Wilhelm Müller

Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Müller ( born October 7, 1794 in Dessau, † October 1, 1827 ) was a German poet. He was the father of the philologist Friedrich Max Müller.

Biography

Wilhelm Müller was the sixth child of the cutter Christian Leopold Müller and his wife Marie Leopoldine, born Cellarius. His siblings died early, in 1808 he lost his mother. His father, who was always in financial straits due to prolonged illness, married 1809, the wealthy widow Marie Seelmann, nee Godel.

1812 Wilhelm Müller began a study of philology in Berlin, but announced in February 1813 as a volunteer for the Prussian army and took part in the wars of liberation against Napoleon. In 1814 he was appointed lieutenant. From 1816 he attended literary salons in Berlin, where she learned, among others, Gustav Schwab, Joachim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano, Ludwig Tieck and Ludwig Berger know. Already 1816/1817 set to music of these songs for a game texts miller. Five of these musical settings were published in 1818 as part of Berger's song cycle Songs from a social operetta ' The Beautiful Miller '. In the poetess Luise Hensel he was unlucky in love. 1817/18 he took an educational trip to Italy.

In April 1819 he was appointed as school teacher in his home town of Dessau, and later to the ducal librarian.

On 21 May 1821 he married Adelheid Basedow, a granddaughter of Johann Bernhard Basedow education reformers. With her he had two children who were born on April 20, 1822 Auguste and was born on December 6, 1823 Friedrich Max

From 1 to 3 July 1824, he participated in the music festival for " Säcularfeier " Klopstock in Quedlinburg part, which had been initiated by the Quedlinburg citizens to erect a monument for Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. The music festival, to which his wife Adelheid sang the alto part, was directed by Carl Maria Weber. About the celebration he reported in Brockhaus ' Conversations - Literary Journal. The monument by Schinkel, Tieck and was inaugurated on July 7, 1831 in Quedlinburg park Brühl.

In August 1824 Müller was appointed Privy Councillor. In March 1826, he fell ill with whooping cough. Despite several spa stays there, his health steadily downhill, and he died the following year at the age of only 32 years of a heart attack.

Müller was known for his socially critical German folk songs. He sat down for the independence struggle of the Greeks against the Turkish occupation a - hence his nickname " Greek -Müller ," although he never visited Greece.

He could very well read English and was influenced by, among other things, by Lord Byron, who had participated in the Greek struggle for independence.

Müller worked as a publisher and editor of, among others, for the notice published in publishing house Brockhaus Library German poets of the seventeenth century. The library was continued by Karl August Förster and ends with Volume 14. In addition, Müller worked for various literary journals, including the Journal of Literary Conversation and Hermes.

Wilhelm Müller was a Freemason. In July 1820, he was inducted into the Masonic Lodge Minerva of the three palm trees in Leipzig.

A literary output miller is kept in the Dessau Anhalt Regional Library.

Work

During his lifetime, Müller was often dismissed as mediocre author of romance; the criticism continues to this day. In contrast, the effort is a more differentiated assessment as a precursor of Heinrich Heine.

Works

• Seventy-seven poems from the posthumous papers of a traveling horn player, First ribbon, 1821 - contains, inter alia, the cycle The Beautiful Miller
• Seventy-seven poems from the posthumous papers of a traveling horn player, Second tapes, 1824 - contains, inter alia, the cycle Winterreise
• Lyrical Travel and epigrammatic walks, 1827 - contains, inter alia, the cycle of mussels from the island of Rügen with the poem " Vineta ", the Johannes Brahms in 1860 as one of three songs for sixteen voice choir a cappella set to music (Op. 42 No. 2)

Franz Schubert's settings of

Today's posthumous miller is mainly based on his poem cycle The Beautiful Miller and winter travel. They were - as well as two poems he heranzog for his last work The Shepherd on the Rock - set to music by Franz Schubert and include in this form of the most famous song cycles ever. It has not been established that Müller has ever learn of these musical settings, although Schubert the " miller's wife " 1823 completed, while the setting of the "Winterreise" in 1827 took place, ie, in Müller's death a year and a year before Schubert's own death.

Wilhelm Müller Award

The Wilhelm Müller Prize has been awarded since 1996, usually every two years by the State of Saxony -Anhalt, alternating with the Friedrich Nietzsche Prize as the award for literary talent.