Müller, Richard

(1880-?)

   revolutionary leader; founder of the Revo-lutionary Shop Stewards.* Born in the Thuringian town of Weira, he apprenticed as a lathe operator and, upon settling in Berlin,* slowly acquired leadership in the metalworkers union. Head of the lathe operators division, he publicly op-posed the Kaiser s Burgfrieden (civic truce) upon the outbreak of World War I.

   Müller commanded enormous authority with fellow workers. By late 1914 he was organizing shop-floor functionaries into the covert groupings eventually known as the Shop Stewards. When Karl Liebknecht* was imprisoned in 1916 for arousing the May Day strike, Müller fixed upon the need for revolution. The authorities observed him and inducted him into the army before a planned strike in April 1917. Soon released as unfit, he helped plan a strike for January 1918. When he was conscripted again in February 1918, leadership of the Stewards passed to Emil Barth.* In October 1918 he was discharged to campaign for the Reichstag* as an Independent Socialist. Elected cochairman in November of Berlin's twenty-four-member executive, Müller resumed his Shop Stewards role when Barth s authority was revoked in December by fellow workers. With Ernst Daumig,* he argued that the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils* should govern the Council of People s Representatives.* He condemned the Central Working Association* as a betrayal of the revolution and opposed election of a National Assembly* (a spirit not shared by all Stewards). At December s Congress* of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils he vainly pleaded for formation of a Ratere-publik.

   Despite his radicalism, Müller was a cautious leader who, fearing precipitous action, often avoided collaboration with other radical groups. Although he looked to the Spartacists for support, he refused to join the new KPD. On 5 January 1919 he begged Liebknecht not to proceed with the Spartacist Upris-ing,* claiming that preparations were inadequate (most Stewards supported the uprising). Liebknecht rebuked him for sounding like "an envoy of Vorwärts*" (the SPD newspaper*). When the revolt was suppressed and Liebknecht was murdered, Müller claimed that the event had broken the revolutionary move-ment. Remaining with the USPD, he joined the Party s left wing when it broke away and entered the KPD late in 1920. An ally of Paul Levi,* he struggled to dissuade Berlin s metalworkers in 1921 from supporting a general strike (the "March Action ) called by the Comintern. The KPD expelled him in 1922.

   REFERENCES:Mishark, Road to Revolution; Morgan, Socialist Left; Richard Müller, Vom Kaiserreich zur Republik; Ryder, German Revolution of 1918; Waldman, Spartacist Up-rising.