Karl Bittel
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Karl Bittel (22 June 1892 – 18 April 1969) was a German left-wing
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
and
journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
.


Life

Karl Bittel was born in
Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...
. His father was a bank worker. He attended school at
Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...
in the south-west of Germany, across the
Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
from
Mulhouse Mulhouse (; ; Alsatian language, Alsatian: ''Mìlhüsa'' ; , meaning "Mill (grinding), mill house") is a France, French city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France). It is near the Fran ...
. He passed his school final exams in 1911. By that time he had already co-founded a Freiburg
Wandervogel ''Wandervogel'' (plural: ''Wandervögel''; English: "Wandering Bird") is the name adopted by a popular movement of German youth groups from 1896 to 1933, who protested against industrialization by going to hike in the country and commune with na ...
youth group, for which he produced a news-sheet. Then, between 1911 and 1915, he studied
Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
('' Volkswirtschaft''),
Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
and
History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
at the universities of
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
,
Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...
and
Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...
. It was while he was at Tübingen that he joined the Deutsche Akademische Freischar, a (relatively) forward looking student fraternity. He received his doctorate from Tübingen in 1915 for a dissertation on the consumer-co-operative movement pioneer, Eduard Pfeiffer. Bittel was a volunteer contributor to the "Freiburger Volksstimme", a local newspaper at the popular end of the political spectrum, and served between 1913 and 1916 as Secretary for Consumers Club in nearby Esslingen. At the same time he was publishing articles on the Co-Operative movement. In August 1914
war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
had broken out, and it ended in November 1918 with military defeat for Germany and her allies. During the revolutionary year that ensued in Germany Bittel was a member of the Soldiers' and Workers'
Council A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...
in
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
. In 1919 Bittel became a member of the newly established
German Communist Party The German Communist Party (, ) is a communist party in Germany. The DKP supports far-left positions and was an observer member of the European Left before leaving in February 2016. History The DKP considered itself a reconstitution of the C ...
. He became a lecturer at the Party Main Academy in Jena in 1920, and then editor of a
Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...
based newspaper called "Kämpfer" (''"Fighters"''). This was just one of a succession of radical left-wing journals which he produced or for which he was writing during this time. The early 1920s saw a splintering on the political left in Germany, triggered in part by contrasting reactions to the fast moving political events in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, but Bittel remained true to the mainstream Communist Party through the period, becoming head of the Party Central Committee's "Co-operatives Department" in 1922. 1922 was also the year in which he became, in November, a Communist Party member of the town council in
Weißenfels Weißenfels (; often written in English as Weissenfels) is the largest town of the Burgenlandkreis district, in southern Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany. It is situated on the river Saale, approximately south of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle. His ...
.
Published output (not a complete list)
*'' Eduard Pfeiffer und die deutsche Konsumgenossenschaftsbewegung'', Schriften des Vereins für Socialpolitik, Bd. 151/1, München und Leipzig 1915 *''Die Geschichte des Konsum- und Sparvereins Eßlingen am Neckar. Zum fünfzigjährigen Bestehen 1865 - 1915'', Esslingen 1915 *as compiler and editor: ''Genossenschaftliche Kultur. Eine Flugschriftensammlung der Gesellschaft für genossenschaftliche Kultur'', Wilhelm Langguth, Esslingen 1915-1916 *as compiler and editor: ''Der Freistaat. Freideutsche Flugschriften zum Sozialismus'', Karlsruhe 1918 *as compiler and editor: ''Politische Rundbriefe'', Esslingen 1918-1921 *as compiler and editor: ''Süddeutsche Arbeiter-Zeitung'', Fortsetzung der politischen Rundbriefe, Verlag Dr. Karl Bittel, Esslingen, erste Nummer vom 31. Oktober 1921 *as compiler and editor: ''Der kommunistische Genossenschaftler'', 1919-1924 *as compiler and editor: ''Die Genossenschaft im Klassenkampf'', 1924 *as editor.: ''DEROP-Blätter'', Hauszeitschrift der Deutschen Vertriebsgesellschaft für Russische Öl-Produkte, Berlin 1931/32 *''Sernatinger Chronik'', Karlsruhe 1939 *''Der berühmte Herr Doctor Mesmer 1734-1815'', Friedrichshafen 1940 * Rudolf Tischner, Karl Bittel: ''
Mesmer Franz Anton Mesmer ( ; ; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimate objects; this he cal ...
