Johannes von Müller (3 January 1752 – 29 May 1809) was aSwisshistorian.
He was born inSchaffhausen, where his father was a clergyman and rector of thegymnasium. In his youth, his maternal grandfather, Johannes Schoop (1696–1757), roused in him an interest in the history of his country. At the age of eight he is said to have written history of Schaffhausen, and at eleven he knew the names and dates of all the kings of the four great monarchies. His ardour for historical studies was further stimulated bySchlözer, when Müller went (1769–1771) to theUniversity of Göttingen, nominally to study theology. In July 1771 he undertook a sketch of Swiss history for a publisher ofHalle, but his theological studies and the preparation of a Latin dissertation on theBellum cimbricum (publ. in 1772) prevented much progress.[1]
In April 1772 he passed his theological examination, and soon after became a professor ofGreek at the Collegium Humanitatis in Schaffhausen. He then began to devote his leisure hours to the investigation of Swiss chronicles and documents. Early in 1774, on the advice of his friendCharles Victor de Bonstetten, he gave up this post and became tutor in the Tronchin family at Geneva. However, in 1775 he also resigned this position, and passed his time with various friends, such asFrancis Kinloch fromSouth Carolina, inGeneva andVaud; all that while engaged in carrying his historical scheme into effect. Having accumulated much material, he began the actual composition of his work in the spring of 1776, and the printing in the summer of 1777. But difficulties arose with the censor, and matters came to a standstill.[1]
In 1778–1779 Müller delivered a set of lectures onuniversal history (revised between 1782 and 1784), which were published asVierundzwanzig Bücher allgemeiner Geschichte in 1811, and often republished. In 1780 the first volume (extending to 1388) of hisGeschichten der Schweizer appeared, nominally at Boston (to avoid the censor), though really atBern; and it was well received. In 1781 he published at Berlin, in French, hisEssais historiques. During his visit to Berlin, he had an interview withFrederick the Great from whom he had hoped to obtain an office, but he did not receive it. He was on his way back to Switzerland when the landgrave ofHesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) named him professor of history at theCollegium Carolinum. He stayed atKassel until 1783, publishing in 1782 hisReisen der Päpste, a book wherein certain leanings towardsRomanism are visible, as well as his distrust of emperorJoseph II's hegemonic politics.[1]
On his return toGeneva (1783), he accepted the post of reader to the brother of his old patron, Tronchin, and occupied himself with remodeling his published work of 1780. In order to improve his financial position, he accepted early in 1786 the post of librarian toFriedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, theprince-elector and ofarchbishop of Mainz, who bestowed many important offices upon him and obtained his elevation to nobility from the emperor Leopold II. in 1791. In June 1786 he issued volume I (reaching to 1412) and two years later volume II (to 1436) of the definitive form of his Swiss history, which was received with great praise. In 1787 he issued an important political tract,Zur Darstellung des Fürstenbundes, and alsoBriefe zweier Domherren. Then, in October 1792, Mainz was taken by the French, so Müller had to seek for another post. In February 1793 he entered the service ofEmperor Francis II as an imperial Aulic Councilor.[1]
AtVienna he spent many years, becoming chief librarian of the imperial library in 1800, and in 1795 he issued volume III (to 1443) of his Swiss history. In 1804 he became historiographer, war councillor, and member of theAcademy at Berlin. In 1805, volume IV (to 1475) of his Swiss history appeared.[1] He edited the works ofHerder, and wrote various treatises for the Academy, includingÜber die Geschichte Friedrich's II (On the history of Frederick II).
In 1802/03 a protégé, Fritz von Hartenberg, cheated Müller out of his entire fortune in a homosexual scandal. The young man faked love letters from a Hungarian Count Batthyány and declared his love for Müller. The scandal and political intrigue, during which Müller narrowly avoided a morality suit, became known as the Hartenberg Affair. Müller's love letters to the supposed Batthyány are an important window on same-sex desire in Goethe's time.[2]
In 1806 he became strongly inclined towardsNapoleon, by whom he was received in audience after theBattle of Jena (November 1806), and from whom he accepted (end of 1807) the office of secretary of state for theKingdom of Westphalia, exchanging this position early in 1808 for the posts of privy councillor and general director of public instruction. At the end of 1808 he published volume V (to 1489) of his great work. He died at Kassel on 29 May 1809.[1]
Müller's works were published under the care of his brother Johann Georg Müller (1759–1819), pupil ofJohann Gottfried Herder atTübingen, in 27 volumes (1810–1819), and re-issued, in 40 volumes, atStuttgart (1831–1835). Vols. 1-3 contain a revised, but unfinished, German version of Müller'sUniversal History. TheSwiss History was re-issued at Leipzig and Zurich, in 15 volumes (1824–1853), with continuations byRobert Glutz-Blotzheim (to 1517),J. J. Hottinger (to 1531),Louis Vulliemin (to 1712), andCharles Monnard (to 1815). A French translation of the German edition (as above) appeared, in 18 volumes, at Paris and Geneva (1837–1851).
Important minor works areEssais historiques, published in French under the auspices ofFrederick the Great (Berlin, 1780);Reisen der Päpste (new ed., Aix-la-Chapelle, 1831; French translation, 1859), written against the anti-papal reforms ofJoseph II (although he was a Protestant); andVierundzwanzig Bücher allgemeiner Geschichten, lectures delivered in Switzerland (3 volumes, Tübingen, 1811; often republished).
Müller's letters to Füsslin (1771–1807) were issued at Zürich (1812), and those to Charles Bonnet, etc., at Stuttgart (1835). Many letters addressed to him by various friends were published byMaurer-Constant, in 6 volumes (Schaffhausen, 1839–1840); and those written to him by his brother (1770–1809),Johann Georg Müller, appeared, under the editorship ofEduard Haug andAndré Weibel, at Frauenfeld[1] (2 volumes, 1893) and Göttingen (6 volumes 2009-2011).
Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Coolidge, William Augustus Brevoort (1911). "Müller, Johannes von". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 962. This work in turn cites the biographies by Heeren (1809), Döring (1835) and Monnard (1839); and biographies in G. v. Wyss'sGeschichte der Historiographie in der Schweiz (Zürich, 1895), pp. 305–311, and in theFestschrift der Stadt Schaffhausen (Schaffhausen, 1891), pt. v. pp. 83–99. It also notes that F. Schwarz's pamphlet,J. von Müller und seine Schweizergeschichte (Bâle, 1884), traces the genesis of theSwiss History.
"Мюллер, Иоганн (историк)" .Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.
