Johann Georg Schröpfer

Johann Georg Schrepfer, or Johann Georg Schröpfer (1738? – 8 October 1774 in Leipzig), was a German charlatan, independent Freemason and necromancer. He performed ghost-raising séances for which he secretly used special effects, possibly including magic lantern projections of ghosts on smoke, which inspired the phantasmagoria shows popular in Europe from the 1790s to the 1830s.

Little is certain about Schrepfer's life. Many accounts stem from either adherent or opposing Freemasons and Schrepfer himself was an impostor who told many lies about himself.

Biography

Schrepfer's year of birth is often stated to be 1730 and sometimes as 1739, but he was baptized in Nürnberg on March 26, 1738. He was listed as the eighth child of the host of "Zum Rothen Roße". Father Schrepfer later ran the "Goldenen Lamm" and seems to have gone bankrupt in 1753. Johann Georg reportedly served for some time as a hussar in the Prussian army at the start of the Seven Years' War. However, he also claimed to have been a cavalry commander with the imperial troops and to have received many wounds in battle (although his autopsy report clearly stated that no scars or signs of old injuries were found on his body). He came to Leipzig in 1759 and started as a "Küper" (controller of goods) in Hotel de Saxe. He became a citizen of the city in August 1761 and was registered as a waiter. September 20, 1761 he married Johanna Katharina Herr, the daughter of the quartermaster of the local tailors. She was already highly pregnant and soon gave birth to their first daughter. In 1769 they purchased the "Weisslederische Coffeé-Hauß" with Johanna's money. It was a café with a billiard room in the very center of town (at the corner of Klostergasse and the Barfußgäßchen, the location of restaurant "Zill's Tunnel" since 1841).

Schrepfer was described as a big, subdued and handsome man, well educated, but with an inconsiderate and obtrusive behavior.

Two of Schrepfer's older brothers also lived in Leipzig. Georg Wolfgang Schrepfer became a respected wine merchant, banker and estate owner. Johann George Friedrich Schrepfer was a restaurateur of bloated and questioning aspect in Leipzig between 1770 and 1776. Johann Georg Schrepfer apparently did not get along with his brothers,

Masonic necromantic sessions Schrepfer had most likely never experienced a Freemason lodge meeting when he started his own lodge of "true Masonry". Nonetheless, he claimed to be the sole person with knowledge of the real secrets of Masonry and to be able to communicate with the spirit world. He also claimed to be in touch with the true Masons in England. When asked about this, they wrote in reply: "Mr. Schrepfer is totally unknown in our grand Lodge, and indeed he has lately been represented to us from Berlin, as a very trifling ridiculous person, not worthy of any Notice or Countenance". He is thought to have gained most of his knowledge about Masonry from magazines, books and from listening to the many Freemason patrons he waited on, who spoke quite freely about their Freemason secrets, plans and activities. He reportedly stole some "magical" documents and Freemason scriptures of Duke Von Holstein-Gottorp during the Seven Years' War and learned more about magic from a merchant in Frankfurt am Main. This merchant would also have supported him financially and brought him into contact with Freemasons in Braunschweig. By the end of 1771 he had very good contacts with rich nobility and Catholic monasteries near the borders with Bohemia and Silesia. He performed "magical works" in Sorau (now Żary, Poland), before the Masons in Leipzig knew about him. Among the techniques that Schrepfer reportedly used for his elaborate effects were actors performing as ghosts, ventriloquism, hidden speaking tubes, glass harmonica sounds, aromatic smoke, camera obscura projections, magic lantern projections on smoke, concave mirror projections and staged thunder.

Schrepfer had been friends with pharmacist and Freemason Johann Heinrich Linck the Younger and regularly held lodge meetings in Linck's garden. Schrepfer even allowed Linck's wife into his lodge, while women were usually excluded from Freemason lodges. Linck was expelled from another lodge and probably told Schrepfer all he had learned there. Schrepfer needed materials that only a pharmacist could provide and Linck also knew a thing or two about optical and acoustic devices. A magic lantern and another type of projection box from his collection are now in the Museum Waldenburg. The projection box is decorated with a crucifix and a skull with wings.

Séance at the Dresden court Schrepfer appeared in Dresden under a false name, pretending to be a French colonel. He asked to be presented to the Elector Friedrich August III, but this was refused by François Barbé-Marbois, Chargé d'affaires of the French convoy. Schrepfer's real name was soon found out and reports of his supernatural powers reached Karl von Sachsen. The Prince decided to seek reconciliation and personally visited Schrepfer to apologize for the chastising he had ordered not long before. Schrepfer accepted the apologies and reluctantly promised to come and summon a spirit at the palace at the Prince's repeated requests.

The Prince chose the spirit of his uncle, Governor Johann Georg, Chevalier de Saxe to be evoked, partly in the hope that this would reveal where in the palace the Governor had hidden the large sums of money that he supposedly had amassed. At the appointed night a company of 19 witnesses had gathered in the great gallery of the palace. All windows and doors were secured, and Schrepfer offered punch to strengthen the nerves. Some readily accepted the drink, while others declined in order to keep a clear mind. Schrepfer started the ceremony, kneeling in a corner of the gallery. It took a long time before anything happened and Schrepfer worked himself into a violent sweat and almost in convulsions. Then a loud clatter was heard outside all of the windows and a sound followed which resembled a glass harmonica. According to Schrepfer this announced the arrival of good, protecting spirits. Not long after frightful yelling was heard, which Schrepfer attributed to the malignant spirits necessary for the commencement of the séance. He continued his evocations until a door opened with violence and a black orb rolled into the room, invested with smoke. Amidst the smoke a human face could be seen, resembling the Chevalier de Saxe. It called out loudly and angry; "Karl, was wolte du mit mich?" (Karl, what do you want of me, why do you disturb me?"). The spectators were all petrified and nobody dared to check its incorporeal nature. The Prince threw himself on his knees and called on God for mercy. Others asked Schrepfer to make the apparition disappear. It seemed to take an hour before Schrepfer's invocations dismissed the spirit, only to burst back in when the spectators had just started to feel relieved of the horror. Schrepfer's reiterated exorcisms at last expelled the apparition for good and left the spectators in awe of Schrepfer's supernatural powers.

The Elector soon heard about the event and forbade repetition. He would have been perpetually tormented by evil spirits rendering his life miserable,

Aftermath and legacy Several of Schrepfer's associates – including Wurmb, DuBosc, Hoffman and Von Bischoffswerder – managed to become leaders of Rosicrucian circles a few years later and some of them were among the founders of the new Mason lodge Balduin in Leipzig in 1776. Von Bisschofswerder later had some influence on Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia through a Rosicrucian lodge and ghost-raising sessions.

Friedrich Schiller's unfinished novel The Ghost-Seer, of which installments were published between 1787 and 1789, is believed to have been inspired by Schrepfer.