[mc32]

This is too funny.

Someone mocked conspiracy theories by spinning an undoubtedly and obviously fake theory which was in turn promptly absorbed by actual conspiracy theorists and also became a bit of pop culture absurdity and now the city is taking this supposed non existence as an opportunity to promote itself back into the real world of money, tourism and goodwill. Nice turnaround.

[bhaak]

"promptly" :-)

It started in 1994 on the German Usenet.

Edit: this is the original posting http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=2r570dINNahh%40snofru.i...

You'll notice the usenet group is de.talk.bizarre so it is completely understandable that people think this is just a hoax.

[em-bee]

it's not clear that the joke started on usenet or offline and was just reported there.

reality is that at one point all highway exits to bielefeld were closed (that's what i was told), and that triggered the joke. that this joke is still alive is astonishing.

source: i have been to a conference in a city that claimed to be bielefeld. now i am not so sure anymore...