Maria Anna Mozart - Later Years

Later Years

Marianne's husband died in 1801. She returned to Salzburg, accompanied by her two living children and four stepchildren, and worked as a music teacher.

In her old age, Marianne had her first encounter in person with Mozart's widow Constanze since the unhappy visit of 1783. In 1820, Constanze and her second husband Georg Nikolaus von Nissen moved to Salzburg. Although Marianne had not even known that Constanze was still alive, the encounter was apparently "cordial", though not warm. Eventually, Marianne did the Nissens a great favor: To help them write a biography of Wolfgang, Marianne lent the Nissens her collection of family letters, including Wolfgang and Leopold's correspondence up to 1781.

In 1821, Marianne enjoyed a visit from Wolfgang's son, Franz Xaver Mozart, whom she had never met during her brother's lifetime. The son had come from his home in Lemberg to conduct a performance of his father's Requiem in remembrance of the recently-deceased Nissen.

In her last years, Marianne's health declined, and she became blind in 1825. Mary Novello, visiting in 1829, recorded her impression that Mrs. Berchtold was "blind, languid, exhausted, feeble and nearly speechless," as well as lonely. She mistakenly took Marianne to be impoverished, though in fact she left a large fortune (7837 gulden).

Marianne died on 29 October 1829, and was buried in St Peter's Cemetery, Salzburg.