WikiPortallus: Adam Weishaupt.html

Adam Weishaupt was born on February 6, 1748 in Ingolstadt^[7] in the Electorate of Bavaria. Weishaupt's father Johann Georg Weishaupt (1717–1753) died^[8] when he was five years old, and he then came under the tutelage of his godfather Johann Adam Freiherr von Ickstatt^[9] who, like his father, was a professor of law at the University of Ingolstadt.^[10] Ickstatt was a proponent of the philosophy of Christian Wolff and of the Enlightenment,^[11] and he influenced the young Weishaupt with his rationalism. As a Bavarian, Adam learned Czech and Italian as a child, and in school, he soon mastered Latin, Greek and, with his father's help, Hebrew.^{citation needed} Weishaupt began his formal education at age seven^[12] at a school controlled by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). With his avid scholarship and knack for languages, his Jesuit superiors thought he would be a natural for overseas missionary work, perhaps in the Americas or in Asia.^{citation needed} But Adam rebelled against Jesuit discipline, and resisted their overtures. He later enrolled at the University of Ingolstadt, and graduated in 1768^[13] at age 20 with a doctorate of law.^[14] Also beginning around 1768, Adam began “the collection of a large library for the purpose of establishing an academy of scholars.”^{citation needed} He read every ancient manuscript and text he and his associates could lay hands on.^{citation needed} Adam grew interested in the occult,^{citation needed} becoming obsessed with the Great Pyramid of Giza.^{citation needed} He was convinced that the edifice was a prehistoric temple of initiation.^{citation needed} In 1769, he married Afra Sausenhofer^[15] of Eichstätt. In 1770, he made the acquaintance of Franz Kolmer, a Danish merchant who had lived for many years in Alexandria and had made several trips to Giza.^{citation needed} The following year, 1771,^{citation needed} Adam decided to found a secret society aimed at "transforming" the human race. He devoted five years to thinking out the plan, borrowing from many different occult sources.^{citation needed} His first name for the proposed order, Perfectibilism, suggests^{original research?} that he borrowed from the Cathars, a gnostic religion that flourished in Europe for four hundred years. The Cathars, whose name means “perfect ones,” were decimated in the Albigensian Crusade of Pope Innocent III during the early Thirteenth Century. Adam fashioned his order in the form of a pyramid.^{citation needed}

Founder of the Illuminati

On May 1, 1776 Weishaupt formed the "Order of Perfectibilists", which was later known as the Illuminati. He adopted the name of "Brother Spartacus" within the order. Though the Order was not egalitarian or democratic, its mission was to establish a New World Order, which meant the abolition of all monarchical governments and religions.

Weishaupt wrote: "the ends justified the means." The actual character of the society was modeled on one of its traditionalist enemies, the Jesuits, and 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 was initiated into the Masonic Lodge "Theodor zum guten Rath", at Munich in 1777. 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 Masonry, with the aim of creating a New World Order.

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."^{citation needed}

Weishaupt's radical rationalism, sweeping away nations and religions, private property and marriage, with the vocabulary used by the French Revolution, was not likely to succeed, and did not. 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. Weishaupt lost his position at the University of Ingolstadt and fled Bavaria.

Activities in exile

He received the assistance of Duke Ernest II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1745–1804), and lived in Gotha writing 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). Adam Weishaupt died in Gotha on the 18th day of November in the year of our Lord 1830^[21]^[22]^[23]^[24]^[25]^[26] and was survived by his second wife, Anna Maria (née Sausenhofer), and his children Nanette, Charlotte, Ernst, Karl, Eduard, and Alfred.^[27] Weishaupt was buried next to his son Wilhelm who preceded him in death in 1802.

