1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Müller, Hermann

MÜLLER, HERMANN (1876-), German Socialist leader, was born May 18 1876 at Mannheim. From 1899 to 1906 he was editor of the Socialist newspaper, the Görlitzer Volkszeitung, and from 1906 onwards was a member of the directing board of the German Social Democratic party. From 1916 to 1918 he was a member of the Reichstag. On Aug. 1 1914 he went to Paris on a desperate mission with the object of finding out whether international action by the Socialists of France and Germany could be initiated in order to avert the World War. His mission was unsuccessful, and he had great difficulty in making his way back to Germany through the French lines. His report of his mission did much to determine the attitude of the German Social Democrats in voting in the Reichstag for the first war credit. On June 21 1919 he was appointed Minister of the Reich for Foreign Affairs — under the chancellorship of Gustav Bauer — and in this capacity went to Versailles and with the Colonial Minister, Bell, signed the Peace Treaty for Germany on June 29 1919. After the resignation of the Bauer Ministry, which followed upon the Kapp coup d'état (March 1920), Müller was appointed Chancellor of the Reich, an office which he held till the following June, when the result of the general elections for the Reichstag necessitated the formation of a Coalition Ministry with Fehrenbach of the Catholic Centre party as Chancellor. Thereafter Müller continued to play a leading part in the affairs of the Social Democratic party.