Did the Illuminati have any real (non-conspiracy) presence in Europe after the 1700s?

by nickcooper1991
[deleted]

The Illuminati dissolved some time between the end of 1787 and the beginning of 1788. So no, not directly anyway. (For a good overview of the Illuminati, see Monika Neugebauer-Wölk's entry "Illuminaten" in The Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism, Wouter Hanegraaff (ed.). Brill, 2006).

That being said, Jan Snoek considers Friedrich Ludwig Schröder's Engbund, a Masonic research society, as an off-shoot of the Illuminati. I'm not sure how this idea has been received by other historians, however. Snoek writes:

When Bode died in 1793, Reinhold took over. The Order was now re-christened the 'Bund des Einverständnisses'. Together with Schröder, Herder, Goethe, Hufeland and others, Reinhold continued the reform-project, which eventually resulted in the famous Schröder Ritual of 1801, which was of great influence on German freemasonry. Schröder's 'Engbund', which continued until 1868, can be regarded as the last continuation of the original Order of the Bavarian Illuminati.

(From "Dealing with Deviations in the Performance of Masonic Rituals" in When Rituals go Wrong. Mistakes, Failure, and the Dynamics of the Ritual, Ute Hüsken (ed.). Brill, 2007.)

Note that Schröder, Goethe, Hufeland, and Reinhold had all been members of the Illuminati. Bode had become the de facto leader in 1785, and had attempted to both reform and expand the order. Snoek views Bode's "Bund der deutschen Freimauerer", established in 1790, as an attempt to resurrect the order. This is the organization Reinhold took over and renamed "Bund des Einverständnisses".