und sein Problem. Magnetismus, Suggestion, Hypnose'', Hippokrates Verlag, Stuttgart 1941 *
Wilhelm Wolff Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Wolff, nicknamed "Lupus" (21 June 1809 – 9 May 1864) was a German schoolmaster, political activist and publicist. Life Wolff was born in Tarnau, a village in the Schweidnitz district of Silesia, Prussia (now , L ...
: ''Der Aufruhr der Weber in Schlesien (Juni 1844) und andere Schriften''. Mit einer Einleitung von Karl Bittel, (Schriftenreihe für journalistische Schulung. Hrsg. vom Verband der Deutschen Presse), Berlin 1952 (2. erw. Aufl. 1952) *''Die Feinde der deutschen Nation. Eine historische Dokumentation über die Deutschlandpolitik der imperialistischen Westmächte von 1942 - 1949'', Berlin 1952 (fünf Auflagen bis 1955) *''
Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
als Journalist'', Aufbau Verlag, Berlin 1953 *''Paracelsus und seine Vaterstadt Villach'', Klagenfurt 1953 *''Arbeit und Aufgaben des Deutschen Instituts für Zeitgeschichte in Berlin''. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 4 (1956), S. 1253-1255 *as editor: ''Der Kommunistenprozeß zu Köln 1852 im Spiegel der zeitgenössischen Presse'', Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1955 *''Der Landbote von
Georg Büchner Karl Georg Büchner (17 October 1813 – 19 February 1837) was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose, considered part of the Young Germany movement. He was also a revolutionary and the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchn ...
''. In: ''Neue deutsche Presse'', 9. Jg. 1955, Nr.9, S.4-8. *''Zeitgeschichte als Wissenschaft'', Berlin 1956 *''Ein deutscher Staatenbund (Konföderation)'', Berlin 1957 *''Atomwaffenfreie Zone in Europa'', Berlin 1958 *''Spaltung und Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands'', in two volumes, Berlin 1958 und 1959 *''Alliierter Kontrollrat und Außenministerkonferenzen. Aus der Praxis der Deutschlandpolitik der vier Mächte seit 1945'', Berlin 1959 *''Der Warschauer Vertrag über Freundschaft, Zusammenarbeit und gegenseitigen Beistand'', Berlin 1960 *''Der Revanchismus als Kriegsvorbereitung in der Bonner Bundesrepublik'', Berlin 1961 *''Wir klagen an!: die Wahrheit über die faschistischen Konzentrationslager im Ostseegebiet; eine kurze Führung durch die Ausstellung anlässlich der Ostseewoche vom 10.7.-13.8.1966 im Haus der Nationalen Volksarmee, Stralsund'', Ahrenshoop 1966
In 1923 he was a delegate to the
Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...
's First World Congress of Farmers' organisation (identified in some sources as ''"Krestintern"''). Bittel then remained in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, till 1927 working as Secretary to the
Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...
's Co-Operative section. In August 1927 he returned to Germany. In 1928 he took charge of the administration office for Soviet trade representation, and then, from 1930 till (formally) April 1933 at the Berlin-based successor Soviet-German organisation known as DEROP AG. Régime change came to Germany in January 1933 and the new Chancellor lost little time in moving the country towards one-
party dictatorship A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...
. Membership of alternative political parties became illegal, with the
Communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...
a particular target for state persecution. During the early months of 1933 Karl Bittel left Berlin and settled in
Bodman-Ludwigshafen Bodman-Ludwigshafen is a municipality in the district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg in Germany, located on the most western shore of Lake Überlingen, the north-western part of the Upper Lake of Lake Constance (). The municipality consist ...
. It was in his new home in a village on the shores of the
Bodensee Lake Constance (, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhei ...
that Bittel was arrested by the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
in May 1933. He spent the next year or so in detention in
concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...
s at Heuberg and then just outside
Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...
. He was released in 1934. Unlike many Communists, he was able to remain in Germany during the twelve years of
Nazi rule Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictator ...
, but there is no evidence of his having engaged in any sort of political activity during this time. He was able to live unmolested in his remote lake-side village, focusing on academic research. He was even able to have some of his work published: a work involving
Paracelsus Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. H ...
was printed in 1942. In May 1945
war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
ended. What remained of Germany was divided up into four occupation zones, in which membership of the Communist Party was no longer illegal. Bittel now joined the Party Secretariat and the party's regional leadership team for
Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...
, where he also became Chairman of the Baden branch of the
Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Unio ...
