Beck, Karl

Beck, Karl 

Born May 1, 1817, in Baja, Hungary; died Apr. 9, 1879, in Währing, near Vienna. Austrian poet. Born into a well-to-do Jewish family. Graduated from the medical faculty in Vienna.

Beck was close to Young Germany and so-called true socialism. His verses Nights: Iron Songs (1838) are characterized by a bombastic style. The novel in verse Janko (1840) contains genre scenes from the life of the Hungarian people. Fundamental to Songs About a Poor Man (1846) is the thought of social injustice. However, Beck did not go beyond cloudy dreams of the general welfare—for example, the collections The Wandering Poet (1838) and Quiet Songs (1840).

WORKS

Gesammelte Gedichte, 9th ed. [Berlin,] 1869.

REFERENCE

Engels, F. “Nemetskii sotsializm ν stikhakh i proze.” In K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 4.