Clemens Bittlinger

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Clemens Bittlinger at the Evangelical Church Congress in Dresden (June 2011)

Clemens Bittlinger (born August 8, 1959 in Mannheim ) is a German Protestant pastor , author and songwriter of many New Spiritual Songs and children's songs from Rimbach / Odenwald .

Life

Clemens Bittlinger is married and has two children. He grew up in a pastor's family as the son of Arnold Bittlinger together with three other siblings in the Palatinate, Lower Saxony, the USA and Lower Franconia (Wetzhausen). Inspired by Manfred Siebald and the ragtime guitarist John Pearse , he began to learn how to play the guitar and his special fingerpicking technique himself at the age of 14. A little later he began to write his own songs. In 1978 he recorded an EP with four songs for the first time . While working on his first LP Mensch, Are You's Really , he met the Swiss pianist and producer David Plüss , with whom he often goes to his concerts to this day. At the beginning of the 1980s, Bittlinger was, in addition to studying theology in Mainz and Erlangen , a member of the then famous Aufwind choir (along with other members such as Johannes Nitsch , Jan Vering and Christoph Zehendner ). At that time, Clemens Bittlinger was already giving 100 to 120 concerts a year. His third album, Hard to Say , was produced by Dieter Falk in 1987 and was the first of his albums to sell over 10,000 times. After completing his studies, Clemens Bittlinger was ordained in 1990 by the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau and was given the special assignment of musical and cultural preaching.

Over the years he has developed many different stage concepts with a wide variety of artists. For example, in 1994 the concept of “bistro worship services” was created for ZDF and in 1995 “Osterrocknacht” for RTL . With Carlos Martínez he developed the “Pantomime & Chanson” program. Clemens Bittlinger also tried again and again to build a musical bridge between the Christian and the secular music scene. He is on friendly terms with Hartmut Engler , for example , and Engler also took on the background vocals for Bittlinger's albums Aus heiterem Himmel and Hellhörig for some tracks. In 1998 Clemens Bittlinger founded his own label (Sanna Sound) and has been publishing his productions there ever since.

In 2003 the evangelical songwriter started working with the guitarist Adax Dörsam. This cooperation resulted in an acoustic and powerful trio formation consisting of Clemens Bittlinger, Adax Dörsam and David Kandert (with whose father Helmut Kandert he has also worked for many years).

In 2004 he received the Promikon Award as "Artistic Personality of the Year", he had various television appearances and published, among other things, the books You are with me and Pictures of Christmas . Also in 2004, a Bittlinger single made it into the top 10 of the German airplay repertoire charts for the first time . The title produced by Dieter Falk was called Precious Moments . The accompanying video clip , also a premiere, ran for weeks on rotation on Goldstar TV ( premiere ) and Bibel TV . His book You are with me was put on the recommendation list of the Catholic Children's and Young People's Book Prize in February 2005.

Since the beginning of 2005, Bittlinger has also been a consultant for mission and ecumenism in the Evangelical Dean's Office in Darmstadt-Land. The cultural-missionary work and the Christian- Islamic dialogue are emerging as a focus of this new area of ​​responsibility . He is also a columnist for Gong magazine .

Sarah Kuttner's co-presenter Sven Schuhmacher published Bittlinger's song Aufstehn, zugehn neu in 2005 and thus placed the song in the charts .

At the German Evangelical Church Congress 2007 in Cologne, Clemens Bittlinger presented his latest album Pearls of Faith in front of more than 30,000 visitors . One of the highlights was the “Night of Songs” (with Gerhard Schöne and Fools Garden , among others ), during which he was able to welcome Federal President Horst Koehler as his personal guest of honor on stage and present him and his wife with the pearls of faith.

In December 2007, the song Hundred Thousand Miracles was released , which also accompanies the campaign for the 100th anniversary of the Christoffel Mission for the Blind , whose work Bittlinger supports as an ambassador.

