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‘Bielefeld exists!’: How a German city debunked an old conspiracy

A €1 million reward for anyone who can prove Bielefeld's nonexistence remains untouched, the western German city has announced.

Published: 18 September 2019 12:37 CEST
'Bielefeld exists!': How a German city debunked an old conspiracy
The mythological Bielefeld has now officially been proven to exist. Photo: DPA

In August, the western Germany city of Bielefeld sought to dispel a longstanding conspiracy theory that it doesn’t actually exist.

Its marketing department came up with a simple solution: a €1 million reward to anyone who could prove that there is, indeed, no Bielefeld.

The marketing campaign #BielefeldMillion”, launched on August 21st, received thousands of entries from all over the world, including over 300 from abroad from countries including the US and Russia, reported the Tagesschau. 

But now the city of 340,000 inhabitants in North Rhine-Westphalia considers its existence to be proven and has declared the so-called Bielefeld conspiracy to be over. 

“The result of the competition is: Bielefeld exists,” said Mayor Pit Clausen at a ceremony on Monday.

In addition to a large number of poems, children's pictures, comics and videos, participants also presented supposedly scientific evidence – with arguments from mathematics, physics, logic and history, according to Bielefeld Martketing.

Bielefeld's marketing department tweeted one of the entries they received from abroad, which was disqualified because it was sent to and received in Bielefeld itself.

“These papers were often not comprehensible to laymen,” explained Jens Franzke, head of communications at Bielefeld Marketing.

“So we had fun cracking this supposed evidence together with scientists from the University of Bielefeld and the Bielefeld City Archives.”

Germany's Federal Office for Geography and Surveying (BKG)  even published a map of Germany – with Bielefeld omitted. In response, Bielefeld Marketing quipped: “First day of school: BKG unfortunately has to serve detention.”

Local companies also chimed in with rewards. A pudding manufacturer and a local condom company each offered a million of their products to anyone who could prove their city’s nonexistence, they announced on Twitter. 

Second division soccer team Arminia Bielefeld also offered a place in its squad.

Beginnings of a conspiracy

The competition marked the 25th anniversary of the so-called Bielefeld Conspiracy. In 1994, university student Achim Held wanted to demonstrate how quickly conspiracy theories can form and spread. 

In a series of postings on Usenet, he noted that you never seem to meet anyone from Bielefeld, nor do you ever hear of any major industry or German innovation originating in the town.

READ ALSO: Why is Bielefeld offering €1 million to anyone who can prove its nonexistence?

However, satire developed into a permanent gag: “Bielefeld? That doesn't even exist” became a catchphrase.

 “Our answer to the Bielefeld conspiracy has not only made positive headlines in the whole of Germany, but around the world, and has aroused many sympathies for our city,” Clausen stated.

“After 25 years of Bielefeld conspiracy, we have given Bielefeld its own spectacular final chapter to this strange story,” Clausen added. “Therefore we can now give ourselves the right to say: We say goodbye to the fairy tale that we do not exist at all”.

Held himself said he was also impressed by the city's marketing campaign.

“When I published the satire of the Bielefeld conspiracy on the Internet in 1994, I wanted to make fun of conspiracy theories in general,” explained Held, who said he was not interested in Bielefeld in particular when he made the post. 

Truth set in stone

When the joke became increasingly known over the years, the people of Bielefeld certainly weren't always happy.

“But with this funny action, the city gave the perfect answer to the saying that Bielefeld didn't exist,” Held stated. “Who could say that now?”

In the old town of Bielefeld, there is now even a memorial stone to commemorate the campaign for the Bielefeld conspiracy. The 600 kilogram boulder includes a QR code which, when scanned, takes visitors to the city's official website.

The unveiling of the stone on Monday.

The stone is intended to bring together the history of the 800-year-old city and the with that of one of Germany's first internet phenomena.

Vocabulary

“Bielefeld? That doesn’t even exist ” – “Bielefeld? Das gibt es doch gar nicht” 

Conspiracy – (die) Verschwörung

hoax/joke – (der) Scherz

Evidence – (die) Beweise

comprehendible/understandable – nachvollziehbar

We're aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Published: 23 August 2023 11:36 CEST
Updated: 26 August 2023 18:32 CEST
Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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