Official Response
The city council of Bielefeld tries hard to generate publicity for Bielefeld and build a nationwide known public image of the city. Even after 17 years, however, the mayor's office receives phone calls and e-mails each day which doubt the existence of the city.
In 1999, five years after the myth started to spread, the city council released a press statement titled Bielefeld gibt es doch! (There really is a Bielefeld!). However, the statement's publication date – April 1, 1999 (April Fools' Day) – was ill-chosen as it gave conspirationalists yet another piece of material to put into their speculations..
Read more about this topic: Bielefeld Conspiracy
Famous quotes containing the words official and/or response:
“We were that generation called “silent,” but we were silent neither, as some thought, because we shared the period’s official optimism nor, as others thought, because we feared its official repression. We were silent because the exhilaration of social action seemed to many of us just one more way of escaping the personal, of masking for a while that dread of the meaningless which was man’s fate.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1935)
“[In response to this question from an interviewer: “U. S. News and World Report described you this way: ‘She’s intolerant, preachy, judgmental and overbearing. She’s bright, articulate, passionate and kind.’ Is that an accurate description?”:]
It’s ... pretty good [ellipsis in original].”
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)