Leopold Mozart House Augsburg

Special Exhibition: »Anna Maria Mozart, née Pertl«

Women of famous men are often perceived only as wives, sisters, daughters, or mothers. The Mozart family is no exception.

Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart at least had the opportunity to gain fame as a musical child prodigy alongside her brother. Her mother, by contrast, is usually mentioned only in her role as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s mother—often in a rather disrespectful way.

This special exhibition places Anna Maria (also Maria Anna or Marianna) Mozart at the center—an individual who was far more important to the lives of Leopold and Wolfgang than Mozart scholarship has long acknowledged. Like Leopold, she was a multifaceted personality with her own character and intrinsic worth.

At the heart of the exhibition is a portrait from the Augsburg Art Collections, which for a long time was regarded as a depiction of “Mozart’s mother” because of amysterious pencil note on the back.

“She was friendly with everyone and offended no one.” Leopold Mozart about his wife