Johannes Müller

Johannes Müller (19 April 1864 – 4 January 1949) was an unconventional German Protestant theologian.

Life Provenance and early years Johannes Müller was born in Riesa, a small town located a short distance down-river from Dresden. He was born into a revivalist family.

Student years Müller moved on to study philosophy and Lutheran theology at Leipzig University in 1884. His tutors included Franz Delitzsch. In 1890 he received his doctorate in philosophy. His attempt to gain a doctorate in theology the following year failed on account of profound theological differences with his assessors at the Leipzig University Faculty of Theology, however. incorporating, some believed, the language of "gutter antisemitism" in his presentations. With his continuing high-profile public activity as a "religious intellectual", he campaigned for a new free Christianity, and it was this that provided a personal justification for his own freelance existence. His ideas were translated into several languages and with adherents of the Cultural Protestantism movement who were engaged in reinventing Christianity for a modern industrial age. What remained unexplained for Müller and his readers was the way that a "heightened sensitivity to the upheavals of modernity, a turbocharged vitality, and possibly even genius religiosity, alongside a number of liberal convictions, could go hand in hand with a brazenly populist ideology. The centre became a meeting point for their readers and friends. Support came from a wide and disparate range of backers, reflecting Müller's public profile at the time. They included the cookie magnate, Hermann Bahlsen, the Gutehoffnungshütte heiress, Elsa von Michael, the Count of Solms-Laubach, Walter Luetgebrune, later known as a lawyer for right-wing extremists. Others were the Social Democrat politician Anton Fendrich, the future resistance fighter Elisabeth von Thadden, the musician Wilhelm Kempff, the politician Arnold Bergsträsser, the publisher Oscar Beck along with the literary polymaths Wilhelm Langewiesche and Korfiz Holm. The castle had been placed at Müller's disposal by the industrialist Alexander Erbslöh, a friend who had been persuaded to buy it for the purpose. In 1912 it was recorded that the average stay at the establishment lasted for 13.7 days. Müller introduced special one-week seminar sessions at reduced price for students: the next year the same deal was made available to theologians and teachers. Some stayed for as long as two months. However, Alexander Erbslöh now declined to provide further funding, while at the same time Müller received an undertaking of substantial financial support from Elsa von Michael, generally known to posterity by her subsequent title as Elsa Countess of Waldersee. She was a daughter of the fabulously wealthy Haniel family. The result was that in 1912 Johannes Müller acquired the run-down Elmau estate, hidden away at the end of a long lane in the mountains between Partenkirchen and Mittenwald, and located barely twenty kilometers to the east of Germany's highest mountain peak.

By a fortunate coincidence Johannes Müller had a brother-in-law called Carl Sattler who worked in Munich as an architect. The extensive provision of music, in particular, had a powerfully curative effect on guests who came in search not necessarily of theological enlightenment, but hoping to find, from the music and the strikingly beautiful natural surroundings, a measure of relief from the intolerable stresses presented by daily life. Max von Baden, who hoped that Müller might cure his anxiety attacks and help him overcome his perceived emotional isolation. Schloss Elmau guests also included Maurus Gerner-Beuerle, later a longstanding "Domprediger" at Bremen, Eivind Berggrav who subsequently became the Bishop of Oslo and the writer Erich Ebermayer. that made him "blush in shame" ("Schamesröte ins Gesicht treibe").

Müller's outspoken rejection of Nazi antisemitism led to him being branded a "friend of Jews" ("Judenfreund"), and he became the target of a press smear campaign.

Personal Johannes Müller was married three times.

The first marriage took place in 1891. The third marriage, in 1905, also took place at Schliersee, Johannes Müller's third marriage resulted in eight more recorded children - four boys and four girls.