| Die Glocke (The Bell) | |
|---|---|
.png) Artist's impression ofDie Glocke | |
| Type | Alleged wonder weapon / experimental device |
| Place of origin | Nazi Germany |
| Service history | |
| In service | Alleged secretNazi scientific project, 1940s |
| Used by | Nazi Germany (alleged) |
| Wars | World War II (alleged) |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Unknown (claims attributed to Nazi scientists) |
| Designed | 1940s (alleged) |
| Specifications (Dimensions) | |
| Length | Approximately 12 ft (3.7 m) |
| Diameter | Approximately 9 ft (2.7 m) |
| Warhead | Alleged "Xerum 525" (radioactive purplish liquid) |
Main armament | Alleged plasma or antigravity device |
Die Glocke (German:[diːˈɡlɔkə], 'The Bell') was a purported top-secret scientific technological device, wonder weapon, orWunderwaffe developed in the 1940s inNazi Germany. Rumors of this device have persisted for decades after WW2 and were used as a plot trope in the fiction novelLightning byDean Koontz (1988). First fully described by Polish journalist and author Igor Witkowski inPrawda o Wunderwaffe (2000), it was later popularized by military journalist and authorNick Cook, who associated it withNazi occultism,antigravity, andfree energy suppression research. Mainstream reviewers have criticized claims aboutDie Glocke as beingpseudoscientific, recycled rumors, and ahoax.Die Glocke and other alleged Nazi "miracle weapons" have been dramatised in films, TV shows, video games, and novels.
In his 2001 bookThe Hunt for Zero Point, author Nick Cook identified claims aboutDie Glocke as having originated in the 2000 Polish bookPrawda o Wunderwaffe ("The Truth About The Wonder Weapon") by Igor Witkowski. Cook described Witkowski's claims of a device called "The Bell" engineered by Nazi scientists that was "a glowing, rotating contraption" rumored to have "some kind of antigravitational effect", be a "time machine", or part of an "SS antigravity programme" for a flying saucer.[1]
According to Cook,Die Glocke was bell-shaped, about 4 metres (12 ft) high and 3 metres (9 ft) in diameter, and incorporated "two high-speed, counter-rotating cylinders filled with a purplish, liquid metallic-looking substance that was supposed to be highly radioactive, code-named 'Xerum 525.'" Cook recounts claims that "scientists and technicians who worked on the bell and who did not die of its effects were wiped out by the SS at the close of the war, and the device was moved to an unknown location".[2] Cook proposed that SS officialHans Kammler later secretly traded this technology to the U.S. military in exchange for his freedom.[1] Witkowski suggested that a concrete ring called "The Henge" near the Wenceslaus mine built in 1943 or 1944 and vaguely resemblingStonehenge was used to tether the Bell during tests. According to writerJason Colavito, the structure is merely the remains of an ordinary industrial cooling tower.[3]
Witkowski's book was translated to English in 2003.[4] He claimed to have discovered evidence ofDie Glocke in a review of WWII-era documents that were declassified by the Polish government, which led him to additional research via archives and interviews. The first document, allegedly supplied to Witkowski by an unnamedPolish government official, was an affidavit from thewar crimes trial for GeneralJakob Sporrenberg, who supposedly confessed to ordering the murder of about 60 persons who had knowledge of the secretive project.Kurt Debus,Wernher von Braun andWalther Gerlach were also allegedly implicated inDie Glocke research. Witkowski claimsDie Glocke was organized under a division of theWaffen-SS, and operated mainly at facilities inLower Silesia.Die Glocke was conceived in early 1942, and active experimentation began in mid-1944.
Prisoners from theGross-Rosen concentration camp were supposedly exposed to radiation fromDie Glocke, resulting in many deaths and health problems. Survivors of the camp are alleged to have reported witnessing tests ofDie Glocke, reporting a bright bluish light from the object.
Witkowski postulated Xerum 525 was likely an irradiated form ofmercury used in the creation of a form ofplasma that was intended as a weapon and/or propulsion system, and which may have been capable of distortingspacetime.
