Bielefeld conspiracy, Internet meme in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
The Bielefeld conspiracy is a satirical joke from Germany claiming the city does not exist. The theory rests on three rhetorical questions: whether you have ever been there, know anyone from there, or have actually seen proof of its existence.
Achim Held, a computer science student, created this satirical joke in 1994 through a Usenet post. The idea spread rapidly across German internet forums and became one of the most well-known German internet phenomena.
The theory suggests an entity called SIE collaborates with authorities to maintain an illusion of the city's existence through fabricated evidence.
Visitors can travel to the city in North Rhine-Westphalia to see with their own eyes whether it truly exists. The city center with university and castle stands about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Münster.
The city council launched a contest in 2019 and promised one million euros for irrefutable proof of the city's nonexistence. No one could provide the required evidence, and the city officially declared itself existent.
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