ALSACAT-1975-12-24-OBERBRONN-1
In 1978, the newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace had reported a sighting in Oberbronn. Reading the article on October 11, 1978, one Mrs. B. had written to a Mr. Lienhardt, ufologist of the CFRU of Strasbourg, to tell about an observation in Oberbronn too three years earlier, December 24, 1975. This letter was forwarder later to Christian Valentin who published it in his 2012 book about UFOs in Alsace.
Mrs. B. reported in her letter that on the night from December 23 to 24, 1975, his son, then Auxiliary Constable in Auxerre, and on leave at their home in Oberbronn for Christmas, came back home at 02:30, waking his parents up and saying "you'll believe I am crazy, but I have seen with my fellow a UFO, a big orange-white ball motionless above the forest that seemed tp rotate on itself, throwing projector rays, within minutes it was joined by a smaller, reddish ball, that seemed to enter the larger one, upon that the UFO disappeared."
The son had taken his father's shotgun, and with his friend, they took the way to the forest to look for evidence, and returned an hour later, having found nothing.
They never wanted to talk about this story, but Mrs. B. found it was similar with Mrs. W.'s observations in 1978 reported in the newspaper, and had decided to communicate it to Mr. Lienhardt, adding that her son was now a Gendarme.
Christian Valentin added that on January 13, 2011, the witness, D. B., retired recently, had confirmed to him the information in his mother's letter. He was previously unaware that his mother had written the letter.
He said that the event took place on the Daumen, the highest point at 310 meters above the village of Oberbronn. The white glow, vivid, departed to the South-East while fading.
| Date: | December 24, 1975 |
|---|---|
| Time: | ~02:00 a.m. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | October 11, 1978 |
| Reporting delay: | 3 years. |
| Department: | Bas-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Oberbronn |
| Place: | From the Daumen mound near Oberbronn, UFO in the sky. |
| Latitude: | 48.848 |
| Longitude: | 7.591 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 500 m |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Young adults. |
| Witness(es) types: | Auxiliary gendarme, a male friend. |
| Reporting channel: | Letter from the witness mother to local ufologist. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | From wooden hilltop, UFO in the sky. |
| Visibility conditions: | Night. |
| UFO observed: | Yes |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | Yes |
| Entities: | No |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | Puzzled. |
| Witnesses interpretation: | A UFO. |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Unidentified, possible extraterrestrial craft. |
[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.
In this book, he reports that on December 24, 1975, in Oberbronn in the Bas-Rhin, the following observation occurred, rescued from oblivion by a UFO event that occurred three years later.
It was on October 11, 1978, that Mrs. B., reading about a phenomenon reported in Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, had sent the following letter to Mr. Lienhardt of the CFRU of Strasbourg; who gave a copy to Christian Valentin 32 years later:
Following the article "a UFO above Strasbourg" I am sharing an observation of my son on the night from December 23 to 24, 1975. My son was at that time an Auxiliary Constable Auxerre and came home in Oberbronn for Christmas. He was home at 02:30 a.m., waking us up and told us: 'you will believe I am crazy, but I have seen ufos with my comrade. A big white orangeish ball motionless above the forest seeming to rotate on itself, throwing projector rays; a few minutes later it was joined by a smaller and reddish ball, it seemed to fit into the big one, whereupon the UFO disappeared."
Our son took the shotgun from his father and with his friend they took the road to the forest to look for evidence. Finding nothing, they returned an hour later. They never wanted to talk about this story, but as I found it is identical with the observation by Ms. W., I communicate it to you. My son is now gendarme.
Signed Mrs. B.
Christian Valentin adds that on January 13, 2011, the witness D. B., retired recently, had confirmed to him the information in his mother's letter; which he previously did not know about.
He said that the event took place on the Daumen, the highest point at 310 meters above the village of Oberbronn. The white glow, very bright, departed to the South-East while fading.
[Ref. pop1:] BLOG "PHENOMENES OVNI/PAN EN REGION LORRAINE":
It seemed wise to me during these end-of-year holiday periods to mention a case for the Christmas period, that's what we're going to see now...
IGN map (Source Geoportal)
The facts
In 1978, the newspaper "Les Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace" reported an observation in Oberbronn. Reading the article on October 11, 1978, a Mrs. B. had then written to Mr. Lienhardt, ufologist of the CFRU of Strasbourg, to report an observation in Oberbronn three years earlier, on December 24, 1975, this letter being then transmitted to Christian Valentin who mentions it in his 2012 book about UFOs in Alsace.
