The Bielefeld Conspiracy 

I "went to university" in Bielefeld. It was so nice to just laze about for years while being assured a diploma by the state because it's important to keeping up the illusion that people graduate from the university there.

'They' are so dedicated to keeping the non-existence of Bielefeld a secret, that they actually built a city called Bielefeld that is exactly where Bielefeld should be...

Tom Scott tagged this as "Things You Might Not Know", *NOT* "Amazing *Places* " . Need I say more?

I almost got a job working for the Bielefeld conspiracy - all I had to do was post online and pretend I was from Bielefeld, but then I found out that the Australia conspiracy pays better for the same work.

How germans see the title: The Conspiracy

Johnny Cash wrote a song called "I've been everywhere" - Note that Bielefeld is *not* metioned in the song lyrics. Further Evidence?

There has literally been a contest: The mayor of Bielefeld offered the person who could proof that Bielefeld doesn't exist 1 million euros.

me living in Bielefeld: "Is this the real life? is this just fantasy?"

Even Angela Merkel once said in a speech in an aside about Bielefeld: "..., if it exists,..."

A friend of mine moved to Bielefeld I‘ve never seen him again

Whether Bielefeld exists or not, your video really does capture the vibe and the spirit of the city.

I was part of this conspiracy for years. The company I worked for had a "sister location in Bielefeld" and they would send and receive stuff from there all the time. I was doing incoming deliveries at the time and would stamp off dozens of boxes as "having arrived from Bielefeld" even though they had just put them in the trunk the week prior and just droven them around

Nice set, Tom. But those streets look awfully deserted. Looks like your budget wasn't enough to hire enough extras.

I drove the A2 autobahn a few months ago and the exit to Bielefeld was closed due to "roadworks". Nice try, but they won't get away with it!

New theory: Tom himself is just an AI generated face and voice

Wish I could give this more than one like. In 3 minutes Tom covers a very important subject for all of us, which is becoming ever more important in these days of "It must be true cos I read it on the Internet" and "no-platforming" speakers because you don't like their views.

Fake! He pronounced Bielefeld almost perfectly. So that means he had extensive training by "them"

I am from Bielefeld, and I can confirm that I don't exist

I know two people who were "born in Bielefeld." They don't like to talk about their childhood and they both have those square barcode tattoos on their wrist. The city might not have existed, but the workers at Bielefeld testing labs needed somewhere to live.

Wow, I’m amazed that Tom found someone that would make such good background art? In which studio did you film this?

Bielefeld has never existed. It was a town called Biele which cartographers heard about and tried to find. But they had been fooled by the people of Hannover when they had a hangover in Hannover. So when they couldn't find it they wrote "Biele fehlt" (Biele is missing) onto the map presented to the German Emperor. "Biele fehlt", became Bielefehlt, Bielefelt and Bielefeld over time. And what once was a statement became a city on the maps, where there is actually no city. I totally didn't make this up. Trust me just because i'm German.

2:04 Judging from the way that flag is moving, I think this was filmed on the moon.

The effort this guy takes to avoid green screen backgrounds and stock photos is commendable.

It's frightening how realistic the CGI in this video looks

Note how there is no sign that says Bielefeld in the footage. Nice try bruh

its too bad tom went to bielefeld, now this weird android indistinguishable from him will be running his channel and telling us bielefeld is real

Fun fact (as far as I know): The origin of this joke was a private party of some students and while some of them were talking a little, one of them mentioned Bielefeld and some other guy who happened to walk past them at this moment briefly said "Bielefeld doesn't exist". The guys picked that up, thought it was funny and decided to make a conspiracy theory out of it and put it up on the internet, which went viral as Tom mentioned and the rest is history.

"This video is not available in your country" is the only thing I can see from germany.

I noticed he didn't go so far as to ask anybody there, what place it was, nor show any buildings that had a name, like the Bielefeld library or something.

I went to Bielefeld for a wedding once. Although come to think of it we actually flew to Bremen and then took a train to Bielefeld so who’s to say where we actually ended up. Deutsche bahn is state owned after all.

The real origin of this is: The FALK Maps had a fold point excactly where Bielefeld is and therefore it very often "disappared" as the paper eroded. FALK was the dominant maps producer for road-atlases in germany and everyone had them in their car. They were really hard to fold back into the original state and often got ripped or the paper was torn very thin and the ink disappeared. And I made this up.

