Historian Daniele Ganser: The star of the Putin understanders

"The lectures by the Swiss historian Daniele Ganser on Ukraine are extremely popular - and highly controversial. Now Ganser wants to perform in Offenbach.

He appears smart, with a headset, in front of a large LED screen. He speaks matter-of-factly, is quick-witted, and with his arguments and questions he develops a coherent and giving clear conclusions picture. But he doesn't take the facts very seriously. The Swiss historian Daniele Ganser usually only mentions what fits his argument and spreads conspiracy myths. This is what makes him so “extremely dangerous” for Klaus Gestwa, a researcher on Eastern Europe from Tübingen, but also for many others.

Ganser is the new star of the milieu of conspiracy ideology and the supporter of "alternative media" such as "Rubikon", "KenFM", "NachDenkseiten" and "Compact". The self-proclaimed “peace researcher” speaks from the heart of all those who sense a conspiracy behind the Ukraine events, who believe that Russia is only defending itself against a plan by the West under American leadership.

He is currently touring with great success through Germany, Austria and Switzerland with a lecture entitled “Why did the Ukraine problems break out?”. Ganser speaks in large halls, many of his events are sold out long in advance. At the end of March he will also come to the Rhine-Main region: then the controversial historian will appear in the Offenbach town hall.

A good 20 years ago, Ganser was still at the beginning of a promising university career. He received his doctorate in philosophy from the History Seminar in Basel with a dissertation on the secret paramilitary NATO organization Gladio. From 2003 he was a senior researcher at the renowned Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich .

About the eleventh of September

However, his contract there was not renewed because Ganser had started spreading crude views on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Contrary to the official investigations, Ganser supports the thesis that an adjoining building of the World Trade Center, WTC7, was not destroyed by the Islamist attack but by a targeted explosion. The attacks of September 11th with almost 3000 fatalities, Ganser suggests with this reading, could well have been "intended" by secret services.

Ganser also regularly describes the “Euromaidan”, the Kiev uprising against the Ukrainian rapprochement with Russia, which ended with the flight of the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, as a conspiracy controlled and financed by American secret services. In his lectures, he also spreads the long-disproven assertion that the West, in the course of the negotiations on German reunification, had given assurances that there would be no eastward expansion of NATO. Ganser also claims that it has been proven that US President Joe Biden ordered the Nord Stream gas pipelines to be blown up and that CIA agents hatched the plan.

Anti-Americanism runs like a red thread through his appearances and publications. As a rule, the historian proceeds very skilfully. His lectures are peppered with leading questions. Instead of clear theses, Ganser provides questions and thoughts with which he does not clearly define himself. His message that the citizens are being deceived, that secret powers are in charge of world affairs, still sticks – and will certainly be readily absorbed in the milieu of “lateral thinkers” and Putin supporters.

"Anti-Western Conspiracy Entrepreneur"

Ganser is also heavily criticized. Many researchers accuse him of working unscientifically and selectively, that he is not concerned with facts but with propaganda. Michael Blume, the anti-Semitism commissioner in Baden-Württemberg, recently called Ganser "an anti-Western conspiracy entrepreneur who has been making money for years by spreading conspiracy myths" to the "t-online" portal."

Wherever the controversial historian wants to appear, there is often protest. In Basel there is currently a heated argument as to whether Ganser should appear in the city casino there, in Aachen there were rallies from opponents and supporters of the controversial historian because of a planned appearance. In Nuremberg and Dortmund, lectures were canceled after protests. So far, no major debate about Ganser's planned lecture has broken out in Offenbach."