Prof. Hermann BECKH (1875-1937) is being rediscovered today. One of the founding group (1922) of The Christian Community, he served for 15 years to inspire a generation of priests before he crossed the threshold of death in 1937. The beginnings "without the Professor," writes fellow-founder Rudolf Meyer with hindsight, "are unthinkable."
Almost before they could walk, Emil Bock's children visited "'Fesser Beckh" in his attic flat, shared his love of minerals, sang songs, heard fairytales. Dr. Gundhild Kačer-Bock (d. 2008) was uniquely qualified to write this biography, building on Beckh's own memoirs.
2016 is the Centenary of Beckh's first and widely acclaimed book Buddha and his Teaching. The whole astonishing literary legacy is being published in English. Something extraordinarily topical emerges from the life of this universal genius. At the end of his life, Emil BOCK writes (1959): "An abundance of books came into existence whose significance perhaps will only be properly appreciated in the future." That future could be now as we face global issues.
Beckh's erudition, which he wore lightly, has been respected, his generous personality revered and loved - even ridiculed by those who should have known better. However, what emerges today approaching the Centenary of The Christian Community - without diminishing the achievements of those out front - is being slowly acknowledged. The spiritual leader of the new "Movement for Religious Renewal," leading from behind, rejoiced to see others take initiatives in research (Lic. E. Bock, Dr. Frieling, Dr. Doldinger, R. Meyer, Dr. Heidenreich, A. Bittleston, and others). And like the Apostle John before him (John 21:22), he knew his time would come.
Lic. Emil Bock (1959) warmly emphasises the uniqueness of Hermann Beckh:
A University Professor [in Berlin], who had been a Judge and Orientalist, now became a priest with us. He actively took part in carrying the birth of the new ritual words; he was an expert in the mysteries of language. He had always longed that the Logos, driven to abstraction in our time, wants to resurrect in its full creative and healing power. To join in celebrating at the new altars the spirit-word at work in the sacraments was really the innermost fulfilment precisely of this special destiny. Beckh himself stood repeatedly astonished before the mysterious direct line with which despite all the apparent diversions and confusions, his angel had led him to this goal.
This edition contains Hermann Beckh's fairy-tale "The Story of the Little Squirrel, the Moonlight Princess and the Little Rose," with illustrations von Tatjana Schellhase, and appreciations of the author, all translated for the first time into English as part of the Complete Works of the Rev. Prof. Hermann Beckh (General Editor, Neil Franklin, Ph.D.)
