Hermann Müller was a German politician and chairman of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD) since 1928.
History[]
Early Life[]
Hermann Müller was born in Mannheim as the son of Georg Jakob Müller, a producer of sparkling wine and wine dealer and his wife Karoline Vogt. Müller attended the Realgymnasium at Mannheim and after later at Niederlößnitz near Dresden, where his father had become manager of the Bussard Winery.
His father always had been an important role model for Müller. An an advocate of Ludwig Feuerbach's views, his father was very critical of every kind of religion; Therefore, the Müller family was strictly atheist, a rarity in the late 19th century. However, his father died in 1892 and Müller had to leave school due to financial difficulties. After that, he began an apprenticeship at Villeroy & Boch in Frankfurt and Breslau.
Political Career[]
In 1893 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and in 1894 the socialist Free Trade Unions. After quitting his former job, he began to edit local socialist newspapers. After moving to Görlitz in 1899, he worked for the Görlitzer Volkswacht.
From 1903 to 1906, he was a member of the local parliament in Görlitz and a SPD party functionary. August Bebel, Chairman of the SPD and one of Europe's leading social democrats at the time, nominated him in 1905 (without success) and 1906 (successfully) for membership of the board of the national SPD. At that time, Müller changed from a left-wing Social Democrat to a "centrist", who argued against both the "revisionists", led by Eduard Bernstein and Eduard David, and against the radical left around Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Together with Friedrich Ebert Müller succeeded in 1909 in creating the Parteiausschuss that was to deal with internal arguments in between the party conventions. Known for his calm, industriousness, integrity and rationality, Müller lacked charisma. In 1909, he tried but failed to prevent Otto Braun's election to the board, laying the foundation for a long-running animosity between the two.
As a result of his foreign language skills, Müller was the representative of the SPD at the Second International and at the conventions of socialist parties in other countries in western Europe. In late July 1914, Müller was sent to Paris to negotiate with the French socialists over a common stance towards the respective countries' war loan proposals. No agreement was reached, however, and before Müller was able to report back, the SPD had already decided to support the first war loans in the Reichstag, leading eventually to the split of the Second International.
During World War I, Müller supported the Burgfrieden. He was used by the SPD leadership to deal with arguments with the party's left wing and as an in-house censor for the party newspaper Vorwärts to avoid an outright ban by the military authorities.Throughout the war, Müller was close to the group around Eduard David and supported the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia.
WIP