01/27/2026
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOZART!
270 years ago, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 in this house at Getreidegasse 9 in Salzburg. At that time Salzburg was the capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastic principality in the Holy Roman Empire, today in Austria. Mozart was baptized the day after his birth, at St. Rupert's Cathedral in Salzburg. He was a musical child prodigy and later a legendary classical composer. Mozart fell ill in September 1791, while in Prague for the premiere of his opera La clemenza di Tito. He continued to work until becoming bedridden at his home in Vienna, where he died shortly after midnight on 5 December 1791, at only 35 years of age.
Following a funeral at Vienna's Stephansdom, Mozart was buried in a common grave (not a pauper's grave) reserved for non-aristocratic people at the St. Marx Cemetery (Sankt Marxer Friedhof) on 6 or 7 December. Today only a memorial marker can be seen there, as the exact location of his grave is not known. There is also a memorial marker in Vienna's Zentralfriedhof in a special section dedicated to famous composers.
Contrary to popular myth, Mozart did not die in poverty, and there were well-attended memorial services for him in Vienna and elsewhere. Although not wealthy, at the time of his death Mozart was relatively prosperous, compared to the average person of the time. His wife Constanze received a modest pension from Kaiser Leopold II to help support her and her family.
PHOTO: Mozart's birthplace at Getreidegasse 9 in Salzburg is now a museum devoted to the renowned Austrian composer. Photo credit: Hyde Flippo, The German Way
