Beethoven had been ill for months with liver disease, likely worsened by heavy drinking, and lay bedridden in his Vienna apartment attended by friends. Legend holds he raised a fist at a crack of thunder just before dying. His funeral drew an estimated 20,000 mourners, a testament to his stature even as his personal life had grown increasingly isolated due to profound deafness.
Beethoven's final months were miserable: jaundiced, swollen with fluid that doctors repeatedly drained by tapping his abdomen, he was nursed by his sister-in-law and friends while his nephew Karl, whom he'd fought bitterly to gain custody of years earlier, kept his distance. He had continued composing even after becoming completely deaf by his late forties, relying on vibration and memory, producing works like the Ninth Symphony and late string quartets that pushed music into territory it hadn't gone before.
According to an account from his housekeeper and others present, a violent thunderstorm broke over Vienna on the afternoon of March 26. As lightning flashed, Beethoven reportedly opened his eyes, raised a clenched fist toward the sky in a final defiant gesture, then fell back and died. Whether embellished by early biographers or not, the story has become inseparable from his legend—a fittingly dramatic exit for a composer whose music was defined by struggle and defiance.
His funeral three days later drew a crowd estimated at 20,000, an extraordinary turnout for the era, with schools closing so students could attend. Franz Schubert, who would himself die the following year, was among the torchbearers. An autopsy revealed severe liver damage and other ailments; a 2007 analysis of hair and bone fragments suggested significant lead exposure, possibly from wine adulterated with lead-based compounds of the time, adding a grim medical postscript to the myth.
Key people: Ludwig van Beethoven