Alle vorhandenen, nach den Handschriften transkribierten Einreichungen zur beruhmten 1780er Preisfrage der preussischen Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres werden zum ersten Mal vollstandig vorgelegt. Die skandaltrachtige Preisfrage 'Est-il utile au Peuple d'etre trompe?', zu der Friedrich II. seine Akademie 1777 gezwungen hatte, wurde zur erfolgreichsten im 18. Jahrhundert, schockierte Europa und ist als Problem bis heute aktuell. Die Volksbetrugs-Frage kann als Wasserscheide der Aufklarung angesehen werden: Die qualitative Bestimmung dessen, was Aufklarung sei oder sein sollte, schlug um in die quantitative Frage: Wer soll aufgeklart werden?For the first time, this edition presents all existing submissions - transcribed from the manuscripts - for the famous 1780 essay contest of the Prussian Academie des Sciences et Belles-Lettres. Frederick II forced his academy into this scandalous topic in 1777, and it became the most successful of all essay contests in the 18th century. Europe was shocked and the problem, known since Plato, has still not been solved today. The 1780 question about the legitimacy of deceiving the people may be considered the wathershed of German Enlightenment. From then on, the qualitative determination of what Aufklarung was or should be transformed into the quantitative question of who should be enlightened? A detailed introduction into the edition provides information about the history and topicality of the problem of legitimate deceit of the people (from antiquity to the present), the discussion within the academy, its decision procedures concerning the attribution of the prize, a partial denanonymization of the manuscripts, and a brief contextualization of the writings. The manuscript holdings of the Academy in Berlin as well as the shape of the manuscripts are described in detail. The edition will contain both an index of names and a subject index. The latter turned out to be a very informative and detailed catalog of Enlightenm