UFOs over Nuremberg, 1561

Ever wonder where the banner image on our website and social media pages comes from? It's a composite image based mostly from a 16th-century woodcut depicting a UFO sighting over Nuremberg, in modern-day Germany. As well as producing a captivating illustration, the sighting is a good example of an early-modern "wonder-sign," long before the term UFO ever entered the lexicon, and before anyone suspected extraterrestrial culprits.

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Full transcript & audio: https://ThinkAnomalous.com/nuremberg-ufos.html

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Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau.

Illustration by V.R. Laurence (https://vrlaurence.com)
Research by Clark Murphy.
Music by Josh Chamberland.
Animation by Brendan Barr.
Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland.

Main sources:

Billig, Otto. Flying Saucers – Magic in the Skies. Schenkman, 1982. http://worldcat.org/oclc/7671913, https://books.google.com/books?id=FT7bAAAAMAAJ.

Glaser, Hanns. “Himmelserscheinung über Nürnberg vom 14. April 1561”. April 14, 1561. Zurich Zentralbibliothek [ZB PAS II 12:60].
Record of preserved document in Network of Libraries and Information Centers in Switzerland:
https://opac.nebis.ch/F/?local_base=NEBIS&CON_LNG=ENG&func=find-b&find_code=SYS&request=005289279.
Copy of translated text: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over_Nuremberg, https://paranorms.com/nuremberg-ufo.
Copy of original and modernized text:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nürnberger_Flugblatt_von_1561.

Glaser, Hanns. “Glaser, Hans.” Zeno.org. http://zeno.org/Kunstwerke/A/Glaser,+Hans.

Johnson, Frank. “Nuremburg (sic) UFO ‘Battle’ Debunked.” AncientAliensDebunked.com. December 12, 2012.
https://web.archive.org/web/20121214172708/http://ancientaliensdebunked.com/nuremburg-ufo-battle-debunked.

Jung, Carl. Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies. USA: Princeton University Press, 1959 (1978). https://archive.org/details/flyingsaucersmod00jung.

Kurihara, Ken. Celestial Wonders in Reformation Germany. Pickering & Chatto, Routledge. 2014, 2016. http://worldcat.org/oclc/864090088, https://books.google.com/books?id=0npECgAAQBAJ, https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Celestial_Wonders_in_Reformation_Germany?id=0npECgAAQBAJ.

Magin, Ulrich. “A UFO in the Year 1561?” In Investigating the Impossible: Sea Serpents in the Air, Volcanoes that Aren't and Other Out of Place Mysteries, 7 - 13. Anomalist Books, 2011. https://amazon.com/INVESTIGATING-IMPOSSIBLE-Sea-Serpents-Out-Place/dp/1933665521.
German version: http://ufo-information.de/images/PDF/Artikel/nuernberg_1561.pdf

Vallée, Jacques and Chris Aubeck. Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Anomalies from Antiquity to Modern Times. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/ Penguin, 2009.
https://archive.org/details/JacquesValleeChrisAubeckWondersInTheSkyUnexplainedAerialObjectsFromAntiquityToModernTimes/mode/2up.

Von Kevicsky, Colman S. "The UFO Sighting Over Nuremberg in 1561." Official UFO. January 1976, Volume 1 Number 5. Translation by Ilse Von Jacobi. https://amazon.com/Official-UFO-January-1976-Number/dp/B004O9P04Y.

Video source:

“Watch the Pentagon's three declassified UFO videos taken by U.S. Navy pilots.” CNBC Television, April 28, 2020. YouTube video, 1:20. https://youtu.be/rO_M0hLlJ-Q.

This video uses sound effects downloaded from stockmusic.com.