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Beethoven on his deathbed

A lithograph of Beethoven on his deathbed.
A lithograph of Beethoven on his deathbed. Illustration: Beethoven-Haus Bonn

Beethoven died on March 26, 1827. Years before his death, he asked his doctor to make public the cause of the ailments that troubled him for many years. Now, thanks to DNA preserved in locks of the composer’s hair and passed down through the centuries, geneticists are finding new details about the man’s health and what contributed to his death.