[1] He was held in high esteem by his contemporaries and called "the coming genius" (das kommende Genie) by art historian Wilhelm Hausenstein,[2] but with his having died prematurely, he has been mostly forgotten.

[8][9] During the First World War, Beeh was drafted as a surveyor for the Imperial German Army on the Western Front in Belgium (on the Ypres Salient)[10][11] and Northern France.

[17][18] He also illustrated a 1918[19] edition of Jeremias Gotthelf's The Black Spider,[20] and he contributed to the periodical Münchner Blätter für Dichtung und Graphik ("Munich Journal for Poetry and Graphics") alongside Paul Klee, Heinrich Campendonk and Alfred Kubin.

The painting shows a small group of men seen from very close who are grabbing rifles and seem ready to launch an assault; but instead of rushing forward towards the viewer, they are gazing at a figure in workwear, who sits motionless with an inscrutable expression.

[22] In 2008, the Musée historique in Haguenau organised an exhibition of his works, the first in France since his premature death, 86 years before.