Bavarian Illuminati

Bavarian Illuminati, Enlightenment-era secret society founded in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt in the Electorate of Bavaria. One of several groups in the history of Europe to claim the name “illuminati” (Latin for “the enlightened ones”), they favored the overthrow of existing monarchical governments and the replacement of established religion with a cult of reason.

Origins, doctrine, and organization

Weishaupt was a professor of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt who had been educated by Jesuits, though he did not belong to the order himself. Influenced by both Enlightenment ideas and Jesuit organizational principles, he aimed to overthrow existing government and religious institutions and replace them with rule by a secretive committee charged with promoting morality and virtue. The members of this society initially called themselves “Perfectibilists.” Among their goals was to replace Christianity with a religion of reason, as the revolutionaries of France were to do shortly after the society’s dissolution.

The society was organized largely along Jesuit lines, with some influence from Freemasonry, and it kept internal discipline through a system of mutual surveillance based on those models. Having pledged obedience to their superiors, members were divided into three main classes: the first included “novices,” “minervals,” and “lesser illuminati”; the second consisted of Freemasons (“ordinary,” “Scottish,” and “Scottish knights”); and the third, or “mystery,” class comprised the grades “priest,” “regent,” “magus,” and “king.”

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illuminati: The Bavarian illuminati

Rise and fall

Having begun with a narrow circle of disciples carefully selected from among his own students, Weishaupt gradually extended his recruitment efforts from Ingolstadt to Eichstätt, Freising, Munich, and elsewhere, with special attention given to the enlistment of young men of wealth, rank, and social importance. From 1778 Weishaupt’s Illuminati began to make contact with various Masonic lodges, where, under the impulse of Adolf Franz Friedrich, Freiherr (baron) von Knigge, one of their chief converts, they often managed to gain a commanding position. It was to Knigge that the society was indebted for the extremely elaborate constitution (never actually realized) as well as its internal communication system. Each member of the society had a special name, generally classical, by which he alone was addressed in official writing (Weishaupt was referred to as Spartacus and Knigge as Philo). All internal correspondence was conducted in cipher, and, to increase mystification, towns and provinces were invested with new and altogether arbitrary designations.

At its period of greatest development, Weishaupt’s Bavarian Illuminati included in their operations a very wide area, extending from Italy to Denmark and from Warsaw to Paris. At no time, however, did the group’s numbers appear to have exceeded 2,000. The Illuminati and their doctrines appealed to literary giants, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried von Herder, as well as to the dukes Ernest II of Gotha and Charles Augustus of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Such notables were claimed as members, although it is questionable whether they were actually so. Weishaupt’s Illuminati are believed to have included astronomer Johann Bode, writer and bookseller Friedrich Nicolai, philosopher Friedrich Jacobi, and poet Friedrich Leopold, Graf (count) zu Stolberg-Stolberg.

Secret societies of this kind fitted in with the idea of benevolent despotism as a vehicle for the Enlightenment, as shown in Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. The movement suffered from internal dissension and was banned by an edict of the Bavarian government in 1785. Some members were imprisoned, and others were driven from their homes. Weishaupt was stripped of his chair at Ingolstadt and banished from Bavaria.

Legacy

After 1785 the historical record contains no further activities of Weishaupt’s Illuminati. Yet, despite its short existence and failure to attain its goals, the society has figured prominently in conspiracy theories for centuries after its disbanding. As early as 1797 the group was credited with the instigation of the French Revolution (1787–99). Later it was claimed that the Bavarian Illuminati were behind the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the assassination of U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy (1963). In the early 21st century, claims have arisen that numerous celebrities and political leaders, including Madonna, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift as well as the late Henry Kissinger and Queen Elizabeth II, have been connected in some way to the society. The notion of an all-knowing cabal of ancient masters who control the world from behind the scenes has remained a powerful image in the popular consciousness.

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