A running-gag among German Internet users, especially in the German Usenet, claims that there is a Bielefeld-Verschwörung (German for "Bielefeld conspiracy"). "THEY" try to influence people to believe there is a city called Bielefeld in Germany, and all authorities have conspired to create wrong hints of its existence. The reason for this conspiracy is unknown, the most common theory claims that Bielefeld hides an alien base.

The conspiracy theory was started in late 1993 by Achim Held, a student of computer science at the University of Kiel. When driving to Essen he saw a highway exit to Bielefeld was closed due to road construction, and the struck out city name was then interpreted as a sign that there is no such city. He expanded this into the full theory, and after he posted his text to the newsgroup de.talk.bizarre in May 16, 1994, it quickly grew into German Internet folklore.

The actual source of this conspiracy theory was the dispute between the Bielefeld based Z-Netz and the Usenet, which used incompatible ways to encode the newsgroup postings. Among the serious flame wars the Bielefeld conspiracy marked the funny side of the dispute.

Background of this "Theory"

• This theory is related and could also be understood as an allusion to the popularity of conspiracy theories in the US, the existence of which is carried to Germany by US tv series such as The X-Files (German: Akte X).

• People claiming to be from Bielefeld — Bielefeld is a medium-sized city. It is too small to be widely accepted as a metropolis, though the city council claims otherwise. But it is also large enough that you will very likely encounter somebody from Bielefeld within a reasonable timespan of living in Germany.

• Coming across Bielefeld — Likewise, while Bielefeld is not large, but it resides on the highly important passage between Ruhrgebiet and Berlin, with one of the highest volume autobahn in Germany (A2) and ICE high-speed railway (with a central station perpetually under construction) going through Bielefeld. Therefore, many more people frequently pass through the city than actually linger.

• Hearing about Bielefeld — The city council of Bielefeld tries hard to subsidize development of and publicity for Bielefeld. Despite all the efforts, the city has a solid reputation for obscurity seldom found in a city its size and has been the butt of jokes before (compare Hannover for an example of an even larger city with a similar fate). One may hear people commend Bielefeld for some solitary features, but the overall attractiveness of the city is generally considered quite limited. An example: One visitor once left a remark in the guest book of the Bielefeld art museum(roughly): "What a wonderful art museum, what a horrible city."

External link

• Google archived version of first newsgroup posting (German)