John Robison, a professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh University in Scotland and a member of a Freemason Lodge there, said he had been asked to join the Illuminati. After consideration he concluded that the Illuminati were not for him. In 1798 he published a book called Proofs of a Conspiracy in which he wrote: “An association has been formed for the express purposes of rooting out all the religious establishments and overturning all existing governments... the leaders would rule the World with uncontrollable power, while all the rest would be employed as tools of the ambition of their unknown superiors”. “Proofs of a Conspiracy” was sent to George Washington who replied:

Quotes about Weishaupt

References in pop culture

Another version of Adam Weishaupt appears in the extensive comic book-cum-novel Cerebus the Aardvark by Dave Sim, as a combination of Weishaupt and George Washington. He appears primarily in the Cerebus and Church and State I volumes. His motives are republican confederalizing of city-states in Estarcion (a pseudo-Europe) and the accumulation of capital unencumbered by government or church.

Weishaupt is also mentioned among the mish-mash of complicated conspiracies in the PC game Deus Ex. During JC Denton's escape from Versalife labs in Hong Kong, he recovers a virus engineered with the molecular structure in multiples of 17 and 23. Tracer Tong notes "1723... the birthdate of Adam Weishaupt" Weishaupt was in fact born in 1748. However 1723 was the year that Weishaupt's freemasonry lodge, "Theodor zum guten Rath", was founded.

Adam Weishaupt is also mentioned ("Bush got a ouija to talk to Adam Weishaupt") by the New York rapper Cage in El-P's "Accidents Don't Happen", the 9th track on his album Fantastic Damage (2002).

Seclorum magazine, based out of Detroit, Michigan, cites Adam Weishaupt as its Patron Saint.

Works

On the Illuminati

Philosophical Works

Notes

^ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 41, p. 539.
^ Engel, Leopold. Geschichte des Illuminaten-ordens. Berlin, H. Bermühler Verlag, 1906.
^ van Dülmen, Richard. Der Geheimbund der Illuminaten. Stuttgart, Frommann-Holzboog, 1975.
^ Stauffer, Vernon. New England and the Bavarian Illuminati. Columbia University, 1918. Page 146.
^ Cf. the German Wikipedia.
^ Cf. the Library of Congress Online Catalog. See example.
^ Engel, Leopold. Geschichte des Illuminaten-ordens. Berlin, H. Bermühler Verlag, 1906. 22. Also, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 41, p. 539.
^ Engel 22.
^ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 13, pp. 740–741.
^ Freninger, Franz Xaver, ed. Das Matrikelbuch der Universitaet Ingolstadt-Landshut-München. München: A. Eichleiter, 1872. 31.
^ 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.
^ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 41, p. 539.
^ Freninger 47.
^ Engel 25–28.
^ Engel 31.
^ Freninger 32.
^ Engel 33 Also, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 41, p. 540.
^ Engel 61–62.
^ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 6, pp. 595–597.
^ Schneider, Heinrich. Quest for Mysteries. Reprint. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2005. 24. ISBN 1419182145
^ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 41, p. 539.
^ Engel, Leopold. Geschichte des Illuminaten-ordens. Berlin, H. Bermühler Verlag, 1906.
^ van Dülmen, Richard. Der Geheimbund der Illuminaten. Stuttgart, Frommann-Holzboog, 1975.
^ Stauffer, Vernon. New England and the Bavarian Illuminati. Columbia University, 1918. Page 146.
^ Cf. the German Wikipedia.
^ Cf. the Library of Congress Online Catalog. See example.
^ Engel, Leopold. Geschichte des Illuminaten-ordens. Berlin, H. Bermühler Verlag, 1906.
^ George Washington - Letter to the Reverend G. W. Snyder (24 October 1798)
^ "Thomas Jefferson to Reverend James Madison, January 31, 1800, The Thomas Jefferson Papers (American Memory from the Library of Congress)". Retrieved on 2007-04-08.
^ "Thomas Jefferson to Reverend James Madison, January 31, 1800, The Thomas Jefferson Papers (American Memory from the Library of Congress)". Retrieved on 2007-04-08.

Adam Weishaupt.html

Contents

Early life