Erich Müller (activist)
Erich Heinrich Otto Müller (born September 19, 1902 in Dortmund , † after 1947 ) was a German political activist. Among other things, he was head of the German University Ring and a senior employee of the IG Farben Group.
Life and activity
In his youth, Müller attended elementary school and the Bismarck high school in Dortmund, which he left with the Abitur in 1921. From 1921 to 1923 he studied economics, law and history in Munich . He then continued his studies in Berlin (1923–1925) and finally in Cologne (1925–1926).
Since his student days, Müller has distinguished himself politically: after having been active as a high school student in the youth association of the German People's Party , in the youth movement Falken and Adler as well as in the Völkische Jugend Dortmund, he found a connection to the Association of Gymnastics Associations at German universities as a student ( VC) and in particular to the right-wing conservative Deutsche Hochschulring (also Hochschulring of German kind), a politically very influential collection movement of nationally and ethnically oriented students in the right-wing camp during the Weimar Republic . In the Hochschulring, Müller first rose to head the Munich section. In the autumn of 1923 he published an appeal in this capacity, in which he called on “German national students” to make themselves available to the so-called Deutscher Kampfbund , an association of right-wing paramilitary forces in southern Germany that was formed in 1923. Since the Kampfbund emerged shortly afterwards, in November 1923, as the main sponsor of the Hitler putsch in Munich, Müller later accused parts of the literature that he had “directly involved in the preparations for the putsch” as head of the university ring in Munich.
In 1923, Müller rose from being chairman of the Munich university ring to succeed Wilhelm Zietz as chairman of the general association. According to the organization's practices, he retained his post for a year until 1924 (successor: Walter Kolbe ). Even after his official resignation as chairman, he remained one of the leading representatives of the university ring. In the course of this activity, Müller established numerous connections to professors, journalists and politicians as well as other representatives of academic and political life. Martin Spahn and Edgar Jung , with whom he also founded the Young Academic Club at Munich University, had a major influence on his intellectual development at this time .
Due to a prolonged economic hardship of his family, Müller had to break off his studies in 1926 and return to Dortmund, where he got by with odd jobs and also devoted himself to private economic studies. Despite the end of his university studies, he continued his work in the Hochschulring, which he represented at the Harzburg conference of September 1931, for example .
In 1929 Müller, who was now returning to Munich, began to work as a journalist. Participation in the economic and political press service published by Otto Wagener ended after a short time due to ideological differences between the two men: While Wagener rose to a leading functionary of the NSDAP and a close associate of Hitler at this time , Müller was strongly oriented towards the ideas of the Conservative Revolution .
From 1930 to 1931 he was the commercial publishing director of the Association of Gymnastics Associations at German universities. He then acted from 1932 to 1935 as editor of the magazine VC-Rundschau (later renamed Der Turnerschafter ). From 1933 to 1934, through Edgar Jung's mediation, Müller also worked as a journalist and commercially at the Hans Boerner publishing house, for whom he worked on the correspondence between Deutsche Führerbriefe and Osthilfe and the magazine Deutscher Volkswirt .
In 1934 Müller worked in the network organized by his friend Jung, which was working towards a violent overthrow of the Nazi regime through a state of emergency imposed by the Reich President von Hindenburg. Among other things, Müller acted as a liaison man for Jung, and he also wrote articles with subtexts critical of the regime for the Deutsche Rundschau published by Jung's friend Rudolf Pechel . After Jung's murder in the course of the Röhm affair on June 30 and July 1, 1934, Müller withdrew from active political work. Thanks to the protection of his friend from the time of the university ring, Werner Best , who had meanwhile risen to the position of deputy head of the Secret State Police Office , he was spared further stalking .
From 1934 to 1945 Müller worked in a managerial position as a commercial clerk in the Berlin office of IG Farbenindustrie: As an employee of Heinrich Gattineau , he was employed in the economic policy department of the office, where he initially acted as an economic unskilled worker, then as a consultant and finally as a deputy head of department .
After the end of World War II , Müller initially worked as a sawmill worker in Gieboldehausen in the Duderstadt district from 1945 to 1946 . In 1946 he moved to Hamburg where he worked as a lawyer for the Association of German Coasters. He also took part in the construction of factories for recycling rubble and for producing building materials in the metropolis on the Elbe.
In 1947, Müller was heard as a witness in the context of the Nuremberg trials , especially in the course of the trial against IG Farben. (He should not be confused with the Krupp director Erich Müller, who was at the Nuremberg court as a defendant at the same time )
literature
- Edmund Forschbach : Edgar J. Jung. A conservative revolutionary, June 30, 1934. Neske, Pfullingen 1984, ISBN 3-7885-0267-3 .
- Gerhard Fließ, Jürgen John: Deutscher Hochschulring (DHR) 1920–1933. In: Dieter Fricke (Ed.): The bourgeois parties in Germany. Handbook of the history of the bourgeois parties and other bourgeois interest organizations from Vormärz to 1945. Volume 1: All-German Association - Progressive People's Party. Verlag Enzyklopädie, Leipzig 1968, pp. 469–474.
- Karl Martin Graß : Edgar Jung, Papenkreis and Röhm crisis 1933/34. Heidelberg 1966, (Heidelberg, University, dissertation, 1967).
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Müller, Erich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Müller, Erich Heinrich Otto (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German political activist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 19, 1902 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dortmund |
| DATE OF DEATH | after 1947 |