Josef Maria Müller, the eminent and highly respected leader of the Wiener Akademikerbund (Viennese Federation of Academics), died last week at the age of 90. Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, who is a member of the Akademikerbund and knew him well, sends her reminiscences of the late Professor Müller:

As a member of the board of the Wiener Akademikerbund, I am deeply saddened to report the death of our beloved president of the board, Josef Maria Müller.

I was always awed by his bravery in standing up to the National Socialists, and it is his inside knowledge of the machinations of this socialist and deadly ideology that motivated him in his continuous criticism of the open totalitarian tendencies we are witnessing not only in Austria and the European Union, but also in the United States, and indeed the entire West.

Despite his age and failing health, he was tireless: he chaired meeting, produced papers warning about the latest EU shenanigans, and most importantly, he cared deeply about the Akademikerbund.

I am deeply grateful for his support in my darkest times during my trial and I pray he will be with us on December 11. The truth must remain the truth.

Thank you, Mr. Senatsrat.

Many thanks to JLH for translating this eulogy from Christian Zeitz and Wienerakademikerbund :

Wienerakademikerbund
1080 Wien, Schlösselgasse 11

Vienna, November 22, 2013

Senate Councilor Professor Josef Maria Müller
August 11, 1923 — November 16, 2013
Head of Viennese Federation of Academics, 1997-2013.

He was a pioneer and comrade-in-arms in the fight for freedom, for the retention of our inheritance from Christian culture and against the Islamization of Europe, as well as for the expansion of democracy as a bulwark against the omnicompetent EU super state. Senate Councilor Professor Josef Maria Müller — our universally loved and respected chief — died on Saturday, November 16, 2013. God, the only Lord of life and death, decided to call “our senate councilor” to eternity — not unprepared, but unexpectedly.

His death creates a wound that literally cannot be healed and throws us all into deep mourning. Senate Councilor Müller resisted the increasing attacks on his health calmly and with exemplary courage. He did not give in to age. His heart was dedicated to his own, among them the Akademikerbund and its activists and members. To his last moments, he was crafting plans for the advancement of our group and preparing lectures and publications of his own.

Josef Maria Müller was born on August 11, 1923 to an old Austrian-Bavarian family. His father was first a sea captain and then director of the KuK Danube Steamship Company. An artistically gifted caregiver, his mother — Sophie Reichsfreifrau Weichs-Glon — raised her children in the Christian faith. She was the first piano teacher for young Josef Maria.

By grade school, multi-sided interests began to appear — some of a cultural nature, others philosophical and theological. Beyond that, he was interested in the engineering technicalities of transport, and especially shipping.

In 1938 his father lost his position for political reasons. As a free spirit, Josef Maria Müller could not accommodate himself to the National Socialist disaster, and came into the crosshairs of the brown dictatorship. In 1940 there was a prohibition from studying, and later a trial for high treason. Only the intervention of a highly placed relative spared him death row. Müller spent the rest of the war underground, studying under the organist for the Graz cathedral, Rudolf von Weis-Osborn, and acquired a comprehensive knowledge of musical theory.

After the war, the fascinating appearance of Wilhelm Furtwängler influenced his decision for a career as a musician. Müller enjoyed recognized successes as director, choir director and church musician, and increasingly, as an organizer of large musical events. In 1960 he turned to teaching music and entered the faculty of the conservatory of the city of Vienna. In 1978 he was appointed director of the music schools of the community of Vienna. In this capacity, until his retirement in 1989, he developed an in-depth, legal, organizational and personal reorientation and ensured the present artistic level and international recognition of this academic institution.

Müller then devoted himself with unabated drive and agility to public matters, as board director of a scientific facility, as an intermediary between Church and culture, as a fighter for an independent Austria and a critic of the looming EU super state. His identification with conservative and classic liberal values and his self-awareness as a militant Christian led him in 1997 to the Wiener Akademikerbund, where he was soon elected head. This activity determined his dedication and devotion for the remainder of his life. At a time of the decline of party democracy, of the de-nationalization and globalization of political decisions and the establishment of supra-national, multiculturally oriented syndicates, he led the Wiener Akademikerbund as a community of philosophically united idealists and incorruptible forward-thinkers. We thank him for his commitment, his courage and his single-mindedness. He will always be a model for us as a militant Catholic of deep faith, and a powerful agitator against the decay of values, against relativism and against the loss of freedom.

— Christian Zeitz