Albert visited Stuttgart in 1922 to give a lecture. At dinner, after the lecture with Otto, Jenny and family, Jenny said : “That was difficult to understand. In the beginning I could follow.” Albert replied, “When I realized that nobody was following me, I cut the lecture short.”

During that Stuttgart visit, Einstein’s wife Elsa invited all the cousins for a drive to picturesque Tubingen to take a walk along the cobblestones along the Neckar River. Young children weren’t included on this outing. One of these children was eight-year-old Elisabeth, known as Lisbet, who was disappointed. Later, however, she received a postcard from Albert that she would always cherish.

Uncle Albert, letter to Miss Ney

Dear Miss Ney,

I hear from Elsa that you are dissatisfied because you did not see your Uncle Einstein. Let me therefore tell you what I look like: pale face, long hair, and a tiny beginning of a paunch. In addition, an awkward gait, and a cigar in the mouth—if he happens to have a cigar, and a pen in his pocket or his hand. But crooked legs and warts he does not have, and so he is quite handsome, also no hair on his hands such as is often found on ugly men. So, it is indeed a pity that you did not see me.

With warm greetings from
Your Uncle Einstein

Albert Einstein The Human Side; Glimpses From His Archive. ed. Helen Dukas & Banesh Hoffman, Princeton Univ. Press, 1979

Jenny and son, Robert visited Albert in Berlin on his 50th birthday. Robert was fascinated with the bird cage elevator in Albert’s apartment. Albert took him up and down for a few rides to explain how the motion of the elevator conveyed relativity. Albert must have given Robert a simplified explanation. At the time, Robert was more interested in how the elevator worked versus the theory of relativity. Robert was, after all, then just a teen whose uncle had a cool elevator.

In 1946 when my family first arrived in America, we visited Albert at his home on Mercer Street in Princeton, New Jersey. My brother and I were three and four years old. Albert sat on the floor and showed us how to build a house out of sugar cubes. Albert was good natured. He even became an “honorary” uncle to the children in the family.

“Such a big family is like a group of mountain climbers, all tied to one another cannot fall.”

This is the note he wrote to my parents thanking them for a gift they sent him on his 75th birthday. My family, especially Otto and Jenny Einstein, Albert’s cousins always remained in touch.