Yes, my grandparents are from there, they had a restaurant right in the city and once a year there was something like a market where all the restaurants have a little stand where they could sell food. I used to play on these concrete things that you see in the Background on the video. Nostalgic memories

1:25 a biergarten infront of a church. Come on, you'll have to try harder than rhat. That could literally be shot in ANY german city. Nice try

As soon as I landed in "Germany", the train inside the airport took me to Bielefeld and then a ""pandemic"" happened and they didn't let me leave, The Truman show style. Say what you want, but the truth is out there: there is no Germany, only Bielefeld.

You actually pronounced Bielefeld quite good :) A Fellow bielefelder.

It is astonishing how much effort the Lizard People put into keeping up the Bielefeld-Conspiracy. They even hired an unkonwn actor to pose as a science- and technology-youtuber, produced hundreds of high quality, insightful and well-researched youtube videos that are simultaniously entertaining and mind-broadening in order to give him credibility and make him trustworthy so that after more than ten years they can stage a video to "prove" the existence of Bielefeld. Well played, Lizard People, well played.

Perfectly pronounced name of a hypothetical town :)

As someone who "went to school in Bielefeld" I can confirm that my education was false and I vanished into the void on a daily basis

even after all this time I did not figure out where this video was made

I live next to Bielefeld. My mom was born and grew up there. I am there every couple of months. A really nice city

I lived all my life in Germany. I've been to where Bielefeld SHOULD be. Just green fields, a forrest and some farmers were there. It's crazy to me that some poeple still say it's just a conspiracy.

Now we know how he can afford all those travels! He gets payed by them to spread false information.

Oh my god. This video exists? I love it. Just saw the title and thought: Tom Scott knows about Bielefeld? I have to see this 😂

this is my favourite type of tom scott video: no spectacle, just an intriguing little thought that asks big questions

1:30 Look at the license plate of the car: HD R 9736 HD is the regional code of Heidelberg, a city in Baden WütteNberg, which is where this was filmed. Nice try Tom

I feel like this is how flat Earthers got started.

It's so weird to know exactly where every single shot in a Tom Scott video was taken. Well, where the respective sets are, obviously.

You're missing the best part of this conspiracy: The university of Bielefeld is actually a spaceship, guarding the gateway to Atlantis. The more you know!

So, how long did it take to create a fake CGI Bielefeld?

Your pronounciation of Bielefeld is good. Also, awesome editing skills and where did you get this footage?

You are actually quite good at lieng, I actually believed for 20 seconds straight that Bielefeld exists. Amazing Work!

Proof that Bielefeld is in fact just a Conspiracy: It´s a GERMAN JOKE?!

Okay Mr. Scott, explain to me why your video of this "town" never shows more than a handful of people moving about at any given time. This is obviously nothing more than a few paid actors moving against a backdrop. Don't you think tricks like this are beneath you?

I still do not belive, that Tom Scott made a trip to my home town to film my old living room window.

The true Bielefeld are the Friends we made along the way.

Look I'm not saying Tom is Dwayne the Rock Johnson but I've just gotta say that I've never seen the two in the same room. Makes you think

A friend of mine is from Bielefeld, but it doesn't exist, so they moved.

We have something similar in Italy but for an entire region: "Molise".

I was born and grew up in Germany I swear to god I thought it.was a magical city for most of my life Its like proverb to say when something is really far away or could be anywhere you say "Aus Bielefeld" I still know people who think its not real

Angela Merkel even made a joke about Bielefeld existing in a speech recently, it got quite a few chuckles from the audience.

Absolutely stunning CGI background there.

So satisfying to see you filming in my country…

i cant believe tom built an entire city-scale film set just for this video

This is why Arminia Bielefeld never stay in the Bundesliga for very long. Too much international exposure

"This is Bielefeld..." I stopped watching this when it started with a lie. Tom Scott is a russian troll!!!

I love your videos. They give some really great input to think different, about a wide range of things. It's just great to have something different between all of this consumeable "dont-need-to-think" content here on yt. Keep it up! :D

1:21 2015: Tom creates video. 2020: Algorithm suggests we should watch. Well played RU-vid.

You've said "Joke" at least six time during this video, sounds like you REALLY want us to believe it's a joke, eh?

