Twitter is convinced Beethoven was actually black and the memes are exquisite

Honestly, you take a break from Twitter for five minutes and suddenly everyone is convinced legendary composer Ludwig van Beethoven was black. Okay, sure, but what is the truth behind the ‘was Beethoven black meme’? Why is my timeline now nothing but people vibing to Beethoven’s music and claiming William the Conqueror was also, in fact, a black man?

Well, the theory that Beethoven was black has actually been around for ages and is simply a case of Twitter making something new out of something old. In a lot of ways, the whole point is to piss racist boomers off who might feel the same way about Beethoven as they did about Winston Churchill’s statue. Maybe it’s best not to ask too many questions about these sorts of viral trends at this point. We’re through the looking glass. Here’s everything you need to know about the origins of the ‘was Beethoven Black meme’:

Okay first off: Was Beethoven actually black?

Erm, well… no. Unless the many paintings of him looking very white and rosy-cheeked were all part of some massive conspiracy, Beethoven was a white man who was born in the German city of Bonn.

Where did the ‘was Beethoven Black meme’ come from?

The Twitter theory snowballed from much more academic discussions o Beethoven’s ancestry: Many believe he was the lovechild of German man Johann Van and Maria Magdalena Keverich, a lady descended from the (Black) Spanish Moors. The theory is actually as old as 2015 and was explored more fully in an article published on The Concordian.

Best examples of the ‘was Beethoven black meme’

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