“In poor health”: Erich von Däniken turns 90 – and suddenly has to step down
Picture:
Keystone
Erich von Däniken will be 90 years old on April 14. He made a name for himself worldwide as a controversial god and UFO researcher and his books have sold millions of copies. Now he has to take a step back.
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- Flying elephants and tentacled creatures: Erich von Däniken has been putting forward theories about extraterrestrial life for over 60 years – and his books have sold millions of copies.
- Last week of all weeks, at the presentation of his first authorized biography on the occasion of his 90th birthday, von Däniken was absent.
- It is said that the gods and UFO researcher is “in somewhat poor health”.
Busy, restless: Erich von Däniken was also constantly on the move in the last year of his life. He was away for over 200 days. He made countless appearances and undertook countless trips, traveling to Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, for example. It was perhaps a little too much.
Last week of all weeks, at the presentation of his first authorized biography on the occasion of his 90th birthday, von Däniken was absent.
His long-time assistant, manager and companion Ramon Zürcher told the Keystone-SDA news agency that his health was “somewhat ailing”.
Von Däniken is currently unavailable to the media
Erich von Däniken has recently been unavailable to the media. He has canceled his lecture tour planned for this year. The Erich von Däniken biography was therefore presented without its main protagonist.
The work by journalist Hans Peter Roth was published after von Däniken had previously written 49 books himself. According to Manager Zürcher, these have sold 75 million copies and been translated into over 30 languages.
Erich von Däniken is a global phenomenon with a difficult standing in his home country: since the 1960s, he has made a name for himself as a researcher of the gods who tries to explain myths and mysteries.
Mayas, Incas, extraterrestrials – von Däniken provides explanations for the inexplicable and for what science has no answer to.
From Jesuit student to entrepreneur
Ramon Zürcher describes von Däniken as charismatic, enthusiastic and inspiring. Curious since childhood and always on the lookout. “These qualities have carried him through his life. Erich is a driven man.”
And a generous host, they all came to visit him: astronauts, cosmonauts, scientists.
He cultivated a friendship with Professor Harry Ruppe, for example, a long-time colleague of Wernher von Braun. Von Braun was the famous rocket builder from Nazi Germany, who later moved to the USA and worked for NASA for a long time.
Erich von Däniken was born on April 14, 1935 in Zofingen in the canton of Aargau and grew up in a strict Catholic family in Schaffhausen. As a pupil at a Jesuit boarding school in Fribourg, he learned ancient languages. He questions much of what he reads in Latin and Greek lessons in translations from the Old Testament.
With “Memories of the Future” in 1968, von Däniken triggered a science fiction boom and conquered the bestseller lists. With his interpretations of ancient lore, the then hotelier celebrated worldwide success as an amateur researcher. The “New York Times” even wrote of an outbreak of “Dänikenitis”.
No luck at the Mystery Park in Interlaken
The first book was followed by numerous other books, documentaries and television series. The hobby researcher von Däniken became an entrepreneur and later set up a foundation.
With his mixture of pseudo-science and entertainment, von Däniken reaches an audience of millions. He is ridiculed and revered. In 1973, “ Der Spiegel” wrote of the “Däniken hoax”, of delusion and business, but also of a “world phenomenon”.
One way or another, von Däniken hits the nerve of the times, somewhere between conspiracy theory and recognized science.
In 1995, von Däniken and his wife moved to Beatenberg in the Bernese Oberland. He moves into an office in Unterseen near Interlaken BE, which becomes an archive with thousands of books, relics and documents. All evidence for his theories.
However, his theme park in Interlaken had to close in November 2006 after two and a half years due to financial problems. Von Däniken, who was otherwise so spoiled by success, was unsuccessful with the Mystery Park.
The UFO sighting has to wait a little longer
In 2009, von Däniken begins to work as a diligent Twitterer (now X). He entertains a large audience there too. Sometimes pointed, sometimes below the belt, often irrelevant, often about climate change. He denies the influence of humans on it.
Again, von Däniken claims that extraterrestrials visited the earth in the early days of mankind and advanced human civilization. However, he of all people has never seen a UFO himself.
He is eagerly awaiting this moment, he once said. He still does today.
