New research: the curious cause of Beethoven’s death

Genomic analysis of eight verified locks of Beethoven’s hair clarifies the diagnosis of his fatal illness. The reearch, published in Current Biology, indicates ‘a genetic predisposition for liver disease’ and ‘a likely hepatitis B infection’ in the months before his death in March 1827.

None of this will surprise Beethoven scholars, some of whom blame his liver disease, without foundation, on alcohol abuse. Nor is this latest genome evidence entirely conclusive. It does not, for example, explain persistent intestinal complaints throughout his adult life, or the urinary retention that plagued his final days (as detailed in Why Beethoven).

What is intriguing, perhaps explosive, is the discovery of an intruder in Beethoven’s paternal lineage. Specifically, according to Current Biology, ‘we conclude that the most plausible explanation for our observations entails that at least one extra-pair paternity (EPP) event occurred on Beethoven’s direct paternal line, between the conception of Aert van Beethoven’s son Hendrik in Kampenhout, Belgium, in c.1572, and the conception of Ludwig van Beethoven seven generations later in 1770, in Bonn, Germany.’

This tends to reinforce modern suppositions that part of Beethoven’s ancestry was non-European, probably North African. It also contributes to our understanding of his own sense of non-typicality and outsiderness.

There are further reports on the research in general media.