Maria Magdalena van Beethoven
Maria Magdalena van Beethoven, née Keverich was the wife of the Bonn court musician Johann van Beethoven and the mother of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Her birthplace is now a museum, the Mutter-Beethoven-Haus.
Life
Maria Magdalena Keverich was born in Ehrenbreitstein, a village on the Rhine opposite Koblenz. Her birthplace is now a museum, named Mutter-Beethoven-Haus. Her parents were Johann Heinrich Keverich and Anna Klara née Westorff, who married in 1731. From 1733, Johann was head cook at the court of Franz Georg von Schönborn, the Elector of Trier, at Schloss Philippsburg in Ehrenbreitstein. Maria Magdalena was the youngest of their six children. Of the six births to Johann and Anna Klara, she and her brother Johann Peter Keverich were the only ones to survive into adulthood. Johann Peter became a priest, and later prior, of the Carmelite Monastery in Koblenz. Their father died when Maria Magdalena was 12.Marriage to Johann Georg Leym
On 30 January 1763, she married Johann Georg Leym, 13 years her senior, who was in the service of the Archbishop of Trier. In 1764 they had a son, Johann Peter Anton Leym, who died in infancy. Johann Georg Leym died in 1765.As a teenage widow, she returned to living with her widowed mother.
Marriage to Johann van Beethoven
She married Johann van Beethoven at the Church of [St Remigius, Bonn] on 12 November 1767. Johann's father was Kapellmeister at the court of the Electorate of Cologne, which was in Bonn, and Johann was a court musician there. Johann and Maria van Beethoven had seven children, three of whom lived into adulthood:- Ludwig Maria van Beethoven
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Kaspar Anton [Karl van Beethoven]
- Nikolaus Johann van Beethoven
- Anna Maria Franziska van Beethoven
- Franz Georg van Beethoven
- Maria Margarete Josepha van Beethoven
Death
She was buried in the Alter Friedhof, Bonn.