The UFO Phenomenon

German UFO center received record number of sighting reports last year

By T.K. Randall
January 12, 2026 ·  11 comments

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Known as the Central Research Network for Extraordinary Sky Phenomena (or CENAP), Germany's answer to MUFON and other UFO reporting centers has seen more than its typical share of UFO sightings over the last 12 months.

Based in a town south of Frankfurt, the organization is the first port of call for any members of the public who happen to see something unusual in the sky that they cannot explain.

According to its director Hansjurgen Kohler, the center received 1,348 sighting reports in 2025 covering not just Germany itself, but also parts of Austria and Switzerland as well.

The tally marks a consistent rise in sightings year on year since 2019.As for the reports themselves, however, Kohler maintains that most - if not all - of the objects reported to the center over the last 12 months have conventional explanations.

Bright planets such as Venus and Jupiter are frequently mistaken for something anomalous, he argues.

Meteors burning up in the atmosphere and even the star Sirius are also common culprits.

That said, it only takes one genuinely anomalous sighting to challenge those explanations and to remind researchers that not every report can be so easily dismissed.

Source: Bernama.com | Comments (11)

Tags: UFO, Germany