ALBERT EINSTEIN
--
A
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
by
MAJA
WINTELER-EINSTEIN
(EXCERPT)
THE
FAMILY
Albert Einstein
was
born of German Israelite
parents,
and
was
thus originally
a
German
citizen,
as were
all of his known
ancestors.
The Einstein
family
is
fairly
widespread
in southern
Germany,
especially in Württemberg and Bavaria, and since,
as
is well known,
Israelites often
marry
more or
less distant relatives, the Einsteins
are
related
to most
other Israelite families in southern Germany.
Nothing
more
specific
is known about Albert Einstein's
more
distant
ancestors.
Abraham Einstein, Albert's
paternal grandfather,
died in
the prime of his life, and his
grandson
never
knew him.
He
lived in
Buchau
on
the Federsee, and is said
to
have enjoyed
a
great and
widespread reputation
as an
intelligent and upright
man.
His wife
Hindel,
Albert's
paternal grandmother,
died
during her grandson's
early
childhood. Her intellectual
powers,
it
seems,
were
not
particularly outstanding.
His
grandfather
on
his mother's side
was
Julius Derzbacher, who took the
family
name
Koch. He
was
from
Jebenhausen, where he practiced his trade
as a
baker,
at
first in
modest circumstances. Later
he
lived together with his brother in
Cannstatt, and together they managed
to build
a
considerable
fortune
in the
grain
trade. The brothers and their families shared
a
single
household under the
same
roof. Their wives shared the
cooking,
each
taking charge of and
responsibility
for it in weekly turns. If such
an
arrangement is rather
rare,
and
not
only in Germany, theirs
was
all
the
more
remarkable because it lasted for decades without the least
friction.
As
his commercial abilities
showed,
Julius Koch
possessed
a
distinctly practical
intelligence
and
great
energy.
Theorizing
was
completely foreign
to
him. With wealth
came a
desire
to
be
a
patron
of
the arts, which he undertook, however, in
a
petty
manner,
and in
accord with the principles of his trade, that is,
spending
as
little
as
possible
on
it. As
a
result,
he often ended
up
bying copies rather
than authentic
paintings.
He
once
took in
a
poor
artist he
happened
to
meet
on
one
of his walks for the
purpose
of
laying
the foundation
of
a
future ancestral portrait gallery. This
was
the origin of
a
childhood portrait of Albert Einstein,
still
in the possession of the
author.
It
is
doubtful that the
poor
painter
ever
earned
more
than
a
free
room
and board under this
arrangement.
On
the other
hand,
it
was
quite
all
right
with
grandfather
Koch if technical
skill,
in this
case
a
"likeness," took the place of genuine
art.
His wife, Albert's
maternal grandmother,
was
Jette Bernheim. She had
a
quiet and
solicitous nature, and
was
also clearheaded and
methodical,
as
is
apparent
from surviving
school
essays.
She handled the difficulties
sometimes produced by grandfather
Koch's choleric
disposition
with
disarming humor. She
was
truly
the soul of that odd household
of the
two brothers and their families.
Albert Einstein's father, Hermann,
was
born in 1847 in Buchau.
xv