Adam Weishaupt

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Adam Weishaupt
Johann Adam Weishaupt.jpg

Adam Weishaupt, since 1777 became professor of canon law in Ingolstadt in 1773; 1785 escape, since 1787 in Gotha.

Born 6 February 1748(1748-02-06)
Ingolstadt, Electorate of Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire
Died 18 November 1830 (aged 82)
Gotha, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, German Confederation
Nationality German
Occupation Philosopher
School Empiricism · Epistemology · Metaphysics · Ethics

Johann Adam Weishaupt (6 February 1748 – 18 November 1830[1][2][3][4]) was a German philosopher (Western Philosophy), jurist, university professor and founder of the Order of the Illuminati, a secret society with origins in Bavaria. He used the pseudonym Spartacus during the time of his subversive activities.

Life

Early life

Adam Weishaupt was born in 1748 in Ingolstadt[1][5] in the Electorate of Bavaria. Weishaupt’s father Johann Georg Weishaupt (1717–1753) died[5] when Adam was five years old. After his father’s death he came under the tutelage of his godfather Johann Adam Freiherr von Ickstatt[6] who, like his father, was a professor of law at the University of Ingolstadt.[7] Ickstatt was a proponent of the philosophy of Christian Wolff and of the Enlightenment,[8] and he influenced the young Weishaupt with his rationalism. Weishaupt began his formal education at age seven[1] at a Jesuit school. He later enrolled at the University of Ingolstadt and graduated in 1768[9] at age 20 with a doctorate of law.[10] In 1772[11] he became a professor of law. The following year he married Afra Sausenhofer[12] of Eichstätt.

After Pope Clement XIV’s suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, Weishaupt became a professor of canon law,[13] a position that was held exclusively by the Jesuits until that time. In 1775, Weishaupt was introduced[14] to the empirical philosophy of Johann Georg Heinrich Feder[15] of the Georg-August University of Göttingen. Both Feder and Weishaupt would later become opponents of Kantian idealism.[16]

Founder of the Illuminati

At a time, however, when there was no end of making game of and abusing secret societies, I planned to make use of this human foible for a real and worthy goal, for the benefit of people. I wished to do what the heads of the ecclesiastical and secular authorities ought to have done by virtue of their offices [...][17]

On 1 May 1776, Weishaupt formed the "Order of Perfectibilists". He adopted the name of "Brother Spartacus" within the order. Though the Order was not egalitarian or democratic, its mission was the abolition of all monarchical governments and state religions in Europe and its colonies. Weishaupt wrote:

"The ends justified the means."

The actual character of the society was an elaborate network of spies and counter-spies. Each isolated cell of initiates reported to a superior, whom they did not know, a party structure that was effectively adopted by some later groups. Weishaupt himself only became a Freemason in 1777 in the lodge "Zur Behutsamkeit" in Munich and bore the religious name "Sanchoniaton" here. However, he changed this name to 'Cocyrus' after the exposure of the Illuminati order in Bavaria and he also used the name 'Scipio Aemilianus' alternatively. Together with Franz Xaver von Zwack he began to work towards putting his system of the Illuminati Order on a Masonic basis. Through the Marchese di Constantin Costanzo, they obtained a patent from the Berlin Grand Lodge Royal York for the Munich Lodge "Theodor zum guten Rat", then declared it independent and transferred it to the Illuminati order.

His project of “illumination, enlightening the understanding by the sun of reason, which will dispel the clouds of superstition and of prejudice” was an unwelcome reform. Soon however he had developed gnostic mysteries of his own, with the goal of “perfecting human” nature through re-education to achieve a communal state with nature, freed of government and organized religion. He began working towards incorporating his system of Illuminism with that of Freemasonry. He wrote:

“I did not bring Deism into Bavaria more than into Rome. I found it here, in great vigour, more abounding than in any of the neighboring Protestant States. I am proud to be known to the world as the founder of the Illuminati.”

Weishaupt’s radical rationalism and vocabulary was not likely to succeed. Writings that were intercepted in 1784 were interpreted as seditious, and the Society was banned by the government of Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria, in 1784. After the Society was banned by the Bavarian government in 1784, Weishaupt lost his position at the University of Ingolstadt: he was suspended in February 1785 after repeatedly demanding that the university library include Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique and the works by Richard Simon in their inventory. He first fled to Regensburg, where the Masonic lodge "Zu den drei Schlüsseln" had existed since 1767, which was only dissolved in 1795. At that time, the Protestant Free Imperial City of Regensburg, which had taken in many Protestants who had fled from Bavaria and Austria in the course of the 18th century and where Catholics had no civil rights, was considered a haven of religious freedom, tolerance and science.

