Editing Lise Meitner (section)

==Early years==
Elise Meitner was born in November 1878 into a Jewish upper-middle-class family at the family home in 27 Kaiser Josefstraße in the [[Leopoldstadt]] district of [[Vienna]].  She was the third of eight children of chess master [[Philipp Meitner]] and his wife Hedwig. The birth register of [[Vienna's Jewish community]] lists her as being born on 17 November 1878, but all other documents list her date of birth as 7 November, which is what she used.{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=1}} 

Her father was one of the first Jewish lawyers admitted to practice in Austria.<ref name="wapost">{{cite news |first=Marcia |last=Bartusiak |author-link=Marcia Bartusiak |title=The Woman Behind the Bomb |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/reviews/lisemeitner.htm |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=17 March 1996 |access-date=28 December 2017 |archive-date=8 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308161333/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/reviews/lisemeitner.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> She had two older siblings, Gisela and Auguste (Gusti), and four younger: Moriz (Fritz), Carola (Lola), Frida and Walter; all ultimately pursued an advanced education.{{sfn|Sime|1996|pp=5–6}} Her father was a [[freethinker]], and she was brought up as such.<ref name="wapost" /> 

As an adult, she converted to Christianity, following [[Lutheranism]], and was baptised in 1908;<ref>{{cite odnb |last= Roqué |first= Xavier |title= Meitner, Lise (1878–1968), physicist |access-date= 27 October 2009 |url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38821 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/38821 |year= 2004}}</ref>{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=6}} her sisters Gisela and Lola converted to [[Catholicism]] that same year.{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=6}} She also adopted the shortened name "Lise".{{sfn|Offereins|2011|pp=69–74}}

Lise Meitner did not marry. She had a strong scientific career and focus, and did not have any long-term romantic relationships.