Illuminati essays in the context of the German late enlightenment. Debate culture, members guidance and public outreach of the Illuminati order 1783-1788

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Martin Mulsow
• Subject Area: Early Modern History
• Term: from 2012 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 222346431

Studies on the Illuminati have thus far focused on contemporary printed materials, the order's programmatic output, its "degrees" and the correspondence of leading members. Our work on the order's use of essays fundamentally changes what we know about the organization. This new research reevaluates a body of materials that turn out to be the key to understanding the group. Yet these central documents for the study of the Illuminati have remained neglected to now. Most of the essays in question were written by and for members for use in the group's meetings. They dealt with debates of the era and were read aloud and discussed in the regular local Illuminati gatherings in Gotha, Rudolstadt, Erfurt, Weimar and Jena. The approximately 150 (instead of the expected 114) documents shed new light on the inner workings of the secretive order. Some of the essays were part of the intimate correspondence each member maintained with his respective "unknown superior" - in our case with Johann Joachim Christoph Bode, whose archive offers a meticulous contextualization of these materials. For the first time, we can reconstruct in detail the channels of communication within the order, the debate culture in local congregations and the modalities of leadership exerted through the invisible hierarchy. Pursuing at the same time a thorough thematic analysis, we are able to determine not only to what extent the order was open to late enlightenment debates, but also how the order actually influenced these debates through group members and their own publications. The present application builds on an earlier one (MU 1005/9-1, see appendix), which had a 36-month horizon, of which only 24 months were funded. We have actually exceeded that 24-month work plan, but are asking for additional funding due to the discovery of unexpected archival materials. We are virtually reconstructing segments of the "Schwedenkiste", the original collection of Illuminati and Masonic materials collected by Bode and Ernst II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg at the end of the eighteenth century. These materials have required more time for indexing (Erschließung) and also called for deeper analysis than we anticipated. Yet we believe these materials have the potential to completely change the reigning paradigm for explaining such secret societies. We are requesting a further 20 months of funding, during which time we will finalize two monographs and a volume of conference proceedings. Moreover, we will expand the online portal initiated in 2014 to provide international researchers access. Our findings point to a fundamentally new evaluation of the order - an order shrouded in romanticization, mystification and conspiracy legends. This work is sure to stimulate new interest, not only among scholars, but in the public at large, where fascination with the Illuminati is rampant.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants