On a tempestuous Monday in March of 1827, the renowned German maestro, Ludwig van Beethoven, succumbed to a prolonged period of illness.
Confined to his bed since the preceding Christmas, his physical state was significantly compromised by jaundice, marked by edematous limbs and abdomen, and each respiration became an arduous undertaking.
As individuals tasked with managing his personal effects meticulously sifted through his possessions, they unearthed a document penned by Beethoven a quarter of a century prior. This testament implored his brothers to disseminate the specifics of his deteriorating health to the public.
Today, it is common knowledge that one of history’s most celebrated musical luminaries became functionally deaf in his mid-forties.
This represented a profound and cruel irony that Beethoven was keen for the world to comprehend, not merely from a personal standpoint, but also from a medical perspective.
The composer lived for nearly two decades beyond his physician’s demise. Yet, almost two centuries after his passing, a collective of researchers embarked on a mission to fulfill his final wish in ways he could never have envisioned: by conducting a genetic analysis of DNA extracted from authenticated strands of his hair.
Observe the accompanying video for a synopsis of this groundbreaking investigation:
“Our principal objective was to illuminate the health afflictions that plagued Beethoven, prominently featuring his progressive hearing impairment, which commenced in his mid-to-late twenties and ultimately rendered him functionally deaf by 1818,” stated Johannes Krause, a biochemist affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, in a press release issued in 2023 upon the unveiling of the research findings.
The underlying etiology of this hearing deterioration has remained an enigma, even to his personal medical attendant, Dr. Johann Adam Schmidt.
What began as a persistent ringing in his ears during his twenties gradually evolved into a marked intolerance for loud sounds, culminating in a loss of auditory perception for higher frequencies, thereby effectively curtailing his career as a performing artist.
For an individual immersed in the world of music, the situation was exceptionally poignant. In correspondence addressed to his siblings, Beethoven confessed to being “hopelessly afflicted,” to a degree that prompted him to contemplate self-harm.
However, hearing loss was not the sole affliction Beethoven contended with during his adult life. From at least the age of 22, he reportedly experienced severe abdominal discomfort and chronic episodes of diarrhea.
Six years prior to his decease, the initial manifestations of liver disease became apparent, an ailment believed to have been a contributing factor, at the very least, to his demise at the comparatively young age of 56.
In 2007, a forensic examination of hair believed to be Beethoven’s suggested that lead poisoning might have accelerated his death, or perhaps been the ultimate cause of the symptoms that led to his demise.
Considering the prevalent use of lead in drinking vessels and the medical practices of the era that involved lead-based treatments, this conclusion was not entirely unexpected.
However, this most recent scholarly endeavor, published in March 2023, refutes that theory. The investigation revealed that the hair in question did not originate from Beethoven at all, but rather from an unidentified female.
More critically, several strands of hair definitively authenticated as more likely belonging to the composer indicate that his death was probably attributable to a hepatitis B infection, compounded by his alcohol consumption and numerous risk factors associated with liver disease.
“While we cannot definitively pinpoint the exact cause of Beethoven’s death, we can now confidently establish the presence of significant heritable predispositions and an infection with the hepatitis B virus,” explained Krause.
“Furthermore, we have been able to discount several other less probable genetic explanations.”
Regarding his other ailments?
“We were unable to ascertain a conclusive cause for Beethoven’s deafness or his gastrointestinal disturbances,” Krause stated.
In certain respects, the enigma surrounding the life and eventual demise of the celebrated classical composer deepens, leaving us with more unresolved questions.
Where did he contract hepatitis? How did a lock of a woman’s hair erroneously come to be regarded as Beethoven’s for centuries? And what precisely was the origin of his abdominal pains and hearing impairment?
Considering the research team was motivated by Beethoven’s own fervent desire for the world to grasp the nature of his hearing loss, this outcome is somewhat regrettable. Nevertheless, an additional surprising revelation emerged from his genetic makeup.
Further comparative analysis of the Y chromosome present in the hair samples with that of his modern paternal descendants revealed a discrepancy.
This finding suggests instances of extramarital sexual activity within the lineage preceding the composer’s birth.
“This observation points to an extrapair paternity event within his paternal line, occurring between the conception of Hendrik van Beethoven in Kampenhout, Belgium, circa 1572, and the conception of Ludwig van Beethoven seven generations later in 1770, in Bonn, Germany,” stated Tristan Begg, a biological anthropologist currently affiliated with the University of Cambridge in the UK.
Such revelations might have been more than a younger Beethoven could have anticipated, particularly in light of the fateful injunction he committed to paper.
He could never have fathomed the secrets that were being meticulously preserved as his friends and associates carefully snipped strands of hair from his person in the wake of that somber, storm-laden Monday evening in 1827.
This comprehensive research was formally published in the esteemed journal Current Biology.
