Jakob. In Munich, Hermann and Jakob established an electrical-engineering enterprise. Hermann managed its commercial side while Jakob supplied technical expertise. The business manufactured electrical devices and worked on lighting installations in southern Germany and northern Italy. Competition from much larger companies contributed to its decline. In 1894, the factory was moved to Pavia, while Pauline, Hermann and their daughter Maria relocated through Milan and Pavia. Albert remained temporarily in Munich to continue his education. After the first company failed, Hermann established another electrical business in Milan, but the family’s financial position remained uncertain. Hermann died in Milan in 1902. Pauline was an educated and musically gifted woman from a Jewish family that had prospered in the grain trade. Her cultural interests influenced both children. She encouraged Albert’s violin playing and maintained an intellectually and artistically rich home environment. After Hermann’s death, she lived with relatives and moved among several German and Swiss locations. She suffered from cancer during the First World War and died in Berlin in 1920 after Albert brought her from a Swiss sanatorium to live with him and Elsa. Maria, or Maja, Einstein followed an academic path. She attended schools in Munich, Milan and Aarau, studied Romance languages and literature in several European cities, and received her doctorate from the University of Bern in 1909. Her marriage to Paul Winteler was childless. The couple lived in Switzerland and later near Florence. Following the introduction of antisemitic legislation in Fascist Italy, Albert arranged for Maja to move to the United States in 1939. Her husband could not enter the country because of ill health, and Maja spent her final years near Albert in Princeton. Albert’s own household became another major branch of the family. His first child, Lieserl, was born to Mileva Marić before their marriage. The child’s documentary record is incomplete, and later accounts disagree about whether she died young or was placed for adoption. Albert and Marić subsequently had Hans Albert and Eduard. Hans Albert built a career in engineering and university teaching. Eduard studied medicine but developed serious mental illness and spent much of his later life in institutional care. Albert married Elsa Einstein in 1919. Elsa was related to him through both the Koch and Einstein lines, making the marriage an unusually close cousin relationship. The family’s Jewish background and Albert’s public opposition to Nazism made them targets of the political transformation in Germany after 1933. Several relatives left Europe or sought safer conditions abroad. The family’s later history is closely connected with the Einstein Papers and with the continuing public interest in Albert Einstein’s descendants and relatives.
- 1951
Death of Maria Einstein
[1]Maja Einstein died in Princeton after suffering a stroke and progressive arteriosclerosis.
- 1939
Maja Einstein emigrates to the United States
[1]Albert invited Maja to join him in Princeton after antisemitic laws were introduced in Italy.
- 1919
Albert Einstein marries Elsa Einstein
[1]Albert married Elsa Einstein, a relative connected to him through both the Koch and Einstein family lines.
- 1909
Maja Einstein earns a doctorate
[1]Maria Einstein completed her doctorate in Romance languages and literature at the University of Bern.
- 1902
Death of Hermann Einstein
[1]Albert’s father died of heart failure in Milan on 10 October 1902.
- 1894
Business operations move to Italy
[1]The family’s electrical factory was moved from Munich to Pavia, while the family relocated through Milan and Pavia.
- 1881
Birth of Maria Einstein
[1]Albert’s younger sister Maria, known as Maja, was born in Munich.
- 1880
The family moves to Munich
[1]Hermann and Jakob Einstein established an electrical-engineering company in Munich.
- 1879
Birth of Albert Einstein
[2]Albert Einstein was born in Ulm on 14 March 1879 to Hermann and Pauline Einstein.
- 1876
Hermann Einstein marries Pauline Koch
[1]Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch married in Cannstatt, Württemberg, beginning the immediate family line of Albert Einstein.
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