Adam Weishaupt

Johann Adam Weishaupt ( born February 6, 1748 in Ingolstadt, † November 18, 1830 in Gotha ) was the founder of the Illuminati order and Freemasons, author, professor and philosopher. As an opponent of the Jesuits of the Enlightenment was liberal in his religious and political views increasingly. He favored deism and republicanism.

Life

Weishaupt grew up in Ingolstadt. His father Johann Georg Weishaupt was a professor of jurisprudence. The young Weishaupt attended the Jesuit High School in Ingolstadt. At 15, he left school to devote himself to the study of philosophy, history and political science. Orphaned early, he was adopted by Christian Wolff's pupil Johann Adam von Ickstatt and educated in the spirit of enlightened wolff 's philosophy. He studied at the University of Ingolstadt history, rights, political science and philosophy, and in 1768 received his doctorate of philosophy. In 1772, he became an associate professor of law in 1773 full professor of canon law at Ingolstadt.

Weishaupt founded on May 1, 1776 Federation of Perfektibilisten, ( bee north) who later became known as the Illuminati. Their mission was the development of morality and virtue, and the establishment of an association of good people to deal with the progress of evil. The real character of the society was in a sophisticated education system to promote the virtue and morality and to make the absolutist state superfluous by infiltration. In the Order Weishaupt used the secret name of Spartacus. The accession of Baron Adolph Knigge 1780 ( Order Name: Philo ) learned of the Illuminati soon, reach, dissemination, and Knigge new members recruited especially in the ranks of the Freemasons.

Weishaupt himself was established in 1777 in the Masonic lodge "Zur caution " in Munich and wore the name, Sanchoniaton '. However, this religious name he changed after the discovery of the Illuminati order in Bavaria, Cocyrus ' and he also used either as the name, Scipio Aemilianus '. Together with Franz Xaver von Zwack, he began to work on providing its system of Illuminati order on a Masonic basis. They got over the Marchese di Constantin Costanzo a patent of the Berlin Grand Lodge Royal York for the Munich lodge Theodor for good advice, then they declared independence and led them into the Illuminati.

After the company had been banned in 1784 by the Bavarian government, Weishaupt lost his position at the University of Ingolstadt and fled to Regensburg. Duke Ernst II of Saxe -Gotha -Altenburg ( since 1783 a member of the Illuminati under the religious name, Quintus Severus ', respectively, Timoleon ') granted him in Gotha asylum, where Weishaupt in 1786 (1787? ) With the title and the board of a privy councilor lived. Here he wrote a series of justifying work on the Order, including the full history of the persecution of the Illuminati in Bavaria ( 1785 ), depiction of the Illuminati (1786 ), Apology of the Illuminati (1786 ) and The improved system of the Illuminati, with all its institutions and degrees (1787 ).

In 1808 he was appointed foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. The initiative for his appointment came from Montgelas. With him, Weishaupt was in regular contact by correspondence. For the Academy Weishaupt played an important role in so far as his radical Enlightenment ideas were shared by many academicians.

As of 1817, Weishaupt put on the model of England for a generous monetary and credit system to finance increased government spending, a.

Weishaupt died in 1830 in Gotha, where he was buried in the old cemetery in 1874 repealed next to his prematurely deceased son William (d. 1802). The grave stone no longer wore obtained, such as photos show neither Birth nor Death, but only the inscription: Here lies Weishaupt / A dear man with a learned spirit, / the first in the citizenry of freedom!

In Gotha still exists his former house, which is located directly opposite the Castle of peace stone in the Park Avenue 13 next to the Ducal Museum. In Ingolstadt, remembered today only a plaque on the building, which housed the Assembly Hall of the Illuminati, to the Order. The building is located in the Theresienstadt Straße 23, in the midst of today's pedestrian zone of the city.

Conspiracy myths

Adam Weishaupt was the founder of the Illuminati an integral part of speculative conspiracy theories that find especially in right-wing groups in the United States distribution. According to these should Weishaupt after the ban of the Illuminati carried on in secret and have had contact with French Masonic circles. Today, there are few known associations, which was not assumed to be infiltrated by the Illuminati or to be the Illuminati 's successor himself. Authors of these theories, which are similar to the statements hostile to the Catholic Church against the Illuminati, was the beginning of the 19th century, the former Jesuit Abbe Barruel. These theories were the drivers of Adam Weishaupt's popularity. In right-wing conspiracy theories can be found from the late 19th century the statement, Adam Weishaupt was a Jew and had the "New Testament Satan" (aka " Protocols of the Elders of Zion" ) is written.

In the trilogy Illuminatus! by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea also the following theories are developed ( in parodic intent):

  • George Washington said to have been assassinated while in office and replaced by Adam Weishaupt. In this context, it is often mentioned that was grown from both hemp for use as a drug. With the bald eagle chosen to Washington Suggestion for the emblem of the United States, had a monument in truth Weishaupt.
  • The term "Flower Power" is to go back to the alleged Illuminatenspruch " Eternal Flower Power ".
  • Adam Weishaupt said to have founded the Illuminati not, but merely reformed. Who were the real founders, is variously answered: Hassan -i Sabbah, Galileo Galilei, Lucifer, Lilith are just a few from the gallery of the alleged founder.
  • Adam Weishaupt said to have been a Jesuit, or part of a Jesuit conspiracy

Works

  • Oratio panegirica in Laudem Egolphi a Knoeringen quondam Episcopi Augustani ( 1768)
  • De Lapsu Academiarum Commentatio Politica (1775 )
  • Complete history of the persecution of the Illuminati in Bavaria ( 1785 )
  • Apology of the Illuminati (1786 ) digitized Göttingen
  • Description of the Illuminati (1786 )
  • About Materialism and Idealism (1786 )
  • Introduction to My Apology (1787 )
  • Short justification of my intentions (1787 )
  • Addendum to justify my intentions (1787 )
  • The improved system of the Illuminati (1787 ) digitized Archive.org
  • Apology of Misvergnügens and Evil ( 1787)
  • Night Rage of farther original writings which at all, weird but the founder same Adam Weishaupt concern, and bey the Bassusischen on the Baron Castle to Sander village, a well-known Illuminati nest visitation made ​​discovered the Illuminatensekte immediately printed on Churchill Princely highest command and the secret been taken archive are ... (1787 )
  • The reasons for and certainty of human knowledge (1788 )
  • About the Kantian notions and phenomena (1788 )
  • Doubt about the Kantian notions of time and space (1788 ) digitized Hathi Trust
  • Pythagoras, or reflections on the secret world government and Art (1790)
  • On Truth and moral perfection (1793)
  • About the study of the reasons and causes of all things (1794 )
  • About the self-knowledge, their obstacles and benefits (1794 )
  • The latest work of Spartacus ( i.e., Adam Weishaupt) and Philo ( i.e. Adolph Freiherr von Knigge ) in the Illuminati Order (1794, ed. Ludwig Adolf Christian Grolmann )
  • Philo to the assembled representatives of the Wirtembergischen people (1797 )
  • About the purpose or final causes (1797 )
  • About the obstacles of baierischen industry and population (1802 )
  • The lamp of Diogenes (1804 )
  • About the State expenditures and obligations (1817 )
  • About the taxation system (1818 )
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