# Was Adam Weishaupt a real person?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 8, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754 "2003-12-08T20:07:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/1 "2003-12-08T20:07:43Z")
I’m asking about the purported leader of the international conspiracy.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/2 "2003-12-08T20:15:17Z")
Yes, he was. He lived from 1748-1830, was a professor of Canon Law at the University of Ingolstadt, and founded the Order of the Illuminati
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/3 "2003-12-08T20:24:14Z")
Wow, that’s way more informative an answer than I was expecting. Thanks, Cap.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/4 "2003-12-08T20:26:48Z")
Hmmm … You’re not having me on, are you? Maybe I should have demanded a cite.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/5 "2003-12-08T20:47:38Z")
Google the name, and you’ll find many cites.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/6 "2003-12-08T21:00:45Z")
Here, by the way, is Cecil’s take on the Illuminati.
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_043.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_043.html)
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/7 "2003-12-08T21:01:59Z")
Adam Weishaupt was real, and did indeed found the Bavarian Illuminati.
Whether or not that group is responsible for secretly running the western world is a matter of speculation.
[Here](http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/Frank/People/weishaup.html) is a brief biography of him.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/8 "2003-12-08T21:23:54Z")
I thought about doing a Web search, but then it occurred to me that there just might be a conspiracy on the Web to persuade me that he really did exist.
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### Author:  [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/9 "2003-12-08T23:25:38Z")
That’s the spirit!!
The real point of conspiracy theory literature is to inure the public to the idea of conspiracy, and relegate its proponents to the outskirts of public discourse, rendering them “quacks” and “loonies” so that when the real conspiracy is uncovered, the whistleblowers will just be another group of weirdos.
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### Author:  [@cletus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cletus)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/10 "2003-12-09T00:16:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by acsenray \*
> \*\*I thought about doing a Web search, but then it occurred to me that there just might be a conspiracy on the Web to persuade me that he really did exist. \*\*
I like the way you think. Oh, and don’t listen to **Revtim** , his one of us… er… them. 😉
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/11 "2003-12-09T14:31:18Z")
I’m now wondering whether it was a mistake to bring this issue up at the SDMB. How do I know that you all aren’t really just employees of the Chicago Reader pretending to be “Teeming Millions”?
Come to think of it, I’ve never actually seen a copy of the Chicago Reader.
Hm.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/12 "2003-12-09T15:07:46Z")
If they had the budget to employ all of us, they’d likely have the budget for a fast server for the SDMB to spread their lies… 😉
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### Author:  [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/13 "2003-12-09T15:53:38Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Revtim \*
> \*\*If they had the budget to employ all of us, they’d likely have the budget for a fast server for the SDMB to spread their lies… 😉 \*\*
They do. Which is exactly why they don’t use it. You’re all _so_ gullible.
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### Author:  [@Starbury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starbury)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/14 "2003-12-10T14:05:17Z")
Any truth behind the rumor that the picture on the U.S. dollar bill is Adam Weishaupt and not George Washington?
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### Author:  [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/15 "2003-12-10T19:15:50Z")
Funny, I thought it was really Sigismundo Celine?
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/16 "2003-12-10T19:30:29Z")
I thought it was Barbara Bush.
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### Author:  [@Starbury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starbury)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2003, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-adam-weishaupt-a-real-person/217754/17 "2003-12-10T20:59:04Z")
I could be wrong, but I thought the rumor about Weishaupt on the dollar bill originated before any of the Robert Anton Wilson novels, if that’s what you were referring to **bughunter**.