Who Inherited Albert Einstein's Money After His Death?
German physicist Albert Einstein is one of the most celebrated geniuses in the world. He was the creator of various scientific theories, particularly quantum relativity and the quantum theory of light, per Biography. To explain the one of relativity, Einstein created the infamous equation E=mc2, which helped detail the relation between energy (E) and mass (m), per Britannica. He won a Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work in physics.
Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany. His parents were Hermann and Pauline Einstein, and he was the oldest of two children. Einstein had a younger sister named Maja. In his youth, Einstein faced some adversity in school as he had a speech delay and didn't speak full sentences until he was age 5, says Global Teletherapy. Nonetheless, he displayed a knack for other talents. Today, speech delay in children is often called Einstein syndrome, per Healthline.
Despite the setback, he would turn out to be a genius, as the world came to know him as. After completing his studies in Switzerland and becoming a citizen of that country, Einstein would breathe new life into the world of physics with some of the most innovative theories and discoveries — a task he did for close to half a century. In 1940, he became an American citizen and lived in Princeton, New Jersey, where he also taught at the college town's famed university (via Biography).
Albert Einstein's relationships late in life
Albert Einstein remained in New Jersey for the remainder of his life. He died on April 18, 1955, at the age of 76.
The famous mathematician was survived by his two sons, Hans Albert and Eduard (via American Museum of Natural History). His second wife Elsa had died in 1936. After her death, his sister moved in with him, but she died in 1951. A year before that, Einstein completed his last will and testament, specifying what would happen to his finances and other assets after his death.
He had no living wife, and the relationship with his sons, who lived in Switzerland, became strained over the years. At his New Jersey home, he lived with his secretary Helen Dukas and stepdaughter, Margot. His will clarified that the responsibility of his executing his estate would be the job of his associate Nathan Otto and Dukas.
Where Albert Einstein's money went
After his death, some of his valuables and 75,000 papers of his work were left for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (via ABC News).
A talented violinist since he was a boy, his beloved violin was inherited by his grandson Bernhard, per DIPC. Several things were also left to his stepdaughter Margot Einstein, the daughter of his wife Elsa, and his two sons. For the most part, the money that his sons inherited was included in a previous will before the divorce from their mother and his first wife, Mileva (via Einstein). It stated the Nobel Prize money would go to her. In 1948, she died and the remainder of that money was shared between the two sons. His final will reportedly did not include money for them.
In fact, most everything was left to his two co-trustees. Years later, his granddaughter would come forward and ask for funds that the university continued to make in the decades after his death, per CNN. Sadly, her campaign was unsuccessful, and she purportedly died penniless in 2011, never receiving anything.