Carl Ritschl

Georg Carl Benjamin Ritschl (1 November 1783 – 18 June 1858) was a German evangelist theologian, bishop and composer in Pomerania. Biography Carl Ritschl was born to Georg Ritschl von Hartenbach and Regina Christina Emminghaus in Erfurt. His father was a priest and professor at the Erfurt Ratsgymnasium. He acquired instruction in voice, keyboard and organ with the organist Johann Christian Kittel, the last student of Johann Sebastian Bach. He graduated from the gymnasium at the age of fifteen Ritschl continued studies in theology in Jena and, at the age of nineteen, earned his degree in autumn 1802. In 1804, still too young for a spiritual appointment, he began tutoring at their home the children of Johann Joachim Bellermann, the director of the Gymnasium of the Grey Friary. Ritschl was also a member of the music community in Berlin. At Berlin’s Cöllnisches Gymnasium, associated with the Grey Friary, Ritschl instructed students in voice and religion. In 1804 he became a member of Carl Friedrich Zelter’s choral society, for which he wrote several lieder. After he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Erfurt in 1805, he was appointed a collaborator (1807) and a subrector (1809) at