Hardly anyone else had dealt with the UFO subject so intensively, comprehensively, and over such a long period of time as Illobrand von Ludwiger. He came across the topic almost 60 years ago, and it hadn't let him go ever since. Von Ludwiger, who had worked in the aerospace sector, had founded MUFON’s German-speaking Central European Section (MUFON-CES) in Munich in 1974. He headed this association until 2014 and founded the Interdisciplinary Society for the Analysis of Anomalous Phenomena (IGAAP) in the same year. Under his leadership, both associations were committed to strictly neutral scientific research, documented in numerous publications (1, 2).


Due to the extremely complex and multi-faceted subject of investigation, an interdisciplinary orientation was essential from the outset, and several university professors were also able to be won over to collaborate - thanks above all to the deceased.


Von Ludwiger will be remembered for his tireless work on a physical theory that is as good as unknown up to now, yet capable of providing the basis for a convincing explanation of the basic and hitherto completely misunderstood physical properties and capabilities of UFOs. This is the field theory of matter and gravitation by the German physicist Burkhard Heim. Von Ludwiger was a longtime friend and student of Heim and has derived the so-called projector theory from Heim's field theory. Projector theory enables an understanding of a probably decisive part of UFO phenomenology, namely, how interstellar distances can be overcome without introducing superluminal travel or the bending of 4-dimensional spacetime. In a nutshell, projector theory states that UFO occupants envision the target of a journey (e.g., a location on planet earth) and then alter their spaceship’s position by bringing it into resonance with the target. This explanation requires the universe to be 6-dimensional but emerges naturally once the new dimensions are mathematically derived. It should be noted that Heim had further developed his theoretical structure in the direction of a completely new kind of anthropology, through which the nature of man and his destiny in 6-dimensional space can be comprehensively understood. In view of all this, the lack of awareness of Heim and von Ludwiger proves to be even more tragic.


While von Ludwiger’s low profile was mainly due to the frowned-upon UFO topic, Heim was severely physically disabled which had him work as a private scholar without influence on academia. Despite all the obstacles, there are now a number of publications by Illobrand von Ludwiger and Burkhard Heim that impressively demonstrate the outstanding rank of both scholars. For those publications, the interested reader may also visit heim-theory.com.


That death struck now that the UFO community is about to develop into a research field that is recognized as serious seems like an irony of fate. Everyone who knew von Ludwiger and worked with him will miss his tireless energy and sovereign management of the UFO organizations in connection with a unique professional competence and decades of experience. His death is a great loss, and yet his work will continue through those friends and colleagues he inspired.

Lutz Gentes, IGAAP,

July 2023*

*Our sincere thanks to Robert Spearing, MUFON USA's Director of International Investigations, for post-editing the original English version and also for publishing it in MUFON USA's September 2023 e-newsletter.