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
Purported to be Beethoven’s hair.
We should clone him and find out...............
I hope not. Y is only males.
Mitochondria comes from mom. (Or, more accurately in this day of in vitro, the female who gestates the child.)
They had 5 samples from completely different sources that matched.
Unless you have a consistent imposter, that wouldn’t happen.
What if he was really a Schroeder?
Or a Lennon?...............
It is all speculation, because there is no way to prove the locks of hair tested belonged to Beethoven.
Hmm. His mom cheated.
Maybe Beethoven’s hair, maybe not. Lead poisoning has the effect of dulling the senses but also leading to dementia. Hard to believe someone with chronic lead toxicity could continue to compose great music.
Ludwig van Beethoven canceled his mail and wrote Piano Sonata No. 30 in E(mail) major.
Groan
This analysis was done in 2023?
The DNA of his hair revealed he was a gender-neutral trannie poisoned by vulgar and uncultivated MAGA extremists
We wuz beethovenz
Well played.
And you can buy the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Beethovens-Hair-Extraordinary-Historical-Scientific/dp/076790351X
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