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 parents were Johann Heinrich Keverich and Anna Klara née Westorff, who were married in 1731. From 1733, Johann was head cook at the court of the Elector of Trier, who resided at in Ehrenbreitstein.
Maria Magdalena was the youngest of their six children. On 30 January 1763, she married Johann Georg Leym, who was in the service of the Archbishop of Trier; he died in 1765.
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: the future composer Ludwig was the second, born in 1770.
Maria died in Bonn in 1787 of tuberculosis, aged 40. Her birth place is now a museum, named.