Guess what. I was born in Czechoslovakia. I spent the first 29 years of my life in Czechoslovakia, even served in Czechoslovak Army. After I fled to the West, I visited Czechoslovakia one more time. Yet, Czechoslovakia doesn't exist! So, just because you were in Bielefeld does not prove it exists. ;)

I have lived in Germany for 15 years and I visited a lot of German cities, however: 1 - I've never been to Bielefeld. 2 - I've never seen a highway sign indicating Bielefeld 3 - I've never met one single person from Bielefeld Seriously.

note how the licence plates of the cars at 1:31 are from: the netherlands (yellow) and heidelberg (souther germany, white), and the biergarten sign at 1:29 is clearly bavarian.. the whole video seems to be using footage from all over the place - i could find two places where there is resemblance of the world "bielefeld" but in both cases it looks a bit weird.. might be artifacts from the editing..

In Brazil we have the same joke, but it's about the state of Acre, it's said that it either doesn't exist or that it's a magical realm were ETs and Dinosours rule

I live in germany and in my entire life I've never seen a sign on the Highway with Bielefeld on it. Don't even know where Bielefeld is supposed to be and I also don't know anyone from Bielefeld. Bielefeld is just a lie.

Isn't it amazing how much Hamburg and Cologne look like what we think Bielefeld is? Nice work, Tom.

"Gibt es noch Deutschland?" "Ja." "Danke."

It's the same in Italy but with an entire southern region: Molise. "Il Molise non esiste (Molise doesn't exist)" and "Molisn't" are populare memes/jokes among many Italians.

I used to joke about Canada not being real when I was in elementary school using the exact same reasoning.

Tom is now one of THEM. That footage could have been taken in any German town.

how does Tom Scott always find these gems of fun facts??

He claims to be in Bielefeld but that is 100% Osnabrück. I know because I live here. Bielefeld doesn't exist. How much did they pay you to do this Video? Just another money-hungry RU-vidr...

As a german I can tell you you pronounced "Bielefeld" perfectly. Goodbye or Schauspielerbetreuungsflugbuchungsstatisterieleitungsgastspielorganisationsspezialist as we say in Germany.

bump for the algorithm. this video has become eerily relevant during the pandemic

seeing this video now gives me memories Not of the city that doesnt exist, but because of the shops that used to exist Shops like SinnLeffers (Today just Sinn) close down everywhere. Generally all the shopping streets in germany are slowly dying, starting with the smaller ones Seeing such a complete one still was a pleasure

*August 2019:* Bielefeld authorities just announced a €1 million prize for whoever proves its non-existence! Ahahah

I see you didn't have enough money for background actors.. Nice film set tho

I love that this video was posted over 5 years ago and yet there are plenty of newer comments, almost feels like the algorithm is recommending this video to people after so long, maybe they are in on the conspiracy as well!

Welp. I’ve never been creeped out by Tom Scott before, but that ending takes it

germans: "bielefeld doesn´t exist" chinese guys copying entire cities: "it´s free real estate"

The real conspiracy: do Germans really make jokes?

I'm sure someone's mentioned this but in the US we've got similar jokes. Though which state 'doesn't exist' varies depending on which state you're in. In California its usually either Idaho or Wyoming, in Washington its usually Iowa, in Oregon its Utah... wherever you go in the US, one other state just... doesn't exist. Though I've never seen it applied to Alaska or Hawaii, so...

I am from the Bielefeld city, didn't know you ever visited the city, I was just nearby when you were recording this

How do we know Germany even exists? It could just be a group of Austrians trolling everyone.

"Have you ever been to Wyoming, or ever met someone from Wyoming? Didn't think so, that's why Wyoming doesn't exist" -Garfield

The Bielefeld Conspiracy was created by Bielefeldians to create a tourist crowd. Brilliant. A friend of mine wanted to sell his business without risking losing clients and lowering the businesses value. So he started a rumor his business was for sale. Worked as planned.

I just want to say, the cgi in this video is amazing.

We have the same joke with an entire region in Italy. The region is Molise, we love to call this theory "Molisn't"

There's also the saying: "Am Arsch der Welt in Bielefeld" which means something like "Bielefeld is so far away, it's on the butt of the world"

Bielefeld is up there with Finland, Australia, The Midlands, Drenthe, Wyoming and Molise in places that don't exist but governments claim they do for some reason

Oh fun, there's a similar joke in Italy about a whole region, Molise. It has been super fun when in a form in a big website its regional capital wasn't selectable

He should have ended it on... "After all, I'm not even in Bielefeld"