Karl Hermann Bitter

Karl Hermann Bitter

Karl Hermann Bitter (also Carl Hermann) (born February 27, 1813 in Schwedt , † September 12, 1885 in Berlin ) was a German statesman and music writer.

Life

He was the son of the Prussian tax officer in Schwedt (Oder) Ferdinand Bitter, who was appointed to Berlin as the Prussian chief finance officer soon after Karl Hermann was born around 1814/15. His brother was the politician Rudolf von Bitter the Elder , who was raised to the Prussian nobility in 1880 .

Bitter studied law and cameralia from 1830 at the University of Berlin, later in Bonn . In Bonn he became a member of the Corps Borussia in 1831 . After completing his studies, he started his civil service career as an auscultator in Berlin in 1833 , was transferred to Frankfurt government council in 1846 and later to Minden. From 1856–1860 he was a Prussian authorized member of the European Danube Commission in Galatz .

Appointed a secret councilor in 1858 , in 1860 he was appointed chief inspector of the Rhine shipping to Mannheim, in 1869 appointed to the chief councilor of the finance department in Posen, in 1870 during the war with France he was entrusted with the prefecture of the Vosges department, 1871 civil commissioner in Nancy, 1872 government president in Schleswig, 1876 in Düsseldorf.

In 1877 he was appointed Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of the Interior, in February 1879 chairman of the Reich Commission formed on the basis of the Socialist Law and on July 7, 1879 in Arthur Hobrecht's position as Prussian Finance Minister and member of the Federal Council.

As such, he worked for the further implementation of the tax reform plan introduced by Prince Bismarck with the customs legislation of 1879, advocated the introduction of the tobacco monopoly and the increase of the Reich's income from alcohol and the brewing malt tax, brought about the introduction of the stock exchange tax and the conclusion of the contract with the City of Hamburg because of its entry into the German customs area and the inclusion of the lower Elbe in the customs association of the German Empire. The nationalization of the large private railways in Prussia also found an active sponsor in him. In June 1882 he took his leave.

In 1880 Karl Hermann Bitter married Clara (* 1843), a born Nerenz, after an engagement period of five days.

From 1879 to 1882, Bitter was a member of the Prussian House of Representatives for the constituency of Koblenz 4 (Kreuznach, Simmern, Zell) in addition to his ministerial office .

As a great connoisseur and lover of classical music, Bitter initiated the Schleswig-Holstein music festival, the first of which took place in 1875. He also published a number of writings on musical subjects, including:

• Johann Sebastian Bach (Berlin 1865, 2 parts; 2nd edition 1881, 4 vols.);
• Mozart's Don Juan and Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris (Berlin 1866);
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and their brothers (Berlin 1868, 2 vols.);
• On Gervinus ' Handel and Shakespeare (Berlin 1869);
• Contributions to the history of the oratorio (Berlin 1872);
• The reform of the opera by Gluck and Richard Wagner's Artwork of the Future (Braunschweig 1884).

His Gesammelte Schriften (Leipzig 1884) contain musical essays as well as essays on 1848, the Orient, Bismarck and other subjects. He also edited Carl Loewe's autobiography (Berlin 1870).

Karl Hermann Bitter died suddenly on September 12, 1885 at the age of 72 in Berlin. The funeral service, headed by Ernst Dryander , took place on September 15 in the deceased's apartment on Von-der-Heydt-Strasse in Tiergarten . Numerous high-ranking representatives from the Ministry of State and Finance, the State Debt Administration , Maritime Trade and the Reichsbank were present. The coffin was then transported in a long funeral procession to the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof on Chausseestrasse , where the family was buried in a hereditary burial . Karl Hermann Bitter's final resting place has not been preserved.

Works

• Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and their brothers. 2 volumes, Müller, Berlin 1868. Digitized

literature

• Robert Eitner :  Bitter, Karl Hermann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 47, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1903, p. 2 f.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  BITTER, Karl Heinrich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 604-605.
• Alfons Friderichs (Ed.): Bitter, Karl Hermann in personalities of the Cochem-Zell district. Trier Kliomedia 2004, ISBN 3-89890-084-3 , p. 48.

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Hermann Bitter in the catalog of the German National Library
• Bitter, Karl Hermann in: Rheinland-Pfälzische Personaldatenbank , accessed on December 12, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Politische Rundschau: Message on marriage , in Weekly advertisements for the Principality of Ratzeburg, 1880 No. 76, p. 1
2. ↑ Bernhard Mann : Biographical Handbook for the Prussian House of Representatives 1867-1918 (= Handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 3). Droste, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-7700-5146-7 , p. 69.
3. ↑ Berliner Tageblatt , September 15, 1885, evening edition, p. 3.
4. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 94.

This article is based on a text in the public domain from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon , 4th edition from 1888 to 1890.

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