Clemens Bittlinger is a Protestant minister, author of books as well as a song writer of many new sacred songs (German:NGL or Neues Geistliches Lied) and children songs in German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

.

Life

Clemens Bittlinger was born in 1959 in Mannheim

Mannheim

Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

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

John Pearse

John Pearse 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 career:...

, 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

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

.

While working on his first LP

LP album

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

 Mensch, bist Du's wirklich, he met the Swiss pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 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 und Erlangen

Erlangen

Erlangen is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located at the confluence of the river Regnitz and its large tributary, the Untere Schwabach.Erlangen has more than 100,000 inhabitants....

 and was also a member of the choir Aufwind. Already in these days, Clemens 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.

Clemens Bittlinger is married with 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.,

A report in Der Spiegel

Der Spiegel

Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...

 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).

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
  Joy Fleming is a German singer who is probably best-known for her performance in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1975...
  
  )
• Fingerspitzengefühle (2004)
• Wie im Himmel (Buch/2006)
• Mit den Augen eines Kindes (2006) (with Anselm Grün
  Anselm Grün
  Anselm Grün , OSB is a German Benedictine padre. He is in charge of Münsterschwarzach Abbey's financial matters, being its Cellerar. Anselm Grün is the author of approximately 300 books with focus on spirituality. Of his books more than 14 million copies have been sold in 30 languages...
  
  )
• Bilder der Passion (2006)
• Das wünsch ich mir – Clemens Bittlinger & Freunde (2006)
• Gott tut gut (2007) – book & CD
• Perlen des Glaubens (2007)

External links

• http://www.clemens-bittlinger.de
• http://www.sanna-sound.de
• Clemens Bittlinger - Ambassador for Christoffel-Blindenmission