Müller once claimed that his main target on the stage was “Ger-
man history.”
In January 1993, Müller (code names heiner and zement) and the
writer Christa Wolf were found to have had ties to the MfS. Known
for his cynical and elusive manner, Müller pointed out that the Stasi
was the only authoritative institution with which one could have a
dialogue about actual conditions in the German Democratic Repub-
lic. His reputation—in contrast to that of Wolf—remained generally
intact, and only in a later expanded edition of his autobiography,
Krieg ohne Schlacht (War without Battle), was his MfS affiliation
broached. He died of cancer in Berlin on 30 December 1995.MÜLLER, HEINRICH (1900–1945?). The head of the Gestapo
during World War II and a key figure in the mass murder of Jews,
Heinrich Müller was born in Munich on 28 April 1900, the son of a
government administrator. During World War I, he attended flight
school before volunteering for duty on the western front and earn-
ing an Iron Cross First and Second Class. Profoundly influenced by
his military experience, he joined the Bavarian police in 1919 and
was assigned to the political division. His study of Bolshevik police
methods helped him develop an expertise in the surveillance of com-
munist party functionaries. With the Nazi accession to power, his
knowledge was even more desirable, and he soon became a protégé
of Reinhard Heydrich. By the spring of 1934, Müller was a member
of the SS and counted among those middle-level personnel selected
to work in the new Berlin headquarters. Devoted to his work—now
directed at the most important oppositional groups within the Third
Reich—he continued his rapid bureaucratic rise, despite a conspicu-
ous lack of ideological conviction. His official acceptance into the
Nazi Party—at the insistence of Heinrich Himmler—did not occur
until 1939.
With his appointment in 1940 as head of the Gestapo (Amt IV)
within the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Müller became one of the
most powerful and ruthless men in the Third Reich. In countless
instances, his rapid response coupled with a shrewd tactical sense
helped prevent major acts of sabotage. Müller also showed no hesi-
tation in employing harsh repressive methods in the occupied areas
and, as a participant in the Wannsee Conference of January 1942, in
308 • MÜLLER, HEINRICH