Posted on 11/12/2025 8:32:28 AM PST by Red Badger
Everyone knows Beethoven went deaf, but nobody really knew what killed him until now. Let’s get into it.
For centuries, people talked about his genius and his misery like they were the same thing. And as it turns out, they kinda were. The man who gave the world symphonies was being poisoned every single day of his life.
Scientists have tested the locks of hair that fans snipped from his head when he died in 1827. And what they found was pure mayhem. His body was loaded with lead, arsenic, and mercury. His wine, his medicine, even the glass he drank from, all of it was toxic to the core. Every sip, every cure, every comfort was literally killing him.
Add in hepatitis B and a ticking time bomb in his liver, and Beethoven never had a chance. His body was breaking down while his mind was still writing masterpieces.
And the final twist in this DNA story is that he doesn’t even match his supposed bloodline. That means the family name that carried his legend might not have even carried his genes.
SOURCE
When Beethoven died in 1827, admirers snipped locks of his hair as mementos. Two centuries later, scientists tested those strands and what they found was staggering. His hair contained up to 380 micrograms of lead per gram. The normal level is 4. He also had 13 times the normal arsenic and four times the mercury. The results explain much of his agony… the deafness, the stomach pain, the despair. His wine was sweetened with lead acetate. His medicines, ointments, and even drinking glasses contained it. Every sip, every cure, every comfort poisoned him slowly. Combined with hepatitis B and a genetic predisposition to liver disease, the greatest composer in history was doomed by the very world that adored him. And in one final twist, DNA testing revealed Beethoven’s Y chromosome doesn’t match his family line hinting at a centuries-old secret. Beethoven’s hair has done what his doctors never could: It told the truth about his suffering.
When Beethoven died in 1827, groupies snipped locks of his hair as mementos.
Two centuries later, scientists tested those strands, and what they found was shocking.
But this isn’t just folklore or theory; the science is ironclad. Researchers took eight locks of hair believed to belong to Beethoven and ran full genomic sequencing on them. Five matched perfectly, confirming they were his.
SOURCE
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) remains among the most influential and popular classical music composers. Health problems significantly impacted his career as a composer and pianist, including progressive hearing loss, recurring gastrointestinal complaints, and liver disease. In 1802, Beethoven requested that following his death, his disease be described and made public. Medical biographers have since proposed numerous hypotheses, including many substantially heritable conditions. Here we attempt a genomic analysis of Beethoven in order to elucidate potential underlying genetic and infectious causes of his illnesses. We incorporated improvements in ancient DNA methods into existing protocols for ancient hair samples, enabling the sequencing of high-coverage genomes from small quantities of historical hair. We analyzed eight independently sourced locks of hair attributed to Beethoven, five of which originated from a single European male. We deemed these matching samples to be almost certainly authentic and sequenced Beethoven’s genome to 24-fold genomic coverage. Although we could not identify a genetic explanation for Beethoven’s hearing disorder or gastrointestinal problems, we found that Beethoven had a genetic predisposition for liver disease. Metagenomic analyses revealed furthermore that Beethoven had a hepatitis B infection during at least the months prior to his death. Together with the genetic predisposition and his broadly accepted alcohol consumption, these present plausible explanations for Beethoven’s severe liver disease, which culminated in his death. Unexpectedly, an analysis of Y chromosomes sequenced from five living members of the Van Beethoven patrilineage revealed the occurrence of an extra-pair paternity event in Ludwig van Beethoven’s patrilineal ancestry.
DEBRIEFING
In the end, Beethoven’s genius wasn’t fueled by suffering; it survived in spite of it. Every note he wrote was a rebellion against a body that was already betraying him. The world heard music. He heard endurance.
Science finally gave us the autopsy his century couldn’t. Lead in his veins. A virus in his liver. A secret buried in his bloodline. All the ghosts that lived inside the man who gave us the Ode to Joy.
It’s strange, isn’t it? Two hundred years later, we still can’t stop listening to him, and now, he’s finally speaking back.
NOW YOU KNOW
His body failed. His music never did
Roll over, Beethoven Ping!...................
Let me guess - he’s actually a transgender African!
or... that wasn’t locks of his hair
“Unexpectedly, an analysis of Y chromosomes sequenced from five living members of the Van Beethoven patrilineage revealed the occurrence of an extra-pair paternity event in Ludwig van Beethoven’s patrilineal ancestry.”
Momma’s baby, Daddy’s Maybe...............He may not have been a ‘Beethoven’.........
(Groupies Cut Locks of Beethoven’s Hair… Two Centuries Later, Scientists Reveal Shocking DNA Results)
Turns out that he was using Pantene.
He got a free sample in his junk mail 📬.
Well, there really is no such thing as “junk mail”...
It takes just as much effort to deliver it....
Newman!!
Poor Beethoven trusted the science.
Lead was in a lot of things in those days..including hair colors and medicines.
Fascinating. And I never knew they could get DNA from hair snips. I thought you had to have roots. Anyone know?
Yes, the root is not necessary, but it helps. The DNA in the hair shaft is fragmented but recoverable.............
I have roast beeth in the oven right now.
Abstract
While the idea that Beethoven had African ancestry became popular in the 1960s during the Civil Rights struggle in the United States, its conception arose during an earlier moment: the global New Negro movement of the 1920s. Appearing in newspaper columns, music journals, and essays, Black American writings on Beethoven challenged white musicians’ claims to the canon of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. This article argues that the project of making Beethoven Black belonged to a greater and more ambitious endeavour to rewrite Western music history. Black musicologists sought to globalize the Western canon, and in so doing, critique its grand narratives. Locating Black musical idioms in eighteenth-century piano sonatas or conducting archival research on Black European figures such as George Bridgetower, their music histories challenged readers to re-examine just who, exactly, had contributed to the project of cultural modernity and on what grounds.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twentieth-century-music/article/making-beethoven-black-the-new-negro-movement-black-internationalism-and-the-rewriting-of-music-history/EE7BEFD9FB9D795D76F6EB741C3E8566
I don’t see any particular surprise with his DNA.
The lead and whatnot are somewhat surprising (not really? Given what passed for medicine at they time), but that has nothing to do with his lineage.
Former Bravo star Jennifer Welch, during a discussion in November 2025, she stated, “Americans have no culture except for multiculturalism,” and in a separate comment, referred to “crusty” old white people as having “no culture”.
Thanks. Fingers crossed the technology gets into the affordable range for ancestry testing. But you give me hope.
How many here are going to search for “Ode to Joy” to listen to? This is one I found that I like - simple without the orchestra...
The DNA in his Y chromosome doesn’t match the Beethoven family mitochondrial (female) line.............
Sounds from inside Beethoven's tomb were heard, and the authorities summoned. Opening it up, they found Beethoven, who had composed so wonderfully, writing on parchment paper with a quill pen. Crossing out line after line, it was found he was de-composing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
