Constanze Weber was born on January 5, 1762 in southwest Germany. Wolfgang was involved with her sister, Aloysia, and had serious thoughts of getting married to her. But, Aloysia brushed him off because she had bigger fish to fry. Wolfgang began seeing Constanze after he moved into the Weber household in late Spring, 1781. Leopold Mozart was not in favor of his son's marriage to her. Perhaps the best description of Constanze was told by Mozart himself. Wolfgang wrote to his father : "She (Constanze) makes herself responsible for the whole household and yet in their opinion, she does nothing right. Oh, most beloved father, I could fill whole sheets with the description of all the scenes that I have witnessed in that house...She is not ugly, but at the same time, far from beautiful. Her whole beauty consists of two little black eyes and a pretty figure. She has no wit, but she has enough common sense to enable her to fulfill her duties of wife and mother. It is a downright lie that she is inclined to be extravagant. On the contrary, she is accustomed to be shabbily dressed, for the little that her mother had been able to do for her children, she had done for the two others, but never for Constanze...Moreover, she understands housekeeping and has the kindest heart in the world. I love her and she loves me with all her heart. Tell me whether I could wish myself a better wife?"
On August 4, 1782, the couple was married in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. Leopold Mozart didn't give consent before this, and actually never did. Constanze was not liked by Leopold, nor by Wolfgang's sister.
Wolfi and Stanzi loved each other very much. By some accounts, he had affairs, but if such things existed, they were not serious. Constanzi was his true love and put up with him for almost a decade. It must have been hard to be married to him, but she pulled it off, and indeed, made a good wife and mother. She was heartbroken when her husband died. Some stories say she threw herself upon his deathbed, hoping to get whatever illness had taken Wolfgang's life. Legend says she was too filled with grief to attend his funeral. Somehow, with her strenght, she managed to go on with her life, raising the only two sons she and Wolfgang had that survived, Karl Thomas and Franz Xaver (later called Wolfgang Amadeus).
After Mozart's death, Constanzi married Georg Nikolaus Nissen. She lived a long life and died on March 6, 1842. She is buried in St. Sebastian's cemetery. Her tombstone reads: "Constanze von Nissen, widow of Mozart, born Weber". She is buried next to her father in law, Leopold. It is ironic that Leopold forever rests next to the woman whom he disliked (or at least he disliked the fact that she married his son).
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