European Conspiracy Theories

 European Conspiracy Theories

With so many conspiracy theories based in America, we wanted to take a look at those that originate from Europe. Some of these European conspiracy theories have been developing for centuries, other only the past few decades. But they all share one common factor; none of them have been solved…

Hitler in SA

There has been much controversy about Hitler’s death over the years. The original radio report states that in 1945, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker located in Berlin by swallowing a cyanide capsule and later, shooting himself in the head with a pistol. His wife, Eva Braun, also committed suicide by biting into a cyanide capsule. They died just one day after their wedding. Both of their bodies were taken to be cremated/burned with petrol in Chancellery garden. 

A lot of people do not believe that Hitler committed suicide. There are rumours that Hitler was taken first to Spain and then to Argentina, along with several other Nazi leaders who fled and took refuge in South America. There have also been supposed later sightings of him in America, from the Bronx to New Orleans, Washington, DC etc. 

The most widely accepted conspiracy theory seems to be the story of Hitler escaping his bunker in Berlin and getting to Argentina. During this journey he flew to Denmark and later travelled across the Atlantic in a submarine, arriving in Argentina. He settled in the Andes, alongside his new wife and around 50 other Nazi officials. There have been reported sightings of Hitler in Argentina alongside other Germans riding horseback to his shelter which was set up by Argentina Officials. There has been evidence found in Buenos Aires in recent years, including various Nazi possessions, providing evidence that Nazi’s used their preplanned ‘ratlines’ to take base in Argentina and South America after WW2 but no solid evidence about Hilter in particular. 

There are many other supposed sightings of Hitler after his ‘suicide’ in 1945, sightings in Japan, Colombia, South America and in Europe, including coffeeshops in Amsterdam. 

Princess Diana

european conspiracy theories

August 31, 1997 was the day when the UK lost their beloved Princess of Wales, Lady Diana. She died after being injured in a serious car crash speeding through a Parisian tunnel, trying to escape the paparazzi. It was officially ruled as an accident due to grossly negligent driving by her private chauffeur Henri Paul, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

But not everyone believes it was an accident, and thus was born one of the most scandalous European conspiracy theories.

The Egyptian Affair

Lady Di was not the only one who lost her life in the tragic accident. Dodi Al-Fayed, an Egyptian socialite and the son of billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed was the innocent (or not so innocent) victim of many rumors. One of which was his romantic relationship with the English princess. In an interview Fayed’s former spokesman, Michael Cole, has claimed that the couple had become engaged before their deaths. Other sources claim that Diana was carrying his child.

Some believe that as those rumors were getting more attention from the media, Diana was becoming a stain on the royals’ family reputation rather than an asset. The “accident” was actually orchestrated and approved by the Queen herself. 

Spy secrets

Assertions that MI6 or some other secretive agency had plotted to kill Diana may sound like the stuff of crime novel, but there might be more to that than we see. Days after her death a local paper revealed that the NSA hold 182 documents – featuring 1,056 pages – concerning Diana and the royals. These contain sensitive information that may shake the structure of the monarchy. Many believe that Diana was a red spy leaking secrets both ways.

More royal than the royals

Viewed as a commoner’s daughter, Princess Diana was always adored by the masses, but despised by the Royal Family for the lack of royal blood running through her veins. Historian Richard Knox from the University of Cambridge, claims that is certainly not the case. According to his research in the early 90’s, Diana’s maternal bloodline can be traced all the way to Edward V, who at the age of 12 was exiled by his uncle, just before he was crowned King in the 1500’s . There is more evidence of offspring he had with one of his young maids before his demise, who would be the rightful monarch of the English throne. Maybe that can explain the unreasonable feud between Lady Di and the Queen…

Shakespeare

Born in the 1500s, he remains one of the most famous playwrights in the world. In fact, he has at least 39 plays to his name as well as other pieces of creative writing. However, for such a famous writer there are many gaps in his story. In fact, many people question Shakespeare – as the great playwright – ever existed at all. This is probably one of the most contentious European conspiracy theories on this list.

european conspiracy theories

Given that Shakespeare’s father was supposedly a butcher, and there’s no actual written evidence of him being educated, it remains a mystery how – especially during his time – his knowledge of Venetian and Greek life is so extensive he could write plays set there which pictures life there reasonably accurately. Furthermore, he seems to have a strong grasp of the working of law at the time.  

