The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Müller, Johannes von

MÜLLER, Johannes von, German-Swiss historian: b. Schaffhausen, 3 Jan. 1752; d. Cassel, 29 May 1809. He studied at Göttingen, and in 1772 became professor of Greek at the gymnasium at Schaffhausen, and published ‘Bellum Cimbricum,’ his first work. He lived and taught in Geneva 1774-80, where he began his ‘Allgemeine Geschichte’ (3 vols., 1810), and published the first volume of his 'Geschichte der Schweitzer.' From 1781 to 1786 he taught history and statistics at the Collegium Carolinum at Cassel. In 1786 he became librarian and councillor of state to the Elector of Mainz. Here he wrote his ‘Geschichte der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft’ and several other works. In 1792, when Mainz was taken by the French, he went to Vienna, where the Emperor Leopold nominated him a member of the Privy Council. In 1804 be left Vienna for Berlin, where he was appointed historiographer of the Hohenzollern family. He also published ‘Ueber die Geschichte Friedrich I’; ‘Ueber den Untergang der Freiheit der Alten Völker’; ‘Versuch über die Zeitrechnungen der Vorwelt.’ After the battle of Jena, he was appointed by Napoleon (1807) Secretary of State in the new kingdom of Westphalia. His ‘Sämmtliche Werke’ appeared in 27 volumes (1800-17); (new ed., 40 vols., 1831-35). Consult lives by Heeren (1820); Döring (1835); Monnard, in French (1839), and Thiersch (1881).