Clemens Bittlinger (born 8 August 1959) is a German Protestant minister, author of books as well as a

song writer A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

of religious-themed songs (German:

Neues Geistliches Lied (, ''new spiritual song''), abbreviated NGL, is a music genre of songs in German intended for church usage, and based on contemporary lyrics and with music by contemporary composers. History The idea to reach young people by new songs for ...

, NGL) and children's songs in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Life

Clemens Bittlinger was born in 1959 in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. He was brought up with three siblings in Germany and the United States, moving around to places where his father was a priest. Inspired by the guitarist

John Pearse John Pearse (12 September 1939 – 31 October 2008) was a British guitarist, folk singer and music educator, who came to prominence in the 1960s presenting the popular BBC2 television guitar tuition series, ''Hold Down a Chord''. Life and caree ...

, he started to play the guitar when he was 14. He also started to write his own songs; and in 1978 he recorded four of them on his first EP. While working on his first LP ''Mensch, bist Du's wirklich'', he met the Swiss

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and producer of music, David Plüss - with whom Bittlinger is still performing together at some concerts. In the beginning of the 1980s Bittlinger studied theology in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

und

Erlangen Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...

and was also a member of the choir ''Aufwind''. Already in these days, Bittlinger gave around 100 to 120 concerts per year. In 1990 he finished his studies and was ordained a priest for the ''Evangelische Kirche in Hessen und Nassau'', where he was given the special task to work on the musical-cultural mission of the church. Bittlinger is married to Rosi and has two children.

Threats

In mid-September 2008, German-speaking and English-speaking media reported that Bittlinger was receiving police protection following threats received over a song, ''Mensch, Benedikt'', in which he addressed ecumenical concerns as a fellow Christian to

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

.Liedermacher Bittlinger von Katholiken bedroht
''Christliches Medienmagazin pro'', 15 September 2008
[https://web.archive.org/web/20100114042400/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/harrydequetteville/5230629/German_priest_gets_police_protection_for_insulting_Pope/ German priest gets police protection for insulting Pope] by Harry de Quetteville, 15 September 2008, ''The Daily Telegraph'' A report in

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

said that the South Hesse Police Directorate confirmed that one August concert by Bittlinger in Odenwald had had police protection. The weekly news magazine also reported that the song had been the subject of many angry posts in "rechtskonservativen katholischen Internet-Seiten" (right-wing conservative Catholic websites).Fegefeuer für Protestanten - Wegen eines papstkritischen Liedes wird ein evangelischer Pfarrer von katholischen Fundamentalisten bedroht. Inzwischen brauchte er schon Polizeischutz.
''

'', 15 September 2008

Works

Famous songs

* Auf dem Weg der Gerechtigkeit (DEKT 97) * Aufstehn, aufeinander zugehn * Gott spannt leise feine Fäden * So soll es sein * Ihr seid das Salz (DEKT 99) * Kostbare Momente * Sanna sannanina * Schritte wagen * Sei behütet * Suchen und Finden

Recordings

* Mensch bist Du's wirklich? (1981) * Jeder Mensch braucht einen Menschen (1983) * Schwer zu sagen (1987) * Mensch sing mit (1988) * Fenster in die Nacht (1990) * Selten (1993) * Mensch sing mit 2 (1994) * Auf der Grenze (1996) * Lieder vom Kirchentag (1997) * Aus heiterem Himmel (1998) * Ich bin...Worte Jesu (1999) * Clemens Bittlinger & Freunde: LIVE (with David Plüss and Helmut Kandert) (2000) * Hellhörig (2001) * Kinder-Wunder-Welt (2001) * Ihr sollt ein Segen sein (2002) * Bilder der Weihnacht (2003) * Liebe macht sehend (2003) (Single with

Joy Fleming Joy Fleming (born Erna Raad, 15 November 1944 – 27 September 2017) was a German singer. She is best known for her performance in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1975. She performed the song "Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein" and was placed sevent ...

) * Fingerspitzengefühle (2004) * Wie im Himmel (Buch/2006) * Mit den Augen eines Kindes (2006) (with

Anselm Grün Anselm Grün (in English also: Anselm Gruen), OSB (born 14 January 1945 in , Germany) is a German Benedictine monk. He was in charge of Münsterschwarzach Abbey's financial matters, as its ''cellarer''. He has written around 300 books focused ...

) * Bilder der Passion (2006) * Das wünsch ich mir – Clemens Bittlinger & Freunde (2006) * Gott tut gut (2007) – book & CD * Perlen des Glaubens (2007) * Fridays for Future (2019)

References

External links

* *http://www.clemens-bittlinger.de *http://www.sanna-sound.de
Clemens Bittlinger - Ambassador for Christoffel-Blindenmission
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bittlinger, Clemens Living people 1959 births German male songwriters