Anna Maria Mozart

Anna Maria Walburga Mozart (née Pertl; December 25, 1720 – July 3, 1778) was the mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Maria Anna Mozart.

She was born in St. Gilgen, Archbishopric of Salzburg, to Eva Rosina (1681–1755) and Wolfgang Nicolaus Pertl (1667–1724), deputy prefect of Hildenstein. Nicolaus had a university degree in jurisprudence from the Benedictine University in Salzburg and held many positions of responsibility, including district superintendent in St. Andrae. He was apparently a skilled musician. He suffered a severe illness in 1714 and had to change positions to one with a relatively small salary (250 florins per year) as deputy superintendent of . During the last portion of his life, he fell deeply into debt, and he died 7 March 1724.

Nicolaus's possessions were liquidated to help pay the debt, and his remaining family (Anna Maria's mother and her older sister Maria Rosina, born 24 August 1719) lapsed into poverty. They moved to Salzburg, not far away, and lived on a charity pension of just eight (later nine) florins per month, perhaps supplemented by low-level employment. Anna Maria's older sister died in 1728, aged nine. Anna Maria herself was not well when she was young: legal documents from the time describe her as "constantly ill" (1733) and "the constantly ill bedridden daughter" (1739).

She married Leopold Mozart in Salzburg in 1747; Abert writes, "the two were regarded at the time as the handsomest couple in Salzburg." The couple moved (perhaps with Anna Maria's mother) into an apartment on the third floor of Getreidegasse 9. Their landlord was Lorenz Hagenauer, who was a close friend of Leopold's, and a frequent correspondent on the family's later travels.

The Mozarts had seven children, of whom only two survived infancy:

Anna Maria nearly died giving birth to Wolfgang. Her womb retained the placenta, and its subsequent enforced removal at that time posed an extreme risk of fatal infection.

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