This is the biography of Maria Magdalena van Beethoven, mother of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Maria Magdalena Keverich was born on 19 December 1746, and after a short and difficult life, died at the age of only 40, in 17 July 1787. She was born in Ehrenbreitstein, a small village overlooking Koblenz (today part of it). Her birth place is a museum now, called Mutter-Beethoven-Haus.
Her parents, the grandparents of Ludwig van Beethoven on his mother side, were Anna Klara née Westorff and Johann Heinrich Keverich. The family had six children, among them Maria Magdalena the youngest. She was blond and reported as a beautiful, slender woman.
We do not know much about the life of this family, but we know that they were somewhat important or prominent, holding important positions at the court. His father was head of the kitchen for the Elector of Trier (a chef today), an important position at any court, but there were ancestors who served as councillors or senators.
At the age of sixteen she married Johann Georg Leym, who was a valet of the Elector. The marriage was not meant to be long and happy, tragedy struck soon enough. Within two years their only child died, soon followed by the father. At the age of eighteen Maria Magdalena was a widow. She moved back under the same roof with her mother.
Johann van Beethoven met the young widow Maria Magdalena Leym in Ehrenbreitstein. The two had fallen in love quickly and just two years after the death of her first husband, in 1767 they got married in the church of St. Remigius, in Bonn. Johann, who was in his mid-twenties at the time, had to be a charming lad, who was full of life and very sociable. He sang, played the violin and keyboard, often a guest at taverns and parties. On the other hand Maria, probably by nature, but definitely because of the tragedies she went through until their meeting, was rather serious and often sad.
Johann’s father, Ludwig van Beethoven (the grandfather of our Beethoven), was not delighted by the girl Johann found for himself. For some reason he considered Maria a person for whom his son “stoop so low”. He agreed to participate in the wedding only if it was simple and held in Bonn. Probably Maria was hoping for a beautiful wedding at home in Ehrenbreitstein and this fast-wedding had to be insulting for her. The pair, after a honeymoon in Maria’s home village, moved to Bonn, in a neighbourhood full of court musicians.
Her mother, just after their move, died in 1768. She had mental illness, often wandering away in the night, and after losing all her money, she died impoverished and in wretched conditions. Another piece in the chain of tragedies.
Their first child, Ludwig, died in infancy. A second boy was born in 1770, also Ludwig, and this one lived. Lived to be The Ludwig van Beethoven. The next child was Caspar Anton Carl (1774) and then Nikolaus Johann (1776).
Although Ludwig, the grandfather, was not supportive in case of the marriage, he was generous in supporting the young couple. He was often visiting and played cheerfully with his grandson, on whom he made a lasting impact. In 1773 he got stroke and died, leaving a substantial amount of inheritance behind. Something his son squandered too soon.
Johann, her husband, had high ambitions, but less talent and even less luck. Every petition for promotion or raise of salary at the court got rejected. Soon enough bitterness and alcohol, this deadly combination, started to undermine Johann and the family. For Maria, the marriage was downhill from the start, and she tried her best to protect herself and the children from the realities.
Maria van Beethoven, as an adult, a wife and mother, was remembered as kind and good person. She tried to manage her husband (often drunk and aggressive), the household, the bills (frequently without enough money to cover) and the children. At this stage of her life friends and neighbours almost never saw her smiling. In fact, she told Cäcilie Fischer (a teenager at the time) “if you want my good advice, stay single. Then you’ll have the best, most peaceful, most beautiful, most enjoyable life you can have. Because what is marriage but a little joy, then afterward a chain of sorrows. And you’re still so young… So many sorrows come that unmarried people have no idea of… One should weep when a girl is born into the world.”
Fischer recalls more aspects of Maria’s character saying, “Madame van Beethoven was a clever woman; she could give converse and reply aptly, politely and modestly to high and low, and for this reason she was much liked and respected. She occupied herself with sewing and knitting. They led a righteous and peaceful married life, and paid their house-rent and baker’s bills promptly, quarterly, and on the day. She was a good, a domestic woman, she knew how to give and also how to take in a manner that is becoming to all people of honest thoughts.”
One negative aspect of Madame Beethoven must be mentioned and that is her idea abut cleanliness. The house and the children were often messy and dirty. These standards are something Ludwig inherited and carried on in his adult life.
The Beethovens later had three more children, sadly none of them survived. Anna Maria Franziska van Beethoven (1779), Franz Georg van Beethoven (1781) and Maria Margaretha Josepha van Beethoven (1786).
By the time she gave birth to the latest child, Maria Margaretha, she contracted tuberculosis, an infectious lungs disease. This disease at that period of medical science was almost equal with a certain death. A year later Ludwig left Bonn, heading to Vienna to see and learn from Haydn, hopefully Mozart, too. Two weeks after his arrival a letter arrived from his father, reporting that Maria is approaching the end, thus he must hurry back home.
He had arrived home in time and was by his mother at the end. Two weeks later, Maria Magdalena van Beethoven died, on 17 of July, 1787.
Several weeks later Beethoven wrote a letter to his friend Joseph von Schaden, reporting about the tragic event that just happened in the family. In this he confesses, “She was such a good, kind mother to me and indeed my best friend. Oh! who was happier than I, when I could still utter the sweet name of mother and it was heard and answered; and to whom can I say it now?”
All 8 children born to Maria Magdalena Keverich
From her first marriage
Johann Peter Anton Leym
Male
1764-1764
From her second marriage
Ludwig Maria van Beethoven
Male
1769–1769
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Male
1770–1827
Kaspar Anton Karl van Beethoven
Male
1774–1815
Nikolaus Johann van Beethoven
Male
1776–1848
Anna Maria Franziska van Beethoven
Female
1779–1779
Franz Georg van Beethoven
Male
1781–1783
Maria Margaretha Josepha van Beethoven
Female
1786–1787
