Authorities discovered documents that defended , leading to the group's forced disbandment.
Weishaupt was banished from Bavaria, and after 1785, no historical records exist of the group's continued activities. illiminate
: Modern theories were largely popularized in the 1960s by writers Robert Wilson and Kerry Thornley , who wrote fake letters to magazines to satirize the era's paranoia—a prank that backfired and fueled real belief in a hidden cabal. Authorities discovered documents that defended , leading to
: At its peak, the group had between 650 and 2,500 members, including notable figures like the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The Suppression Authorities discovered documents that defended