new clues on the causes of death from the DNA extracted from the composer’s hair – WWN

It wasn’t a lead poisoning to cause the deterioration and, subsequently, the death of the famous German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. The thesis, published in 2000 after an analysis of a lock of hair (the «Hiller lock», see photo below, ed), must be reviewed because the organic finds – it has now been discovered – were not his, but of one woman.

The strands examined

A new international study supports it just posted on Current Biology
by researchers from the University of Cambridge, Bonn and the Max Planck Institute who analyzed five strands genetically matching the hair of the well-known composer. In total, the team conducted authentication tests on eight hair samples acquired from public and private collections in the UK, continental Europe and the US. The five samples identified as authentic and from the same person belong to theIra F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies of San Jose, California; to a private collector, Kevin Brown, a member of the American Beethoven Society, et al Beethoven House of Bonn.

Risk factors

The analyzes show that Beethoven was predisposed to liver disease and infected withhepatitis B
. This data, combined with the (apparently) habitual consumption of wine, could have contributed to his death. In addition to genetic deafness, the composer suffered from chronic gastrointestinal disorders and severe liver disease (the jaundice) which culminated in the deterioration of his health which led to his died in 1827 at the age of only 56.
The team of scientists discovered a number of significant genetic risk factors for liver disease and evidence of hepatitis B virus infection dating back (at the latest) months before the composer’s last illness.

Wine consumption and cirrhosis

Beethoven’s consumption of wine (estimated thanks to autographed letters and diaries) has been judged to be regular, but it is difficult to know exactly what “regular” meant with respect to the quantities of alcohol consumed at the time: «Although most of his contemporaries say that his consumption was moderate by Viennese standards from the early 19th century, there is no complete agreement between these sources… probably amounted to amounts of alcohol… harmful to the liver. If your drinking has been heavy enough for a long enough period of time, the interaction with your genetic risk factors presents a possible explanation for your cirrhosis», says Tristan Begg of the University of Cambridge, lead author of the study. “We can’t say for sure what killed Beethoven, but now we can at least confirm the presence of a significant hereditary risk and an infection from hepatitis B virus,” said Johannes Krause, del Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology.

An extramarital birth

To determine whether the examined hair samples likely belonged to Beethoven, the scientists cross-referenced the genetic data with family trees of possible descendants living in Belgium and Germany and have simultaneously discovered a possible extramarital relationship in the father’s line of kinship which would have influenced the genetic heritage: «Through the combination of data on the DNA and archival documents, we were able to observe a discrepancy between the legal and biological genealogy of Ludwig van Beethoven». The study suggests that this event occurred in the direct paternal line between Hendrik van Beethoven’s conception in Kampenhout, Belgium, circa 1572, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s conception seven generations later, in 1770, in Bonn, Germany. The researchers were unable to determine the generation during which this event occurred.

The most famous lock was from a woman

Another discovery of this research was that it had denied the previous studies on the causes of the composer’s death, because they were based on hair always believed to be Beethoven’s, but which turned out to belong falsely. Especially the famous «lock of Hiller»: Hiller was a 15-year-old Jewish musician who allegedly cut off the composer’s lock the day after his death, to keep as a keepsake. During the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, the lock of hair was given to Kay Fremming, a Danish doctor, and upon her death, her daughter auctioned it off to two Americans, Ira Brilliant (founder of the Beethoven Center in California) and Che Guevara, a physician living in Arizona. Actually the strand in question turned out to be be of a woman and this therefore denies the analyzes carried out on the DNA which had proposed lead poisoning as the cause of the musician’s death.

The best preserved strands

Among the five samples identified as authentic, however, one (see opening image, ed) belonging to collector Kevin Brown is said to have been hand-delivered by Beethoven himself to the pianist Anton Halm in April 1826. Another of the specimens owned by Brown has emerged as the best preserved specimen (the Stumpff lockpictured above, ed)) and the researchers found a strong connection between the DNA extracted from this exhibit and people living in the present-day North Rhine-Westphalia region.