Johann Adam Weishaupt (, 6 February 1748 – 18 November 1830) was a German philosopher, professor of civil law and later canon law, and founder of the Illuminati, a secret society. ==Early life== Adam Weishaupt was born on 6 February 1748 in Ingolstadt in the Electorate of Bavaria.
He later enrolled at the University of Ingolstadt and graduated in 1768 at age 20 with a doctorate of law.
In 1772 he became a professor of law.
The following year he married Afra Sausenhofer of Eichstätt. After Pope Clement XIV's suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, Weishaupt became a professor of canon law, a position that was held exclusively by the Jesuits until that time.
In 1775 Weishaupt was introduced to the empirical philosophy of Johann Georg Heinrich Feder of the University of Göttingen.
Both Feder and Weishaupt would later become opponents of Kantian idealism. ==Foundation of the Illuminati== On 1 May 1776 Johann Adam Weishaupt founded the "Illuminati" in the Electorate of Bavaria.
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.
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 was buried next to his son Wilhelm who preceded him in death in 1802. After Weishaupt's Order of Illuminati was banned and its members dispersed, it left behind no enduring traces of an influence, not even on its own erstwhile members, who went on in the future to develop in quite different directions. ==Assessment of character and intentions== Weishaupt's character and intentions have been variously assessed.
Johann Adam Weishaupt (, 6 February 1748 – 18 November 1830) was a German philosopher, professor of civil law and later canon law, and founder of the Illuminati, a secret society. ==Early life== Adam Weishaupt was born on 6 February 1748 in Ingolstadt in the Electorate of Bavaria.
Adam Weishaupt died in Gotha on 18 November 1830.
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