Bernhard Müller, known as Count de Leon (born March 21, 1788,[1] Kostheim, Germany - died August 29, 1834, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana), was a German Christian mystic and alchemist of uncertain origins.
Müller wrote to the Harmony Society (and other communes in the United States as well as numerous leaders in Europe) in 1829 proclaiming himself to be the "Lion of Judah" and a prophet in possession of the Philosopher's stone.
As well as giving himself numerous fictitious names and titles, like Count de Leon, Archduke Maximilian von Este, and Proli, he claimed that he and his followers were the true Philadelphians and were ready to make a home for themselves with the Harmonites in Old Economy, Pennsylvania.
When Müller died, a congressman successfully proposed a bill donating a tract of land to his followers, and Germantown Colony was formed.
[2] In 1835, the remaining group, led by Müller's widow, Countess Leon, moved from Grand Ecore to a place that is now called Germantown, which is located seven miles (11 km) northeast of Minden, in what was then Claiborne Parish.
Not long after Müller and his closest followers left Monaca, Pennsylvania, in 1833, a new religious speaker named William Keil showed up in that area in the early 1840s.