MULLER, HERMANN (1876-1931), German politician, was born May 18, 1876 at Mannheim. From 1899 to 1906 he was editor of the Socialist newspaper the Gorlitzer 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 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 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 for Foreign Affairs—under the chancellorship of Gustav Bauer—and in this capacity went to Versailles and with the Colonial Minister, Dr. Bell, signed the Peace Treaty for Germany on June 28, 1919.
After the resignation of the Bauer Ministry, which followed upon the Kapp Putsch (March 1920), Muller 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 neces sitated the formation of a Coalition Ministry with Fehrenbach of the Catholic Centre party as Chancellor. Thereafter Milner con tinued to play a leading part in the affairs of the Social-Demo cratic party, whose chairman in the Reichstag he was. After the general election of May 1928, which brought a general swing to the Left, he was asked by the President to form the new Govern ment. After wearisome negotiations with the different parties concerned, he succeeded in forming a "Cabinet of Personalities," based on the idea of the Great Coalition including all parties from the Social Democrats to the German People's party; he himself was Chancellor.