The Yale Paul Bekker Papers were given by Sarah Bekker in memory of her husband, Konrad Bekker (1911-1981), Paul Bekker's eldest child. Konrad Bekker had left Germany in August 1933 to join his father in Italy and thereafter in France before moving to Switzerland to complete his doctorate in economics at the University of Basel. He joined his father in the United States in November 1936 at which time he was able to bring with him most of Bekker's papers and much of his library. In 1939 in order to finance the publication of his doctoral dissertation (a requirement for receiving his degree) Konrad Bekker was forced to sell selected items of Bekker's papers (principally letters from prominent musical personalities and a few manuscript scores) to the Library of Congress, while other libraries acquired a number of books and scores. Nevertheless, what remained, preserved in several dozen boxes, represented the bulk of Bekker's papers, including virtually all his family and business correspondence, as well as several hundred letters and additional items by correspondents represented in the Library of Congress collection. Unfortunately virtually all letters and documents relating to Bekker's life after 1933, including his years in Paris and New York have not survived, presumably destroyed by his widow, Margit Bekker Robert.
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