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Pauline “Rosa” Winteler (née Eckart) (25 August 1845 - 1 November 1906) was the wife of Swiss professor and linguist, Jost Winteler. She was looked up to as a loving second mother by a teenage Albert Einstein, who boarded at her home from October of 1895 to October of 1896, while he attended his final year of secondary school.

Marriage and children


Pauline and Jost Winteler (21 November 1846 - 23 February 1929) were married on 16 November 1871. Together, they had seven children: Anna (1872-1944), Jost Fridolin “Fritz” (1873-1953), Rosa (1875-1962), Marie (24 April 1877 - 24 September 1957), Mathias (1878-1934), Julius “Jost Jr.” (d. 1 November 1906),  and Paul (1882-1952).

Death (1 November 1906)
Pauline was shot and killed by her own son, Julius, on 1 November, 1906. Her son-in-law (by her second daughter’s marriage), Ernst Bandi, was also killed just before Julius committed suicide. Julius, who had been working as a ship’s cook in America, had been suffering from severe mental illness when he had been brought back home to Switzerland to recover.

A “distraught” Albert Einstein, Winteler’s former houseguest, sent Pauline’s husband, now a widower, a letter of condolence on 3 November 1906, in which he expressed his sympathy and deep grief at the loss of life. Einstein wrote:

"Deeply shaken by the terrible tragedy that burst so suddenly upon you and your children, I feel compelled to express my deepest condolences, even though I know very well how impotent my feeble words are in the face of such pain. All those who have personally experienced the goodness of your heart and have seen how earnestly you have always strived for truth and justice, must shudder at the thought of the terrible blow that blind fate has dealt you. The dear departed has shown me so much kindness, while I caused her only sorrow and pain; that distresses me all the more at this hour!"

Einstein was living in Bern, a Swiss city 52 miles (or 83 kilometers) from Aarau, at the time the tragedy occurred. Jost Winteler believed that his son had inherited his mental illness from Pauline's side of the family.

Legacy


Winteler’s former home in Aarau, which still stands today, bears a commemorative plaque that reads: ‘In this house lived 1895/96 as a cantonal student Albert Einstein 1879-1955 The famous physicist’.

In popular culture
Pauline Winteler was portrayed by actress Lucy Russell as a recurring character on National Geographic’s first scripted series, Genius (2017). The series, which was based on Walter Isaacson’s biography of Albert Einstein, Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), premiered on National Geographic on April 25, 2017. Winteler’s character was featured in three episodes: Einstein: Chapter One, Einstein: Chapter Two, and Einstein: Chapter Four. The series’ pilot episode, which was directed by Ron Howard, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.