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German city offers $1.1 million reward to prove it doesn't exist

By Ben Hooper
The German city of Bielefeld is offering a $1.1 million prize to anyone who can prove an online conspiracy theory that the city doesn't exist. Photo by MarciMarc105/Pixabay.com
The German city of Bielefeld is offering a $1.1 million prize to anyone who can prove an online conspiracy theory that the city doesn't exist. Photo by MarciMarc105/Pixabay.com

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Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A German city that's the subject of a long-running joke alleging that it doesn't exist is offering a $1.1 million reward to anyone who can prove the conspiracy theory is true.

The mayor of Bielefeld said the 800-year-old city will award the cash to anyone who can present convincing evidence that the city doesn't exist.

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Jokes about Bielefeld being fictional become prominent on the Internet after computer science student Achim Held posted the claim online in 1994 as a means of satirizing far-fetched conspiracy theories.

"We are excited about the creative submissions and are 99.99 percent sure that we will be able to refute any claims," Martin Knabenreich, head of marketing for the city, told Deutsche Welle.

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