Beethoven first mentioned his deafness in a letter to his friend Dr. Wegeler on January 29, 1800. Beethoven found that his hearing had gradually deteriorated in the past two years, and he thought it was caused by the cold he suffered from in 1797. In 1802, Beethoven revealed to others that he could not hear the cheerful sound of pipes played by shepherds in the forest. He also told Wegeler that he could hear people when they spoke softly, but not clearly. He also had trouble hearing if someone shouted loudly, and heard ringing in his ears day and night. It is said that he had to cover his ears with cotton wool pads during the bombing of Vienna. The above evidence shows that Beethoven's hearing loss at this time was mainly high frequency, accompanied by reverberation and severe tinnitus. At this time, Beethoven began to use dialogue manuals and placed a small stick between his teeth and the piano so that he could hear the sound, indicating that the nature of the deafness contained a conductive deafness component. Beethoven's pronunciation has not deteriorated, indicating that his cochlear function is still partially preserved. At the age of 52, Beethoven was stripped of his command to conduct the opera "Fidelio" because he could not hear the solo. Later, his health deteriorated and he suffered from progressive jaundice, vomiting, diarrhea and edema that lasted for 4 months in the late stage. He underwent abdominal puncture 4 times, and 11 liters of ascites were finally extracted. Two days before his death, Beethoven wrote a suicide note. He said to the doctors present: "Applause! Friends, the performance is over." This great musician died in Vienna on March 26, 1827. The cause of death was liver disease. Renal syndrome. Joseph Wager, deputy director of the Vienna Pathology Museum, and his assistants performed an autopsy on Beethoven. Beethoven's auricles were large, irregular in shape, and wide in concha. The external auditory canal is covered with scales, and the tympanic membrane is covered with scales. The petrous part of the temporal bone, especially around the cochlea, is rich in blood vessels. The mastoid process is large and lined with membranous tissue containing blood vessels. The auditory nerve is shriveled and has demyelination changes. Many otologists agree that Beethoven's deafness belongs to cochlear otosclerosis, which can explain his progressive mixed high-frequency hearing loss accompanied by reverberation, reduced speech discrimination and tinnitus. The age of onset is also consistent with the disease. However, no stapes floor fixation was found at autopsy. In addition to otosclerosis, some people believe that Beethoven's deafness was caused by syphilis or Paget's disease. The truth is currently difficult to clarify.

Some people also say

Why did the great German musician Beethoven become deaf? Although people have conducted pathological autopsies on Beethoven's body twice in order to discover the secret of his deafness, the conclusions are still inconsistent. Based on medical records, many medical experts believe Beethoven was a patient with congenital syphilis. He lost his hearing due to the chronic progressive damage of syphilis. Some people also believe that Beethoven's dissolute life caused him to contract acquired syphilis, and acquired syphilis can also cause hearing loss. Some doctors believe that Beethoven's deafness was caused by some kind of tuberculosis. The musician suffered from various diseases including smallpox, typhoid, chicken pox, malnutrition, liver damage and other diseases throughout his life. Many of these factors can also contribute to hearing loss. So, the problem becomes complicated with salt. In March 1987, two professors from the University of Vienna announced in the book "Beethoven's Disease" that they were going to examine Beethoven's skull and found that the musician's deafness was caused by inner ear sclerosis. However, the British "Times" on October 14, 1990 stated that Beethoven suffered "chest infection, stomach problems, severe back pain and joint pain that eventually led to deafness."