Paul Bekker

Max Paul Eugen Bekker (11 September 1882 – 7 March 1937) was a German music critic and author. Described as having "brilliant style and […] extensive theoretical and practical knowledge," Bekker was chief music critic for both the Frankfurter Zeitung (1911–1923), and later the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung (1934–1937).

Life and career Max Paul Eugen Bekker was born in Berlin on 11 September 1882 as the only child of Hirsch Nachmann Michel Bekker and Olga Elsner. He began his career as a violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic, before employment as a conductor between 1902 and 1905. and was drawn on by Theodor Adorno in his essay "Radio Physiognomics".

Bekker fled Germany for Paris after Hitler's rise to power, and emigrated to New York in 1934, becoming chief music critic of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung. He died in New York on 7 March 1937.