Activities in exile

Duke Ernst II (Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg), since 1783 a member of the Illuminati under the religious name 'Quintus Severus' or 'Timoleon', granted him asylum in Gotha, where Weishaupt lived from 1787 on with the title and pension of a court councilor (Hofrat). He wrote a series of works on illuminism, including A Complete History of the Persecutions of the Illuminati in Bavaria (1785), A Picture of Illuminism (1786), An Apology for the Illuminati (1786), and An Improved System of Illuminism (1787).

Death

Adam Weishaupt died in Gotha on 18 November 1830.[1][2][3][4] He was survived by his second wife, Anna Maria (née Sausenhofer), and his children Nanette, Charlotte, Ernst, Karl, Eduard, and Alfred.[2] Weishaupt was buried next to his son Wilhelm who preceded him in death in 1802.

Works

On the Illuminati

  • (1786) Apologie der Illuminaten.
  • (1786) Vollständige Geschichte der Verfolgung der Illuminaten in Bayern.
  • (1786) Schilderung der Illuminaten.
  • (1787) Einleitung zu meiner Apologie.
  • (1787) Einige Originalschriften des Illuminatenordens...
  • (1787) Nachtrage von weitern Originalschriften... Google Books
  • (1787) Kurze Rechtfertigung meiner Absichten.
  • (1787) Nachtrag zur Rechtfertigung meiner Absichten.
  • (1787) Apologie des Mißvergnügens und des Übels.
  • (1787) Das Verbesserte System der Illuminaten.
  • (1788) Der ächte Illuminat, oder die wahren, unverbesserten Rituale der Illuminaten.
  • (1795) Pythagoras, oder Betrachtungen über die geheime Welt- und Regierungskunst.

Philosophical works

  • (1775) De Lapsu Academiarum Commentatio Politica.
  • (1786) Über die Schrecken des Todes – eine philosophische Rede.
    • (French) Discours Philosophique sur les Frayeurs de la Mort (1788). Gallica
  • (1786) Über Materialismus und Idealismus. Torino
  • (1788) Geschichte der Vervollkommnung des menschlichen Geschlechts.
  • (1788) Über die Gründe und Gewißheit der Menschlichen Erkenntniß.
  • (1788) Über die Kantischen Anschauungen und Erscheinungen.
  • (1788) Zweifel über die Kantischen Begriffe von Zeit und Raum.
  • (1793) Über Wahrheit und sittliche Vollkommenheit.
  • (1794) Über die Lehre von den Gründen und Ursachen aller Dinge.
  • (1794) Über die Selbsterkenntnis, ihre Hindernisse und Vorteile.
  • (1797) Über die Zwecke oder Finalursachen.
  • (1802) Über die Hindernisse der baierischen Industrie und Bevölkerung.
  • (1804) Die Leuchte des Diogenes.
    • (English) Diogenes Lamp (Tr. Amelia Gill) introduced by Sir Mark Bruback chosen by the Masonic Book Club to be its published work for 2008. (Ed. Andrew Swanlund).
  • (1817) Über die Staats-Ausgaben und Auflagen. Google Books
  • (1818) Über das Besteuerungs-System.

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 41, p. 539.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Engel, Leopold. Geschichte des Illuminaten-ordens. Berlin: H. Bermühler Verlag, 1906.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Dülmen, Richard van. Der Geheimbund der Illuminaten. Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1975.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Stauffer, Vernon. New England and the Bavarian Illuminati. Columbia University, 1918.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Engel 22.
  6. ↑ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 13, pp. 740–741.
  7. ↑ Freninger, Franz Xaver, ed. Das Matrikelbuch der Universitaet Ingolstadt-Landshut-München. München: A. Eichleiter, 1872. 31.
  8. ↑ Hartmann, Peter Claus. Bayerns Weg in die Gegenwart. Regensburg: Pustet, 1989. 262. Also, Bauerreiss, Romuald. Kirchengeschichte Bayerns. Vol. 7. St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1970. 405.
  9. ↑ Freninger 47.
  10. ↑ Engel 25–28.
  11. ↑ Freninger 32.
  12. ↑ Engel 31.
  13. ↑ Engel 33. Also, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 41, p. 540.
  14. ↑ Engel 61–62.
  15. ↑ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 6, pp. 595–597.
  16. ↑ Beiser, Frederick C. The Fate of Reason. Harvard University Press, 1987. 186–88.
  17. ↑ [1947] (2005) Quest for Mysteries: The Masonic Background for Literature in 18th Century. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1419182145. 
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