ABSTRACT
With the overall aim to introduce pertinent ethical-aesthetic facets of Paul Bekker's critical work, this chapter begins by offering a brief glance at the complex historical and political situation at the beginning of the republic. The ethical impetus of Bekker's aesthetics can usefully be situated in the politically saturated German musical tradition from which it sprang and in which it developed. The chapter traces intersections of ethics and aesthetics in Bekker's writings from Beethoven to his work in the context of Das deutsche Musikleben. It argues that Bekker's language betrays a particular ethical impetus that relates closely to his ethical demand for 'activity'. In Beethoven, he in particular accounted for the ethical power of Beethoven's symphonies and their ability to reach out to the masses. For Bekker, Beethoven's music both echoed and responded to the political conflicts and challenges contemporary to the composer, and he described Beethoven's symphonies as 'a speech to the nation, a speech to humanity'.
