Erich von Däniken – 14.04.1935 ∗ 10.01.2026
It is with great sadness and shock that we must announce that Erich von Däniken passed away on January 10, 2026.
Our thoughts are with his family. His friends around the world also mourn his passing, as do the millions of readers of his books and the many colleagues who had the privilege of working with him for decades. His “Research Society for Archaeology, Astronautics, and SETI” (A.A.S.) and all those interested in Paleo SETI research have received the news with dismay. The official obituary can be found here as a PDF: Obituary for Erich von Däniken
The family and colleagues ask that you refrain from sending condolences by telephone or in writing. If you would like to honor EvD and his life’s work with a message, you can do so on the homepage: https://evd.ch/.
This is what happened: Extraterrestrials visited our Earth many millennia ago. They behaved similarly to how current ethnologists behave today. They studied a few languages, visited different tribes, gave suggestions, and disappeared sometime—however, with the promise to return in the distant future.
Our Stone Age ancestors could not grasp what happened back then. They wrongfully believed that the extraterrestrials were gods. The supposed events then wandered into our mythology and became the founders of many religions.
I have been conducting research for 70 years in order to substantiate these ideas. My work is now present in 49 volumes. Many films and TV series were first made possible through my body of thought. I am not an esoteric, I do not rely on statements from fellow humans who claim to have real or supposed contact with UFO crews today. Whatever I say must make sense in itself—it must be conclusive. That is why, in particular, my new books are rich with illustrations. And of course, they contain sources that can be verified.
Why do I do my work? We live in a world of religious and, unfortunately, often scientific humbugs. Humanity is encouraged to believe in a jealous god from the Old Testament—who was never a god. To believe in angels, who were also not really that, and “heavenly vehicles” that never existed.
For millennia, it was not about “something heavenly,” but rather extraterrestrials. Individual people were also not “brought to heaven,” but rather trained in a spaceship.
From countless old written records, I know that these “gods” promised to return. Then we will experience the god shock—a total catastrophe in religion and science. And everything would have been so easy to understand—without this god shock. The evidence speaks a clear language. That is what drives me.
