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Hans Dieter Beck
Beck in 2022
Born	(1932-04-09)9 April 1932 Munich, Germany
Died	3 January 2025(2025-01-03) (aged 92) Munich, Germany
Education	Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Occupations	Publisher Jurist
Organizations	C. H. Beck

Hans Dieter Beck (9 April 1932 – 3 January 2025) was a German publisher. He was one of the two partners heading the C. H. Beck publishing group in the sixth generation, and responsible for the company's legal, tax and economics publishing program.

Life and career

Beck was born in Munich on 9 April 1932, as the son of the publisher Heinrich Beck and his wife Eva. He first studied mathematics and physics, then German and psychology, before turning to law studies. From January 1961 he worked "as a kind of legal editor" in the family-owned publishing house C. H. Beck, founded by Carl Gottlob Beck [de] in 1763. He earned his doctorate in law with a dissertation on licensing agreements in publishing at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich the same year. After four years of working in the publishing house and an extended stay in the US, including at Harvard Business School and as a trainee in an American publishing house, he gained experience in the judicial service as a court assessor and later as a judge at the Munich I Regional Court.

At the end of 1970 he returned to the publishing house to take over the legal and economic departments and at the same time the management of the printing works in Nördlingen. From 1971 he headed the legal publishing branch. He led the publishing house together with his brother Wolfgang Beck [de] who was responsible for the fiction and non-fiction divisions; they were the sixth generation of management of the family business, in direct succession of the company founder. In 1995 Wolfgang Beck was replaced by his son Jonathan Beck [de]. Hans Dieter Beck expanded the position of C. H. Beck as a leading publisher of legal literature in German, adding legal commentaries and trade papers.

In other roles, Beck was chairman of the Bavarian regional association of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels from 1979 to 1982 and a board member of the Association of Legal and Political Science Publishers.

After the end of the Cold War, Beck also became involved in the former Eastern Bloc. He was very successful in Poland, but failed in Russia. The Russian management tried to expropriate the German parent company, and the Russian state demanded high fines for alleged irregularities in accounting. Although Beck won the court cases, he withdrew from business in Russia in 1999.

Personal life

Beck was married; the couple had three daughters. He was an experienced mountain climber. He usually rode to work by bicycle, the last time on 23 December 2024.

Beck died in Munich on 3 January 2025, at the age of 92.

Awards

In 1989, Beck was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 1992 the München leuchtet [de] medal, in 1993 the honorary award of the Schwabing Art Prize, in 2002 the honorary citizenship of the city of Nördlingen, and in 2012 the Bavarian Order of Merit.

References

1. ^ "Mit 92 Jahren verstorben: Hans Dieter Beck ist tot". Legal Tribune Online (in German). 4 January 2025. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
2. ^ "German publicist Hans Dieter Beck dies aged 92". www.dpa-international.com. Deutsche Presse-Agentur. 4 January 2025. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
3. ^ Budras, Corinna (1 April 2022). "Der Nimmermüde". FAZ.NET (in German). Retrieved 8 January 2025.
4. ^ "Beck-Verlag-Chef Hans Dieter Beck gestorben". FAZ.NET (in German). 4 January 2025. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
5. ^ Amann, Melanie (1 September 2013). "(S+) Der Methusalem-Komplex". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 8 January 2025.
6. Beck, Hans Dieter (1961). Der Lizenzvertrag im Verlagswesen : mit Vorschlägen für die Vertragsgestaltung (in German). München: Beck. OCLC 17111420.
7. Prizkau, Anna (24 December 2013). "Wolfgang und Hans Dieter Beck: Zwei deutsche Brüder". FAZ.NET (in German). Retrieved 8 January 2025.
8. "Über den Verlag C.H.Beck München". RSW (in German). Retrieved 8 January 2025.
9. "1960–1989". boersenverein-bayern.de (in German). 22 December 2017. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
10. "ARSV: Impressum". ARSV (in German). Retrieved 9 January 2025.
11. ^ Sternburg, Judith von (5 January 2025). "Verleger Hans Dieter Beck ist tot – Nachhaltiger verlegen". FR.de (in German). Retrieved 9 January 2025.
12. ^ Prantl, Heribert (6 January 2025). "Nachruf auf Hans Dieter Beck, den größten juristischen Verleger Europas". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 9 January 2025.
13. "Verleger Hans Dieter Beck im Alter von 92 Jahren gestorben". nord24 (in German). dpa. 4 January 2025. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
14. "Dr. Hans Dieter Beck (90) – BuchMarkt". BuchMarkt – Das Ideenmagazin für den Buchhandel (in German). Retrieved 9 January 2025.
15. "OB Reiter kondoliert zum Tod von Hans Dieter Beck". Landeshauptstadt München. 7 January 2025. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
16. "Schwabinger Kunstpreis". Rathaus – Landeshauptstadt München (in German). Retrieved 9 January 2025.
17. ""Bedeutender als das Oktoberfest"". Augsburger Allgemeine (in German). 21 October 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
18. "Seehofer zeichnet 74 Persönlichkeiten aus". Süddeutsche.de (in German). 5 October 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2025.

Further reading

• "Hans Dieter Beck wird 90: Der Rechtsexperte". Börsenblatt. No. 15/16. 14 April 2022. p. 38.

• 1932 births
• 2025 deaths
• Businesspeople from Munich
• German publishers (people)
• German lawyers
• Lawyers from Munich