Heiner muller biography

Müller died at the age of 66 in a hospital in Berlin on December 30, 1995. Over a decade after his death, Müller continues to have an enormous influence on European playwriting, dramaturgy, and performance.

Due to his growing worldwide fame, Müller was able to regain acceptance in East Germany. He was admitted to the DDR Academy of Arts, Berlin in 1984 – only two years before he became a member of parallel West Berlin academy.

On 17 November 1976, Müller signed together with eleven other writers and artists the petition against the expatriation of Wolf Biermann. Like several others of the signatories, Müller withdrew his signature on 25 November, according to Biermann on the condition that the Stasi would keep it secret.

Müller became one of the most important dramatists of the German Democratic Republic and won the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1959 and the Kleist Prize in 1990. His relationship with the East German state began to deteriorate, however, with his drama Die Umsiedlerin [ de] ( The Resettler Woman) which was censored in 1961 after only one performance.