Letter from Gustav Mahler to music director Heinrich Fischer.
Their marriage yielded two daughters, Maria Anna (1902–1907) and Anna Justine (1904–1988); Anna Justine became a sculptress and had two daughters – Alma (*1930) and Marina (*1943). “In the first years I felt very insecure with Mahler … And it is peculiar that from the moment of his spiritual victory Mahler overlooked me and began to love me again only when I had freed myself from his tyranny. For the time being he played the role of a teacher, relentlessly strict and unjust. He spoiled the world for me and made me loathe it. That is, he tried to: Money – vanity! Clothes – vanity! Beauty – vanity! Travel – vanity! Only the spirit itself! Today I know he was afraid of my youth and beauty and wanted to neutralize me by simply taking from me every living thing, which he could not cope with. I was a little girl whom he longed for and whom he was now educating.” (MAHLER, A.: Gustav Mahler. Memories. Prague 2001, page 45).
After Mahler’s death she married an outstanding American architect of German origin, Walter Gropius (1883–1969), and her third husband was the poet Franz Werfel (1890–1945). However, she called herself “Gustav Mahler’s widow” till the end of her life.
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