At the 97th German Catholic Day in Osnabrück in May 2008, Clemens Bittlinger presented his song Mensch Benedikt - (not) a walk with the Pope . Later he was attacked by Catholic fundamentalists with threats of violence and abused on the Internet. In August of the same year the album HabSelheiten was released .

Over the years, many concert projects such as Pictures of Christmas, Pictures of Passion, I am and Pearls of Faith , Big Bang & Stardust , have been taking place very successfully for many years in addition to the current solo concert program.

On December 3, 2009, the three Christian television stations Hope Channel , ERF Fernsehen and Bibel TV broadcast a live concert by Clemens Bittlinger and his band. The DVD Aufstehn, zugehn was produced from this. In the same month Clemens Bittlinger and his musical colleagues received an “extraordinary gold CD” for “well over 200,000 copies sold (total circulation)”. Between 2010 and 2013, the author and Father Anselm Grün designed two ecumenical fasting calendars, the texts of which were later also published in book form (BRUNNEN) and as an audio book Slowly through fast time .

In 2011 Clemens Bittlinger and David Plüss celebrated their 30th stage anniversary on the album Please make free! did Clemens Bittlinger give his Swiss friend the song Am I perhaps too loud? dedicated. The same CD also contains the song Mein Sonntag , in which Hartmut Engler (PUR), Joy Fleming, Joana, Gerhard Schöne, Walter Renneisen, Ingrid Noll and Enya Bittlinger contributed, among others. This is a "gentle protest song" against the expansion of shopping Sundays. In the fall of 2011, the Christmas children's album Von Haus zu Haus was released . In spring 2012 the book Da, where I am, I want to be there was published! (Kreuz-Verlag). As a contribution to the year of church music, the work Atem, Klang der Seele was published in autumn of the same year - the special thing: all of Clemens Bittlinger's songs were recorded with church organ, saxophone, percussion and guitar. In the spring of 2013, Aus der Nahe was released (live double album together with Adax Dörsam and David Kandert), which was recorded on the occasion of the ten-year stage anniversary of Adax Dörsam and Clemens Bittlinger in the studio stage in Fürth. At the same time, the fourth children's album Thank you, you thought of me was published in cooperation with the children's label CAP Music.

In the spring of 2014, the book Generosity - Small-minded Was Yesterday (Kreuz-Verlag) and the audio book Big Bang & Stardust (Herder Audio) appeared. Breath of Life is the title of a songbook with 333 new sacred songs that Clemens Bittlinger compiled together with fellow authors Fabian Vogt and Eugen Eckert and presented throughout Hesse at Whitsun 2014. As with his predecessor Peter Steinacker, this year he also organized thematic evenings on the subject of freedom together with Church President Volker Jung. In autumn 2014 the concept album Mensch Jesus was released and in spring 2015 the much acclaimed solo album Unerhört (album of the week HR4), which the songwriter and pastor u. a. presented at the German Evangelical Church Congress in Stuttgart. A number of video clips for this album have been published on YouTube.

In 2004 he received the Promikon Award as "Artistic Personality of the Year". He has now written more than 500 songs.

Works

Known songs

  • "On the path of justice" (Kirchentag 1997)
  • "Get up, approach each other"
  • "God quietly stretches fine threads"
  • "I am the bread" (EG, Württemberg edition, 587)
  • "You are the salt" (Kirchentag 1999)
  • "Precious Moments" (2004/05 Top Ten in the Airplay Charts)
  • "Sanna sannanina"
  • "Dare to take steps"
  • "I wish that" (winning title of the song competition of the Ecumenical Church Congress)
  • "Be protected"
  • "Search and find" (official motto song for the year of the Bible 2003)
  • "Man, Benedict!"
  • "And so now go your way"
  • "Sometimes you need one"
  • "There are people"

Discography (selection)

