FactGrid:Gotha Illuminati Research Base Team

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The Gotha Illuminati Research Base is a project of the Gotha Research Centre, a sub unit of the University of Erfurt University.

The Database with its network of document pages of transcripts and commentary began as a regular MediaWiki in the DFG funded project "Illuminati Essays" conducted by Markus Meumann and Olaf Simons under the supervision of Martin Mulsow Martin Mulsow.

The original platform was extremely successful with all its technical constraints — it could only speak German, all information had to be arranged manually. Yet, we were delighted that the pages quickly inspired the entire community of Illuminati research to join. Everyone doing work in the field contacted us with the wish to have an account on the platform.

Hermann Schüttler gave the platform its a central prosopographic structure with pages he created for all the members he had previously documented in his Die Mitglieder des Illuminatenordens, 1776-1787/93 (Munich, 1991). He also offered us a hard disc drive which we could not digest that easily in 2015: Its central content was an Access database with information on all the letters he had catalogued in the Halle based project on the Illuminati correspondence in which he had been working with Reinhard Markner under the supervision of Monika Neugebauer-Wölk. There was no good solution to present this treasure in a regular Wiki.

Gotha's project on the Illuminati essays ended in 2016 and left us with the awareness that the "Research Base" needed a database solution which had to be able to work with a conventional Wiki. Wikimedia Germany was ready to support us with the implementation of one of the first Wikibase instances outside Wikidata. The Gotha Illuminati Research Base eventually migrated onto the FactGrid platform, the Wikibase installation which we could now open to historical research of neighbouring projects.

We are presently working on a new phase of Illuminati research that will aim at the entire archival documentation of the organisation.

The Gotha Illuminati Research Base is at the same moment still a provisional project. The software comes without the user friendly interface we should like to offer. Much of our work has to be presented in SPARQL queries — to the delight of data miners but to the horror of anyone who would rather access an organised arrangement of web pages. We are aware of the problem and we know that we need a designed interface to offer easy access to the materials.

The project's main page — The Gotha Illuminati Research Base — gives an assortment of overviews and sample searches. Our transcripts are accessible through the full text search above. If you have questions concerning the project or the present web application do not hesitate to contact us

Dr. Olaf Simons
Gotha Research Centre at the University of Erfurt
Am Schlossberg 2
olaf.simons@pierre-marteau.com

Projects and Participants

Erik Liebscher

Writing his dissertation on Christian Georg von Helmolt, the Superior of Gotha's Minerval Church.

Reinhard Markner

With Hermann Schüttler co-editor of the two volumes of the Illuminati Correspondence (2005/2013), with Josef Wäges co-editor of the Secret School of Wisdom (2015).

Markus Meumann

Academic manager of the Gotha Research Centre, from 2013 to 2016 with Olaf Simons part of the Illuminati Essays research team. Co-editor of Aufsatzpraktiken im 18. Jahrhundert (Hamburg, 2017) and co-author of of ‚Mein Amt ist geheime gewissens Correspondenz‘. Bode als ‚Unbekannter Oberer‘ des Illuminatenordens“ (2017).

Martin Mulsow

Director of the Gotha Research Centre, from 2013 to 2016 supervisor of the Illuminati Essays research team. Several micro studies on the Illuminati.

Marie Nosper

is presently writing her dissertation on Gotha's duke Ernest II.

Hermann Schüttler

Author of Die Mitglieder des Illuminatenordens, 1776-1787/93 (Munich, 1991), editor of Johann Joachim Christoph Bode, Journal von einer Reise von Weimar nach Frankreich. Im Jahr 1787 (Munich, 1994); with Reinhard Markner co-editor of the two volumes of the Illuminati Correspondence (2005/2013).

Olaf Simons

Initiator of the FactGrid project, from 2013 to 2016 with Markus Meumann part of the Illuminati Essays research team. Extensive work on Johann Joachim Christoph Bode and also on Friedrich Christian Rudorf and Buttstädt, the last and failing Minerval Church of the Illuminati.

Josef Wäges

Extensive research on the Illuminati degree system, with Reinhard Markner coeditor of The Secret School of Wisdom (2015).

Christian Wirkner

Wrote his dissertation about Göttingen's 18th-century Lodges and worked as assistant of the Gotha Research Centre. He catalogued and transcribed the minutes of all the Minerval Church meetings in Thuringia and many of Bode's "Reproche-Notes".

Johann Adam Weishaupt.jpg Ernst-II 1775.jpg

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Knigge Freiherr.jpg Johann Bode 2.jpg Goethe (Stieler 1828).jpg

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