Ernst Mueller Collection

The Ernst Mueller Collection documents the life and writing of this mathematician, philosopher, writer and librarian. Notable in this collection are his autobiographical writings, work on the Kabbalah and material on the anthroposophical movement in Vienna of which he was a member. Found in this collection are his diaries and memoirs, correspondence, unpublished articles and their drafts and notes, notebooks, poems and a few official papers and biographies on him.

Biographical details on Ernst Mueller's life exist in each series of this collection. The bulk of such information is present in the memoirs and diaries that comprise Series I. These are handwritten notebooks and loose papers recording the significant details of his life, with the memoirs primarily focusing on the years prior to World War I. Many of the diaries' entries are recorded in shorthand. Both the diaries and memoirs provide material on the daily events of Mueller's life. In addition, the second series of the collection includes a handwritten curriculum vitae as well as a few copies of published biographies of Ernst Mueller. Series II additionally holds some letters from family members to Mueller, noting some of his activities as well as his own. Series III contains some articles reflecting on Mueller's health and the effects of it upon his life. These include an essay that compares British and Austrian hospitals, while another "Gesundheit und Krankheit" (Health and Sickness) provides some biographical information. Related is the memorial he wrote after the death of his brother Edmund, also in Series III.

Mueller's interest in the Kabbalah and especially his translation of the Zohar is likewise located in various areas of the collection. The memoirs reflect on his interests in religion, as do some of the entries in his diaries in Series I. Series II includes correspondence with his wife Frieda that mentions his translation of the Zohar and its publication. But it is in Series III, the core of the collection, that his interest in Kabbalah, Jewish studies and related subjects, will be found. Three folders contain drafts of writings on the Zohar, including an extensive handwritten draft of a translation of it. In addition, there is a lengthy unpublished manuscript on the Kabbalist Isaac Luria. Related essays discuss relations between Jews and Gentiles, especially Germans, as well as the Holocaust and Mueller's reflections on diverse religious subjects.

Anthroposophy, the philosophical movement begun by Rudolf Steiner, is also frequently encountered in this collection. It is mentioned among the entries of the diaries and memoirs of Series I, including in one diary that consists of notes on the West-East Congress of Steiner's Anthroposophical Society. Much of the correspondence with Frieda Mueller in Series II are from fellow members of the British Anthroposophical Society, and Ernst Mueller's own letters in this series also mention meetings of this group. However the bulk of material on anthroposophy, including explanations of its themes and theories, is located in the writings of Series III. These include two published essays that discuss how anthroposophy functioned as a bridge between Judaism and Christianity as well as how the shift in Jewish consciousness in the nineteenth century led to the development of anthroposophy. Among Mueller's eulogies and memorials are a number of brief remembrances of friends who disappeared during the 1940s; many of these people were active in the anthroposophical movement in Vienna. A handful of other manuscripts explain the concepts of the philosophy in detail, including excerpts from a lecture by Steiner, and two articles on the worldview and major motifs and concepts of anthroposophy (Die Weltanschaung der Anthroposophie (The Worldview of Anthroposophy) and Vor dem Tor der Theosophie (Before the Gate of Theosophy)).

Finally, the collection is concluded with a collection of poems written by Ernst Mueller along with some by his brother Edmund.