[The following excerpt was originally published as an introduction to the German edition of von Däniken's Gods from Outer Space in 1968.]

Erich von Däniken is not a scholar. He is an autodidact, which the dictionary defines as a man who is self-taught. Probably this helps explain the success his first book [Chariots of the Gods?] met with all over the world. Completely free from all prejudices, he had to demonstrate personally that his theses and theories were not unfounded and hundreds of thousands of readers were able to follow him along the adventurous road he took—a road that led into regions that were surrounded and protected by taboos.

Besides, his fearless questioning of all the previous explanations of the origin of the human race seems to have been long overdue. Erich von Däniken was not the first man who dared to challenge them, but...