Einstein’s piano

From Firenze University Press Journal: Il Colle di Galileo

Francesco Palla

This is the story of the time spent in Florence by two members of the Einstein family — Maria, Albert’s younger sister, and their cousin Robert — by the painter Hans-Joachim Staude, German by birth but Florentine by adoption, and of the private visits made by Albert Einstein.

The pivotal role in this tale is played by the piano which Albert sent by Albert as a birthday gift to his sister Maria from Berlin to Quinto, close to Florence, where she lived with her husband, Paul Winteler. Passed from Hans-Joachim to his son Jacopo, the piano re-mained for many years at the Staude country house on the hills of Florence.

Since June 23 the Staude family has entrusted the piano to the library of the Astrophysical Observatory of Arcetri, where it now stands as the only surviving witness of a singular meshing of scientific and historical events and human storiesThere is a piano in a country house in Mosciano, in the hills close to Florence, which once belonged to Maria Einstein, Albert Einstein’s younger sister, who received it as a birthday gift from her brother on one of his frequent visits to Florence.

Maria, who was affectionately known as Maja — the name we shall use in the rest of the story — moved to Florence in 1920 and stayed here until 1939, before the outbreak of the War. The current owner of the piano is Jacopo Staude, astronomer and son of the famous German painter Hans-Joachim Staude, who spent most of his life in Florence. The fourth character in the story is Robert Einstein, Albert and Maja’s first cousin, who also arrived in Florence around the middle of the 1930s.

Robert remained here with his family up to the tragic events of 1944, the last days of the Nazi occupation of Tuscany. The natural element which had drawn all four of these people to Tuscany was the incomparable beauty of its hills, which allowed them to enjoy long, solitary walks just a short distance from the city centre. Einstein’s piano has come down to us as the only direct witness of a story few people know that interweaves the human adventures of the Einsteins and Hans-Joachim Staude with outstanding artistic and scientific achievements.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13128/Colle_Galileo-19144

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