Literary group

Needing a vast range of knowledge to have written the works of Shakespeare, one of the most widely believed claims is that they were in fact written by a group of people, rather than just one person. In 1848 the American Joseph C Hart wrote a book putting forward the argument that the plays were written by several different authors. He believed that it wasn’t a group of people pretending to be Shakespeare, but rather a mistake. The theory goes that 100 years after his death the plays were discovered and mistakenly all identified as Shakespeare’s since he owned them prior to his death. In fact, he believes he only wrote the Merry wives of Windsor. In 1856 Delia Bacon, wrote an article to support this theory. She believed the authors were a group of people who were overseen by Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Walter Raleigh. This ties into our next theory…

Sir Francis Bacon

There is much to be said for this theory, but we will try to summarise it as best possible. Sir Francis Bacon was a philosopher who served as Lord Chancellor of England. He had close ties with the Queen and had a desire to bring England together by language, as there were 4 main dialects at the time. He believed the best way to do this was through the arts and literature. He has links to groups such as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians. Given his education and place in society many people believe it makes sense that he would be able to, and have reason to, create the works of Shakespeare. Ultimately, whether it was Bacon or not, Shakespeare’s work continues to achieve his original literary goal.

The Earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford is one of the most popular candidates to be the true author of Shakespeare’s work. Born in the same era as him as well as living in the same area, it makes sense why people have identified him in particular. Some believe his letters and work are very similar to Shakespearean style of writing. He also graduated from Cambridge at age 14 in Law and Italian, which could explain for the detailed stories set in Italy and the rest of Europe. Some even believe Hamlet is autobiographical… one of the most incriminating pieces of evidence though has to be that The Earl’s nickname in court was ‘Spear-shaker’. If that doesn’t raise your eyebrow, we don’t know what will.

Dyatlov Pass

This tragic incident happened in early 1959, when a trekking group of 10 left for a 300 km long expedition though the mountains of Ural in Russia. After a day of walking, one of the group members decided to retreat due to a knee injury. The remaining 9 members continued with their adventure. According to the plan, the group was supposed to reach their target by 12th of February, but they were expecting some delays. This explains why they were only reported as on 20th of February. On 26th of February a rescue group came across a broken tent, which was cut from the inside out. 5 bodies were found in different, but not long, distances between each other. All of the bodies were barely dressed at all, which is weird considering that the incident happened in the middle of February and the temperature drops down to -30℃. No injuries were found on these particular bodies that could lead them to dying so the final conclusion was that the climbers died due to hypothermia (when body temperature drops below 35℃). 

It took two months to find the remaining bodies. They were buried under 4 meters of snow in a ravine. The remaining victims were better dressed up, which led them to believe that they lived longer and relinquished clothes from their already dead peers. The bodies were more damaged. However, this was believed to be caused by natural causes, such as weather, animals and the heavy amount of snow on them.

The Original theory

This explanation to this one of our European conspiracy theories suggests the group woke up in such panic because of an avalanche. This would explain why they were poorly dressed, as they needed to leave as soon as possible. In the dark they split into 2-3 groups and tried to reach a safer spot, however some of them decided to go back to the tent to get their clothes. In the end, the temperature was too low and that caused the first group to die the first night, while the remaining hikers died some time later, all due to the same cause – hypothermia.

