Many people in Germany know about the ‘Bielefeld Conspiracy’ and many know about our #Bielefeldmillion competition now as well. You might have already heard about it. If not, we can explain briefly to you what it’s all about.
25 years ago, a guest arrived at a party in Kiel. This guest came from Bielefeld. “Bielefeld?” asked the others, because none of them had ever visited the city and so they didn’t know it. And so it was that some bright spark came out with the words “Bielefeld? There’s no such thing!”. At that point it was not really anything spectacular. But one guest made a particular joke of it: Achim Held.
The computer scientist used the occasion to make fun of the conspiracy theory. For fun, he published a post on Usenet about how Bielefeld supposedly didn’t exist.
The rumour – that Bielefeld doesn’t exist – still persisted for 25 years. So we asked the world to prove, that Bielefeld really doesn`t exist. The ultimate evidence for Bielefelds supposed non-existence was worth 1 Million Euro.
How humorous and intresting the submissions were, nobody was able to prove that Bielefeld doesn`t exist. But thanks to all participants around the world. It was a lot of fun.