Genetic analysis of Beethoven’s hair sheds light on possible causes of his death

He remains in the collective imagination the archetype of the artist who turned his suffering into musical gold. and trials in the author’s life ode to joy did not let go. Raised by a cruel and alcoholic father, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) lost his beloved mother at the age of 17 and his life was marked by health problems. In addition to his famous deafness, which began around the age of 28 and became complete between the ages of 45 and 48, the composer regularly complained of abdominal pain and suffered from depressive disorders.

Nearly two centuries after his untimely death at the age of 56, Beethoven’s deafness and the cause of his death are still debated. Many hypotheses were put forward: cirrhosis of the liver, syphilis, acute hepatitis, Paget’s disease (bone pathology, which especially causes skull deformation). , may be related to this alcoholism. The cheap wine of the time was, in fact, often laced with lead to give it a sweet taste – although Beethoven was particularly fond of Hungarian wines, which were often adulterated.

The new study, published March 22 in the journal Current Biology, The DNA of the man who knew how to sing the piano so well spoke volumes. An international team has decoded the human genome extracted from eight strands of hair believed to come from the composer’s skull and from public and private collections. The research was coordinated by Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, a laboratory that specializes in methods for reading ancient DNA.

“Stumpf’s Wick”

“Hair is a suitable material for studying the genetic causes of various diseases. recalls Jean-Francois Deleuze, director of the CEA’s National Research Center for Human Genomics. It is still necessary to ensure that the analyzed wicks are indeed authentic. »

And this is the first surprise. Of the eight locks examined, the authors authenticated only five, all of which were taken during the last seven years of the musician’s life. The closest link has been found between the DNA of the “Stumpf wick” (which belongs to a private collector) and the DNA of people of known German descent from the Beethoven family, who live today in North Rhine-Westphalia.

And the other three locks? The DNA of one was unusable. As for the other two, their genomes do not match the same individual as the five verified locks. The “Hiller’s Lock,” which was allegedly taken from Beethoven’s deathbed by a young admirer and then passed from hand to hand, actually belonged to a woman. This contradicts the conclusion of a study that in 2000 found that lead levels were hundreds of times higher than normal, which could explain the artist’s deafness.