, a post he held till Summer 1949. In addition, in 1946 he co-founded a Communist Newspaper based in
Offenburg Offenburg (; "open borough" - coat of arms showing open gates; Low Alemmanic: ''Offäburg'') is a city in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in south-western Germany. With nearly 60,000 inhabitants (2019), it is the largest city and the administrat ...
, entitled "Unser Tag" (''"Our Day"''), becoming "licence holder" and editor in chief of the publication till 1948. By 1949 it had become clear that whatever the future might hold for Germany, the portion of it under Soviet administration was developing very differently from the zones occupied by the other three victorious wartime powers. As the Soviet blockade of
West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
was lifted, in May 1949 the US, British and American zones were combined and re-founded as the
German Federal Republic BRD ( ; English: FRG/Federal Republic of Germany) is an unofficial abbreviation for the Federal Republic of Germany, informally known in English as West Germany until 1990, and just Germany since reunification. It was occasionally used in the Fede ...
. Bittel's prompt reaction was to relocate the same month from what was now designated
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 ...
, to the
Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...
, which itself would be re-founded a few months later, in October, as the Soviet sponsored
German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
. Between 1949 and 1957 Bittel served as deputy head, and then from 1951 as head of the German Institute for Contemporary History (''Deutsches Institut für Zeitgeschichte"''). From 1951 till 1953 he also held office as the Senior Chairman of the (East) German Union of Journalists. He was made an honorary professor at the "Karl Marx University" (as it was then known) in
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, and in 1957 became a full professor, with a teaching position, at the
Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
. That year he was also invited to present a series of guest lectures in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. In 1958 his job portfolio was boosted with a special advisory post to the East German
Ministry for Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral rela ...
. Between 1963 and 1969 he also belonged to the Presidium of the
Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...
branch of the national Culture Association. Bittel was one of a small but determined group of like-minded historians who promoted the orienting of historical seminars and institutions according to the precepts of East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED / ''Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands''). This was seen as necessary because, especially in the early years of the German Democratic Republic, the country's mainstream historians were drawn, for the most part, from outside the Marxist historical tradition. Nevertheless, in the judgement of
Lothar Mertens Lothar Mertens (2 January 1959 – 4 December 2006) was a prolific German historian and social sciences scholar. A principal focus of his output was on the German Democratic Republic (East Germany, 1949–1990). Life and work Lothat Mertens wa ...
, Karl Bittel - along with colleagues such as Horst Bartel,
Walter Bartel Walter Bartel (15 September 1904 – 16 January 1992) was a German communist resistance fighter, historian and educator Life Born on 15 September 1904, in Fürstenberg/Havel, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Bartel grew up in a wor ...
,
Rudolf Lindau Rudolf Lindau (10 October 1829 in Gardelegen, Saxony – 14 October 1910) was a German diplomat and author. Milestones Rudolf Lindau was responsible for commanding the first Swiss delegation to Japan on 28 April 1859, along with Swiss Aimé Humb ...
and Albert Schreiner - lacked the necessary skill and rigour sufficiently to distance their academic output from the category of "mere" party propaganda.Lothar Mertens: ''Priester der Klio oder Hofchronisten der Partei? Kollektivbiographische Analysen zur DDR-Historikerschaft'', V & R unipress, Göttingen 2006, p. 125,


Awards and honours

*1954:
Patriotic Order of Merit The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...
in silver *1958:
Medal for Fighters Against Fascism The Medal for Fighters Against Fascism () was an award of the German Democratic Republic given to people who had been active in the German Resistance against Nazism. Institution and specifics of the award The award was instituted on 22 Februar ...
*1962:
Order of Karl Marx The Order of Karl Marx () was the most important order in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The award of the order also included a prize of 20,000 East German marks. The order was founded on May 5, 1953 on the occasion of Karl Marx's 135th ...
* *


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bittel, Karl German Comintern people German Marxist historians Nazi concentration camp survivors Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime members Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit 1892 births 1969 deaths 20th-century German historians