Johannes Müller (theologian, 1864)

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Johannes Müller (born April 19, 1864 in Riesa , † January 4, 1949 in Elmau ) was a Protestant theologian.

Origin, studies and first years of employment

Müller was born in Riesa, a small town in Saxony with a population of around 5000 at the time. His parents had met in a pietistic community. His father and grandfather were schoolmasters, his mother came from a small farmer's family. At the age of 7, Müller fell ill with polio . He lay in bed motionless and with almost no contact with his surroundings. Like his uncle , his older brother became a pastor , and his older sister married a pastor. As a teenager he lived with his grandparents in Dresden , where he attended the royal high school. From 1884 Müller studied theology and philosophy in Leipzig and Erlangen. There - and later in Munich - he became a member of the Wingolf Association . In 1890 he received his doctorate in philosophy. A theological doctorate failed. From 1889 he was mission secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Central Association for Mission under Israel , to which he proposed to replace the usual proselytizing with a popular mission that would allow Israel to recognize Jesus as his Messiah as a unit rather than individual Jews. The model was Joseph Rabinowitz . Since the management committee had a different opinion, Müller resigned at the end of 1892.

For traditional church teaching, nature was the source of sin and immorality. Müller found doctrinal church Christianity cold and hostile to life. He condemned "aloof" thinking and reflection and used "common registers of anti-Semitic language" during this time .

Public work

Due to the formative years of his life and studies, Müller was a figure of the fin de siècle . From 1897 he and Heinrich Lhotzky published the papers for the care of personal life ( called Green Leaves from 1911 , discontinued from 1941 due to lack of paper). His numerous essays devoted to the first today as anti-Jewish and partly responsible for the Holocaust respected Jewish mission . With an extensive lecture activity as a religious intellectual, he promoted a free new Christianity and thus established his freelance existence. His thoughts, which were linked to form a message of salvation, found a response from educated citizens and the “educated from the church”. He was in close personal contact with Heinrich Diesman (1863–1927), a "folkish" theorist. After the turn of the century, writers and philosophers were concerned with the new branch of science eugenics and the definition of "degenerative phenomena". Müller complained about a "direct national danger" caused by the decline in marriages in the educated circles. The women would be denied the fulfillment of their "real female profession". Immigration from Poland, Russia and Bohemia "thus decomposes our nation." What remains inexplicable about Müller and his readership is how a "high sensitivity for the faults of modernity, an impressive vitality, perhaps even ingenuity in the religious, along with a number of liberal convictions with one ethnic ideology could go together ”. In his view, neither politics nor the Weimar “system” was legitimized. Before 1933, however, his social criticism lacked a clear positioning.

From Mainberg to Elmau

In 1903 he and Heinrich Lhotzky founded the foster home for personal life at Mainberg Castle . His listeners came from the most varied of circles, including Hermann Bahlsen , Elsa von Michael, co-heir of Gutehoffnungshütte , Count von Solms-Laubach , Walter Luetgebrune , lawyer for the right-wing extremist scene, the social democrat Anton Fendrich , the resistance fighter Elisabeth von Thadden , Wilhelm Kempff , Arnold Bergsträsser , the publishers Oscar Beck , Wilhelm Langewiesche , Korfiz Holm and Hans-Georg Gadamer . The industrialist Alexander Erbslöh made the castle available to him as a place of work. In 1912 the average length of stay was 13.7 days. Müller introduced seminar-like weeks at reduced prices for students, which were expanded to include theologians and teachers in the following year. Individuals stayed for up to two months. Since Erbslöh refused an extension and Elsa von Michael, geb. Haniel , who agreed to support him, acquired the Elmau desert estate near Garmisch in 1912 . In 1916 Schloss Elmau was built and opened with substantial financial support from Elsa von Michael. Here he directed a “sanctuary of personal life” in order to be able to help the “man of today” to a life that (in his opinion) corresponded to his nature and was led in the sense of the ethics of Jesus. Teaching and life in Elmau were characterized by “religious communalization”, popular German dance, health food, chamber concerts and the overcoming of class and class boundaries. From August 1914 he glorified the war as a "healing crisis". In contrast to Mainberg, Müller in Elmau, which also attracted guests who were only interested in music and nature, was more in the background. Young women worked as helpers in the house without a salary; sometimes they found their husband. Johannes Müller's closest friends at the time included the heir to the throne of the House of Baden and close friend of Cosima Wagner, Major General Prince Max von Baden , who hoped Müller would cure his anxiety attacks and overcome his emotional isolation, and Adolf von Harnack . His guests included Maurus Gerner-Beuerle , who later became the cathedral preacher at Bremen Cathedral , Eivind Berggrav , who later became Bishop of Oslo, and Erich Ebermayer . In 1917, at the suggestion of Adolf von Harnack, Müller was awarded an honorary doctorate from the theological faculty of the University of Berlin . After the First World War , Müller developed a lively lecture activity in Norway , Sweden , Hungary , the Netherlands and Denmark, among others . In 1919 he resigned from the Pan-German Association .

