Johann Michael Afsprung (1748-1808)

Gotha Illuminati Research Base (here and here).

*1748, †1808, pedagogue, Ulm, member of the Illuminati under the code name Niccolo Machiavelli.

Perfectibilists, 248:

Afsprung, Johann Michael (1748 Ulm, Germany — 1808 Ulm)
Order Name: Machiavelli

A writer and pedagogue, Afsprung was a private tutor in Vienna, 1770, and was appointed Professor of German literature in Sáros-Patak, Transylvania in 1771. Around 1790 he became the last Professor of Greek Literature in Ulm. Illuminatus Minor, 1784.7 His alias alludes to Niccolò Machiavelli, the influential 15th century Italian political philosopher.

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“Temple of Man: Freemasonry, Civil Religion, and Education,” by Terry Melanson:

The 1780s, of course, was a decisive decade for the formulation of Pestalozzi’s methods. In 1782 he was insinuated into the Illuminati by J. F. Mieg (Epictet). Fittingly, Pestalozzi was assigned an alias which alludes to the Anglo-Saxon King Alfred the Great (849-899 AD), renowned as an enlightened ruler who restored learning and education.

Adam Weishaupt believed his Order should develop into the executive arm of the Aufklärung (Enlightenment), and as such, wrestling control of the educational establishment was of the utmost importance. The numerous pedagogues who joined the Order — Abel, Afsprung, Becker, Geissler, Pestalozzi, Rahn, Salzmann, Simon, and Trapp — naturally saw a vehicle for the realization of education reforms. Moreover, the Minerval Academies of the Illuminati were pedagogical institutions in their own right, and the techniques discovered were soon tested on the general public. Pestalozzi co-founded the Zurich branch of the Illuminati in 1783, and a year later he founded a pedagogic society in Zurich, along with Johann Heinrich Rahn, as a camouflage organization for the Order (Melanson 377). [my emphasize]

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Reinhard Markner, Monika Neugebauer-Wölk and Hermann Schüttler (eds) – Die Korrespondenz des Illuminatenordens: 1776-1781 (2005), 406 n.2

Johann Michael Afsprung (1748-1808), Pädagoge und Schriftsteller, 1770 Hauslehrer in Wien, 1771 Professor der deutschen Literatur in Säros Patak (Ungarn), 1775 kurzzeitig am Dessauer Philanthropin, später Registraturadjunkt der Herrschaftstube in Ulm, 1783 Gründer eines Erziehungsinstituts in Heidelberg, 1808 Professor der griechischen Literatur am Ulmer Gymnasium; 1782 von Mieg aufgenommen („Macchiavell”), Aug. 1784 ausgetreten.

[Johann Michael Afsprung (1748-1808), educator and writer, 1770 tutor in Vienna, 1771 professor of German literature at Säros Patak (Hungary), 1775 briefly at the Dessau Philanthropin, later registrar-adjunct of the Herrschaftstube in Ulm, 1783 founder of an educational institute in Heidelberg, 1808 professor of Greek literature at the Ulm Gymnasium; accepted by Mieg in 1782 (“Macchiavell”), resigned Aug. 1784.]