Magdalena Hofdemel

Maria Magdalena Hofdemel , née Pokorný (born in 1766 in Brno ), was a Bohemian pianist and violinist and a piano student of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . She became known through the speculation of the author Francis Carr that she was involved in the death of Mozart.

Life

Magdalena's father Gotthard Pokorný (1733–1802) was Kapellmeister at the St. Peter's Church in Brno from 1760 and took care of the musical education of his daughter, who performed with him in duets. She married the Austrian lawyer and court chancellor Franz Hofdemel (approx. 1755–1791) and moved with him to Vienna . The daughter Theresia was born there in 1790. Soon afterwards she became a piano student of Mozart. Magdalena's husband, a Freemason like Mozart and his believers, obviously suspected a love affair between her and Mozart, especially since the married Mozart was said to have had a number of affairs and the music publisher Vincent Novello , for example , was convinced that Mozart only taught women in whom he was was also in love. The fact that Magdalena became pregnant again in 1791 may have increased Franz's jealousy. Mozart died unexpectedly on December 5, 1791, when the cause of death was determined to be “hot Friesel fever”. H. Fever accompanied by sweats and a mild rash. Shortly afterwards, tragedy broke out in the Hofdemels' house at Grünangergasse 10: Franz Hofdemel disfigured his wife, who was found unconscious in a pool of blood the following morning, with a razor on her neck and arms and then stabbed himself in the next room. The matter caused scandal headlines in the Austrian press for months. Carr also suspects that Franz Hofdemel poisoned Mozart out of jealousy, especially since Mozart himself is said to have expressed fear to his wife Constanze that they wanted to poison him. Carr sees in the hasty funeral of Mozart an indication that one wanted to avoid an autopsy, which would have proven poisoning.

The widowed Magdalena received a state payment in March 1792 and moved back to her old home in Brno, where her son Johann Alexander Franz was born on May 10th. Through the mediation of Carl Czerny's parents , she had the opportunity, on a visit to Vienna , to hear the young Ludwig van Beethoven play, whose abilities she rated even higher than those of Mozart. Nothing is known about Magdalena's further career or the time of her death.

Web links

• Klaus Umbach on Carr's Mozart book ( Der Spiegel , 51/1984)
• Entry at www.sophie-drinker-institut.de
• "Who poisoned Mozart?" Article by Rolf Hochhuth from October 9, 1987

literature

• Francis Carr - Mozart and Constanze, reclam 2001, ISBN 3150082803 (first John Murray, London, 1983)
• Heinz Gärtner - Adieu, Mozart: The Hofdemel tragedy and the self-destruction of a genius, Fischer 2004, ISBN 3830107080