Muller, who was 75, died after a long battle with ill health.

"With Norbert Müller, the Olympic Movement has lost a pioneer for Olympic Studies and the philosophy of Olympism," International Society of Olympic Historians President Christian Wacker said today.

"He was the doyen of Coubertin research."

In his youth, Muller had been an athlete with aspirations of competing at the 1968 Mexico Olympics as a high jumper.

He failed to make the team but was instead included in a party of German students who attended the International Olympic Academy (IOA) that summer.

It began a lifelong association, and Muller later compiled a summary of IOA proceedings since it opened in 1961.

He became a Professor at the University of Mainz and worked there until his retirement in 2012.

His linguistic abilities in French enabled him to translate and interpret the works of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

He eventually published a three volume collection of De Coubertin’s works in French for the IOC, a work which was also published in English and subsequently in German, Spanish and Chinese.

In the early nineties, he was part of a group chosen to work on a lavish three volume history to mark the centenary of the foundation of the IOC in 1994.

Muller was awarded the Olympic Order in 1997.

As President of the International Pierre de Coubertin Committee, he initiated the International Network of Coubertin Schools in 1997. 

Schools from nearly 40 countries now organise an international youth forum every two years.

Muller also helped develop the Olympic Masters Degree, introduced at the German sport university in Cologne and now recognised by the IOC.