Based on hair analyses, scientists believe they have found a (partial) explanation for all the mysterious conditions, including his deafness, that affected the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven throughout his life.
May 7, 1824, or almost exactly 200 years ago. Beethoven’s masterpiece, his Ninth Symphony, premieres in Vienna and afterwards the wildly enthusiastic audience gives thunderous applause. The 53-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven himself does not hear anything, at that time he is already completely deaf.
Hearing loss is far from the only condition the world-famous German composer faced during his life. From an early age, he suffered from recurring stomach and intestinal complaints, suffered at least two attacks of jaundice and was affected by a serious liver disease. To this day it is believed that Beethoven died at the age of 56 from liver and kidney disease.
However, the cause of his many health problems was a complicated issue that Beethoven himself hoped that doctors would one day find the solution to.
Latest DNA techniques
Ten years ago, an international team of researchers began studying strands of the composer’s hair using the latest DNA techniques. The findings, published in a March 2023 report, showed that Beethoven was genetically at risk for certain conditions, although the results did not provide insight into the underlying causes of his deafness. (Read more below the photo)
The statue of Ludwig van Beethoven in his birthplace Bonn. — © Getty Images
Beethoven’s genome, his genetic makeup, was then made public so that researchers around the world could work on it further. This now shows that his locks not only contain very high concentrations of lead, but also high levels of arsenic and mercury.
Fish and wine
The presence of these substances can (partly) be explained by Beethoven’s eating habits. It is known that he drank at least one bottle of wine every day. He invariably drank ‘lead wine’, at that time it was still a common practice to add lead acetate to wine as a sweetener and preservative. The arsenic and mercury could be due to his preference for fish. Fish from the Danube, the river where a lot of industrial waste was dumped at the time.
Ludwig van Beethoven invariably drank ‘lead wine’, at that time it was still a common practice to add lead acetate to wine as a sweetener and preservative
“The lead levels found are now considered lead poisoning and associated with gastrointestinal and kidney disease as well as hearing loss,” said Nader Rifar, professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and lead investigator of the latest study. “Although it was not so high that it could be the only cause of death.”
Additional research will be required to provide a definitive answer to this question.
