MAY 2006
Unravelling a 19th Century Mystery
Paul Kaufmann, MBA ’63
by Margaret Steen
Paul Kaufmann, MBA’63
Photo by Robert Holmgren
When Paul Kaufmann opened the vault, he found bones in a dusty box labeled Beethoven.
It was supposed to be Paul Kaufmann’s retirement project: determine the true origin of the bones in a small metal box that his family had safeguarded for generations. Bones that were rumored to have been chiseled from Beethoven’s skull.
But before Kaufmann, MBA ’63, retired, the author of a book on Beethoven called his home. The author had heard about the bone fragments: Thirty-six years after Beethoven’s 1827 death, his remains had been exhumed and examined by experts including Dr. Romeo Seligmann. The author had traced Seligmann’s descendants—and the remains—to Kaufmann’s uncle, who died in France in 1993. He knew Kaufmann had inherited his uncle’s estate. And he was wondering: Did Kaufmann have the bones?
Kaufmann had grown up with whispers of Beethoven: His mother would call him by whistling the familiar first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. A few years before his death, Kaufmann’s uncle mentioned a family connection to Beethoven. But he didn’t show Kaufmann the bones or tell him he had them.
In 1990, Kaufmann and his wife, Joan, rushed to Vence, France, after Kaufmann’s mother died there while taking care of her brother. In his mother’s purse was a safe-deposit box key. Among the items they retrieved at the local bank was a box with the word “Beethoven” scratched faintly across the top—and it was full of bones.
“I was in disbelief,” Kaufmann says. Yet that was also when he started to take seriously the family lore.
After arranging care for his uncle, who had dementia, the Kaufmanns took many of his possessions—including the bones—to their home in Danville, Calif., for safekeeping.
So, yes, Joan Kaufmann told the author when he called. Kaufmann had the bones. They were in a safe-deposit box at the local Bank of America.
A few months after that 1999 telephone call, Kaufmann, with the help of William Meredith, director of the Beethoven Center at San Jose State University, had the bones tested to see if they matched a lock of Beethoven’s hair. But the tests failed to produce reliable results.
After numerous consultations with forensic experts, Kaufmann decided to try again in 2005.
“I was determined that we had to prove it one way or the other,” he says.
Scientists at a lab in Germany drilled a 1-centimeter hole in the underside of one of the skull fragments—not all the way through—and used dental instruments to scrape out enough material for testing. Kaufmann, who graduated from the Coast Guard Academy with a degree in general engineering, helped the researchers figure out how to avoid drilling a second hole.
The care that the scientists took to minimize the damage (they even practiced drilling on another skull from the 1800s before working on the supposed Beethoven’s) helped Kaufmann assuage one concern.
“We had many talks about the ethics,” Kaufmann says. “What right do we have to destroy a famous person’s body parts?”
The results came back in October: They supported the conclusion that the bones were Beethoven’s. That was when Kaufmann finally believed the family stories. He publicly announced the results, with Meredith, in November.
Meredith says Kaufmann has four qualities that have made him “a very effective and responsible steward” of such a significant artifact: knowledge, wisdom, resources, and a reverence for European history.
But even though the bones have become a major avocation, Kaufmann still hasn’t retired. He is currently raising money for his latest company, Wellness Express Healthcare Inc., which puts walk-in medical offices, staffed by nurse practitioners, in chain drug stores.
He has more plans for the bones, which are on long-term loan to the Beethoven Center.
Tests have already determined that the skull fragments contained high concentrations of lead, which may have caused Beethoven's death. And Kaufmann hopes scientists can someday determine whether Beethoven carried a gene that causes deafness.
The past and future research “is all part of unleashing the mysteries of why he went deaf, why he died, why he suffered”—all questions that Beethoven himself asked before he died, Kaufmann said.
