Beethoven's Mother: The Tragic Story of Maria Magdalena Beethoven

Maria Magdalena Keverich Beethoven, the mother of Ludwig van Beethoven, tends not to play a major role in retellings of the great composer’s life.

Beethoven’s mother Maria Magdalena

This is a shame, because her life and death reverberated through her son’s life.

Speaking more broadly, her story sheds light on the horrific plight of married women from the eighteenth century whose abusive husbands suffered from alcohol addiction.

For those and other reasons, it’s worth looking at what we know about her, and how she shaped the life – and art – of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Maria’s Background and Childhood

Maria Magdalena Keverich was born in December 1746 in Ehrenbreitstein, now part of Koblenz, Germany.

Her father, Johann, was head cook at the court of the Elector of Trier. Her mother, Anna Klara, was also a cook. Anna Klara suffered from lifelong mental health issues, and she had a breakdown after her marriage.

Maria was the youngest Keverich child. Out of six, she and her brother were the only two siblings to survive infancy.

The Keverichs’ landlord wrote that Maria “was a beautiful and slim person and no one could say anything bad about her.”

Johann died in 1759, when Maria was twelve. From that point forward, Anna Klara was forced to become the family breadwinner.

Maria’s Early First Marriage

Beethoven’s father Johann

Perhaps to help make ends meet, on 30 January 1763, the month after she turned sixteen, Maria married Johann Georg Leym, a valet of the Elector’s.

The following year, she gave birth to her first son, Johann Peter Anton Leym. He only survived for a few days.

Additional tragedy followed. In 1765, her husband died, leaving Maria an eighteen-year-old widow.

Maria Meets Johann van Beethoven

Two years later, in 1767, a musician named Johann van Beethoven took a trip from his hometown of Bonn to Ehrenbreitstein and met with Maria.

We don’t know exactly what spurred his trip. One potential link between Johann and Maria was that Maria’s cousin had recently married a violinist from the Bonn court orchestra. Although this is an interesting parallel, we don’t know if the two relationships were connected in any way.

In any case, while in Ehrenbreitstein, Johann Beethoven decided he wanted to marry Maria.

Family Protests

Johann returned to Bonn to let his father know his plans. His father looked into her background and was horrified to find that she’d already been married. He also somehow learned the inaccurate information that she’d worked as a maid.

Neighbors overheard him bellowing at his son, “I never believed or expected that you would so degrade yourself!”

He was so dead-set against the match that he said he would not attend the wedding “unless the thing were quickly over with.”

Beethoven biographer John Suchet suggests that the Keverich family maybe wasn’t thrilled about the marriage, either, since there is no record of their attending the wedding.

Maria and Johann’s Wedding

Beethoven’s birthplace in Bonn

Despite the negativity surrounding them, Maria traveled to Bonn, where she and Johann were married in November 1767. They had their honeymoon in Ehrenbreitstein, no doubt trying to win over their families.

Despite their best attempts, the charm offensive didn’t work. Anna Klara’s displeasure with her daughter is memorialized in a petition sent to the elector in early 1768, making reference to how “through an ill-turned marriage of her only daughter up to 300 thalers disappeared.” The insinuation is that Johann took it or stole it…or spent it on alcohol.

However, Anna Klara’s recollection of events might not have been entirely accurate. After her daughter’s marriage, Anna Klara’s mental health deteriorated rapidly.

She became so depressed that she started sleeping outside her church in all kinds of weather. Eventually, she stopped eating. She died in September of 1768.

At roughly the same time, Maria found out that she was pregnant. Tragically, the baby died a week after his baptism.

The Arrival of Ludwig

Maria gave birth to her third child, Ludwig van Beethoven, in December 1770.

She would go on to give birth again in 1774, 1776, 1779, 1781, and 1786, meaning that she was pregnant for a good chunk of the 1770s and early 1780s. Including Ludwig, only three of her children survived past infancy: all boys.

Johann and Maria’s marriage quickly became strained. Her imperious, disapproving father-in-law was their neighbor, and Johann was wrestling with a crippling alcohol addiction. He often spent the entire night out drinking.

On Christmas Eve 1773, Johann’s father died. Johann was now free to follow in his footsteps and become the Kapellmeister at the Bonn court. But between Johann’s addiction and a general lack of musical talent, he was ill-suited for such a job.

Ludwig, who had just turned three, would idolize his late grandfather for the rest of his life. Despite his youth at the time of his grandfather’s death, Ludwig claimed to remember him vividly.

