Beck or Lorca? This question culminated in 1998 at a press conference of the Suhrkamp publishing house, which aimed to sweep Beck's translations of Lorca off the market with a bang. Where Federico García Lorca was mentioned, Heinrich Enrique Beck was actually present in the German-speaking world, according to relevant criticism - which, however, never went beyond mere symptom description. This contribution fills that gap by investigating the causes and leading to an understanding of Beck's translations through his life. This biographical shift in perspective in favor of the actor of translation reveals what research on Beck has overlooked so far: For Beck, translation becomes a cultural technique that models the key to a third space of belonging.