Cook's publication introduced the topic in English without critically discussing the subject.[5] More recently, historianEric Kurlander has discussed the topic in his 2017 book on Nazi esotericismHitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich. According to reviewer Julian Strube, Kurlander "cites from the reservoir of post-war conspiracy theories" and "heavily relies on sensationalist accounts...mixing up contemporary sources with post-war sensationalist literature, half-truths, and fictitious accounts".[6]
According toSalon reviewer Kurt Kleiner, Cook's decade as an editor atJane's Defence Weekly "is enough to make you take a second look" atDie Glocke theories. Kleiner further notes thatanti-gravityper se "can't be completely dismissed" given that it's been the subject of serious research over the years, and also agrees that researchers in Nazi Germany were working on highly advanced technology during the 1940s. Nonetheless, Kleiner concludes: "It's a story that strains credulity. But unless we're after cheap laughs, our hope when we pick up a book like this is that the author will, against the odds, build a careful, reasonable and convincing case. Cook isn't that author". Kleiner criticised Cook's work as "ferreting out minor inconsistencies and odd, ambiguous details which he tries to puff up into proof", characterised the process of evaluating Cook's claims as "untangling science from pseudo-science", and concluded that "what is instructive about the book is the insight we get into howconspiracy theories seduce otherwise reasonable people".[1]
Skeptical authorRobert Sheaffer criticised Cook's book as "a classic example of how to spin an exciting yarn based on almost nothing. He visits places where it is rumoured that secret UFO and antigravity research is going on...and writes about what he feels and imagines, although he discovers nothing more tangible than unsubstantiated rumors". Sheaffer notes that claims aboutDie Glocke are circulated byUFOlogists and conspiracy-oriented authors such asJim Marrs, Joseph P. Farrell, and antigravity proponent John Dering.[2]
Jason Colavito wrote that Witkowski's claims were "recycled reflection" of 1960s rumors of Nazi occult science, like those published inMorning of the Magicians, and describesDie Glocke as "a device few outside of fringe culture think actually existed. In short, it looks to be a hoax, or at least a wild exaggeration".[3] AuthorBrian Dunning states thatMorning of the Magicians helped promote belief inDie Glocke and Nazi occultism, and its absence in the historical record make it "increasingly unlikely that anything like it actually existed". According to Dunning, "all we have in the way of evidence is a third-hand anecdotal account of something that's desperately implausible, backed up by neither evidence nor even a corroborating account".[7]
Author and historianRobert F. Dorr characterisesDie Glocke as among "the most imaginative of the conspiracy theories" that arose in post-World War II years, and typical of the fantasies of magical German weapons often popularized in pulp magazines such as theNational Police Gazette.[8]
Some theories circulating on Internet conspiracy sites claim thatDie Glocke is located in aNazi gold train that is buried in a tunnel beneath a mountain in Poland.[9] Duncan Roads, editor ofNexus, has pointed out that the "Nazis on the Moon trope" is linked to wild speculations about Nazi anti-gravitational technology, such as Witkowski'sDie Glocke.[10]
Journalist Patrick J. Kiger wrote that German propaganda of fictionalWunderwaffen combined with the secrecy surrounding actual advanced technology such as theV-2 rocket captured at war's end by the U.S. military helped spawn "sensational book-length exposes, web sites, and legions of enthusiasts who revel in rumors of science fiction-like weapons supposedly invented by Hitler’s scientists". According to Kiger,Die Glocke is a popular example of such legends and speculation, citing formeraerospace scientist David Myhra's contention that if antigravity devices actually existed, the Germans, desperate to stop the Allies' advance, would have used them.[11]
One of these 'methodologically sound' books is Nick Cook's (in)famousThe Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology (2002), where a new amazing secret Nazi super weapon, the "Nazi Bell"/"die Glocke", was introduced to the English-speaking audience. There is no critical reflection whatsoever regarding the poor credibility regarding "die Glocke", which is not surprising, as the general impression ofHitler's Monsters is that it aims at providing support for spectacular ideas rather than critically examining them.
These problems resurface in the chapters of Part Three, for instance when Kurlander cites from the reservoir of post-war conspiracy theories: his jaw dropping discussion of a topic like the alleged super weapon, die Glocke, only serves, again, to suggest that the large amount of such tales hints at some obscure kernel of truth.
On the corners of the Internet inclined toward conspiracy, theories circulate that "Die Glocke" – a purported Nazi superweapon that has so far only been found in the pages of science fiction novels – might be hidden somewhere beneath those ancient mountains.