Teaching and Abusing Ludwig

Beethoven as a child

We don’t know exactly when, but sometime during the following year, when Ludwig was four, his father began teaching him clavier and violin. Johann thought that he could use his musically talented son to make money.

Johann employed terrifying pedagogical tactics. Several accounts exist of how he abused Ludwig, beating him, forcing him to play piano during the night, and even locking him in the cellar.

In March 1778, Johann put a notice in the newspaper announcing a concert by his son. The notice claimed that Ludwig was six years old when he was really seven.

We don’t know how Maria reacted to any of this. However, we do have one disturbing clue as to Ludwig’s relationship with his mother during this time. One of his schoolmates later remembered that he “was distinguished by uncleanliness, negligence, etc.” His fellow students believed his mother was dead.

There are a number of possible explanations for why she was so absent. Maybe she was grieving the loss of her children, or maybe her pregnancies were difficult. Her health was declining; maybe that kept her from being more physically involved in raising Ludwig. Or maybe the mental health issues that had affected her mother were affecting her, too. It’s impossible to know.

Beethoven: Sonatina in E flat major WoO 47 No. 1 – Jorg Demus, 1970

Beethoven’s Sonatina in E flat major, written in 1782, when he was eleven.

A Miserable Life with Johann

Due to Johann’s alcoholism, Maria took control of the family finances. He would come home after a payday and toss his money on her lap and say, “Now woman, manage with that.”

Sometimes she grew upset with him. A neighbour named Cacilia Fischer later recalled how he’d wander the streets drinking from a flask. Maria would criticize him from the window. He’d answer, “It is such hot weather that I have a great thirst.” She’d retort back, “That’s true, but you often have a thirst without summer heat.” He would then agree. But still, he was unable to escape the clutches of his addiction.

One time, Johann made sexual advances toward Cacilia. She pushed him into the stove. He fell down, reached out, and pulled the stovepipe out from the wall.

Cacilia was terrified, but the Beethovens apparently viewed it all as a joke. Johann said, “That taught me a good lesson” while Maria praised Cacilia: “That was the right thing to do; that’s how it should turn out.”

L. van Beethoven: Piano quartet in E flat Major WoO 36 No.1

Beethoven’s Piano Quartet No.1 in E-flat major, written in 1784, when he was thirteen.

How Maria Saw the World

Maria was an intelligent conversationalist who was well-respected and well-liked. But she never laughed.

That implacable outer appearance hid a deep well of bitterness toward the institution of marriage and the role of women in German society.

According to Cacilia Fischer, Maria once remarked, “If you want to take my good advice, remain single, and then you will have the most tranquil, most beautiful, most pleasurable life. For what is marriage? A little joy, but then a chain of sorrows.”

Ludwig was in the room when Maria said this, suggesting that his parents were unable to keep their marital troubles under wraps from the children.

Another of her bleak aphorisms was “One should weep when a girl is brought into the world.”

Given the diminished position of women in eighteenth-century Germany and the nightmarish life circumstances she endured as a wife and mother, it’s understandable why she might feel that way.

On the other hand, Cacilia also reported that Maria said, “Without suffering there is no struggle, no struggle, without struggle no victory, without victory no crown.” It was a very Beethovenian philosophy.

Beethoven: Trio for Flute, Bassoon, and Piano, WoO 37

Beethoven’s Trio for piano, flute and bassoon in G major, written in 1786, when he was fifteen.

Brighter Memories

Beethoven as a teenager

However, it wasn’t all grim. A treasured childhood memory of Ludwig’s was formed during celebrations of St. Mary Magdalene, the Biblical figure after whom his mother was named.

The family would put up a canopy adorned with greenery in their living room. At ten o’ clock at night, a party with music would begin. Neighbours would be awoken. After the music ended, the partygoers would eat, then continue dancing in stocking feet.

Despite the tough hand that his mother had been dealt, or maybe because of it, Ludwig later remembered his mother with a great deal of affection.

Maria’s Death

In April 1787, when he was sixteen, Ludwig took a trip to Vienna. Two weeks into it, he received an urgent message from his father: his mother’s tuberculosis infection was worsening rapidly.

Ludwig came back to Bonn as quickly as he could, but there was nothing he could do. Maria died on 17 July. She was just forty years old. Her youngest child, a baby girl, died a few months after her.

Ludwig was left to pick up the pieces. In order to survive and take care of his brothers and father, he’d have to be brilliant, independent, and strong.

He became all three of those things, and all three traits are on full display in his music.