Stagira Minerval Church
The Minervalkirche Stagira was the association of the Order of Illuminati founded in Bonn in 1781 .
Pupil of Minerva
According to Adam Weishaupt, “Minervale” or “pupils of Minerva ” were members of the second degree according to Adam Weishaupt's division of the Illuminati order into three order classes. Below were the "novices", above the "enlightened minervals". The Illuminati used to refer to their assemblies as Minervalkirche , which roughly corresponded to a learned academy. There reports were written and lectures were given on scientific discoveries and books related to a "higher development of humanity".
The Bonn Illuminati named their Minerval Church "Stagira" after the place Stageira in Greece , in 384 BC. BC Aristotle was born.
Prominent members
From 1784, Christian Gottlob Neefe had the leading role of the Prefect in Bonn . Like all other members, he had an "order name". Neefe called himself "Glaucus". In addition to Neefe, the members of the Bonn Illuminati included other prominent people who were either close to the court of Elector Max Franz or who belonged to him.
In addition to Neefe, members were:
- Ferdinand d'Antoine (captain and composer) - Order name: "Hermogenes"
- Bernhard Franz Josef von Gerolt , Secret Spa Cologne. Councilor and Lord at Burg zur Leyen; Order name "Anson"
- Johann Peter Eichhoff (editor of the "Bonner Intellektivenblatt") - "Hephaestion"
- Johann Joseph Eichhoff (mouth cook of the Elector) - "Desiderius"
- Franz Wilhelm Kauhlen (Court and Medical Councilor) - "Tassilo"
- Franz Anton Ries (court musician - like Neefe, Ludwig van Beethoven's musical teacher ) - "Parmenio"
- Klemens August von Schall (Chamberlain and Captain) - "Anaxagoras"
- Joseph Schmidt (actor in Bonn and Mainz ) - "Roscius"
- Nikolaus Simrock (French horn player) - "Jubal"
- Johann Friedrich Velten (Professor) - "Bernoulli"
To disseminate their ideas, the Illuminati in Bonn published a magazine entitled “Contributions to the Spread of Useful Knowledge”.
Dissolution of the Bonn branch
When the Illuminati were banned in 1785, the Bonn “order members” also dissolved their “Minervalkirche Stagira”. The - enlightened - Elector Max Franz showed himself gracious and wrote after the dissolution: "I suspect that among Illuminati such as Jesuits there are good, honest and capable people, without the order being to blame for the behavior of one or the other."
Most of the Bonn Illuminati did not give up their commitment to the ideas of the Enlightenment after the dissolution of the "Minervalkirche Stagira" . When a reading society was founded in their town on December 1, 1787 , they were founding members again. This time in the context of an organization that was able to enjoy the sympathy of the Elector.
literature
- Contributions to the expansion of useful knowledge , editions 1.1784 - 52.1785. Digitized and placed online by the University and State Library of Bonn
- Alfred Becker: Christian Gottlob Neefe and the Bonn Illuminati . Bonn. Bouvier-Verlag (1969) (paperback)
- Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon . Herbig Verlag, ISBN 3-7766-2161-3