Mrs. B. reported in her letter that on the night of December 23 to 24, 1975, her son, at that time auxiliary gendarme in Auxerre and on leave at their home in Oberbronn for Christmas, returned home at 02:30 a.m., waking them up saying, "You're going to think I'm crazy, but I saw UFOs with my comrade. A large orange-white ball motionless above the forest seeming to turn on itself, throwing beams of searchlight; a few minutes later, it was joined by a smaller, reddish ball, it seemed to melt into the large one, whereupon the UFO disappeared."
The son had taken his father's hunting rifle, and with his friend, they took the path of the forest to look for traces, and returned an hour later, having found nothing.
They had never wanted to talk about this story again, but Mrs. B. found it identical with the observations of Mrs. W. in 1978 reported in the newspaper, she had communicated this to Mr. Lienhardt, specifying that her son became Constable.
Christian Valentin adds that on January 13, 2011, the witness, D. B., recently retired, had confirmed to him the information in the letter from his mother, letter of which he was unaware of the existence until then.
He specified that the facts had taken place on the Daumen, the highest point 310 m above the village of Oberbronn. The white glow, very bright, had gone towards the Southeast while fading.
Source: Alsacat Catalog
The historical context
There are a few interesting things to point out about the Celtic period. In particular the ceremonies practiced on one of the neighboring mountains, the Sonnenberg.
"On the crest of this height, the Médiomatriques (Gallic tribe) then the Triboques (German-Celtic Suevian tribe, "Tri-broques = badger tribe") celebrated their worship in honor of the sun which they named Bel or Belen. At the time of Saint-Jean, these semi-savage tribes lit large fires around which people danced in circles. The Triboques also followed another practice, perpetuated until the beginning of the 20th century, and which consists in precipitating at night, from the summit of this mountain and by its eastern flank, a wagon wheel covered with burning straw. Recall that it is on the summit of Sonnenberg that a square stone 40 centimeters on a side was found, on which is engraved the image of the Sun god".
Source: http://philippe.houdry.free.fr
Folklore
This is an area rich in tales and legends. The village is known in particular for these witches who went to the Sabbath during the night of May 1st on the Batsberg, a limestone hill culminating at more than 300 m located near Bouxviller and having a bad reputation. They met there their colleagues from Mont St-Michel, another "cursed" place near Saverne.
"Oberbronn has a spring (Heilbrunnen) which is considered in the country to have medicinal properties. However, it does not appear to differ from good ordinary water and is used for domestic purposes. The spring in question gave its name to the Village of Oberbronn (source from above), as opposed to Niederbronn (source from below)."
Source: http://philippe.houdry.free.fr
The geological context
Once again, we can see that the village is surrounded by numerous geological faults (about ten) and quarries...
Geological section (Source Geoportail)
The Daumen hill is essentially made up of marl, dolomites and limestone from the Muschelkalk (Triassic).
Conclusions
We could well be once again in the presence of natural plasma (maybe not prosaic), phenomena studied in different parts of the globe. The limit between the two is difficult to set given here the low content of information and the absence of scientific studies in the field.
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It is not at all my habit to "advertise" a book or anything, and I have no interested relationship with the author, but I wanted to say a word on the book by Christian Valentin, "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés" (i.e. "Myths and Realities of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (cover on the left) , ref. [cv2]; which, as its subtitle indicates, is about Alsatian UFO sighting reports and the saucer lore in Alsace.
I think Alsatian ufologists and generally people interested in the UFO question, or in the history of Alsace, my region, would probably like this book.
The 144 pages book is sober but well presented, unbiased, richly documented and illustrated. It is the first work in print specifically about UFO sightings in Alsace. (There was another one a few years ago, but it was partly made by copying - pasting without mention of the sources, portions of my website, especially the Alsatians cases I almost exhaustively documented in my catalog of UFO sightings in France in 1954, and copies from another websites; the trivial explanations I proposed or gave there being almost always stripped off!)
The author does not want to prove or disprove the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors or some other so-called "extraordinary" explanation, he rather offers a chronologically ordered review of Alsatian UFO reports, starting from the origin and stopping in 1980, based on known sources ufology, on the articles of the regional Press, and cases less known or even unreleased so far that he collected directly with the witnesses. His own comments are printed in a different color, references to the sources are always given. A very nice work in my opinion!
The author currently has a blog where he shows what libraries in Alsace have the book available, see: christian.valentin.overblog.com
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The Daumen can be reached starting from Oberbronn walking about 1 km forest on the Daumen to Linsenthal forest road.
The case seems of high strangeness, to me, nothing known or ordinary seems a good explanation of what is reported. Better documentation, and an investigation with the two witnesses might have been useful.
Unidentified, possible extraterrestrial craft.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editeur: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | April 14, 2016 | Creation, [cvn2]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | April 14, 2016 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | February 18, 2023 | Addition [pop1]. |