Military testing

The climbers fell within the path of Soviets parachute mine exercise. They woke up from the explosion and in panic ran away barely dressed up. Parachute mines detonate while still in the air rather than on the Earth and produced signature injuries similar to those experienced by the hikers: Heavy internal damage with comparably less external trauma.

Paradoxical undressing

Since the official cause of death was hypothermia, which is also known as paradoxical undressing, may have lead people to remove clothes from their bodies due to the burning warmth they were feeling. Because other bodies were found with more clothes, it is believed that they were more cautious about the situation that is why they have tried to layer some clothes on them. 

The Lost Cosmonauts

Many European conspiracy theories are based in the Soviet Era, due to the secretive activity of the USSR. The Lost astronauts was amongst the most popular during the Soviet era.

At the time, the United States and the USSR were competing to show the power of their respective countries, including Space discovery. The theory follows that before Gagarin’s famous first space flight, there had been several other attempts by the USSR to reach space but they ended in failure and the pilots’ death. One of them, however, supposedly survived and was captured by the Chinese government. 

This theory got the name of the Lost Cosmonauts. There are several explanations of this theory:

Czech Communists

The origin of this story more likely belongs to a high-ranked Czech communists, who in December 1959 shared information about several unofficial launches in the USSR. According to this version of the theory, in one of these launches was a man named Alexei Ledovsky, but more names were added to the story over time. Italian news agency Continentale was the main source responsible for spreading these rumours during this period.

Parachutes

At that time in Europe, parachutists were quite often mistaken with astronauts on space flight missions. One incident in particular reached notoriety, the one regarding Colonel Pyotr Dolgov, who allegedly died during a space flight, that during a later investigation it was confirmed that it was actually a high-altitude parachute jump (20.640m) that indeed resulted fatally.

That conclusion was made by a famous journalist Yaroslav Golovanov, who helped popularise science in Russia, in his book ‘Cosmonaut No. 1’. While he was writing his book he met another parachutist who used to work with Pyotr Dolgov and who confirmed the high-altitude test jump.

The Italian Brothers

Two Italian radio amateurs, the Judica-Cordiglia brothers, further sensationalised this theory. These brothers were reporting on interception of signals from Soviet spacecraft since the 1960s. These unrecognized geniuses of radio interception succeeded in what the American military could not achieve: the brothers even managed to hear the heartbeat of a Soviet cosmonaut, who, according to a cardiologist they consulted, was near death.

The Illuminati 

You have probably read about the so-called Illuminati and the dark conspiracy theories that circulate around the Internet about them, but today we will expand your understanding on them so that you can finally understand who they are and where they come from. Although popular in America, we included this in our list of European conspiracy theories because of its roots…

The Illuminati are believed to be a secret society that seeks to impose a new order on the world, changing the fate of people as if they were pawns on a chess board. This secret society was created in Bavaria, Germany during the 18th century (1776). It was founded by the Law professor Adam Weishaupt who intended to end obscurantism and curb the excessive power of the church in the political and social sphere.

The Illuminati order was made up of educated people who defended new ideals and were often related to all kinds of mysterious rituals. They say that among its members were celebrities such as the German thinker Johann Goethe.

european conspiracy theoriesAmong the symbolism associated with the Illuminati are pyramids, ambigrams, pentagrams and the Eye of Providence or the “all-seeing eye of God” that represents God’s omnipotence watching over humanity.

According to historical data, the order of the Illuminati of Bavaria was dissolved in 1785, but there are those who claim that it continued to exist secretly until today. Many of their members are people of great influence who live among us and control our destiny. So, during all these years, great politicians and public personalities have been related to them, including Pope Francis and Queen Elizabeth II of England.

What do you think about this conspiracy theory? Do you suspect someone of belonging to The Illuminati? Remember that if they do still exist, they control everything, they move the invisible threads that hold the world together and now you already know too much…

How many of these European conspiracy theories do you believe to be true? We want to hear about more European conspiracy theories if you have them, so let us know in the comments!

Katie

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