Armin Meiwes (born 1961 in Germany) is a cannibalistic internet user who became known as the "Rotenburg Cannibal" or "Der Metzgermeister" (The Master Butcher).

Meiwes posted an advertisement on the Internet, looking for a willing victim. Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes, who was known for his mutilation ideas in the homosexual prostitution scene of his home city, and who was employed by Siemens AG in a managerial capacity until his death, replied to his posting, and they arranged to meet so Meiwes could kill and eat Brandes.

As is known from a videotape the two made when they met in March 2001 in Meiwes' home, Meiwes amputated Brandes' penis and Meiwes and Brandes ate the penis together before Brandes was killed. Brandes had insisted that Meiwes would bite his penis off, but this did not work, so Meiwes used at first a knife that turned out to be too blunt, and then a sharper knife to finally slice the penis off. Brandes apparently tried to eat his share of his own penis rare, but could not because it was too tough and as he put it, "chewy". Meiwes then sautéed the penis in a pan with salt, pepper and garlic.

According to journalists who saw the video (it has not been made public), Brandes may already have been too weakened from blood loss to actually eat his share of the penis. Meiwes apparently gave him large quantities of alcohol and pain killers, and then killed him in a room that he had installed in his house for this purpose. He ate the body over the next few months, storing parts in his deep freezer.

Meiwes was arrested in December 2002, after apparently posting new advertisements for victims on the Internet. Investigators searched his home and found body parts and the videotaped killing. The video is apparently so disturbing that many of those who saw it sought psychological counseling.

Meiwes was later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. The case attracted considerable media attention and led to a debate over whether Meiwes could be convicted at all given that Brandes had voluntarily and knowingly participated in the act.

In April 2005, a German court ordered a retrial after prosecutors appealed his sentence. They believed he should have been convicted of murder, not manslaughter, and given a life sentence. Among the questions courts answered is whether Brandes agreed to his killing, and whether he was legally capable of doing so at the moment of killing, taking into account his apparent mental problems as well as his significant intake of alcohol and drugs. Other aspects of the retrial determined whether Meiwes killed to satiate his own desires (in particular sexual desires), and not because he was asked to, which Meiwes has repeatedly rejected during testimony.

At his retrial a psychologist stated that Meiwes could reoffend and still "had fantasies about devouring the flesh of young people". On 9 May 2006, a court in Frankfurt convicted Meiwes of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

A similar Internet-mediated consensual homicide is the 1996 case of Sharon Lopatka, who sought and found a male (Robert Frederick Glass) who would torture and kill her by strangling her to death.

Cultural impact

The song "Mein Teil" by German Tanz-Metall band Rammstein was inspired by the case. Teil meaning part or piece, and can also be used as slang for penis, which means the song would translate into my part or my penis. Other songs inspired by Meiwes' story include "The Wüstenfeld Man Eater", by American heavy metal band Macabre and "Eaten" by Swedish death metal band Bloodbath.

Multiple films have been made about the story, as well. Rosa von Praunheim's Dein Herz in Meinem Hirn (Your Heart in My Brain) was first screened in 2005 at the Montréal Film Festival. Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story was scheduled for German release in March 2006. The American film stars Keri Russell and, in the role inspired by Meiwes, Thomas Kretschmann. However, it was banned in Germany after Meiwes complained that his rights were being violated. The film has been sold for international release and will have its world premiere at London's FrightFest Film Festival in August 2006. Also the movie Feed has a scene involving a man cooking someone's penis, and the main character finding the man who cooked the penis, as well as the man to whom the penis belongs.

In April 2005, a German court ordered a retrial after prosecutors appealed his sentence. They believed he should have been convicted of murder, not manslaughter, and given a life sentence. Among the questions courts answered is whether Brandes agreed to his killing, and whether he was legally capable of doing so at the moment of killing, taking into account his apparent mental problems as well as his significant intake of alcohol and other drugs.

Other aspects of the retrial determined whether Meiwes killed to satiate his own desires (in particular sexual desires), and not because he was asked to, which Meiwes has repeatedly rejected during testimony. At his retrial a psychologist stated that Meiwes could reoffend and still "had fantasies about devouring the flesh of young people." On May 10th 2006, a court in Frankfurt convicted Meiwes of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Consultant in criminal cases

According to a report by the Bild-Zeitung from October 2007, Meiwes was reportedly helpful in the analysis of two suspected cannibal murders from 1998 and 2000, in which two young boys were found horribly mutilated, possibly by the same murderer, fulfilling much the same role as the fictional cannibal murderer Hannibal Lecter.

