There is hardly anyone who hasn't heard the name of this charismatic, 72 year-old Swiss, the explorer, the adventurer and best-selling author who has held tens of millions of readers spellbound for nearly four decades. His firm belief that alien intelligence influenced early civilisations by way of bestowing mathematical, astronomical and technical knowledge on our forefathers and that evidence of extraterrestrial visits can be found on every continent, has attracted enthusiastic followers as well as exasperated opponents all over the world.
But what do we really know about the phenomenal life of the most famous Swiss apart from William Tell – a life like a non-stop roller-coaster ride? About his youth, dominated by a strict, Catholic upbringing by Jesuit monks? After being expelled from school for insubordinate behaviour and his radical religious ideas, he became a trainee apprentice in the hotel and restaurant business, travelled the seven seas as a steward on an ocean liner – a job that, he figured, would take him to some of those mysterious places he was longing to see.
For years, he had done research for a book on extraterrestrial visits, which, he was convinced, would one day become a bestseller. Obsessed by this goal, no sacrifice was too great. Endless nights of study in an unheated storage shed took their toll. In search of evidence for his theories, he mounted costly expeditions to the far corners of the earth. Debts began piling up, bringing him to the verge of bankruptcy. The marriage to his lovely wife Elizabeth was in jeopardy. Still in need of proof, or at least support for his hypotheses, it became a race against time.
Perhaps an expert with a famous name could help him to break through. Wernher von Braun, mission chief at the N.A.S.A. Apollo space program, became the one who shared Erich's enthusiasm – convinced that his theories were viable.
