It was formed on 27 March 1920 after the government of Gustav Bauer (SPD) resigned as a result of the unsuccessful Kapp Putsch, which it was seen as having handled badly.

[2] The previous government, led by Gustav Bauer, also SPD, had become untenable and finally resigned on 26 March 1920 as a result of the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch.

The right-wing DVP had disqualified itself by its behaviour during the putsch and the left-wing Independent Social Democrats (USPD) insisted on a purely socialist government.

Within the SPD, some favoured a coalition with the USPD, but the risk of a civil war or outright secession by some states in southern Germany was ultimately seen as too great.

The previous chancellor, Gustav Bauer, although blamed by many for not having prevented the putsch, remained in the new cabinet in the much lower profile job as Treasury minister.

Although President Ebert wanted to keep Noske, the unions and many in the SPD demanded his resignation, arguing that he had been too ready to use force against the leftist uprisings and too lenient towards the right-wing putschists, both before and after the actual putsch.

Otto Wels was considered as minister of the Reichswehr but was told that his appointment would result in a mass exodus of officers and therefore withdrew.

Müller himself, who agreed only reluctantly to take on the chancellorship, at times considered handing back the task of forming a government.

[3] The members of the cabinet were as follows:[5][6] The Müller government spent much of its short life dealing with the Ruhr uprising, a radical left-wing revolt that grew out of the general strike against the Kapp Putsch in an attempt to set up a dictatorship of the proletariat.

[8] Many on the left who had been disappointed with the biased way the SPD-led government had dealt with the right-wing and left-wing revolts in the spring voted for the more leftist USPD instead.

As Müller was unwilling to work with the German People's Party (DVP), he handed back the task of forming a government.

It was based on the Centre Party, DDP and – for the first time – the centre-right DVP led by Gustav Stresemann, which had received 13.9% of the vote (up from 4.4% in 1919).