The Morning the Sky Went to War
April 14, 1561. Dawn was breaking over the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, one of the most prosperous and cultured cities in the Holy Roman Empire. The air was crisp, the first light painting the medieval rooftops gold. Then, between 4 and 5 a.m., the heavens themselves erupted in chaos. Dozens of UFOs suddenly appeared overhead, like a scene out of Star Wars, and were engaged in wild combat with each other.
This was not your nomal sighting of a distant fuzzy ball of light. No, this was a mass event witnessed by "many men and women" all across Nuremberg and the surrounding countryside. And, thankfully, one man ensured it would never be forgotten. His name was Hans Glaser. Hans was a letter-painter and printer, who rushed to immortalize the scene in a broadsheet complete with a stunning, now world famous, woodcut engraving.
The battle in the sky
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people poured into the streets, all of them gazing upward in both terror and awe. What they witnessed was something remarkable to say the least. From the direction of the rising sun in the East came dozens of globes of blood-red and black colour, huge cylinders that resembled cannon barrels, crosses both large and small, and long rods that were darting around clashing like spears in battle.
The objects moved with impossible speed and purpose, charging at one another then falling back, then charging again at enourmous speeds. Some objects were seen to be falling from the sky with smoke trailing behind them. Many of the objects were seen vanishing, then reappearing, to enter the battle once more.
The spectacle lasted over an hour. At its climax, a massive black spear-shaped object appeared, hovering ominously before the exhausted objects/combatants seemed to suddenly crash to Earth in clouds of smoke beyond the city walls. The people on the ground, with good reason, stood dumbfounded by what they had just witnessed.
Hans Glaser's Broadsheet: The Primary Witness
Hans published his account just weeks after the event. His broadsheet, measuring 26.2 by 38 centimeters and preserved today in the Zentralbibliothek Zürich, remains one of the most detailed record of one of history's greatest mass sightings.
Hans wrote below it:
"In the morning of April 14, 1561, at daybreak, between 4 and 5 a.m., a dreadful apparition occurred on the sun, and then this was seen in Nuremberg in the city, before the gates and in the country, by many men and women. At first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood-red semi-circular arcs, just like the moon in its last quarter. And in the sun itself one saw blood-red crosses as well as other blood-red strips. Between these and around the sun there were blood-red globes and other globes that were bluish or black or iron-colored. There were also long rods or tubes, some straight, some curved, and between them many globes, three or four in a row, and also some alone. And all these began to fight among themselves, so that the globes that were first in the sun flew out to the ones standing on both sides. Thereafter the globes near the sun shot toward the rear ones, and then all the globes standing outside the sun flew together in a row toward the sun and fought there vehemently with one another for over an hour. And when the conflict in and again out of the sun was most intense, they became fatigued to such an extent that they all, as said above, fell from the sun down upon the earth 'as if they all burned' and they then wasted away on the earth with immense smoke. After all this there was something like a black spear, very long and thick, sighted; the shaft pointed to the east, the point pointed west."
– Translation of Hans Glaser's broadsheet text
Hans ends with a solemn warning:
"Although we have seen, shortly one after another, many kinds of signs on the heaven, which are sent to us by the almighty God, to bring us to repentance, we still are, unfortunately, so ungrateful that we despise such high signs and miracles of God. Or we speak of them with ridicule and discard them to the wind, in order that God may send us a frightening punishment on account of our ungratefulness. After all, the God-fearing will by no means discard these signs, but will take it to heart as a warning of their merciful Father in heaven, will mend their lives and faithfully beg God, that He may avert His wrath, including the well-deserved punishment, on us, so that we may temporarily here and perpetually there, live as his children. For it, may God grant us his help, Amen."
– Hans Glaser
The Objects in the Sky: What Nuremberg Saw
The broadsheet and woodcut describe a bewildering array of shapes:
- Blood-red semi-circular arcs around the sun
- Blood-red crosses and strips inside the sun
- Globes in red, black, blue, and iron color: some alone, some in rows of three or four
- Long tubes or cylinders, straight and curved
- A massive black spear-shaped object appareing at the end
These objects didn't merely appear motionless in the sky, they seemed to all the witnesses to be engaging in actual combat and fighting with each other. Hans writes they "fought among themselves vehemently" for over an hour, charging, dispersing, and finally falling to earth in smoke.
Historical Context: A City on Edge
Nuremberg in 1561 was a thriving center of the Renaissance and Reformation, but also a place of religious tension. The Protestant Reformation had taken hold decades earlier, and celestial signs were widely interpreted as divine warnings. Broadsheets like Glaser's often framed strange events as calls to repentance.
Similar phenomena were reported elsewhere, notably a nearly identical "battle" over Basel, Switzerland in 1566.
The Woodcut: Visual Proof for Eternity
Glaser's engraving is one of the most reproduced historical images of unexplained phenomena. It shows:
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| April 14 1561, 4-5 AM | Mass sighting begins at dawn |
| April-May 1561 | Hans Glaser publishes broadsheet |
| 1566 | Similar event reported over Basel |
| 1958 | Carl Jung analyzes in Flying Saucers book |
| Modern era | Becomes iconic in UFO research |
Sources
- Hans Glaser original broadsheet (Zentralbibliothek Zürich)
- Carl Jung – Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth (1958)
- Historical translations and analyses
Final Verdict
THE DAY THE SKY WENT TO WAR. On an ordinary April morning in 1561, the people of Nuremberg looked up and saw the impossible. Hundreds of objects battling across the heavens, falling in smoke, leaving a city forever changed. Hans Glaser captured it for eternity. Was it a divine warning, atmospheric miracle, or something visiting from beyond? The truth of that dawn remains as mysterious as the objects themselves.