Wilhelm Müller was born on 7 October 1794 at Dessau, the son of a tailor. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native town and at the University of Berlin, where he devoted himself to philological and historical studies. In 1813-1814 he took part, as a volunteer in the Prussian army, in the national rising against Napoleon. He participated in the battles of Lützen, Bautzen, Hanau and Kulm. In 1814 he returned to his studies at Berlin. From 1817 to 1819, he visited southern Germany and Italy, and in 1820 published his impressions of the latter in Rom, Römer und Römerinnen. In 1819, he was appointed teacher of classics in the Gelehrtenschule at Dessau, and in 1820 librarian to the ducal library. He remained there the rest of his life, dying of a heart attack aged only 32. Müller's son, Friedrich Max Müller, was an English orientalist who founded the comparative study of religions; his grandson Wilhelm Max Müller was an AmericanOriental scholar.
Works
Müller's earliest lyrics are contained in a volume of poems, Bundesblüten, by several friends, which was published in 1816. That same year he also published Blumenlese aus den Minnesängern. His literary reputation was made by the Gedichte aus den hinterlassenen Papieren eines reisenden Waldhornisten, and the Lieder der Griechen. The latter collection was Germany's chief tribute of sympathy to the Greeks in their struggle against the Turkish yoke, a theme which inspired many poets of the time. Two volumes of Neugriechische Volkslieder, and Lyrische Reisen und epigrammatische Spaziergänge, followed in 1825 and 1827. Many of his poems imitate the German Volkslied. Müller also wrote a book on the Homerische Vorschule, translated Marlowe's Faustus, and edited a Bibliothek der Dichtungen des 17. Jahrhunderts, a collection of lyric poems.
Editions
Müller's Vermischte Schriften were edited with a biography by Gustav Schwab. Wilhelm Müller's Gedichte were collected in 1837, and also edited by his son, Friedrich Max Müller. There are also numerous more recent editions, notably one in Reclam's Universalbibliothek, and a critical edition by J. T. Hatfield.
Recent research has stressed that Müller, although contemporaneous with German Romanticism, cannot easily be subsumed under that movement. In ‘Die Winterreise’ – which occupies a central position in Müller's lyric output – the wanderer shows a determination not to get lost on the Romantic paths that promise a way out of present dissatisfactions. “Andreas Dorschel has convincingly argued that ‘Die Winterreise’ is a work of Enlightenment.” The cycle depicts the self-determination of a subject who retains the ability to reflect because he is not engulfed by dreams. The realms of dream, death, and nature do not fulfil their promise, and the traveller ultimately rejects “Schein” for “Sein”, or the imagined future for the real present. “As Dorschel points out, the wanderer actively denies the value of dreaming in ‘Im Dorfe’, and death eludes him. This is not merely chance, however, for when ‘Der Lindenbaum’ calls him temptingly back with the promise of eternal rest, he actively chooses to keep walking away from its lure. Dorschel aligns the wanderer with Kant's enlightened subject who sets off on an ‘Ausgang aus seiner selbstverschuldeten Unmündigkeit’, avoiding ‘die Wege, / Wo die andren Wandrer gehn’ as he charts his own path.”
Legacy
Müller excelled in popular and political songs that attracted great composers, notably two of Franz Schubert's song cycles, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, are based on the sets of poems of the same name by Müller. He also influenced Heinrich Heine's lyric development. Andres Neuman wrote a novel, El viajero del siglo, inspired by the poems of Winter Journey, giving life to several of its characters. Neuman had previously translated Müller's Winter Journey poems to the Spanish language.