  • Human is it really you? (LP 1981 Abacus)
  • Every person needs a person (LP 1983 Abakus)
  • Hard to Tell (1987 Pila)
  • Sing along (1988 Pila)
  • Window into the Night (1990 Pila)
  • Rare (1993 Pila)
  • Human Sing With 2 (1994 Pila)
  • On the Frontier (1995 Pila)
  • Live on the border (1997 MKV / EKD)
  • Songs from the Kirchentag (1997 Pila)
  • Out of the Blue (1998 Sanna / Pila)
  • I am ... words of Jesus (1999 Sanna / EKD)
  • Songs from the Kirchentag [II] (1999 Pila)
  • Song Gallery (1999 Pila)
  • Live [with David Plüss and Helmut Kandert] (2000 Sanna)
  • Little Things (2001 Sanna / BV) - single
  • Clairaudient (2001 Sanna / BV)
  • Yes Your Smile (2001 Sanna) - single
  • Children's Wonder World (2001 Sanna / BV)
  • God quietly stretches fine threads (2002 Kreuz-Verlag)
  • You should be a blessing (2002 Kreuz-Verlag)
  • Pictures of Christmas (2003 Kreuz-Verlag)
  • Love Makes You See [with Joy Fleming] (2003 Sanna / CBM) - single
  • Live & Unplugged [with Adax Dörsam] (2003 Sanna)
  • Morning light: C | B reads ... (2004 Kreuz-Verlag)
  • Precious Moments (2004 Sanna / Kreuz-Verlag)
  • Fingertips (2004 Sanna)
  • Be protected (2005 Kreuz-Verlag)
  • Human sing with [III] (2005 WiB)
  • With the eyes of a child [with Anselm Grün] (2006 Kreuz-Verlag)
  • Pictures of the Passion (2006 Sanna / Kreuz-Verlag)
  • I wish that (2006 Sanna / WiB)
  • God is good (2007 Kösel)
  • On the magic of the everyday [with Anselm Grün] (2007 Kreuz-Verlag)
  • Pearls of Faith (2007 Sanna / Kreuz-Verlag)
  • 100,000 Miracles (2007 Sanna / CBM)
  • The first years (1981–1984) (2008 abacus)
  • Klezmer and chorales [with Giora Feidman] (2008 Kreuz-Verlag)
  • Human Benedict (2008 Sanna) - single
  • On the magic of leisure [with Anselm Grün] (2008 Kreuz-Verlag)
  • HabSeluchten (2008 Sanna / Kreuz-Verlag)
  • Stand Up Towards Each Other (2009 Kreuz-Verlag)
  • House to House (2010 Sanna / Abakus)
  • Slowly through fast time [with Anselm Grün] (2010 Sanna / Brunnen)
  • Please set free (2011 Sanna / Herder)
  • Breath - Sound of the Soul (2012 Herder)
  • Up Close (2013 Sanna)
  • Thank you, you thought of me (2013 Sanna)
  • Big Bang & Stardust (2014 Herder)
  • Unheard of (2015 Herder)
  • Stay Connected (2018 Sanna)

Books (selection)

  • Reason enough (1988)
  • You Can Walk On Waves (1995)
  • Living Longing - Divine Service: Rediscovered (1999)
  • Shampoo, champagne and salvation. The Book of Anecdotes (2001) (with David Plüss)
  • You are with me (2004) (on Psalm 23)
  • Like Heaven (2006)
  • Christmas pictures
  • Precious moments of friendship
  • Precious moments birthday
  • Get up, walk towards each other. The Clemens Bittlinger Reader (2006)
  • God is doing well (2007) - Book & CD
  • Belongings
  • Where I am, there I want to be (Kreuz-Verlag 2012)
  • Generosity - petty mindedness was yesterday (Kreuz-Verlag 2014)

DVDs

  • Get up, walk towards each other (100 minutes, TV recording)

Web links

 Wikinews: Catholic fundamentalists threaten papal critics with death  - news

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Church dispute : Catholic fundamentalists threaten Protestant papal critic. In: Spiegel Online . September 14, 2008, accessed July 6, 2019 . "Mensch-Benedikt" singer feels threatened. In: Netzeitung . September 16, 2008, archived from the original on September 24, 2008 ; accessed on July 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Meister der pious Gassenhauer , pro-medienmagazin.de, article from August 5, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Bittlinger, Clemens
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pastor, author and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim