The disk of the Milky Way contains gas and dust which obscures about 20% of the extragalactic sky, the so-called "Zone of Avoidance". Nearby galaxies hidden behind the zone of avoidance may have an important influence on the dynamics of the Local Group and its peculiar motion relative to the cosmic microwave background radiation. Such galaxies suffer extinction by gas and dust at optical wavelengths and confusion by stars in the infrared. However, 21 cm neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) emission, associated with late-type galaxies, may be observed if the velocity of the emission differs from that of the local gas. The Dwingeloo Obscured Galaxy Search is a long-term international collaboration of astronomers to search about 2000 degress² of the northern galactic plane at 21 cm for new galaxies, using the Dwingeloo 25 m radio telescope. The first result of this search, in August 1994, was the detection of a new galaxy, Dwingeloo 1. Follow-up service imaging on UKIRT and the INT revealed it to be an SBb barred spiral. Dwingeloo 1 is rotating at about 130 km per second, has a mass about one-third that of the Milky Way, and lies about 3 kpc distant. Its angular and radial proximity to Maffei 1, Maffei 2 and IC342 suggest that it is a prominent member of this group of galaxies, a close neighbour of the Local Group.