Ode to ill health: hepatitis B, not alcohol, may have been Beethoven's biggest killer

When an autopsy was carried out after Beethoven’s death in 1827 , his liver was found to be “beset with nodules the size of a bean”. Now researchers say the cause may not have been his alcohol consumption alone, with a genetic analysis revealing the great composer experienced a hepatitis B infection and was at high risk for liver disease – the condition generally thought to have killed him.

- Nicola Davis

Tristan Begg, the first author of the research from the University of Cambridge, said Beethoven had been extremely sensitive in his lifetime about suggestions he was a drunkard.

“We don’t exactly vindicate him, but I think the fact that there’s a genetic risk, and possibly hepatitis B – and for who knows how long – I would hope actually [presents] a bit of a paradigm shift away from the preoccupation with alcohol ,” said Begg.

“ If anything it would have taken less alcohol to do the same amount of damage than we would have earlier assumed.”

Begg and colleagues came to their conclusions after studying eight locks of hair attributed to the composer to shed light on his health problems.

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 in Bonn and died in Vienna aged 56 . He suffered progressive hearing loss, which began in his 20s and led to him being functionally deaf by 1818 .

Genetic analysis revealed that five of the locks were from the same individual, had damage consistent with being from the early 19th century, and very probably came from the composer – with two having a well recorded chain of custody.