Mueller, Ernst, 1880-1954

Ernst Müller was born on November 21, 1880 in Misslitz (now Miroslav, Czech Republic), the son of the local doctor Isidor Müller and his wife Johanna née Brüll. Both of his parents were children of rabbis. His final year of schooling took place in the nearby town of Brünn, and he graduated in 1898. Soon thereafter his family moved to Vienna, where he became involved in the city's Jewish communal life at the same time as he began his university studies, attending many philosophical lectures.

A prolific writer, Müller published his first articles for the Zionist newspaper Die Welt, edited by Martin Buber. This led to other articles covering numerous subjects for other Jewish newspapers. In 1903 Ernst Müller passed the teaching exam for middle-school in mathematics, physics, and philosophy. After one year of military training he completed his dissertation "Bewußtseinsprobleme" and received his doctorate in philosophy. For a brief time he taught in Moravia.

In 1907 Müller decided to take a teaching position at a high school in Jaffa, Palestine. Although this position only lasted six months, he would remain in Palestine for the next two years. While there he spent Passover 1909 in Safad, where he discovered an interest in Kabbalah. After contracting malaria, Ernst Müller was forced to return to Vienna. In Vienna his brother Edmund, who belonged to the Anthroposophical Society of Vienna, introduced him to the philosophy. Eventually Ernst Müller would meet with Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, and provide lectures for the society.

In 1911 he found a position at the library of the Vienna Jewish community. From 1914-1918 he served in the military as a clerk. Following the war he returned to the library, where he continued his philosophical research, working on his translation of the Zohar as well as continuing his work in anthroposophy.

On November 10, 1938 the library of the Jewish community was closed by the Nazis and he was retired the following January. In June 1939 he immigrated to England and worked there from 1940-1941 on the cataloging of the library of the Chacham Moses Gaster. In 1941 Mueller married his wife Frieda. Much of this time he spent writing, although both he and his wife suffered from poor health exacerbated by their lack of funds. They had no children. Ernst Mueller lost many friends from Vienna as well as his brother, most of whom disappeared during the Holocaust.

Ernst Mueller died in London in 1954.

From the guide to the Ernst Mueller Collection, 1891-1984, bulk 1919-1954, (Leo Baeck Institute)