---
title: "Einstein family"
chunk: 1/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_family"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:05:30.588947+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The Einstein family is the family of physicist Albert Einstein (1879–1955). Einstein's fourth-great-grandfather, Jakob Weil, was his oldest recorded relative, born in the late 17th century, and the family continues to this day. Albert Einstein's second-great-grandfather, Löb Moses Sontheimer (1745–1831), was also the grandfather of the tenor Heinrich Sontheim (1820–1912) of Stuttgart.
Albert's three children were from his relationship with his first wife, Mileva Marić, his daughter Lieserl being born a year before they married. Albert Einstein's second wife was Elsa Einstein, whose mother Fanny Koch was the sister of Albert's mother, and whose father, Rudolf Einstein, was the son of Raphael Einstein, a brother of Albert's paternal grandfather. Albert and Elsa were thus first cousins through their mothers and second cousins through their fathers.

== Etymology ==
Einstein (English:  EYEN-styne, German: [ˈaɪnʃtaɪn] ) is either a German habitational surname from various places named with a Middle High German derivative of the verb einsteinen 'to enclose, surround with stone'; or a Jewish (Ashkenazic) adaptation of the German name, or else an ornamental name using the ending -stein 'stone'.

== Pauline Einstein (Albert's mother) ==

Pauline Einstein (née Koch; 8 February 1858 – 20 February 1920) was the mother of the physicist Albert Einstein.  She was born in Cannstatt, Württemberg. She was Jewish and had an older sister, Fanny, and two older brothers, Jakob and Caesar. Her parents were Julius Derzbacher, who had adopted the family name Koch in 1842, and Jette Bernheimer. They were married in 1847. Pauline's father was from Jebenhausen, now part of the city of Göppingen, and grew up in modest economic circumstances. Later, he lived in Cannstatt and together with his brother Heinrich, made a considerable fortune in the corn trade. They even became "Royal Württemberg Purveyor to the Court". Their mother was from Cannstatt and was a quiet and caring person.

=== Early life ===
At 18 years old, Pauline married the merchant Hermann Einstein who lived in Ulm. They married in Cannstatt on 8 August 1876. After the wedding, the young couple lived in Ulm, where Hermann became joint partner in a bed feathers company. Their son, Albert was born on 14 March 1879. On the initiative of Hermann's brother Jakob the family moved to Munich's borough of Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt in the summer of 1880, where the two brothers together founded an electrical engineering company called Einstein & Cie. The second child of Hermann and Pauline, their daughter Maria (called Maja), was born in Munich on 18 November 1881. Pauline Einstein was a well-educated and quiet woman who had an inclination for the arts. She was a talented and dedicated piano player. She made Albert begin violin lessons at the age of five.

=== Business problems ===
The factory of Hermann and Jakob was moved to Pavia, Italy, in 1894. Hermann, Maria and Pauline moved to Milan in the same year and one year later, moved to Pavia. Albert stayed with relatives in Munich to continue his education there. 
Unfortunately, the business was unsuccessful and the brothers had to abandon their factory in 1896. Though Hermann had lost most of his money, he founded (without his brother) another electrical engineering company in Milan. This time business was better. However, Hermann's health had deteriorated, and he died of heart failure in Milan on 10 October 1902.

=== After Hermann ===
In 1903, Pauline went to live with her sister Fanny and her husband Rudolf Einstein, a first cousin of Hermann, in Hechingen, Württemberg. Fanny's daughter, Elsa was to become the second wife of Albert in 1919.
In 1910, Pauline moved with her sister, Fanny and her family to Berlin. She took on a job as housekeeper in Heilbronn in 1911. She lived with her brother Jakob Koch in Zurich and from 1915 in Heilbronn again.

=== Death ===
During World War I, Pauline fell ill with cancer. In 1918, when visiting her daughter, Maria, and son-in-law, Paul Winteler, in Luzern, Pauline was taken to the sanatorium Rosenau, due to her illness. At the end of 1919, Albert took his terminally-ill mother out of the sanatorium in Luzern and brought her to Haberlandstrasse 5, Berlin, to stay with him and his second wife, Elsa, where she later died the following year.

== Hermann Einstein (Albert's father) ==

Hermann Einstein  30 August 1847 – 10 October 1902) was the father of Albert Einstein.

=== Early life ===
Hermann Einstein was born in Buchau, Kingdom of Württemberg to Jewish parents Abraham Einstein and Helene Moos (3 July 1814 – 20 August 1887).
He had six siblings:

Raphael (3 December 1839 – 15 January 1842); male
Jette (13 January 1844 – 7 January 1905); female
Heinrich (12 October 1845 – 16 November 1877); male
August Ignaz (23 December 1849 – 14 April 1911); male
Jakob (25 November 1850 – 1912); male
Friederike "Rika" (15 March 1855 – 17 June 1938); female
At the age of 14, Hermann attended the secondary school in the regional capital Stuttgart and was academically successful. He had a strong affection for mathematics, and would have liked to study in this or a related area, but as the financial situation of the family precluded further education, he decided to become a merchant and began an apprenticeship in Stuttgart.

=== Marriage to Pauline ===
Hermann married 18-year-old Pauline Koch in Cannstatt, Kingdom of Württemberg on 8 August 1876. After their wedding, the young couple lived in Ulm, where Hermann became joint partner in the bed feather shop of his cousins, Moses and Hermann Levi. In Ulm, their eldest son Albert was born on 14 March 1879. On the initiative of Hermann's brother Jakob, the family moved to Munich in the summer of 1880. There, the two brothers founded the electrical engineering company Einstein & Cie, with Hermann being the merchant and Jakob the technician. The second child of Hermann and Pauline, their daughter Maria (called Maja), was born in Munich on 18 November 1881.