Maria Heyde

Maria Elisabeth Heyde, née Hartmann, (19 April 1837 in Paramaribo - 6 April 1917 in Schönebeck) was a Surinamese-born German missionary, diarist and translator.

Life Heyde was the daughter of Johann Gottlieb Hartmann and Maria Hartmann, German Moravian missionaries who were based in Suriname. At the age of seven, the family moved to Germany, After finishing her studies she began a post teaching at the same school. At the age of 22, Heyde travelled to Tibet (now northern India) with missionary August Wilhelm Heyde, whom she married in Kyelang, in Lahaul province, now Himachal Pradesh in November 1859. The couple settled in Kyelang and raised a family with three children (four had died). She returned to Germany with her husband in 1893 after a 44-year period in Tibet, and translated two books of Moses into Tibetan. After the death of her husband, she relocated to Gnadau to live near her son Paul's family, and died on 6 April 1917 at his home in Schönebeck.