Departures of note

Johann Georg Schröpfer, a Leipzig waiter turned self-styled Freemason, staged ghost-raising séances that captivated nobles and inspired Europe's phantasmagoria shows. Using hidden projectors, actors, and smoke, he conjured apparitions of historical figures like Frederick the Wise and the Chevalier de Saxe, convincing witnesses of their reality. His techniques, later publicized, influenced the phantasmagoria craze of the 1790s–1830s, with showman Paul Philidor advertising his performances as 'Schröpferesque ghost appearances.'

Born in Nürnberg in 1738, Schröpfer arrived in Leipzig in 1759, working as a waiter and marrying Johanna Katharina Herr in 1761. By 1769, they bought a café with her money, but debts and hunger years left him struggling. He founded his own Masonic lodge, claiming sole knowledge of true Masonry and contact with spirits, while secretly using actors, ventriloquism, and optical devices—including a magic lantern and projection box now in a museum—to produce his effects.

His séances, held after fasting and punch-drinking, featured black-draped altars, skulls, and Catholic-Kabbalistic symbols. He raised ghosts that screamed, answered questions, and even delivered letters. Critics noted suspicious details: a merchant recognized his own shoes on a 'ghost,' and Schröpfer refused to summon the poet Gellert, known personally to some spectators. He clashed with the Minerva lodge, distributing pamphlets revealing Masonic secrets, leading to a flogging ordered by Prince Karl von Sachsen—though Schröpfer denied it publicly.

In 1774, Schröpfer convinced minister Friedrich von Wurmb of a treasure in Frankfurt, collecting large advances from speculators. When the packages were opened, they contained only worthless paper, sand, and stones. Days later, Schröpfer died from a gunshot in a Leipzig forest, officially a suicide, though the bullet's entry through his mouth suggested murder. Witnesses gave conflicting accounts, and an investigation was suppressed to protect the prince. His associates later rose in Rosicrucian circles, and his legacy influenced Schiller's 'The Ghost-Seer' and the phantasmagoria phenomenon.