Adventures with Beethoven

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How did Beethoven lose his hearing?

Ever since Beethoven died, people have tried to figure out why he lost his hearing. After his death, an autopsy was performed and the doctors found severe dilation of the nerves in the ear. Although this explained Beethoven’s deafness, it did not explain what caused it in the first place. Beethoven had dealt with health issues for the majority of his adult life; he had stomach problems, a hard time breathing, his eyes were inflamed, his joints hurt, and he was often depressed. Many of his health problems were exacerbated by his excess drinking. Also medicine in Beethoven’s day was very different than it is today. Many of the medications and techniques we take for granted had not been discovered or invented yet. There were no antibiotics, x-rays, standard vaccinations, and doctors didn’t regularly wash their hands. The lack of comprehensive medical treatment, as well as the many health issues Beethoven had, made his life more difficult. 

Many different doctors and scholars have tried to solve the puzzle of Beethoven’s deafness. One major clue that has been studied is a lock of Beethoven’s hair. After the composer’s death, a young musician named Ferdinand Hiller snipped off some strands of hair from Beethoven’s body, a common custom at the time. This hair stayed in Hiller’s family for almost one hundred years. The hair then became the property of Dr. Kay Fremming who lived in Denmark during World War II. The doctor helped numerous Jewish families escape to freedom in Sweden. Some scholars guess that an escaping Jewish family gave Fremming the memento as a thank you for his help. Dr. Fremming’s daughter put the hair up for auction in 1994. It was purchased by Dr. Alfredo Guevera for $7,000. He kept 160 strands for himself and donated the remaining 422 hairs to the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University. 

Scientists and researchers at the Brilliant Center ran numerous tests on Beethoven’s hair, scanning the DNA and looking for chemical or toxicological markers. In their tests, they found a highly elevated level of lead in Beethoven’s hair. Beethoven often drank from a goblet containing lead and wine at the time was often sweetened with lead. Chronic lead poisoning could have been a cause for Beethoven’s hearing loss. Several other groups also believed this theory that lead poisoning was the main cause. However, other researchers and doctors have other ideas including Cogan syndrome (a rare autoimmune disease that affects the eyes and inner ears), typhus (a group of bacterial infectious diseases), syphilis (a bacterial infection usually spread by sexual contact), or lupus (an autoimmune disease that can affect the joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs). Although there are numerous theories, there is no way to ever know exactly why Beethoven went deaf.