In accordance with the 2003 award guidelines, the prize was awarded annually to individuals, institutions and associations that have rendered outstanding services to civil courage in a special connection to Wiesbaden. A selection committee consisting of 18 representatives from various institutions decided on the winner. Until 2008, the prize was endowed with 2,500 euros.

In 2009, a change to the award guidelines was developed in order to enhance the value of the prize by focusing more strongly on the term "civil courage" in connection with Ludwig Beck, who gave the prize its name.

The Ludwig Beck Prize was not awarded in 2009 and 2010.

Ludwig Beck was born in Biebrich (now Wiesbaden) on June 29, 1880, the son of the industrialist Ludwig Beck and his wife Bertha, née Draudt. After graduating from high school, he joined the Prussian army as an ensign. After attending the War Academy in Berlin, Beck was appointed to the General Staff as a captain in 1913.

During the First World War, he served as a general staff officer at various high commands on the Western Front. In 1919, he joined the Reichswehr, where he rose to the rank of general. In the newly created Wehrmacht, Beck was appointed General of Artillery. When Hitler announced his plans to smash Czechoslovakia in 1938, large sections of the officer corps thought differently to Hitler. The spokesman for this group was Chief of the General Staff Ludwig Beck. He warned his superiors and the head of state against disastrous decisions and met with approval from Colonel General von Brauchitsch, but furious rejection from Hitler. Beck wanted to persuade the generals to resign their posts. Although Brauchitsch shared the conviction that a war would mean disaster for Germany, he, like the other generals, could not decide to take the step that Beck proposed. As a result, Beck announced his resignation in August 1938 and was discharged from the Wehrmacht shortly afterwards.

From 1939 to 1944, Ludwig Beck was involved in the resistance around Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. Alongside Goerdeler, he became the head of the resistance movement and was envisaged as the new head of state in various putsch plans.

After the failed bomb attack on Hitler in the "Wolf's Lair" (near Rastenburg / East Prussia), the resistance group around Beck in Berlin failed to carry out the coup. Beck was arrested in the Bendlerblock in Berlin by Wehrmacht units. Shortly before midnight, Ludwig Beck was forced to commit suicide, which failed twice. He was then shot by a Wehrmacht sergeant.

The selection committee for the Ludwig Beck Prize for Civil Courage currently consists of 18 members.

It is made up of

• the Lord Mayor of the State Capital of Wiesbaden,
• the head of the city council,
• the Chairperson of the Committee for Volunteering, Civic Participation and Sport.

In addition, one representative each from

• of the Wiesbadener Hilfe e. V. association, victim and witness counseling,
• the German Trade Union Federation
• the West Hesse Police Headquarters in Wiesbaden,
• the Protestant Deanery Wiesbaden,
• the General Association of Catholic Parishes in Wiesbaden,
• the association "Bürger und Polizei e. V. Wiesbaden",
• the Jewish community,
• the Wiesbaden City Pupils' Council,
• the Diltheyschule Wiesbaden,
• the Foreigners' Advisory Council of the City of Wiesbaden,
• the Women's Representative of the City of Wiesbaden,
• the citizens' department of the state capital Wiesbaden,
• the Youth Parliament of the City of Wiesbaden,
• the Wiesbaden press and
• the Senior Citizens' Advisory Council of the City of Wiesbaden.