Künstler - - Stift Admont

Heinrich Anton Müller
*Versailles 1869–1930, Münsingen Clinic, Switzerland
Müller lived with his constantly growing family in Corsier beginning in 1898 and
earned his living as a winery labourer – a modest profession which allowed him
enough space for creativity.
In a house he built himself, he set up his own workshop, using the hydropower
of a stream following nearby. He built a gyroscope and a mechanical file; he
patented a machine to cut grapevines in 1903. Other people exploited his
invention. After this, Müller wandered aimlessly through the vineyards. He was
admitted to the Munsingen Clinic in 1906, where he remained until his death –
without being diagnosed.
While in the clinic, Müller pursued his own, sometimes desperate projects. In
1912, he hid himself away in a cave, he had before dug himself, and on a selfmade
perch in 1913. A manner of helmet that he was saving food scraps in was
taken away from him. Beginning in 1914, he constructed wheels from rags, wire
and branches with the help of his excretions and secretions, and from these
machines, which he destroyed again and again, in rage over his internment.
He began to write and draw in 1919, wondrous creatures with mechanical
innards, grimaces as well as tender children’s pictures, like fairytales – as well as
vines.
He gave up in 1925 and spent most of his time lying in the garden behind a
shrub, or at the window, peering through a telescope...
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