Michael Hesemann (born 22 March 1964 in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

) is a German

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

, Vatican journalist and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. As a student he became known in Germany as an author of several books on

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

s and extraterrestrial visitors on Earth.Sven Piper
Interview with Michael Hesemann in ''Extrasolar-Planets'' in 2008
via the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. Later in his career he turned to topics related to Catholicism, history and archaeology.

Life

When Michael Hesemann was around 14 years old, his father had a UFO sighting that (as Michael Hesemann would recall three decades later) inspired his son to look into the subject. Hesemann studied

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and

Cultural Anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...

at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

in Germany. From 1984 to 1990 Hesemann published the German magazine ''Magazin 2000'', which dealt with popular science,

paranormal phenomena Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, Folk culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific under ...

and religious topics. In 1990, he sold the Magazine and served as its editor-in-chief for the next decade. In 1995, together with his co-editor at Magazin 2000, Hesemann hosted a global

ufology Ufology ( ) is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most frequently of extraterrestrial alien visitors). While there are instances of government, private, and f ...

congress in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he presented an alleged video of an

alien autopsy The alien autopsy is a 17-minute black-and-white film supposedly depicting a secret medical examination or autopsy of an alien by the United States military.Barton, Steve (September 30, 2010)"Ray Santilli, Gary Shoefield Talk the Real Alien Auto ...

. Since 1999, he is accredited to the Holy See Press Office. In 2010, the

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

described him as "a religious historian who helps the Vatican date relics". He is German representative of the

Pave the Way Foundation Pave the Way Foundation (PTWF) headed by Gary Krupp is a non-sectarian organization whose mission is to identify and eliminate non-theological obstacles between religions. The organization is dedicated to achieving peace by addressing intoleranc ...

(PTWF), for which he did research at the

Vatican archives , seal = Seal of the Vatican Secret Archives.svg , seal_width = 200 , seal_caption = Former seal of the Vatican Apostolic Archive , logo = , formed = , jurisdiction = , headquarters = Cortile del Belvedere, Vatican City , coordinates ...

in 2010. He co-founded ''Deutschland pro Papa'', a conservative Catholic initiative, which claims to represent the "silent majority of Rome-loyal Catholics". In 2013, he compiled an exhibition on the

Turin Shroud The Shroud of Turin ( it, Sindone di Torino), also known as the Holy Shroud ( it, Sacra Sindone, links=no or ), is a length of linen cloth bearing the negative image of a man. Some describe the image as depicting Jesus of Nazareth and bel ...

for the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

, touring through Germany and Austria as of 2015. Together with

Georg Ratzinger Georg Ratzinger PA (15 January 19241 July 2020) was a German Catholic priest and musician, known for his work as the conductor of the Regensburger Domspatzen, the cathedral choir of Regensburg. He was the elder brother of the Pope Emeritus Ben ...

, Hesemann co-authored "My brother, the Pope". In 2014, he claimed to have located 2000 pages of documents on the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

in the Vatican Archives. For this, in October 2016, he received an honorary doctorate of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

Vatican

In the Vatican, he investigated the history of the alleged relic of the inscription of the cross of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, hidden in Rome for nearly 1700 years. It was dated by seven Israeli experts for comparative palaeography, the established method to date inscriptions, into the 1st century. The relic is exhibited in the Basilica di Santa Croce. His book ''The Pope who Defied Hitler. The Truth about Pius XII'' (2008) led him to claim that pope

Pius XII Pius ( , ) Latin for "pious", is a masculine given name. Its feminine form is Pia. It may refer to: People Popes * Pope Pius (disambiguation) * Antipope Pius XIII (1918-2009), who led the breakaway True Catholic Church sect Given name * Pius B ...

, sometimes referred to as the "Hitler Pope", was in fact responsible for saving hundreds of thousands of Jews. His book ''The Pope and the Holocaust: Pius XII and the Secret Vatican Archives'' (2022) makes another defense of the figure of Pius XII drawing from the recently published

Vatican Apostolic Archive , seal = Seal of the Vatican Secret Archives.svg , seal_width = 200 , seal_caption = Former seal of the Vatican Apostolic Archive , logo = , formed = , jurisdiction = , headquarters = Cortile del Belvedere, Vatican City , coordinates ...

, arguing that the pope was a shrewd diplomat and a defender of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Hesemann's defense of Pius XII in The Pope and the Holocaust is critiqued by Tim Parks as contrary to the evidence from the Pope's actions and inactions, and the original documents about them in the Vatican archives. In a follow-up to Parks's review, Hesemann and Parks exchanged comments on the critical issues.

Court order against Hesemann

In January 2013, a court in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

ruled that Hesemann would have to pay a fine up to €250,000 if he continued

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

ling the German theologian David Berger. According to the ruling Hesemann had falsely affirmed that Berger had been one of the authors of the extreme right-wing Catholic (now closed) web site ''kreuz.net''. Indeed a different David Berger wrote those articles, Berger claimed. Hesemann challenged the claim.

