Genetic Analysis of Beethoven’s Hair Reveals Something Surprising

Ludwig van Beethoven is, along with Mozart, the most internationally recognized composer. Despite being afflicted by progressive deafness that became absolute towards the end of his life, Beethoven managed to leave for posterity some of the most perfect works in the history of music.

The mystery that has always surrounded his death led, a few years ago, to study the genetic sequence of one of the locks of hair attributed to the musician, known as the “Hiller lock” after the name of the friend who kept it. And, even more recently, in 2023, the results of a study were published that had thoroughly analyzed some verified locks of the composer and determined his state of health, the possible causes of his death and, surprisingly, some secrets of his lineage.

In today’s article we take a tour of all the research that has been carried out and we tell you about the surprises that researchers found when analyzing Beethoven’s DNA.

Beethoven’s DNA: studying his chronic deafness

Ludwig van Beethoven died on March 26, 1826 at the age of 56. As soon as he died, and before burying him, the doctors performed a craniotomy and removed some bones from his ear, in a desperate attempt to discover what was causing his deafness.

It was not an invasive act. Before dying, The composer had left in writing the wish that, once he died, his trusted doctors would try to find out what had deprived him of his sense of hearing since he was twenty. when the first symptoms of his progressive deafness began, which, at the end of his life, would be absolute.

Of course, nothing could be clarified. The precarious medical rudiments of the time made research difficult, and the mystery about the cause of Beethoven’s deafness, as well as his poor health and his death, remained during the 200 years that followed his death. Finally, in the first years of the new millennium, a thorough study of his DNA revealed interesting data that could shed a lot of light on the matter.

The lock that was auctioned at Sotheby’s

Numerous locks of Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair remain. It is not surprising given its popularity, but, furthermore, It was very common in the 19th century to give strands of hair to loved ones or admirers. The result is that no less than eight supposed locks corresponding to the composer were accounted for, and the most famous of them, called the “Hiller lock” after the name of the friend who treasured it, was the most reliable of all.

Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885) was a fervent follower of the composer, whom he had visited several times when he was only a teenager. One day after Beethoven’s death, he cut a lock of Beethoven’s hair and jealously guarded it as a treasure. The strands of hair were kept in a locket, which Hiller himself gave to his son years later. In 1994, the lock in question was at Sotheby’s and was going to be auctioned.

Four members of the American Beethoven Society purchased the lock for $7,300 and displayed it proudly. Later, it was scrupulously analyzed by the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The results were surprising: the analysis showed that lead had accumulated in the hair strands in an amount 100 times higher than normal.

Lead poisoned?

The results of the analysis caused rivers of ink to flow. Had Beethoven died from lead poisoning? In 2007, Christian Reiter, former director of the Center for Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, published a study in The Beethoven Journal (see bibliography) in which he put forward the theory that, indeed, the musician had been slowly poisoned. through utensils, food or wine mixed with lead acetate.

This is not a far-fetched hypothesis, since, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Danube had become a landfill where the incipient industry that emerged from the Industrial Revolution dumped its waste. The fish in the river was highly contaminated by potentially poisonous materials (such as lead), and it is known that Beethoven was passionate about fish and ate it often.

The wine theory cannot be discarded either, or it may complement the other. In Beethoven’s time it was common to add lead acetate to wine to preserve it. If, as some scholars maintain, Beethoven consumed up to a bottle a day, he may have been ingesting very high amounts of lead, which ultimately caused his death.

The great discovery of 2023

During the first decades of the millennium, then, the belief was maintained that Beethoven’s most famous lock of hair, the “Hiller lock”, was authentic and that it contained high amounts of lead, capable of slowly poisoning a human being and causing death.

However, everything took an unexpected turn in March 2023, when a research team from the University of Cambridge, led by Johannes Krause (Max Planck Institute), published new discoveries related to the composer’s famous locks. Many shook their heads (including Reiter, the author of the 2007 article): the “Hiller lock” actually belonged to a woman.

If the lock at Sotheby’s was not Beethoven’s, would it be possible to rule out the lead poisoning theory? Not really. Because the analysis of Beethoven’s confirmed locks gave exactly the same result as Hiller’s: high levels of lead, to which arsenic and mercury had to be added, the amount of which was between 13 and 14 times higher than normal.

Krause’s team had managed to discern which of the eight locks were Beethoven’s and which were not thanks to DNA samples from five people living in Belgium, who bore the surname Van Beethoven and who shared ancestors with the composer. Of the eight locks, two did not correspond to Beethoven (Hiller’s and another one), and a third could not be analyzed. The remaining five showed DNA with perfectly identifiable matches (in other words, they were real).

Descendant of an illegitimate son…?

The exhaustive analysis in 2023 corroborated that Beethoven had large amounts of lead, arsenic and mercury in his body, which, most likely, accelerated his physical decline. On the other hand, the study of the composer’s DNA revealed that He suffered from chronic hepatitis B, a serious disease that is spread intravenously. through sexual relations or during childbirth.

There are no known sexual affairs of the composer (although there are platonic loves), nor is there any evidence that he consumed drugs, so the most plausible thing is to think that hepatitis entered the musician’s body from his mother, during childbirth. Be that as it may, the infection degraded his health and may be the main cause of his death at the age of 56.

Despite all the information obtained, the main objective, which was to discover the cause of his deafness, was not achieved. A personal aspect did come to light that, probably, not even the composer himself was aware of: the DNA samples, compared with those of his relatives, show certain inconsistencies that can only be understood if a straight line ancestor of Beethoven was a child out of wedlock.

The research continues, since everything related to Ludwig van Beethoven inevitably arouses great interest. For now, we know for sure which locks of hair belong to him and what ailments he suffered during his life. The reason for his deafness, however, will have to wait.