Matschewsky was born as Anna-Maria Magdalena Kertz in Weeze, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany on 3 October 1912 as the youngest of seven children. She had four older brothers, and also had a talent for sports as a teenager. She was a university champion in both shot put and discus, and also mastered high jump, gymnastics, shooting, and gliding.

Matschewsky moved to Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, in 1937 and married Ottl Bretzel, a farmer’s son, in 1939. He disappeared during World War II, never returning home. Their two children, a son and a daughter, also died during the wartime years.

Matschewsky worked as a sports teacher. She was married and widowed twice more. In 1994, she moved into a nursing home, and regularly led gymnastics classes with a walker for her fellow residents until 2019.

On her 110th birthday, Matschewsky was positive for COVID-19, so her birthday party had to be cancelled. Her friends and family could see her through the window of her care home.

Matschewsky died on 23 September 2023 as Ulm’s oldest resident in history, at the age of 110 years, 355 days.