Ludwig van Beethoven was a famous German composer born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany. He had an alcoholic father who was his first music teacher and made him practice piano in tears as a child. Though he went to Vienna to study with Mozart, there is no record they ever met. Beethoven struggled with deafness later in life and was completely deaf by age 44, yet he continued composing and produced famous works including his 5th and 9th Symphonies. He died in 1827 at age 57 in Vienna, Austria.