Hermann Beckh

Hermann Beckh ( born May 4, 1875 in Nuremberg, † March 1, 1937 in Stuttgart ) was a German orientalist and anthroposophist and co-founder of the Christian Community.

Life

Hermann Beckh was the son of the Nuremberg factory Eugen Beckham and his wife Marie, nee Seiler ( † 1943), was born. He had a twelve- years younger sister, with whom he was closely associated until her death in 1929.

Above all, thanks to his exceptional memory, he made a brilliant High School in 1893 and received by a free place on the Maximilianeum. Versatile and interested, he could first decide on any course of study; by fellow students he was encouraged to study law. This he graduated from in 1896 with an award-winning essay on The burden of proof under the Civil Code and was until 1899 worked as an assessor. When he had to condemn a poor couple for timber theft to pay a fine, it was finally clear that he was not fit to be a judge: He paid the penalty of his own pocket and finished the service.

He now began in Kiel to study oriental languages ​​, Indology and Tibetology, received his doctorate in 1907 at the Berlin Friedrich- Wilhelms University with a thesis on Kalidasa's poem Meghaduta and habilitated in the following year with a further work on this writing. As one of the few connoisseurs of the Tibetan language he taught until 1921 as a lecturer and worked on the Tibetan manuscripts in the Prussian State Library.

In 1911 he first met Rudolf Steiner and Friedrich Rittelmeyer. He studied intensively now the Steiners writings and was for Christmas in 1912 a member of the Anthroposophical Society.

In 1916 he was drafted into military service. Shortly before the two ribbons about Buddha and his teachings in the Goschen collection had come out. First used in the Balkans, he was appointed to the Institute of Shipping and the World Economy in Kiel, where he had to evaluate the economic reports in the Scandinavian newspapers. For this was "allowed " he still learn the Scandinavian languages ​​; English, French, Italian and classical ( Greek, Latin ), and ancient Near Eastern languages ​​(Hebrew, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Old Persian ) he had already learned. His service obligation - from August 1918 in the Berlin Board of Trade - lasted into the postwar period.

In addition, he began to give lectures at the university, but declined a lectureship in Tibetan philology and took leave. An extension of this leave was refused, and he was appointed extraordinary professor; However, he ended his academic career in November 1921.

Since 1920 he worked as an anthroposophic lecturer. In March 1922 he joined the founders of the Christian Community to Friedrich Rittelmeyer and worked until his death as a priest, but especially as a seminary teacher, speaker, freelance researcher and writer.

Works

  • The Tibetan translation of Kalidasa Meghaduta. After the red and black Tanjur ed. and translated into German. Royal Academy of Sciences, Berlin 1907
  • Udanavarga. A collection of Buddhist sayings in the Tibetan language, 1911
  • List of Tibetan manuscripts in the Royal Library in Berlin, 1914
  • Buddhism. Buddha and his teachings. 2 volumes, Goschen'sche ( Sammlung Goschen 174 and 770), Berlin / Leipzig in 1916 Revision as: Buddha and his teachings. Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1958, ISBN 978-3-8251-7222-0
  • Re: Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 978-3-8251-7146-9
  • Revision as: From the mystery of the material world, VDM, Saarbrücken, 2007 ISBN 978-3-8364-1460-9
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