Heiner Müller

Heiner Müller (1929–1995) was one of the most influential German playwrights, poets, and theater directors of the twentieth century—an avant-garde innovator whose work left a profound mark on theater in both East and West Germany.

Born on January 9, 1929, in Eppendorf, Saxony, Müller came of age amid the turmoil of two dictatorships, experiences that deeply shaped his literary voice. After completing secondary school and compulsory labor service, he graduated in 1945 and initially worked in district administration, as a librarian, and as a journalist.

In 1954–55, Müller served as a research associate at the Writers’ Association and as editor of the art magazine Junge Kunst. From 1957, he worked as an author and dramaturge, with his first play premiering at the Volksbühne in Berlin—marking the beginning of a career defined by controversy and artistic radicalism. He spent 1958–59 at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, and in 1959, together with Inge Müller, was awarded the Heinrich Mann Prize.

Müller’s conflict with East German authorities reached a peak in 1961, when his play Die Umsiedlerin (“The Resettler Woman”) was banned after its premiere and he was expelled from the Writers’ Association. Despite censorship and official repression, his international reputation grew steadily throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

From 1970, Müller was a dramaturge at the Berliner Ensemble, moving to the Volksbühne Berlin in 1976. His play Germania Death in Berlin premiered at the Munich Kammerspiele in 1978 and won the Mülheimer Dramatists’ Prize in 1979.

In 1983, Müller became a member of the East German Academy of Arts. He went on to receive major honors, including the Georg Büchner Prize (1985), the Kleist Prize (1990), and the European Theatre Prize (1991).

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Müller served as the last president of the Academy of Arts (East) from 1990 to 1993. From 1992, he was a member of the directorial board of the Berliner Ensemble, becoming its sole artistic director in 1995.

Heiner Müller died on December 30, 1995, in Berlin. His legacy endures through more than two dozen plays, adaptations, poems, essays, and translations of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Mayakovsky, and Koltès. With landmark works such as Hamletmachine and Germania Death in Berlin, Müller remains a central figure in modern theater.