Eduard Müller (born 15 November 1818 in Quilitz near Glogau – 6 January 1895 in

Neisse The Lusatian Neisse (german: Lausitzer Neiße; pl, Nysa Łużycka; cs, Lužická Nisa; Upper Sorbian: ''Łužiska Nysa''; Lower Sorbian: ''Łužyska Nysa''), or Western Neisse, is a river in northern Central Europe.German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

and politician from the Prussian

Province of Silesia The Province of Silesia (german: Provinz Schlesien; pl, Prowincja Śląska; szl, Prowincyjŏ Ślōnskŏ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1740 and established as an official p ...

. The priest was since 1852 a missionary vicar in Berlin who promoted the foundation of Catholic communities in and near Berlin, like the which officially opened at Kranholdplatz in Berlin-Rixdorf in 1907. In Protestant Prussia, Müller was elected to the

Preußischer Landtag The Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag) was the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849, a bicameral legislature consisting of the upper House of Lords (''Herrenhaus'') and the lower House of Representa ...

(Prussian Diet) in November 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. At that time Bismarck on behalf of the

North German Confederation The North German Confederation (german: Norddeutscher Bund) was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated st ...

negotiated with the mostly Catholic Southern German states in order to form a unified nation state. When the Prussian assembly first met in December, Müller lobbied for a unification of the Catholic members into a fraction He is credited as a co-founder of the

Centre Party (Germany) The Centre Party (german: Zentrum), officially the German Centre Party (german: link=no, Deutsche Zentrumspartei) and also known in English as the Catholic Centre Party, is a Catholic political party in Germany, influential in the German Empire ...

(Deutsche Zentrumspartei) in 1871. In the 1871 elections to the new Reichstag, he surprisingly defeated the incumbent in the constituency of the

Duchy of Pless The Duchy of Pless (or the ''Duchy of Pszczyna'',Julian Janczakof Pszczyna" (in) Zarys dziejów kartografii śląskiej do końca XVIII wieku''(An outline for the History of Cartography till the End of the 18th century)'', Opole: 1976, Polish Acad ...

Rybnik Rybnik (Polish pronunciation: ; szl, Rybńik) is a city in southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, around 38 km (24 mi) southwest of Katowice, the region's capital, and around 19 km (11 miles) from the Czech border. It is ...

in of

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...

, Victor Herzog von Ratibor, the Duke of Ratibor, a Free Conservative Catholic aristocratic landowner who recently had headed a delegation to the Vatican. Silesian magnates were accustomed to dictating elections. Liberal deputy

Eduard Lasker Eduard Lasker (born Jizchak Lasker) (14 October 18295 January 1884) was a German politician and jurist. Inspired by the French Revolution, he became a spokesman for liberalism and the leader of the left wing of the National Liberal party, which ...

expressed the shock of the entire chamber about the "astonishing victory of a nobody" and that the eminent incumbent had been 'driven out of his district in the name of the Catholic religion', by a man like Father Eduard Müller "whose merits," as Lasker put it, "may be extraordinarily great, only the world knows little of them, and still less the district in which he has been elected." He used to live behind Katholische Kirche 4-5 in

Berlin-Mitte Mitte () (German for "middle" or "center") is a central locality () of Berlin in the eponymous district () of Mitte. Until 2001, it was itself an autonomous district. Mitte proper comprises the historic center of Alt-Berlin centered on the ch ...

where his house was a centre for workers, the poor, and travellers. In 1984 the Eduard-Müller-Platz square in Neukölln was named after him. The 19th century politician in Reichstag minutes called "half-saintly" is not to be confused with the priest Eduard Müller (1911–1943) who in 1943 was executed as one of the

Lübeck martyrs The Lübeck Martyrs were three Roman Catholic priests – Johannes Prassek, Eduard Müller and Hermann Lange – and the Evangelical-Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink. All four were executed by beheading on 10 November 1943 less th ...

by the Nazis, for which these martyrs are considered for

beatification Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

since 2003.

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