Scores of times, a great and famous person, with the brilliance of his fame, obscures the people around him. It seems that he owes his fame and celebrity solely to himself. Certainly, this is not true. Just as a mighty oak cannot grow without its roots, so a great man is not only himself, but also the people close to him who influenced him. A diamond becomes a diamond only after cutting! Among close people, the central place is occupied by the mother, who gave birth to this person and had a decisive influence on the formation of his character and habits. The mother's influence is especially enormous in Jewish families. What can we say, if Jewishness is transmitted precisely through the maternal line, emphasizing its main role in the formation of a person.
Today we will talk about the mother of one of the most famous Jews, who shaped the image of modern physics for at least a century. We are talking about Pauline Koch, mother of Albert Einstein.
She was born on February 8, 1858 in the city of Cannstatt, which was then part of the kingdom of Württemberg of the German Empire with its capital in Stuttgart. Her father, Julius Derzbacher, was a wealthy corn merchant who changed his surname to Koch in 1842. Mother: Jette Bernheimer, housewife.
In 1876, in Munich, a happy meeting for all mankind took place between Pauline Koch and Hermann Einstein, co-owner of a small enterprise producing feather stuffing for mattresses and feather beds, who came on business from his native Ulm.  That same year, on August 8, the young people got married. At that time, Pauline was 18 years old, and German was 29 years old. Two and a half years later, on March 14, 1879, the first-born child, Albert Einstein, appeared in the family.
The boy caused a lot of trouble for his parents. He came into the world with an unusually large and deformed head, causing his parents to worry that he might be mentally retarded. As a child, Einstein was prone to reticence and began to speak actively only after the age of five, previously only repeating the phrases of those around him. When he began to formulate his thoughts, he would first say them quietly, moving his lips, before speaking out loud. Albert became violently agitated when his wishes were ignored, becoming angry and throwing objects. In one of these attacks, he almost maimed his younger sister Maja.
One can only guess what Paulina experienced, seeing such anomalies in her son’s development. And she made a truly brilliant decision. Being musically gifted and playing the piano well, she decided to teach Albert to play... the violin. The fact is that playing music, in particular playing complex instruments such as the violin, promotes harmonious activity of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, improves motor skills, increases concentration and stimulates creative thinking. But then people did not know about such an influence of music, so Pauline made this decision intuitively.
But, we repeat, the boy was difficult. He was freaking out because he didn't want to play the violin. At the age of five, Albert angrily threw a chair at his music teacher. He, naturally, immediately ran away. What did Pauline Einstein do? She just hired a new teacher! Yes, we can say that Einstein's mother had a despotic character, literally breaking her son, forcing him to learn to play the violin. He played Mozart and Beethoven to the piano accompaniment of his strict mother. Maybe Pauline was trying to realize her unfulfilled dreams of becoming a music star. We don't know. However, anyway, the result is known. Albert Einstein did not become a famous musician, but the violin has since become a lifesaver for the great physicist, since Einstein made his most outstanding discoveries after or while playing the violin.
Due to his psyche and character, Albert Einstein entered the gymnasium only at the age of 10. Before that, he was homeschooled. And who was involved in it, considering that the boy’s father was constantly missing from work, since his enterprise was constantly teetering on the brink of bankruptcy? Of course the mother, Pauline Einstein.
The family had to move more than once due to the ruin of Hermann Einstein's enterprises. So in 1880 the Einsteins ended up in Munich, where Albert entered the gymnasium. And in 1894 they moved to the Milan suburb of Pavia. In 1896, Albert Einstein came from there to study at the Zurich Polytechnic. He never returned home.
Hermann Einstein died in October 1902. Pauline, after the death of her husband, continued to live in Milan with her daughter Maja.  In 1919, she became seriously ill and at the end of that year she moved to live with her son in Berlin. In February 2020, at the age of 62, she died of heart disease, two years before her son received the Nobel Prize.
But by that time, Albert Einstein was still perhaps the most famous scientist in the world, thanks to his two theories of relativity. So Pauline died calm - she gave the world a great genius.