Johanna Rosine Wagner
Johanna Rosine Wagner, née Pätz, was the mother of the composer, writer, theater director, and conductor Richard Wagner. Four of her other children became actresses or opera singers.
[file:Johanna Rosine Wagner.jpg |thumb|Johanna Rosine Wagner (1813) Oil painting by Ludwig Geyer |alt=Johanna Rosine Wagner (1813) Oil painting by Ludwig Geyer, 1813]
Life
Early life
Johanna Rosine was the daughter of the Weißenfels baker Johann Gottlob Pätz and his wife Dorothea Erdmuth, née Iglisch. Her mother died before Johanna's 15th birthday, and when her father married a younger woman soon after, Johanna, now fifteen years old, left home.With Prince Friedrich Ferdinand Constantin
file:Frederick Constantin of Saxe-Weimar.jpg| thumb|Prince Friedrich Ferdinand Constantin Artist: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein |alt=Prince Friedrich Ferdinand Constantin Artist: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm TischbeinShe met the frivolous Prince Frederick Ferdinand Constantin of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, sixteen years her senior, whose regiment was stationed in Weissenfels in 1790. He placed her in Madame Hesse's boarding house in Leipzig, in the Winckler House in Brühl, financed everything, and visited her regularly. That the relationship may have gone beyond a love affair is suggested by the fact that he had her taught by a language and writing teacher, as well as by a milliner. The prince died in 1793, and Johanna's dream of rising to higher social circles was shattered. The Weimar court kept her as a "foster daughter" with a lump sum of 50 Reichsthalers.
Marriage to Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner
For the next few years, Johanna Rosine supported herself as a milliner. Subsequently, she met Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner. He had studied law and was a theater enthusiast and amateur actor. In 1797, he obtained a position as vice-actuary at the city court, which enabled him to start a family. On 2 June 1798, the two married in the church in Schönefeld, then still a village northeast of Leipzig.file:Wagnerhaus Leipzig Postkarte.jpg|thumb|Wagner family home in Brühl, as it stood in 1885 - from a Postcard by Hermann Walter |alt=Wagner family home in Brühl, as it stood in 1885 from a Postcard by Hermann Walter
In the following fifteen years of marriage, the couple had nine children: Albert, Carl Gustav, Rosalie, Julius, Luise, Clara, Maria Theresia, Ottilie, and finally Richard. Except for the first two, they were born in the house called Zum Roten und Weißen Löwen in Brühl, where the family's apartment was located on the second floor from 1802 onwards.
Friedrich Wagner, who had been a police clerk since 1 January 1811, was responsible for overseeing the city's field hospitals after the Battle of the Nations. He contracted typhus and died on 25 November 1813.
The Wagner couple had long been friends with the painter, writer, and actor Ludwig Geyer through their shared passion for the theater. He now took care of the widow and the children, who loved him very much.
Marriage to Ludwig Geyer
On 28 August 1814, Geyer, four years her junior, married the widow Wagner in the church in Pötewitz near Zeitz. In 1814, the family moved with seven children – Carl Gustav and Marie Theresia had already died – to Dresden, where Geyer had become a court actor. Their daughter, Augusta Cäcilie Geyer, was born there on February 26, 1815. A rumour later sparked by Friedrich Nietzsche that Geyer was also Richard's father has not been substantiated. Geyer continued in the theater, writing scripts and singing under Carl Maria von Weber, who also socialized with the Geyer family.Widowhood again
After seven years of family happiness, Ludwig Geyer died on 30 September 1821. Geyer had recognized and encouraged the Wagner children's musical talent and helped determine their path in life. Albert Wagner made his operatic debut in Leipzig in 1819. Rosalie was at the Dresden Theater from 1818 and a court actress from 1820. Luise trained as an actress, but married the Leipzig publisher Friedrich Brockhaus at the age of 23 and gave up her career. Klara made her debut as an opera singer in Dresden in 1824 at the age of 16. When Rosalie accepted an engagement in Leipzig in 1827, Johanna Rosine moved with the rest of the family to Leipzig, where she received an annual pension of 60 Reichstaler from the city.Richard's education
Richard, who had attended the Kreuzschule in Dresden as Richard Geyer, now attended the Nikolaischule in Leipzig as Richard Wagner and later the Thomasschule, which he left without a high school diploma. With his interest in music now ignited, he began composing, initially unsuccessfully.[file:Johanna Rosine Wagner-Geyser.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Johanna Rosine Wagner-Geyer in her old age (around 1845) - Artist:, circa 1845|alt=Portrait of Johanna Rosine Wagner-Geyer in her old age (around 1845)] In 1831, he began studying music at the University of Leipzig, but in 1834, after causing his mother considerable trouble, he traveled to Würzburg to join his brother Albert.[file:Leipzig, Old St. John`s Cemetery, gravestone,.jpg |thumb|Memorial stone at the Old St. John's Cemetery in Leipzig (2009) |alt=Memorial stone at the Old St. John's Cemetery in Leipzig (2009)]
However, she was ultimately able to witness his triumph when his opera Rienzi premiered in Dresden in 1842, and he instantly became famous.