Johann Georg Schröpfer
German magician
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).
“Johann Georg Schröpfer” enters the record as german magician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Johann, Georg and Schröpfer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Johann Georg Schröpfer” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Johann, Georg and Schröpfer provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q97442. VIAF identifies the subject as 74695557. The Library of Congress control number is nr2001040769. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1738, 1774, 1730 and 1739.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Johann Georg Schröpfer”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Johann Georg Schröpfer primary sources, Johann Georg Schröpfer archive and Johann research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Johann Georg Schröpfer”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Johann Georg Schröpfer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.