12 Facts About Adam Weishaupt

Johann Adam Weishaupt was a German philosopher, professor of civil law and later canon law, and founder of the Illuminati.

Weishaupt's father Johann Georg Weishaupt died when Adam was five years old.

Adam Weishaupt began his formal education at age seven at a Jesuit school.

Adam Weishaupt later enrolled at the University of Ingolstadt and graduated in 1768 at age 20 with a doctorate of law.

In 1775 Adam Weishaupt was introduced to the empirical philosophy of Johann Georg Heinrich Feder of the University of Gottingen.

Adam Weishaupt was initiated into the Masonic lodge "Theodor zum guten Rath", at Munich in 1777.

Adam Weishaupt's 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.

Adam Weishaupt used Freemasonry to recruit for his own quasi-masonic society, with the goal of "perfecting human nature" through re-education to achieve a communal state with nature, freed of government and organized religion.

Adam Weishaupt lost his position at the University of Ingolstadt and fled Bavaria.

Adam Weishaupt received the assistance of Duke Ernest II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, and lived in Gotha writing a series of works on illuminism, including A Complete History of the Persecutions of the Illuminati in Bavaria, A Picture of Illuminism, An Apology for the Illuminati, and An Improved System of Illuminism.

Adam Weishaupt was survived by his second wife, Anna Maria, and his children Nanette, Charlotte, Ernst, Karl, Eduard, and Alfred.

Adam Weishaupt's body was buried next to that of his son Wilhelm, who preceded him in death, at Friedhof II der Sophiengemeinde Berlin, a Protestant cemetery.