Born in Czernowitz (then part of Austria) in 1911, Bittman arrived in Australia in 1939. His work has been performed in German and he has published in German and English. While he lived in Vienna, he was active in Das Politische Kabarett, a group of young socialists who wrote and performed satirical revues and sketches. The author and some others in the group also contributed articles and short fiction to socialist newspapers and humorous weeklies in Vienna. During the years 1929 to 1933, this group was popular with the socialist movement in Vienna. From 1934, all activities associated with the Social Democratic party were banned. He spent seven months in prison in 1934 for attempts to participate in the activities of the banned party. He left Austria to escape Hitler's persecution of Jewish people in 1938, and managed to reach England, and finally migrate to Australia. In Australia he continued to write and act. He joined the Viennese Theatre in Sydney where he remained until 1986 as writer, actor and administrator. Most of the cabarets, revues and sketches, which started as a series of 'Bunter Abend' [Variety Night] presentations, were written together with Alfred Baring. Usually bi-lingual, these programs revolved, in a satirical or humorous way, around the life of migrants in Australia.
