Text: According to Maynard Solomon, one of the foremost Beethoven scholars of today, this cannot possibly be true. In his book "Beethoven", 1998 revision, original copyright 1977, (the book happened to be on my bookshelf directly above my book on Constitutional Law) Solomon states on page 1: [Ludvig van Beethoven's] father, Johann married the widowed Maria Magealena Lehm (nee Keverich) on November 12, 1767. Their first child, Ludwig Maria, baptized on April 2, 1769, lived for six days. Their second son, Ludvig, was baptized on December 17, 1770." And on page 6: "Maria Magealena Keverich was born on December 19, 1746, the daughter of Heihrich Keverich, chief overseer of the kitchen at the palace of the elector of Trier at Ehrenbreitstein. At sixteen she married Johann Leym (born ....), bore him a son who died an infant, and was widowed in 1765, before she was nineteen. Johann van Beethoven brought his intended bride home to Bonn from Ehrenbreitstein, and they were married on November 12, 1767..." I count TWO children who died in infancy before she gave birth to the great genius. Where did the EIGHT previous children come from? And she later gave birth to Beethoven's two younger brothers, both of became normal adults, and one of whom outlived him. Furthermore, with the lengthy discussion of Beethoven's deafness in this 550 page treatise (and in the ongoing discussion among the Beethoven scholars all over the world about his deafness) there is no suggestion that either of the two earlier babies were known to be deaf, blind or mentally retarded....such a suggestion, if it had any basis in fact, would be extremely important to scholars. Indeed, contrary to popular rumor, there is general agreement among scholars today that Beethoven did NOT suffer from syphilis.

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