His father was the history painter Carl Joseph Begas and he began his studies with his elder brother, Reinhold, a well-known sculptor.
Two years later, he turned to producing larger figures; two for the University of Kiel and two for the Kassel City Hall.
[1] From 1904 to 1906, he created a marble statue of Empress Augusta Victoria, which was the first to be placed in the Rose Garden at the new palace in Sanssouci.
[1] Group 7 (1899) contained a statue of Otto IV, Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal (nicknamed "Otto with the Arrow"), with busts of Johann von Kröcher (an advisor to the Margrave) and Johann von Buch (Glossator of Sachsenspiegel).
In Group 31 (1900), the statue was Frederick William IV of Prussia; the busts were Alexander von Humboldt and Christian Daniel Rauch.