Adam Weishaupt, German philosopher and academic, founded the Illuminati (died 1830)

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

The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on 1 May 1776 in the Electorate of Bavaria. The society's stated goals were to oppose superstition, obscurantism, religious influence over public life, and abuses of state power. "The order of the day", they wrote in their general statutes, "is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them."