During the time of National Socialism

Change of the DC emblems 1932–1935–1937

His initially distant attitude towards Hitler turned into the opposite. Ricarda Huch wrote full of indignation that he had not only " caught up ", but "(...) shout Hosanna at the top of my throat ". In 1933 he emphatically committed himself to the “rebirth of the German people”. He praised Hitler as "the receiving organ for the government of God and transmitter of eternal rays" and justified in his 1934 work Das Deutsche Wunder und die Kirche the violent church political measures of the National Socialists and the German Christians (DC), including the introduction of the " Aryan paragraph " in the church. As a result he was quoted by the German Christians as one of their thinkers and teachers. His son Hans-Michael (1901–1989) completed his habilitation in Jena (a center for German Christians ), was from 1933 "Adjutant" to Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller and State Commissioner of the Protestant Press Association before he was given a professorship in Jena and then in Königsberg . In the autumn of 1933, Müller officially traveled to Scandinavia to promote the Nazi state . This trip was organized by the staff of the Reich Bishop, the Propaganda Ministry and the Foreign Office . It was only this one trip, which was disappointing for Müller, but his attitude remained enthusiastic about the war and the end of victory. The connection of Austria increased his enthusiasm. As in August 1914, Müller proclaimed the “soul-awakening power of war”, and the NSDAP's Office of Racial Policy expressed interest in his writings on sexuality ( eugenics ).

Müller's attitude to Judaism

After years as missionaries in Bessarabia , part of the Pale of Settlement , Müller and Lhotzky developed their own attitude towards Judaism. Müller was of the opinion that previous exegesis , including that of the liberal theologians, was "blinded by Jews" and that only his reading was authentic. He was considered a representative of the Germanization of Christianity. According to his Sermon on the Mount , published in 1906, “the foreign lymph has spoiled the blood” of a German if the Semitic mentality of fair wages, which is particularly pronounced in Jesus' parables, is not “very strange and deeply repugnant”. In doing so, however, he did not follow Chamberlain's assumption that Jesus or the prophets could have been of “ Aryan ” descent. According to Müller, German Jews were supposed to show their love for Germany by accepting exclusion and persecution without complaint or by emigrating. That is the obedience to God's law now demanded of them: “It is better that a person dies than that the whole people perish.” His argument was that one saw that God's work and not the work of men was happening here when there was something about Hitler irritate.

After the liberation

After the end of the war, in 1946, at the instigation of the Bavarian State Commissioner for Racially, Religiously and Politically Persecuted Persons, Philipp Auerbach , Johannes Müller had to submit to a court proceedings. Due to Müller's "glorification of Hitler in word and in writing", so the charge, he was convicted as the main culprit ( war criminal ). He openly admitted that he was wrong. Elmau Castle was confiscated by the US Army in 1945. In 1947 the Bavarian state took it over through its state commissioner and, at the suggestion of Henri Heitan ( Joint ), set up a rest home for displaced persons , which existed until 1951. Johannes Müller died at the age of 84 on January 4, 1949 in Elmau. His descendants usually bear the name Müller-Elmau . His heirs sued and in 1951 got the Müller share back in Elmau.

Private

In 1891 Johannes Müller entered into a brief childless marriage with Sophie von Römer, which ended in divorce when his wife met a hotelier, her future husband. Müller then withdrew to the Schliersee. In 1892 he married Marianne Fiedler. She died after giving birth to her third child. In 1905 Müller married her close friend, the sculptor Irene Sattler, daughter of the chemist and painter Johann Ernst Sattler , a grandson of the wallpaper manufacturer Wilhelm Sattler I (the Sattler family was the previous owner of Mainberg Castle). Johannes Müller had eleven children, including Hans-Michael (1901–1989) (theologian DC), Marianne Manne (1904–2006), Eberhard (1905–1995), Dietrich (1908 - April 5, 1943), Gudrun Richardsen (1910– 2007), Sieglinde Mesirca (1915–2009), Bernhard (1916–2007), Ingrid Brooke (1919–2010) and Wolfgang (1923– October 21, 1944). Bernhard and Sieglinde were his main heirs.

Memberships

Works (selection)

  • The personal Christianity of the Pauline congregations
    after its emergence examined by Dr. JM (1898)
    (The work is available on the Internet at https://archive.org/details/daspersnlichech00mlgoog )
  • The speeches of Jesus / translated into German and made present by JM, several volumes:
    • 1 Of the Incarnation (1909)
    • 2 Of the Succession (1912)
    • 3 From Heavenly Father (1918)
    • 4 Realizing the Kingdom of God (1933)
  • Jesus as I see him, 1930
    3rd edition under the title Jesus, the conqueror of religions , 1954

literature

  • Paul Gerhard Aring: Christians and Jews today - and the “mission to the Jews”? History and theology of Protestant mission to the Jews in Germany, presented and examined using the example of Protestantism in central Germany. Haag + Herchen, Frankfurt am Main 1987, pp. 231-235.
  • Paul Gerhard Aring:  Müller, Johannes. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 6, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-044-1 , Sp. 271.  ( Article / beginning of article in the Internet archive )
  • Hermann Bahr : Johannes Müller . Neue Freie Presse, (1912) No. 17116, Morgenblatt, 1–3. (April 18, 1912) Text (PDF; 2.5 MB) Again in: Inventory . S. Fischer, Berlin 1912, 81-87.
  • Anton Fendrich: Mainberg. Records from two worlds . CH Beck, Munich 1922.
  • Harald Haury: From Riesa to Elmau Castle. Johannes Müller (1864–1949) as a prophet, entrepreneur and spiritual leader of a völkisch, natural Protestantism . (Religious cultures of modern times, vol. 11). Gütersloh 2005, ISBN 3-579-02612-7 .
  • Harald Haury: Dr. Johannes Müller - theologian, publicist and life coach at Mainberg Castle . In: Thomas Horling, Uwe Müller (eds.): Princes & Industrialists. Mainberg Castle in eight centuries . (Publications of the historical association Schweinfurt NF Vol. 8 - Mainfränkische Studien Vol. 80), Schweinfurt 2011, pp. 349–368, ISBN 978-3-88778-360-0 .
  • Thomas Martin Schneider:  Müller, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , pp. 426-428 ( digitized version ).
  • Johannes Müller , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 13/1949 of March 21, 1949, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau, ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , p. 49
  2. ↑ August Winkler: Vademekum Wingolfitikum , Wingolfsverlag, Wolfratshausen 1925, p. 214.
  3. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau, ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , p. 111
  4. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau, ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , p. 131
  5. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau, ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , p. 15
  6. ^ The spring 1933 magazine was confiscated. The Berlin publisher Arthur Sellier was able to explore the motives and processes for Müller thanks to personal contacts with the head of the Bavarian State Chancellery.
  7. ↑ Paul Gerhard Aring: Christians and Jews today - and the “mission to the Jews”? History and theology of Protestant mission to the Jews in Germany, presented and examined using the example of Protestantism in central Germany. Haag + Herchen, Frankfurt am Main 1987, p. 4f.
  8. ↑ a b c Paul Gerhard Aring: Christians and Jews today - and the “mission to the Jews”? History and theology of Protestant mission to the Jews in Germany, presented and examined using the example of Protestantism in central Germany. Haag + Herchen, Frankfurt am Main 1987, pp. 231-235.
  9. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Graf Protestant Wellness in Süddeutsche Zeitung, Easter 2014, p. 12.
  10. ↑ Müller: Profession and Position of Women, Green Leaves 1900, p. 302.
  11. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , p. 198.
  12. ^ "The guests sat at the long meals at large tables, the famous professor next to the social democratic craftsman, ...", Friedrich Wilhelm Graf in Protestant Wellness , Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 19-21 (Easter) 2014, p. 12.
  13. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Graf in Protestant Wellness , Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 19–21, 2014, p. 12.
  14. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , p. 169f.
  15. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau, ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , p. 187
  16. ↑ As presented in: Schneider, Thomas Martin: Müller, Johannes in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 18 (1997), p. 427. Online version s. literature
  17. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , p. 188
  18. ^ German biography Johannes Müller
  19. ↑ Cf. Political Archive of the Foreign Office, files R65798, R65626
  20. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , p. 189
  21. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau ISBN 3-579-02612-7 , pp. 126, 130
  22. ↑ Green leaves 1933, The Jewish fate , pp 242f. In the years that followed, Müller emphasized more and more that Germanness and Judaism were incompatible and that Germany had the right to “national emergency protection” if it expelled the foreign. Green leaves 1939, p. 265.
  23. ↑ Green leaves 1933, The victory of life , p. 119f.
  24. ^ Obituary by Marianne Müller
  25. ^ Obituary notice of Gudrun Richardsen
  26. ^ Obituary Sieglinde Mesirca
  27. ^ Obituary Bernhard Müller-Elmau
  28. ^ Obituary notice: Ingrid Brooke
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Riesa
DATE OF DEATH January 4, 1949
Place of death Elmau