Christian evangelist. Missionary. Philanthropist.

George was born in Kroppenstaedt, Prussia, now Kroppenstedt, Germany, as Johann Georg Ferdinand Müller. His parents were Johann Friedrich Müller and Sophie Eleanor Haase. George had a brother named Friedrich Wilhem Müller. He also had a half brother named Franz "Frank" Müller. George's early years were full of drinking, stealing, gambling and lying. At sixteen he was sent to prison for defrauding a hotel-keeper.

Things turned around for George when a friend from the University of Halle, where George's father sent him to study divinity, invited him to a prayer meeting. He was welcomed there and began attending regularly. After seeing a man pray on his knees he was convinced he needed salvation and stopped his sinful way of life and was called to be a missionary.

George married Mary Groves on 7th October 1830 in St David's Church, Exeter. They had four children:

a stillborn child (9 Aug 1831)

Lydia (b. 17 Sep 1832 d. 10 Jan 1890)

Elijah (b. 19 Mar 1834 d. 25 June 1835)

a stillborn child (12 Jun 1838)

He saw the great awakening of 1859 which he said "led to the conversion of hundreds of thousands." He did follow up work for D. L. Moody, preached for Charles Spurgeon, and inspired the missionary faith of Hudson Taylor.

His fellow worker, Henry Craik, died on January 22, 1866, followed by the death of his wife on February 6, 1870. They were married 39 years. She was 72 and had suffered from rheumatic fever. James Wright married Müller's daughter, Lydia in 1871 and also replaced Craik as his associate. George only saw one of his children, Lydia, grow to adulthood. Lydia Mueller married James Wright who succeeded Mueller as the head of the Institute. Sadly, Lydia died from influenza while her father was on a trip to India. Nineteen months after Mary died, George remarried to a woman 13 years his junior named Susannah Grace Sangar.

George had a great aptitude for languages and was able to preach in English, French, and German. He was also a man of prayer. He prayed for everything and expected God to answer his prayers. He never asked for donations. He was never in debt. He first came to Bristol to preach in Bethesda Chapel and it was from this visit that he saw the plight of many orphans there thus, he founded the now famous Müller Orphanage. He cared for over 10,000 orphans in his life. On one occasion they sat down to eat and there was no food in the house. George prayed. A knock came on the door from a baker who had freshly made loaves of bread to feed everyone. The milkman also gave them milk because his cart broke down in front of the orphanage.

At one time the Mueller's set off for the United States in August 1877 aboard the Sardian…Off Newfoundland the weather turned cold, and the ship's progress was seriously retarded by fog. The captain had been on the bridge for 24 hours when something happened which was to revolutionize his life. George Mueller appeared on the bridge.

"Captain, I have come to tell you I must be in Quebec by Saturday afternoon."

"It is impossible," said the captain.

"Very well, " said Mueller, "if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way--I have never broken an engagement for 52 years. Let us go down into the chart-room and pray."

The captain wondered which lunatic asylum Mueller had come from.

"Mr. Mueller," he said, "do you know how dense this fog is?"

"No, my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life."

Mueller then knelt down and prayed simply. When he had finished the captain was about to pray, but Mueller put his hand on his shoulder, and told him not to.

"First, you do not believe He will' and second, I believe He has, and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it."

The captain looked at Mueller in amazement.

"Captain," he continued, I have known my Lord for 52 years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone."

The captain walked across to the door and opened it. The fog had lifted. It was the captain himself, who later told the story of this incident, and who was subsequently described by a well-known evangelist as "one of the most devoted men I ever knew."

Besides managing 5 orphanages, George established over 117 schools which brought Christian education to over 120,000 children including orphans. In his nephew's book, Edward Groves describes how he was summoned to his uncle George's room on the morning of his death, "Having just drunk a glass of water, he laid himself down and apparently without a struggle or spasm of pain, gently breathed his last". He was buried by the side of his two wives.

After George's death, his work was continued by The George Müller Foundation, which was renamed The George Müller Charitable Trust on 1st March 2009.