XPost: alt.politics.socialism, alt.politics.economics, alt.politics.media   
   From: efreem2@alumni.umbc.edu   
      
   10 Strange Facts About Einstein.   
      
   So you think you know Albert Einstein: the absent-minded genius who gave   
   us   
   the theory of relativity (two of them, in fact, special theory and general   
   theory of relativity), but did you know that Einstein was born with such a   
   large head that his mother thought he was deformed? Or that Einstein had a   
   secret child before he was married?   
      
   Read on for more obscure facts about the life of the world's smartest   
   genius:   
      
   1. Einstein Was a Fat Baby with Large Head   
   When Albert's mother, Pauline Einstein gave birth to him, she thought that   
   Einstein's head was so big and misshapen that he was deformed!   
      
   As the back of the head seemed much too big, the family initially   
   considered   
   a monstrosity. The physician, however, was able to calm them down and some   
   weeks later the shape of the head was normal. When Albert's grandmother   
   saw   
   him for the first time she is reported to have muttered continuously "Much   
   too fat, much too fat!" Contrasting all apprehensions Albert grew and   
   developed normally except that he seemed a bit slow.   
      
   2. Einstein Had Speech Difficulty as a Child   
      
   As a child, Einstein seldom spoke. When he did, he spoke very slowly -   
   indeed, he tried out entire sentences in his head (or muttered them under   
   his breath) until he got them right before he spoke aloud. According to   
   accounts, Einstein did this until he was nine years old. Einstein's   
   parents   
   were fearful that he was retarded - of course, their fear was completely   
   unfounded!   
      
   One interesting anecdote, told by Otto Neugebauer, a historian of science,   
   goes like this:   
      
   As he was a late talker, his parents were worried. At last, at the supper   
   table one night, he broke his silence to say, "The soup is too hot."   
   Greatly relieved, his parents asked why he had never said a word before.   
   Albert replied, "Because up to now everything was in order."   
      
   In his book, Thomas Sowell noted that besides Einstein, many   
   brilliant people developed speech relatively late in childhood. He called   
   this condition The Einstein Syndrome.   
      
   3. Einstein was Inspired by a Compass   
      
   When Einstein was five years old and sick in bed, his father showed him   
   something that sparked his interest in science: a compass.   
      
   When Einstein was five years old and ill in bed one day, his father showed   
   him a simple pocket compass. What interested young Einstein was whichever   
   the case was turned, the needle always pointed in the same direction. He   
   thought there must be some force in what was presumed empty space that   
   acted   
   on the compass. This incident, common in many "famous childhoods," was   
   reported persistently in many of the accounts of his life once he gained   
   fame.   
      
   4. Einstein Failed his University Entrance Exam   
      
   In 1895, at the age of 17, Albert Einstein applied for early admission   
   into   
   the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School (Eidgenssische Technische   
   Hochschule   
   or ETH). He passed the math and science sections of the entrance exam, but   
   failed the rest (history, languages, geography, etc.)! Einstein had to go   
   to   
   a trade school before he retook the exam and was finally admitted to ETH a   
   year later.   
      
   5. Einstein had an Illegitimate Child   
      
   In the 1980s, Einstein's private letters revealed something new about the   
   genius: he had an illegitimate daughter with a fellow former student   
   Mileva   
   Mari? (whom Einstein later married).   
      
   In 1902, a year before their marriage, Mileva gave birth to a daughter   
   named   
   Lieserl, whom Einstein never saw and whose fate remained unknown:   
      
   Mileva gave birth to a daughter at her parents' home in Novi Sad. This was   
   at the end of January, 1902 when Einstein was in Berne. It can be assumed   
   from the content of the letters that birth was difficult. The girl was   
   probably christianised. Her official first name is unknown. In the letters   
   received only the name "Lieserl" can be found.   
      
   The further life of Lieserl is even today not totally clear. Michele   
   Zackheim concludes in her book "Einstein's daughter" that Lieserl was   
   mentally challenged when she was born and lived with Mileva's family.   
   Furthermore she is convinced that Lieserl died as a result of an infection   
   with scarlet fever in September 1903. From the letters mentioned above it   
   can also be assumed that Lieserl was put up for adoption after her birth.   
      
   In a letter from Einstein to Mileva from September 19, 1903, Lieserl was   
   mentioned for the last time. After that nobody knows anything about   
   Lieserl   
   Einstein-Maric.   
      
   6. Einstein Became Estranged From His First Wife, then Proposed a Strange   
   "Contract"   
      
   After Einstein and Mileva married, they had two sons: Hans Albert and   
   Eduard. Einstein's academic successes and world travel, however, came at a   
   price - he became estranged from his wife. For a while, the couple tried   
   to   
   work out their problems - Einstein even proposed a strange "contract" for   
   living together with Mileva:   
      
   The relationship progressed. Einstein became estranged from his wife. The   
   biography reprints a chilling letter from Einstein to his wife, a proposed   
   "contract" in which they could continue to live together under certain   
   conditions. Indeed that was the heading: "Conditions."   
      
   A. You will make sure   
   1. that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order;   
   2. that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room;   
   3. that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is   
   left for my use only.   
   B. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are   
   not   
   completely necessary for social reasons.   
      
   There's more, including "you will stop talking to me if I request it." She   
   accepted the conditions. He later wrote to her again to make sure she   
   grasped that this was going to be all-business in the future, and that the   
   "personal aspects must be reduced to a tiny remnant." And he vowed, "In   
   return, I assure you of proper comportment on my part, such as I would   
   exercise to any woman as a stranger."   
      
   7. Einstein Didn't Get Along with His Oldest Son   
      
   After the divorce, Einstein's relationship with his oldest son, Hans   
   Albert,   
   turned rocky. Hans blamed his father for leaving Mileva, and after   
   Einstein   
   won the Nobel Prize and money, for giving Mileva access only to the   
   interest   
   rather than the principal sum of the award - thus making her life that   
   much   
   harder financially.   
      
   The row between the father and son was amplified when Einstein strongly   
   objected to Hans Albert marrying Frieda Knecht:   
      
   In fact, Einstein opposed Hans's bride in such a brutal way that it far   
   surpassed the scene that Einstein's own mother had made about Mileva. It   
   was   
   1927, and Hans, at age 23, fell in love with an older and - to Einstein -   
   unattractive woman. He damned the union, swearing that Hans's bride was a   
   scheming woman preying on his son. When all else failed, Einstein begged   
   Hans to not have children, as it would only make the inevitable divorce   
   harder.   
      
      
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