The Bielefeld Million – the end of a conspiracy

In 1994, Achim Held from Kiel unexpectedly became the protagonist of the so-called “Bielefeld conspiracy” when he attempted to caricature the absurdity of conspiracy theories in an online publication. The joke very quickly developed into the well-known phrase “Bielefeld? Das gibt es doch gar nicht”, or “Bielefeld? That doesn’t exist”, which persists in the public eye even after a quarter of a century. Much to the annoyance of many Bielefeld residents.

in 2019, Bielefeld Marketing entrusted us with the task of developing an attention-grabbing social media campaign. The 25th “anniversary” of this conspiracy theory came at just the right time. The idea of the “Bielefeld million” was born: anyone who can prove the non-existence of Bielefeld shall receive 1 million euros.

However, nobody had expected what happened next: the campaign attracted immediate attention and went “viral”. Shortly after publication, the hashtag #Bielefeldmillion shot to the top of the Germany trends on Twitter (now known as X) and international media such as the The New York Times, BBC and The Guardian picked up the story. Thousands of supposed pieces of evidence from all over the world reached Bielefeld in order to win the millions. Without success.

This allowed Achim Held, Pit Claussen as Lord Mayor of Bielefeld and Martin Knabenreich from Bielefeld Marketing to symbolically “bury” the conspiracy theory and erect a  permanent monument to it in Bielefeld’s old town centre. In 2024, it was then legally established that Bielefeld existed after a maths professor from Bielefeld tried in vain to sue for the prize.

But it was not only the participants and the media who were enthusiastic about the campaign: Bielefeld Marketing and MEDIUM were awarded the bronze Effie award.