BECKH, Christoph Eugen Hermann. Nürnberg 4.5.1875 — Stuttgart 1.3.1937. German Indologist and Tibetan Scholar, later turned into Anthroposophist Priest. Son of a factory owner, Eugen B., and Marie Seiler, studied economy and law at the Maximilianeum of Munich until 1896 and worked as assessor, but was soon frustrated with law courts and resigned in 1899. Now he turned to philology and studied Sanskrit and Tibetan at Kiel and Berlin (where Huth taught him Tibetan). Ph.D. 1907 Berlin (under Pischel). From 1910 PD at Berlin, in the end nominated ao. Professor, but left the university in 1921. Catalogued and edited Tibetan manuscripts of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. In WW I served in Romania and Bulgaria. In and after war reported news from Scandinavian press for Institut für Seeverkehr und Weltwirtschaft. He met Rudolf Steiner in 1911 and was converted into his Anthroposophy. Resigned and left Berlin in 1922 and was ordained as a priest of the Christengemeinschaft. Spent the rest of his life as a priest and a teacher of the Christengemeinschaft’s college for priests in Stuttgart.
Publications: Diss. Ein Beitrag zur Textkritik von Kālidāsas Meghadūta. 37 p. B. 1907; Das tibetische Übersetzung von Kālidāsas Meghadūta, hrsg. & üb. 85 p. A.Be.A.W. 1906; Udānavarga. Eine Sammlung buddhistischer Sprüche in tibetischer Sprache. 159 p. B. 1911.
– Beiträge zur tibetischen Grammatik. Lexikographie, Stilistik und Metrik. 65 p. A.Be.A.W. 1908; Verzeichnis der Tibetischer Handschriften in der kgl. Bibliothek, Berlin. I. Kanjur. 192 p. B. 1914.
– Buddhismus. 1-2. Sammlung Göschen. B. & Lp. 1928 and many editions; transl. Der Hingang des Vollendeten. Die erzählung von Buddhas Erdenabschied und Nirvāṇa. 158 p. St. 1924, 2nd ed. 1960.
– Several books and articles on Anthroposophy, including: Zarathustra. 111 p. Christus aller Erde 24. St. 1927; Der Hymnus an die Erde, aus dem altindischen Atharvaveda übersetzt. 80 p. Chr. a. E. 34. St. 1934, 2nd ed. 1960 (AV 12, 1); Indische Weisheit und Christentum. Gesammelte Studien. 171 p. St. 1938.
Sources: Stache-Rosen 1990, 184; K. v. Wistinghausen, N.D.B. 1, 1953; Wikipedia; *Autobiography in Die Christengemeinschaft 14, 1937 & 15, 1937/39; photo in Rau 99 (also in Indology in GDR. 1978).
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