Wilhelm Max Müller

Background

Wilhelm M. Müller was born on May 15, 1862, at Gleißenberg, Bavaria, the son of Frederic Müller and Pauline Barthel.

Education

Müller was reared in a devoutly religious home and, when prepared for university studies, went to Erlangen, then a center of Lutheran theological learning.

Later he attended the universities of Berlin, Munich, and Leipzig, receiving from the last-mentioned the degree of Doctor of Philosophy degree.

Müller was well grounded in Egyptian, having been at Berlin a pupil of Adolf Erman, and, while working in the Museum at Munich, made his first important contribution to the subject.

Career

In 1888 Müller came to the United States, and in 1890 was made professor of ancient languages and Old and New Testament exegesis in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, a position which he held until his death. He was an excellent teacher and his accurate scholarship and simple piety made a deep impression upon his students. Here for almost thirty years he taught Hebrew and Greek, although nearly all of his publications were in the field of Egyptology. His Egyptological researches were carried on in his spare hours.

His earliest book, Asien und Europa nach altägyptischen Denkmälern (1893), at once took its place as the chief authority on the subject.

His next book, Die Liebpoesie der alten Ägypter (1899), which contained Egyptian poems in hieroglyphic and demotic, together with translations into German, placed within the reach of students of the Bible Egyptian expressions of the tender passion, comparable in many ways to the Song of Songs. Like his earlier book, it gave evidence of competent scholarship.

Through the good offices of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Müller was sent to Egypt by the Carnegie Institution in the summer of 1904 to prosecute researches there. Although summer is the worst time to visit Egypt, it was the only time that his duties as a teacher would permit him to go. His work was so successful that he was sent back in 1906 and again in 1910. This last visit proved so great a strain upon his health that he did not go again.

The fruit of these expeditions he published in Egyptological Researches, Volumes I and II (1906 - 1910). A third volume, nearly ready for publication at the time of his death, was edited by H. F. Lutz and published in 1920.

His other principal work was "Egyptian Mythology" in Volume XII of Louis H. Gray's Mythology of all Races (1918). In addition to these books, he was a contributor to the Encyclopædia Biblica, the Jewish Encyclopedia, to various revisions of Gesenius' Hebrew dictionary, and to Oriental journals.

During the last few years of his life Müller became assistant professor of Egyptology in the University of Pennsylvania in connection with his professorship in the Theological Seminary.

Also during the trying years of the World War he was thoroughly loyal to the United States. He borrowed money with which to buy a "liberty bond" and paid it back in instalments at considerable sacrifice. He was drowned on July 12, 1919, at Wildwood, New Jersey, while swimming alone.

Achievements

• Wilhelm Max Müller was an able linguist, who could speak both Greek and Hebrew, but his fame as a scholar rests upon his contributions to the science of Egyptology.

Works

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  • Egyptian Mythology

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Egyptological Researches

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The Bilingual Decrees of Philae

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Connections

On April 13, 1889, Wilhelm Müller married to Bettie Caspar of New York.

Father:

Friedrich Max Müller

Friedrich Max Müller, generally known as Max Müller, was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life.

Mother:

Pauline Müller (Barthel)

Wife:

Bettie Müller (Caspar)