Fantastical Boxes of History

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany to parents Johann van Beethoven and Maria Magdalena Keverich. Ludwig's father was a Flemish-German musician, teacher, and singer who sang in the chapel of the Archbishop of Cologne, whose court was at Bonn. Ludwig's musical talent was obvious at an early age. He was initially harshly and intensively taught by his father who was an alcoholic and an abusive father who often beat Ludwig. Because of his dysfunctional home life, at the age of eighteen, Ludwig found relief with the family of Helene von Breuning, whose children he loved, befriended, and taught piano too. At age 21, he moved to Vienna, which subsequently became his base, and studied composition with Joseph Haydn, an Austrian composer of the Classical period. In Vienna, Ludwig gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist and a "rock star" to his contemporaries. As time went by, he became more and more deaf, possibly due to physical abuse by his father when he was younger. By the age of 44 he was completely deaf and stopped performing and appearing in public. The legendary composer, who experienced decades of illness that left him in misery for most of his life, died of lead poisoning by an accidental overdose of a lead-based cure giving to him by his doctor, Andreas Wawruch. Ludwig van Beethoven died at the age of 56 and is buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery in Vienna, Austria.