NP: Bielefeld

[Roman Kudryashov]

Shamelessly lifted from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld_Conspiracy


The *Bielefeld Conspiracy* (in German, *Bielefeld-Verschwörung*) is a running
gag <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_gag> among
German<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany>
Internet <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet> users, especially in the
German Usenet <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet>. It is generally
considered a satirical <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire> story rather
than a hoax or an urban legend <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend>.

The story goes that the city of
Bielefeld<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld>(
population <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population> 330,000) in the German
state of North Rhine-Westphalia<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Rhine-Westphalia>does
not actually exist. Rather, its existence is merely propagated by an
entity <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity> known only as *SIE* or *IHNEN*(
*THEY* or *THEM*), which has conspired with
authorities<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authority>to create the
illusion of the
city <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City>'s existence.

The theory basically asks three questions: 1) Do you know anybody from
Bielefeld? 2) Have you ever been to Bielefeld? 3) Do you know anybody who
has ever been to Bielefeld? Most people are expected to answer 'no' to all
three questions, and if they don't, they, or the person they know, is said
to just be part of the conspiracy.
The origins of and reasons for this conspiracy are unknown. Speculated
originators include the CIA <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA>, the
Mossad<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossad>or
aliens <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life> who use
the Bielefeld
University <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld_University> as a disguise
for their Space ship <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_ship>.

History

The conspiracy theory <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory> was
first made public in a posting to the
newsgroup<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsgroup>
de.talk.bizarre on May 16 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_16>,
1994<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994>,
by *Achim Held*, a student <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student> of computer
science <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science> at the University of
Kiel <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiel>[3]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld_Conspiracy#_note-2>.
>From there, it spread throughout the German-speaking Internet community and
has lost little of its popularity
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity>after more than 10 years.

In a television <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television>
interview<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interview>conducted for the
10th
anniversary <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anniversary> of the newsgroup
posting, Held stated that this myth definitely originated from his usenet
posting which was only intended as a joke. According to Held, the idea for
the conspiracy theory formed in his mind at a student party while speaking
to an avid reader of New Age <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Age>
magazines <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magazine>.[4]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld_Conspiracy#_note-3>

There are a number of conflicting theories about the reasons behind the
joke's gain in popularity, the most popular being a flame
war<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame_war>between Usenet admins and
the Bielefeld based
Z-Netz <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-Netz>
BBS<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system>about text
encodings <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_encoding>.

[edit<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bielefeld_Conspiracy&action=edit&section=3>
] Psychological background

At least four reasons for the popularity and wide spread of this myth can be
identified:

   - This theory can be understood as an
allusion<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allusion>to the popularity of
conspiracy theories, a cultural phenomenon that became
   well-known in Germany with the broadcasts of the U.S. television
   series <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_series> *The
X-Files<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X-Files>
   * (German: *Akte X*) in 1994, right around the rise of this theory.
   - Bielefeld is located at the center of an otherwise rural region in
   the middle of Germany, it has few historical landmarks or buildings (due to
   heavy bombings in World War II<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II>,)
   and therefore few obvious tourist attractions and no widely known federal
   offices or institutions, which gives Bielefeld little to no public exposure.
   The local 'dialect' in and around Bielefled is Standard
German<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_German>
   ,[*citation needed<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources>
   *] which makes it impossible to recognize anyone from Bielefeld by
   their dialect (Something that Germans are used to doing since almost all
   areas of Germany have easily distinguishable dialects, which usually are
   even recognizable when someone attempts to speak High German.) Due to all
   this, most Germans rarely hear of Bielefeld in the news and can't remember
   having ever met anyone who speaks the 'Bielefeld dialect' (since there is
   none), and therefore have no clear
image<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_image>of the city in their
heads.
   - Bielefeld lies on the highly important route between the
Ruhrgebiet<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhrgebiet>and
   Berlin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin>, with one of the busiest
   *Autobahn <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn>* routes in Germany
   (the A2 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesautobahn_2>) and the
ICE<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterCityExpress> railway
   line <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_line>
Dortmund<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dortmund>
   –Hannover <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannover>(–Berlin<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin>).
   However, the Autobahn passes only through the outskirts of the city and
   Bielefeld's railway station, although located in the city centre, has been
   under constant renovation <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renovation>for years,
   [*citation needed<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources>
   *] giving it a suspiciously provisional feel, so a lot of people pass
   through Bielefeld without actually seeing any significant or 'solid' parts
   of the city.
   - Due to a mapping flaw, the Satellite
image<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_image>and the street map
of Bielefeld were misaligned in Google
   Maps <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Maps>' hybrid view, placing
   most of the street map of Bielefeld into a forest area nearby.[*citation
   needed <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources>*] This
   flaw was corrected in October 2006. It is unclear if this was an intentional
   easter egg <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_%28virtual%29> on
   Google's side or a genuine mistake.
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