Erich von Däniken made his fortune with extraterrestrials. For decades, he wrote about them and sold tens of millions of books worldwide – more than any other Swiss author. Many of the theories of Erich von Däniken, born in 1935, are controversial. According to his publications, beings from other planets came to Earth a long time ago, reproduced here, and influenced human history. Many prehistoric structures, he claimed, could only have been realized with the help of extraterrestrials.

When his first book, "Chariots of the Gods?", topped the bestseller lists in 1968, Erich von Däniken was in prison: serving three and a half years for embezzlement, professional fraud, and document forgery. In his cell in the Sennhof, he wrote his second book in 1969, "Return to the Stars." He later recounted that the conditions of his imprisonment in Chur were acceptable. However, he was annoyed that they took away his radio on the evening before the first moon landing – especially given his status as an 'expert' on alien planets. After a year and a half, he was released early for good behavior and resumed his work on extraterrestrials.