Bibliography

* ''Findet der Weltuntergang statt?'' (Will doomsday happen?), Göttingen 1984 * ''UFOs: Die Beweise (eine Dokumentation)'' (UFOs: The proof), Göttingen 1993 * ''UFOs: Die Kontakte'' (UFOs: The contacts), München 1990, * ''Botschaft aus dem Kosmos''. Neuwied 1993, / "Cosmic Connections: Worldwide Crop Formations and ET Contacts", Gateway Books 1995, * ''UFOs: Neue Beweise. Eine Dokumentation''. (UFOs: New Evidence), Düsseldorf 1994, * ''Geheimsache UFO: Die wahre Geschichte der unbekannten Flugobjekte'', Neuwied 1994, / ''UFOs: The Secret History'', Marlowe & Co 1998, * ''Jenseits von Roswell. UFOs: der Schweigevorhang lüftet sich'', Neuwied 1996, / ''Beyond Roswell: The Alien Autopsy Film, Area 51, & the U.S. Government Coverup of Ufos'', Marlowe & Co, 1998, (with Philip Mantle) * "Kornkreise: die Geschichte eines Phänomens" (

Crop circle A crop circle, crop formation, or corn circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s by Colin Andrews. Crop circles have been described as all falling "within the range of the ...

s: the history of a phenomenon), Neuwied 1996, * ''UFOs über Deutschland. Ein praktisches Handbuch'' (UFOs over Germany. A practical handbook), Niedernhausen 1997, * ''Geheimsache Fatima. Vom Vatikan verschwiegen: Was offenbarte die Gottesmutter über die Zukunft der Menschheit?'' (Secret affair Fatima. Concealed by the vatican: What did God's mother reveal about the future of mankind?), München 1997, . / "The Fatima Secret (

Whitley Strieber Louis Whitley Strieber (; born June 13, 1945) is an American writer best known for his horror novels ''The Wolfen'' and '' The Hunger'' and for '' Communion'', a non-fiction account of his alleged experiences with non-human entities. He has main ...

's Hidden Agendas)", Dell 2000, * ''Die kommende Weltkrise'' (The Coming World Crisis), 1998 * ''Die Jesus-Tafel'' (The Jesus-Title), Freiburg (Herder) 1999 * ''Die stummen Zeugen von Golgota'' (Silent Witnesses of Golgota), München (Hugendubel) 2000 * ''UFOs: Eine Bilddokumentation'' (UFOs: an illustrated documentation), Köln 2001, * ''Das Fatima-Geheimnis'' (The Fatima Secret), 2002 * ''Die Entdeckung des Heiligen Grals'' (The Discovery of the Holy Grail), München (Pattloch) 2003 * ''Der erste Papst'' (The First Pope), München (Pattloch) 2003 * ''Hitlers Religion'', München (Pattloch) 2004; Augsburg (St. Ulrich) 2012 * ''Hitlers Lügen'' (Hitler’s Lies), Erfststadt 2005 * ''Johannes Paul der Große'' (John Paul the Great), München 2005 * "Stigmata", Güllesheim 2006 * "Die Dunkelmänner" (The Black Legends), Augsburg (St. Ulrich) 2007 * "Paulus von Tarsus“ (St. Paul of Tarsus), Augsburg (St. Ulrich) 2008 * "Der Papst, der Hitler trotzte” (The Pope who Defied Hitler), Augsburg (St. Ulrich) 2008 * "Jesus von Nazareth. Archäologen auf den Spuren des Erloesers", Augsburg (St. Ulrich) 2009 * "Das Bluttuch Christi" (The Blood Cloth of Christ), Munich (Herbig) 2010 * "Auf den Spuren des Grabtuchs von Turin" (In Search for the Turin Shroud), Fulda (Kehl) 2010 * "Maria von Nazareth. Geschichte, Archaeologie, Legenden", Augsburg (St. Ulrich) 2011 * ''Johannes Paul II. Erbe und Charisma'', Augsburg (St. Ulrich) 2011 * with Benedict XVI.: ''Der Papst in Deutschland'', Augsburg (St. Ulrich) 2011 * with Georg Ratzinger: ''Mein Bruder, der Papst'', München (Herbig) 2011; engl. als ''My Brother, the Pope'', San Francisco 2012 * ''Jesus in Ägypten. Das Geheimnis der Kopten'', München (Herbig) 2012 * ''Papst Franziskus. Das Vermächtnis Benedikts XVI. und die Zukunft der Kirche'', München (Herbig) 2013, * ''Völkermord an den Armeniern'' (Genocide against the Armenians), München (Herbig) 2015 *''Der Papst und der Holocaust: Pius XII und die geheimen Akten im Vatikan'', Langen Mueller (Herbig) 2018,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hesemann, Michael 1964 births Living people 20th-century German journalists German male journalists UFO writers 20th-century Roman Catholics 21st-century Roman Catholics German Roman Catholics 20th-century German male writers 20th-century German non-fiction writers 21st-century German journalists 21st-century German non-fiction writers 21st-century German male writers 20th-century German historians 21st-century German historians German male non-fiction writers