Bielefeld, Germany

The Bielefeld Conspiracy (German: Bielefeldverschwörung or Bielefeld-Verschwörung) is a satire of conspiracy theories that originated in 1994 in the German Usenet, which claims that the city of Bielefeld, Germany, does not actually exist, but is an illusion propagated by various forces. Originally an internet phenomenon, the conspiracy has since been represented in the city's marketing, and referred to by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The story goes that the city of Bielefeld (population of 336,352 as of December 2016) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia does not actually exist. Rather, its existence is merely propagated by an entity known only as THEM (SIE in German), which has conspired with the authorities to create the illusion of the city's existence.

The theory poses three questions:

A majority are expected to answer no to all three queries. Anybody claiming knowledge about Bielefeld is promptly disregarded as being in on the conspiracy or having been themselves deceived.

The origins of and reasons for this conspiracy are not a part of the original theory. Speculated originators jokingly include the CIA, Mossad, or aliens who use Bielefeld University as a disguise for their spaceship.

The conspiracy theory was first made public in a posting to the newsgroup de.talk.bizarre on May 16, 1993, by Achim Held, a computer science student at the University of Kiel. When a friend of Achim Held met someone from Bielefeld at a student party in 1993, he said "Das gibt's doch gar nicht", a phrase comparable to "I don't believe it", signifying disbelief or surprise. However, its literal translation is "That doesn't exist."; thus he (accidentally) implied that he refuses to believe that someone came from Bielefeld. From there, it spread throughout the German-speaking Internet community, and has lost little of its popularity, even after 24 years.

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