Baron Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein discovered Tellurium in 1782.

He was born on the July 1, 1740 Nagyszeben, Transylvania, or 4th of October 1742 in Poysdorf , (Lower Austria), and died on the 12 of October 1825 in Vienna.

He studied philosophy in Vienna but became specialist in mineralogy.

Discovered in 1778 an Turmalin occurrence in the Zillertal.

In 1782 or 1783, as main overseer of the mines in Romania, analyzed a bluish gold ore proceeding from Transylvania known as 'German Gold'. He extracted a metal believing to be the antimony. Soon he verified that it was an unknown chemical element, however did not continue the research in relation to this new element.

In 1798, German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth isolated the new element and it called it of tellurium, but gave to the credit of the discovery the Baron.