At the age of seven, the family moved to Germany,[2] where Maria attended the Moravian Brethren boarding school in Kleinwelka.

[2] Frequently alone with the locals, with her husband off on long missionary journeys, Heyde learned to speak and write in Tibetan.

She documented her life in her diaries, writing about her husband's travels, local customs and agricultural practices, and a knitting school which she established for girls.

[2] She taught the girls how to weave and knit, and enforced a strong code of personal hygiene.

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.