A Professor of Ancient German and Nordic Studies at Saarland University and later the University of Bonn, Beck was a co-editor of the second edition of Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde and one of the world's leading experts on early Germanic culture.

He gained his PhD in Nordic philology and Germanic studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 1962.

From 1978 until his retirement in 1994, Beck was Professor of Ancient German and Nordic Studies at the University of Bonn.

From 1968 to 2008, Beck was a co-editor of the second edition of Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, to which he contributed many articles.

Beck was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Falcon in 1988, and an honorary doctor's degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 2002.