Nazi UFOs

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Nazi UFOs
Larger version of Nazi UFO
Larger version of Nazi UFO Photo: Nesnad · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons
TypeTerm
Also known asNazi flying saucers, Haunebu

Nazi UFOs are claims, found in ufology, conspiracy theories and fiction, that Nazi Germany developed flying saucers during the Second World War and that the craft, or their builders, survived in secret bases in Antarctica, South America or the United States. None of the claimed Nazi saucer projects has ever been corroborated.[1]

Wartime and early Cold War suspicions

Edward Ruppelt: Edward J. Ruppelt (left) in 1953
Edward Ruppelt: Edward J. Ruppelt (left) in 1953 Photo: Unknown · PD · via Wikimedia Commons

During the war, Allied crews reported strange lights, the "foo fighters", which some officers suspected were German weapons. The 1946 "ghost rockets" over Sweden were thought by some to be Soviet tests of captured German missiles.[1] After the 1947 flying saucer wave, Project Sign personnel noted that the flying-wing designs of the German Horten brothers resembled some reports, and Edward Ruppelt later wrote that German radical aircraft were the only known craft that came close to the performance reported for UFOs.[1]

The saucer claims

Bernard Schriever: Gen. Bernard A. Schriever
Bernard Schriever: Gen. Bernard A. Schriever Photo: USAF · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

From 1950, articles and interviews claimed that German engineers had built flying discs. Rudolf Schriever told Der Spiegel he had designed a disc-shaped craft at a BMW plant in Prague, and others named Richard Miethe and Klaus Habermohl. None of these claims has been corroborated; there is no evidence Habermohl even existed.[1]

Esoteric and neo-Nazi versions

This illustrates purported top secret Nazi scientific technological device knows as "the Bell" (Die Glocke). For illustration variety of sources and…
This illustrates purported top secret Nazi scientific technological device knows as "the Bell" (Die Glocke). For illustration variety of sources and… Photo: Zusurs · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The 1960 book Le Matin des magiciens made sensational claims about an occult "Vril Society", which later writers linked to alien contact and saucers with names such as "Haunebu".[1] In the 1970s Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel published books claiming that flying saucers were Nazi weapons launched from a base in Antarctica.[1] Nazi Germany did claim territory in Antarctica, New Swabia, and sent an expedition there in 1938.[1] Since 2000 the stories have also absorbed "Die Glocke" (the Bell), a supposed Nazi anti-gravity device first described by Polish author Igor Witkowski.[1][2]

References

This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.

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