What was Einstein’s opinion on Nikola Tesla?

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is to date, 1/6/21, my second most popular post on Quora. To date, it has seen 45,000 views, with 214 upvotes. Overall, I have received 2.5 million views on Quora, and was designated a Top Writer in 2018.

Here’s a bit of unknown history that may have provided context to any antagonism between Tesla and Einstein. Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Maric, was, like Tesla, a Krajina Serb.

The Krajina Serbs were the minority Serbs living in the areas that had formed the border between Europe and the Middle East during the Ottoman Empire. The word Krajina means “frontier.” Basically they were runaways from the 500-year peonage slavery of Serbia, colonized by the Ottomans. The Austrian Crown basically gave these Serbs the equivalent of 40 acres and a mule, plus weapons, training and spoils for holding that no-man’s-land, the border. Free rent in a war zone. Who could pass that up? Anyway, they did it. They held that border. Some say they are the reason Europe is full of church steeples instead of minarets.

Mileva met Albert in school, studying physics. As a young wife/helpmate she’d help him with his math. There’s testimony that both their names were on the first draft of the Theory of Relativity. He gave all the prize money for the Nobel prize to her. There’s a lot of testimony that he did not treat her very well. He reneged on marrying her when she became pregnant. She had to return home knocked up. It looks like she gave the baby up for adoption, or it died. Later they did marry, one kid suffered with mental illness and her life revolved around his care. Albert’s circle never accepted her. There are some quotes that sound pretty racist. (These were people sometimes characterized as primates by other Europeans. Somebody cracked that she looked like a monkey) Albert left her.

He later failed to acknowledge her contributions. They are referred to only in their love letters. There were some disparaging comments he made about her.

I use the past tense describing the Krajina Serbs because they no longer exist as a result of Operation Storm, the only group actually genocided in that war regardless of media coverage at the time. The culture that produced Tesla and Mrs. Einstein no longer exists. In fact, the village, Smiljans, that Tesla was born in was leveled in WWII and all inhabitants exterminated by Croatian fascists. His gene pool has been eradicated.

The article as it appears on Quora: