Müller was born in
Eppendorf, Saxony. He joined the
Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1946 which was in the course of the forced
merger of the KPD and SPD subsumed into the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED). He was soon expelled for lacking enthusiasm and failing to pay dues. In 1954 he became member of the German Writers' Association (
Deutscher Schriftstellerverband). 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 ''
(The Resettler Woman'') which was censored in 1961 after only one performance. Müller was expelled from the Writers' Association in the same year. The East German government remained wary of Müller in subsequent years, preventing the premiere of
Der Bau (
Construction Site) in 1965 and censoring his '''' in the early 1970s. Yet despite these hardships, Müller's work began to gain popularity both in West Germany and internationally at this time. Many of his best-known plays from this period were premiered in the West: this includes
Germania Death in Berlin, which was first performed in 1978 at the
Munich Kammerspiele. Heiner Müller himself directed a production of
The Mission (
Der Auftrag) in
Bochum in 1982. In Brussel, directed the world premiere of
Die Hamletmaschine (
The Hamletmachine) in 1978, november 7. English translations, first by Helen Fehervary and Marc Silberman, then by
Carl Weber, introduced Müller to the English speaking world in the mid- and late 1970s; Müller's controversial play
Mauser was first performed in 1975 in
Austin, Texas. 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. 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. Despite earlier honors, Müller was not readmitted to the East German Writers' Association until 1988, shortly before the end of the GDR. After the fall of the Wall, Müller became final president of the DDR Academy of the Arts from 1990 until its 1993 merger with the western academy. In 1993 it was alleged that Müller worked from 1979 to 1990 as
unofficial collaborator (an
informant) under the code name "Heiner" for the East-German
Stasi. Müller, who at the time was not a member of the
East German Communist Party or the East German
Deutscher Schriftstellerverband, admitted that he had contact with Stasi officials, but never provided any material. In 1992, he was invited to join the directorate of the
Berliner Ensemble,
Brecht's former company at the
Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, as one of its five members along with
Peter Zadek,
Peter Palitzsch, and . In 1995, shortly before his death, Müller was appointed as the theatre's sole artistic director. During the last five years of his life, Müller continued to live in Berlin and work all over Germany and Europe, mostly directing productions of his own works. He wrote few new dramatic texts in this time, though, like Brecht, he did produce much poetry in his final years. In the last half-decade of his life, Müller also worked towards transforming the interview into a literary genre. Among his better known works, other than those already mentioned, are
Der Lohndrücker (
The Scab),
Wolokolamsker Chaussee (
Volokolamsk Highway) Parts I–V,
Verkommenes Ufer Medeamaterial Landschaft mit Argonauten (
Despoiled Shore Medea Material Landscape with Argonauts),
Philoktet (
Philoctetes),
Zement (
Cement),
Bildbeschreibung (
Description of a Picture aka
Explosion of a memory) and
Quartett. In 1994, he was awarded the IV
Europe Theatre Prize. Müller died of
throat cancer at the age of 66 in a hospital in Berlin on December 30, 1995. He is buried at Berlin's
Dorotheenstadt Cemetery. Müller's grave was designed by his last stage designer
Mark Lammert. ==Legacy==