A Unique Epoch of European Civilization. Towards the 250th Anniversary of Beethoven's Birth

The era of Beethoven is for the most part the concluding stage of the Age of Enlightenment, which chronologically may be indicated as the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries (the 1790s and the 1800s). In the way of general history, the image of this grandiose period has been determined by two massive events - the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. And particularly in the social-political spheres France introduced one of the four key figures of that period - the figure of Napoleon I. The other such figures of the turn of the 19th centuries we must acknowledge to be the representatives of Germany" Hegel (philosophy), Goethe (the art of literature) and Beethoven (the art of music). The article describes the features of spiritual kinship between the great composer and the three other indicated outstanding personalities, which have demonstrated themselves differently. Determining the ingenious scale of activities of these historical figures, it is possible to assert that the time period of the turn of the 18th and the 19th centuries was a unique epoch of European civilization.