Adam Müller

Adam Heinrich Müller, since 1826 or 1827 Knights of Nitterdorf (* June 30, 1779 in Berlin, † January 17, 1829 in Vienna ) was a German philosopher, diplomat, journalist and political theorist. He was a member of the Vienna Circle romantics.

Life

Mueller, the son of a tax inspector, studied from 1798 to 1801 in Göttingen law and history; his teachers there included the jurist Gustav von Hugo and the historian August Ludwig von Schlozer and Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren, who exercised great influence on the young Müller. At the lowest but was influenced by Friedrich Gentz ​​, who transferred the particular own Anglophilia on the young Müller. After a brief spell as a law clerk at the Kurmark chamber in Berlin, he became tutor to the family Haza Radlitz in Poznan; here he wrote his first book in 1805, the philosophical treatise The doctrine of contrast.

He was in the following years, some travel, eg to Sweden and Denmark, companies. For a longer stay in Vienna he converted on April 30, 1805 to the Roman Catholic Church. About Poland Müller traveled to Dresden, where he lectured on the German science and literature (1806 ), in which he showed himself as a supporter of Schlegel's romanticism. In 1808, he was together with Heinrich von Kleist editor of Phoebus.

From late 1805 to 1809 Müller lived in Dresden, where he became famous for his 1806 held lectures on German literature and science; the propagated by his idea of ​​a balance of opposites ( Germanic against the Greek element of European literature, classical to romantic ) he turned here on poetry, philosophy, but also political thinking. He developed his key political ideas in his 1808/ 09 held lectures which he published in 1811 under the title The elements of statecraft. In accordance with its motto of " State Scholars " have become the statesman to the side, Müller propagated the principles of political romanticism, as their main work, the elements are to be considered: Against the modern contract theory he put the idea of ​​connecting organically grown, tradition and the present monarchical Corporate State; against the modern economic theory of ( Müller life is fine Deten ) Adam Smith, he propagated the idea of ​​a strict social obligations of property. Even later, he has repeatedly criticized the modern economic life. His equally admired like a finely finished definition of the state is as follows: The State is not a " manufactory ... or mercantile firm, he is the most intimate connection of the entire physical and spiritual needs of the entire physical and spiritual wealth, the entire inner and outer life of a nation, to a large, energetic, infinitely mobile and living whole ".

1809 Müller went after he had married Sophie Haza - Radlitz, to Berlin, where he held more historical and political lectures and Heinrich von Kleist the "Berlin evening papers " (1810 /11) issued. Müller, now back in the Prussian civil service, rejected the reform efforts of the incumbent since 1810, chancellor Karl August von Hardenberg, trying to trigger with his anti-government articles a public debate on the reform policies. In 1811 he also acted as a close political adviser to the leader of the Prussian nobility opposition, Friedrich August Ludwig von der Marwitz. But Hardenberg smashed the opposition: Marwitz was imprisoned, the " night music " had to cease publication and Müller was deported as a diplomatic Rapporteur to Vienna.

Driven by the war returned to Berlin, Müller wrote on behalf of the Kurbrandenburgischen knighthood an indictment against the State Chancellor von Hardenberg, after he had miller request for an adjustment in the civil service refused. In this state, intended for the king indictment accusing the Chancellor of revolutionary principles. Here, Müller commented on the feared consequences of his reform policy as follows: " knights and peasants go under, and there is in the end only merchants, craftsmen and Jews. " However, his writing was of no consequence. Müller's anti-Semitism, which was characteristic of the co-founded by him and Achim von Arnim German dinner party, is also evident in his comment: "We wage war, and that <...> a Andren thorough, serious and sincere against the Jews, against a brood, which with wonderful audacity, without occupation, without talent, with a little courage and even less honor, <...>, in the State in science, in art, in society and ultimately even in the chivalrous barriers is the duel, intrude and cramping endeavors. "

After the Prussian state had set his salary payments, Müller had to hire in the Austrian service: From 1813 to 1815 he worked for the Austrian army at the national commissioner and Government with governance and active in journalism as editor of the " messengers in Tirol". 1815, after he was the emperor in 1815 followed in the Feldhoflager, he was admitted to the bar of Metternich, who from 1815-26 gave him the post of Austrian Consul General for Northern Germany based in Leipzig. Here Müller developed numerous journalistic and political ( mainly anti- Prussian ) activities, among other things, he was from 1816 to 1818 the " German State Advertisements " out. As a diplomat, but Mueller remained largely luckless; his criticism of the Reformation anniversary of 1817 led to the first public debates about his person, and after not uninfluenced by him crossing of the Duke and Duchess of Anhalt- Köthen to Catholicism in 1825 could no longer keep him Metternich. Müller returned in 1827 returned to Vienna, where he nevertheless won the personal nobility and his last three years of life as a Councilor worked in the Court and State. He died two years later.

The later German Reichstag deputy Albert Ludwig Haza - Radlitz was his stepson and converted under his influence also to the Catholic Church.

His writings

Müller is the main representative of the political romance. His work is mainly characterized by a rational- romantic mixing style that proves to be fruitful, especially in his economic theory font elements of statecraft. He studies the intellectual foundations of economically developed nations, such as those beneficially use their wealth for all walks of life and can create a just world order. Central to this is his critique of liberalism and to the writings of Adam Smith. Philosophically goes Müller of its opposites lesson from - a kind frühdialektischer view, which revolves around the idea of ​​mediation and conciliation.

• The doctrine of the opposition in 1804
• Lectures on the Science and German Literature 1806/1807
• From the idea of beauty in 1809
• From the idea of the State 1809
• The elements of statecraft 1809 ( digitized and full text in German Text Archive Vol 1, digitized and full text in German Text Archive Vol 2)
• The theory of state Housekeeping 1812
• Test of a new theory of money 1816 ( digitized and full text in German Text Archive )
• Twelve speeches about the eloquence and their expiration in Germany 1816
• State Listings 1816-1818
• On the necessity of a theological basis of the entire political science in 1819