This lead-poisoning hypothesis received considerable attention. It offered a specific, testable mechanism for some of Beethoven’s chronic health problems, including his gastrointestinal complaints and his possible neurological symptoms. It seemed to fit both the historical record of his suffering and the laboratory evidence from the hair.
The 2023 study destroyed this interpretation at its foundation.
When the team extracted DNA from the Hiller Lock and compared it against the profiles from the five authenticated locks, there was no match. The Hiller Lock’s genetic profile was female. It came from a woman of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. She has not been identified. The most that can be said about the lock’s donor is that she shared ancestry consistent with the family background of the Hillers, who were themselves of Jewish descent—which may explain how the lock entered the Hiller family’s possession, though it does not explain the disconnect from Beethoven.
The researchers were careful about what this finding does and does not imply. A sample mismatch does not establish deliberate forgery. The lock may have entered the Hiller collection through an honest mistake—a mixing up of samples, a mislabeled container, a memory error about which lock came from whom. Ferdinand Hiller’s biographers have not been able to reconstruct the chain of custody in adequate detail to determine how the mix-up occurred. What the 2023 study established beyond reasonable doubt is that the lock is not Beethoven’s hair, and therefore that the lead studies based on it were not studying Beethoven.