In 1802, at the age of only 32, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers and asked for an autopsy on his body after death to find the cause of his illness — increasing deafness.
The German musical genius died in 1827 — then he was 56 years old, completely deaf and suffered from many chronic diseases, including cirrhosis of the liver. This is all that the doctors of that time could establish by conducting an autopsy.
Since then, scientists and music historians have long tried to find out the causes of Beethoven's deafness and his death. But only now, two centuries later, a group of researchers partially fulfilled the composer's wish by analyzing the DNA of his hair. Their article was published in Current Biology.
Scientists have found that Beethoven had a genetic predisposition to liver disease, which was exacerbated by the composer's addiction to alcohol, and at the end of his life he contracted hepatitis B. Probably, the combination of these factors caused his death.
Why Beethoven lost his hearing — it is still unclear.
The mystery of Beethoven's death
«Our main goal was to shed light on Beethoven's health problems, which are known to have included a progressive hearing loss beginning at age 25-30 and eventually leading to functional deafness by 1818.» noted Johannes Krause from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
Despite his hearing impairment, Beethoven wrote 722 works in his lifetime, including 9 symphonies, 35 piano sonatas, and 16 string quartets. He continued to compose music even when he became completely deaf by the age of 40. Some of his greatest works, Symphonies Nos. 7, 8, and 9, were written in the last years of his life as he struggled with stomach cramps, digestive problems, chronic bronchitis, and muscle weakness. He died in Vienna on March 27, 1827, after an attack of pneumonia that aggravated his existing illnesses.
For a long time, all his symptoms pointed to lead poisoning, which, however, was refuted in 2010, when researchers found that in a small piece of Beethoven's skull contained no more lead than the skull of an average person.
A new study published on March 22 found a completely different cause of death.
A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge received eight strands of Beethoven's hair from private collections, five of which were found to be genuine. The scientists used them to sequence the composer's genome.
“We have not been able to find the exact cause of Beethoven's deafness or problems with the gastrointestinal tract,” said Johannes Krause. “However, we have found a number of significant genetic risk factors for liver disease. We have also found signs of infection with the hepatitis B virus, at least a few months before the last illness of the composer. This probably contributed to his death. «
Surprise for scientists
During the sequencing of Beethoven's genome, scientists found that his Y chromosome does not match any of the five modern relatives who bear the same surname and have a paternal ancestor in common with the composer. This indicates that one of Beethoven's ancestors had an extramarital affair.
«This finding suggests extrapair paternity on his paternal side between Hendrick van Beethoven's conception in 1572 in Campenhout, Belgium, and conception of Ludwig van Beethoven seven generations later, in 1770, in Bonn, Germany,» says researcher Tristan Begg, now at the University of Cambridge.
New data paves the way for future research: scientists still it is unclear how Beethoven contracted hepatitis B, how he is related to his modern descendants, and what caused his deafness.