The Oera-Linda-Book

This old Frisian family chronicle has been handed down from generation to generation in the Overa Linda/Over de Linden (‘over the lime trees’) clan for more than 2,500 years. It is the oldest history book in the Netherlands and Germany: The Oera Linda Book. It was named the Oera Linda Bok in the Netherlands, where Dr Jan Gerhardus Ottema produced the first translation into Dutch in 1872. In 1875, Hermann Otto translated an initial and also quite entertaining and insightful retelling of the chronicle by a then anonymous Dutch person into German. According to research by the University of Chicago, this person was Anne Johan Vitringa.

The first direct translation of the original text into German was produced by Herman Wirth in 1933 – sadly with numerous abridgements, albeit with a wealth of confirmatory research findings. Emil Sturm penned the first direct and complete translation in 1959, but his typewritten manuscript from 1962 unfortunately did not make it into print. Regrettably also, a release planned by Dr Hans Schröder and Siegrid Schröder in the late 1980s was not published by Lühe-Verlag, but it was preceded by translations and commentaries on the chronicle in the journal Lebenskunde.

The first direct, complete and published translation into German was brought to us by a true Frisian in 2013: Captain Harm Menkens, who, after 40 years of research with Lühe-Verlag, took the bold step of republishing the chronicle and in doing so has provided us with valuable clarifications and evidence. Harm Menkens passed away in 2019 – and now it is up to us to continue his legacy!

The established scientific community adopted an almost inconceivably hostile stance, especially towards Dr Ottema, Cornelis over de Linden and Herman Wirth. Understandable, as this chronicle completely rewrites our history, which had originally been penned by foreigners, namely Greeks, Romans and the Vatican. To paraphrase Anne Johan Vitringa:

‘Yes, it was indeed a revolutionary concept that Athens, Tyre, Crete, the Ionian Islands and even the banks of the Indus were inhabited by the ancient Frisians. Minos of Crete – a certain Frisian Minno; Wodan or Odin – a Frisian sea king; Minerva – a castle maid from Walcheren, both maliciously elevated to deities by princes and priests; Neptune – none other than a brave Frisian sailor named Neef Tünis ...’

But is this actually as unreal as it may initially appear? Let's take a look at the oldest excavations that lend credence to the existence of this kind of advanced civilisation. We quote the geography historian Prof Dr Albert Herrmann:

‘Although the origins of agriculture and domestic animal husbandry remain shrouded in mystery, it is significant that the oldest plough – dating back to the 4th millennium B.C: – did not emerge in Mesopotamia but again in East Frisia, that the first taming of wilds horses did not take place in the steppes of Mongolia, but on the coasts of the North Sea; likewise, the first chariot is not to be found in Mesopotamia, but again on the North Sea coast.’

In view of these facts, we are beginning to realise that the illusion of ‘ex oriente lux’ ("light from the East"), which has been handed down for thousands of years, is no longer tenable:

‘Ex oriente lux!’ Until now, this catchphrase has been used to claim that all higher cultures and moral codes originated in the ancient Orient; indeed, some hold that the oldest civilisations were established in Palestine, Egypt and Babylonia and that Phoenicians were the first to introduce their principles to the European world.’