Study Sheds New Light on Beethoven's Cause of Death

A study that sequenced genes in locks of Beethoven's hair concluded that he had Hepatitis B in the months before his death, and was also genetically predisposed to liver disease

An international team of 32 researchers across disciplines has completed a significant study analyzing the genes of Ludwig van Beethoven. The study, which sequenced genomes from eight locks of hair initially thought to be Beethoven's, draws new conclusions about his cause of death and sheds new light on his family tree — but was not able to determine the cause of his deafness.

The initial idea for the study came from lead author Tristan Begg, a PhD student in Anthropological Biology at the University of Cambridge, and co-author William Meredith, the founding director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University.

From the initial sample of eight locks of hair, the researchers determined that only five of them belonged to the same European male, which they decided was almost certainly Beethoven. By sequencing genes from these samples, the researchers determined that Beethoven was genetically predisposed to liver disease, and also that he had a hepatitis B infection during the last month of his life.

The study also disproved a working theory that Beethoven had died of lead poisoning, by determining that the sample involved in that theory had in fact come from a woman.

An additional surprise came when the researchers looked at Beethoven's genealogy. It was previously thought that his lineage was well established through archival research; however, the genetic sequencing showed that somewhere in Beethoven's line there is an extra-paternity pair (EPP). This occurs when there is not direct genetic lineage from both partners in a couple (i.e. the child is fathered by somebody other than the mother's husband).

"This finding suggests an extra-pair paternity event in his paternal line between the conception of Hendrik van Beethoven in Kampenhout, Belgium in c.1572 and the conception of Ludwig van Beethoven seven generations later in 1770, in Bonn, Germany," Begg said.

"We can surmise from Beethoven’s 'conversation books', which he used during the last decade of his life, that his alcohol consumption was very regular — although it is difficult to estimate the volumes being consumed," Begg added.

"While most of his contemporaries claim his consumption was moderate by early nineteenth-century Viennese standards, there is not complete agreement among these sources, and this still likely amounted to quantities of alcohol known today to be harmful to the liver. If his alcohol consumption was sufficiently heavy over a long enough period of time, the interaction with his genetic risk factors presents one possible explanation for his cirrhosis."

The full study was published in the scientific journal Current Biology in April 2023.