Hubert Becker was born in 1903 in Thale, on the northeastern edge of the Harz Mountains, where he also spent his youth. After graduating from high school in Quedlinburg, he went on to study mining at the Clausthal Mining Academy, as did everyone who wanted to learn about mining in its entirety and at one of its birthplaces. In 1927, he passed his diploma exam in mining engineering. He then left the university to gain practical industrial experience. He became an assistant to the legendary drilling pioneer Anton Raky at his Tiefbohr AG and gained his first experience in drilling technology in Salzgitter and at Rheinische Braunkohle. Anton Raky was certainly a very strong personality who also made a deep impression on Hubert Becker, for the stories about Anton Raky—which featured prominently in many of his later lectures—are likely familiar to anyone who experienced Hubert Becker as a lecturer or teacher in either Clausthal or Celle.
In 1933, Hubert Becker earned his Dr.-Ing. degree in Aachen under Prof. Fritzsche with a thesis on German oil mining. In 1934, he finally joined Wintershall in Nienhagen, where he was in charge of numerous contractor drilling rigs. Rich oil discoveries, particularly in the Wintershall concession in Nienhagen, had led to a drilling boom, so that all companies active in the drilling business at the time were deploying drilling rigs. Hubert Becker thus had the opportunity to get to know many drilling firms, many opinions and perspectives, and many colleagues; he had to grapple with numerous drilling-related problems and was thus able to accumulate a solid practical knowledge of deep drilling technology.
When the “Petroleum Production Section” of the Fuel Industry Economic Group, under its head Karl Große, decided in 1937 to systematically train middle-management supervisors at a specialized school, it very soon became clear to the members of the section that Hubert Becker would be the right man to take on the full-time teaching position at this school, “since Mr. Becker is unanimously considered very suitable for this position, even though he is a mining engineer and not a mechanical engineer,” as can be seen in the minutes of a meeting held on May 5, 1937, by those responsible for establishing this school. Thus, after the school’s founding was officially sealed in a ceremony on August 17, 1937, Hubert Becker initially took on the role of lecturer and director of the Celle branch of the Clausthal School of Mining and Metallurgy, to which this drilling foreman class was still affiliated at the time. It speaks to Hubert Becker’s drive that he began teaching the first drilling foreman course in Celle just one day later, on August 18, 1937. When, following the founding of the mining school association “Deutsche Bohrmeisterschule in Celle” e.V. in 1942, it was decided to make the drilling foreman school in Celle independent, Hubert Becker was appointed director of the mining school and thus head of this institution.
In 1940, Hubert Becker became a lecturer in deep drilling at the Clausthal Mining Academy and simultaneously at the Technical University of Hanover. In 1943, he was appointed honorary professor.
From then on, Hubert Becker was constantly traveling between Celle, Hanover, and Clausthal, a role he fulfilled until his retirement, even in the 1950s, when the German petroleum industry experienced a significant boom and the demand for trained drilling and production foremen was very high, so that teaching and administrative duties at the German Drilling Foremen School required Hubert Becker’s full commitment.
In 1950, Hubert Becker was entrusted with the directorship of the Institute for Deep Drilling, Petroleum, and Natural Gas Extraction at the Clausthal Mining Academy, a role he fulfilled partly from Celle and partly on-site in Clausthal, alongside his duties as director of the German Drilling Foreman School. When he was appointed full professor at the Clausthal Institute on October 1, 1963, many assumed that Hubert Becker would now relinquish the leadership of the Drilling Foremen School and devote himself entirely to leading the Institute for Deep Drilling Technology. However, that did not happen. Despite his commitment to the next generation of academics, Hubert Becker’s heart remained with “his” drilling masters, generations of whom he had trained in Celle. He had accepted the appointment to Clausthal only on the condition that he could continue to work at “his” Drilling Masters’ School in Celle. And so it took good timing to juggle all these responsibilities and always be present exactly where he was needed. Certainly, it was also important to have good and reliable staff at both locations whom he could count on. This was particularly necessary in the second half of the 1960s, when the new institute building was planned and construction work eventually had to be supervised.
However, since these diverse responsibilities apparently still did not fully occupy Hubert Becker—or perhaps because the German petroleum industry could not and did not want to do without a figure like Hubert Becker—he remained deeply involved in the then-existing Association for Deep Drilling Technology, of which he was a founding member and on whose board he served for a long time, as well as serving as co-editor of the Erdöl-Zeitschrift.
On December 31, 1972, he stepped down as director of the German Drilling School. He had to continue serving as director of the Institute for Deep Drilling Technology until March 31, 1975, before a suitable successor was found for him.
Unfortunately, after a busy career that extended well beyond the standard retirement age, he was not granted the opportunity to enjoy his retirement for any length of time or to advise the German petroleum industry and its educational institutions with his wealth of experience without professional obligations, for on November 18, 1975, Hubert Becker passed away after a brief illness, which came as a complete surprise to everyone who knew and valued him. Hubert Becker was an institution who initiated generations of drilling and production engineers into the secrets of drilling and production technology. For nearly every drilling or production foreman, right up to many a director or board member of international oil companies, Hubert Becker was a teacher or doctoral advisor. Everyone knew him, and everyone appreciated his straightforward and upright manner. A piece of German drilling and petroleum history remains inextricably linked to him.

Gerd Schaumberg