Werner Walter (ufologist)

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Werner Walter (born August 11, 1957 in Mannheim ; † November 7, 2016 there ) was a German ufologist . In 1976 he founded the Central Research Network for Extraordinary Celestial Phenomena (CENAP) together with Hansjürgen Köhler . He was also a founding member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Parasciences .

Life

Werner Walter was a trained retail salesman and lived in Mannheim , where he ran a UFO hotline and made information about the UFO phenomenon available to interested private individuals and the media. Thanks to his knowledge of astronomy and his preoccupation with the UFO subject, he was able to explain a number of UFO sightings as misinterpreted sightings of miniature hot air balloons, celestial bodies , airplanes or similar natural things. In the years of his activity, he says he has cleared up more than 1000 reports of UFO sightings.

In his youth, Werner Walter had an inexplicable sighting of a light phenomenon for many years, which first made him a supporter of the theory that UFOs were extraterrestrial spaceships. The longer he dealt with the subject, the more critical he saw not only this theory, but also its representatives he was increasingly skeptical. Werner Walter has gained a reputation as a critic of the ufological scene through his work and publications and was considered a skeptic.

Werner Walter was editor of the online CENAP report , which appeared regularly on the Internet until 2007 , in which he reported on current and historical UFO sightings. After 40 years of work in the field of UFO research, Walter withdrew from the UFO topic in 2014, as the topic increasingly bored and annoyed him according to his own statements. After a stroke, Werner Walter lived in the CentroVerde nursing home from July 2, 2014 until his death.

Media reception

For a long time, Walter's reports were regularly received in the media, be it in connection with the mysterious glow when flying over the ISS or meteorites, based on his annual statistics or on his hotline. According to Edgar Wunder , Walter's vehement public criticism "advanced to become a symbol of the" UFO opponent "among ufologists".

criticism

UFO researchers like Illobrand von Ludwiger from MUFON-CES accused Werner Walter of a lack of objectivity, criticized the polemics in his texts and questioned his professional competence. On closer inspection, the “network” turns out to be a one-man operation. His handling of witnesses was also criticized, who repeatedly turned to other UFO lodges after talking to the “UFO hotline”.

Fonts

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ gwup.org ( Memento of the original from June 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Werner Walter @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gwup.org
  2. ↑ UFO over Bremen "There is no extraterrestrial presence on earth". Frankfurter Rundschau, January 7, 2014, accessed on January 10, 2014 : “In the meantime, Walter says he has largely withdrawn because he is visibly bored with the work. [...] Question: So you are annoyed by the topic that previously fascinated you? Walter: Exactly. "
  3. ^ Return: An interview with Werner Walter. UFO information, July 7, 2015, accessed on July 18, 2015 : “Hello Dennis, today I am well equipped in terms of health, but poor as a church mouse. Today I assume that the UFO topic passed me by the very least and that I was literally fed up, because recently too many UFO lodges terrorized me because of the UFO hotline. This also led to my stroke. It was only when I was released that I became more and more aware that I was no longer coming home and that I was now in a nursing home. This was a shock to put it mildly, I've been living here at CentroVerde since July 2nd, 2014. I have only been back on the Internet a few days ago and this makes me freer as a person again, even if I'm looking for sponsors for Internet maintenance in the foreseeable future search. I have almost potentially lost my belongings through the liquidation of the apartment. "
  4. ^ Dpa announcement, printed as Mysterious Luminosity , in: Die Welt from November 2, 2010
  5. ↑ Mysterious Glow in the Süddeutsche Zeitung from October 14, 2009
  6. ↑ Close encounters with the ordinary kind , in: Die Welt, November 4, 2010
  7. ↑ Mannheimer operates UFO hotline in: Der Stern from November 6, 2010
  8. ↑ E. Wunder: The perception of the structure of the German-speaking UFO scene: a multidimensional scaling by experts , in: Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 1 (2001), pp. 75-101, here p. 81.
  9. ↑ Illobrand von Ludwiger: UFOs - the unwanted truth. Kopp, Rottenburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-938516-84-3 .
  10. ↑ Michael Hesemann: UFOs over Germany. Falken, Niederhausen 1997, ISBN 3-635-60319-8 .
    MUFON-CES Research Report No. 12, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Walter, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German UFO researcher
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 2016
Place of death Mannheim