Hans Georg Beck

Hans Georg Beck
Born	18 February 1910
Died	25 May 1999
Nationality	German

Hans-Georg Beck FBA (18 February 1910 in Schneizlreuth, Bavaria, German Empire — 25 May 1999 in Munich) was a German scholar, specializing in Byzantine studies.

Biography

He was born in Schneizlreuth, Bavaria in 1910. In 1929 he graduated from high school in Ettal. In 1930 he entered the Ludwig-Maximilian University, where in 1936 he defended his doctoral thesis in theology, "Vorhersehung und Vorherbestimmung in der theologischen Literatur der Byzantiner" (English: Providence and Predestination in Byzantine Theological Literature), which was published in Rome the following year as volume 114 of the Orientalia Christiana Analecta series. In 1949 he defended his habilitated work "Theodoros Metochites. Die Krise des byzantinischen Weltbildes im 14. Jahrhundert" (English: Theodoros Metochites: The Crisis of the Byzantine Worldview in the Fourteenth Century). This work was highly praised among scholars of Byzantine studies. He subsequently published about 10 books on the subject. He died on 25 May 1999 in Munich.

Awards

Hans Georg Beck was a member of many national Academies of Sciences and scientific societies. In 1962 he became a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and chaired commissions on the publication of the "Corpus of Greek Acts" and on patristics. In 1966 he was elected a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in 1975 he became a foreign member of the Athens Academy, in 1977 he was admitted to the British Academy (corresponding member) and the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium, and in 1988 to the American Philosophical Society.

Books

• Theodoros Metochites. Die Krise des byzantinischen Weltbildes im 14. Jahrhundert [Theodoros Metochites: The Crisis of the Byzantine Worldview in the Fourteenth Century] (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. 1952.
• Geistliches Biedermeier im altbayerischen Raum [Ecclesiastical Biedermeier in the Old Bavarian Region] (in German). Regensburg: Pustet. 1954.
• Saitenspiel des Daseins [Playing the Strings of Existence] (in German). Ettal: Pustet; Buch-Kunstverlag. 1958.
• Geschichte der byzantinischen Volksliteratur [History of the Byzantine Folk Literature] (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. 1971. ISBN 978-3-406-01420-8.
• Ideen und Realitaeten in Byzanz : gesammelte Aufsaetze [Ideas And Realities in Byzantium : Collected Essays]. Collected Studies (in German). Vol. 12. London: Variorum/Ashgate. 1972. ISBN 0-902-08941-2 – via the Internet Archive.
• Byzantinistik heute [Byzantine art] (in German). Berlin: de Gruyter. 1977. ISBN 3-11-007220-3.
• Das byzantinische Jahrtausend [The Byzantine Millennium] (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. 1978. ISBN 3-406-05997-X – via the Internet Archive.
• Byzantinisches Lesebuch [The Byzantine Reader] (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. 1982. ISBN 3-406-08584-9.
• Vom Umgang mit Ketzern. Der Glaube der kleinen Leute und die Macht der Theologenen [On Dealing With Heretics. The Faith of the Little People And the Power of the Theologians] (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. 1993. ISBN 3-406-37618-5.