• The film "Three and Out" contains a reference to the incident in which a German persistently calls the protagonist asking if he would eat his penis. The protagonist, Paul, was previously looking for a man willing to jump in front of his train as he believed if three people did so in a month he would get 10 years of wages.

• The song "Mein Teil" by German band Rammstein was inspired by the case. "Teil" translates literally to "part" or "member," but is German slang for penis (much as "member" is in English). The chorus of "Mein Teil" (My Part) includes the line, "Denn du bist was du isst und ihr wisst was es ist." which translates to "You are what you eat and you (plural) know what it is." with "Du bist was du isst" being the famous catchphrase for the Swedish brand of crisp bread Wasa. The original quote was made by Ludwig Feuerbach, a German philosopher, expressing that everything a human consumes is taking influence on his mind and body.

• Other songs inspired by Meiwes' story include "The Wüstenfeld Man Eater" by American death/thrash metal band Macabre, "Eaten" by Swedish death metal band Bloodbath, "Let me Taste your Flesh" by Spanish death metal band Avulsed, as well as "Cannibal Anthem" by German electro-industrial project :wumpscut:, "Cannibals of Rotenburg" by the dirge-country band Sons of Perdition, and "Menschenfresser [Eat Me]" by electro-industrial act Suicide Commando.

• Rock artist Marilyn Manson has identified Meiwes as inspirational in the titling of his album, Eat Me, Drink Me. Manson explained in an article what this story meant to him: "Although I can't relate to the relationship those two had, I found the story very compelling in a romantic way. I think a lot of people wouldn’t look at it as romantic, but it was to them in some sick way, and it is to me in some sick way, too."

• Feature film Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story (aka Rohtenburg which might be a pun on the name of the town Rothenburg near Armin Meiwes' house and the German word "roh" meaning raw, uncooked) was scheduled for German release in March 2006. However, it was banned in that country after Meiwes complained that his "personality rights" had been violated. The American film, which is fictionalized, stars Keri Russell and, in the role inspired by Meiwes, Thomas Kretschmann. The film won multiple awards at the 2006 Festival de Cine de Sitges, including Best Director, Best Actor for the two male leads, and Best Cinematography.

• Other films based on the case include Rosa von Praunheim's Dein Herz in Meinem Hirn (Your Heart in My Brain); Marian Dora's Cannibal; and Uli Lommel's Cannibal. The 2005 Australian horror/thriller film Feed contains a short scene depicting Meiwes and his victim sitting in a blood-filled bathtub together.

• In 2005, the French author and actor Olivier Lejeune penned and acted a farce entitled Dévorez-moi (Devour me), loosely based on the case.

• British comedy The IT Crowd parodied this story as part of a plot for the third episode of series 2 wherein the characters Roy and Moss pretended to be interested in being eaten so they could watch a film on the cannibal's television.

• Hip-hop artist Necro briefly makes reference to the case in the song Human Consumption (from his third album The Pre-Fix For Death) where he says : "it's legal in Germany, believe me, cannibals are celebrities".

• In 2006, the film Cannibal was released, reconstructing the event. The film is directed by Marian Dora and stars actors Carsten Frank, Victor Brandl and Manoush. The film was banned in Germany.

• In 2009, the book "Emergency" by Neil Strauss makes a reference to Meiwes in regards to how easy it must be to find things using the internet.

Armin Meiwes: German Cannibal

Crimeandinvestigation.co.uk

Biography

Armin Meiwes has become known as the real-life Hannibal Lecter after it was revealed that he had killed and eaten Bernd-Jürgen Brandes, who had volunteered himself as victim after answering a message on a cannibalism website. Meiwes cut off Brandes' penis and the two ate it together before Brandes slowly bled to death. He was eventually killed by Meiwes, who dismembered him and ate parts of his flesh over the following ten months.

Born in the German town of Kassel, computer technician Meiwes led a very lonely childhood. His father was a stern man who was largely disinterested in his son. When the marriage broke up, when Meiwes was only eight, he abandoned the family, never to contact them again. He later told the court during the murder trial that Meiwes had been a well-behaved little boy but had been obsessed with the story of Hansel and Gretel, in particular the chapter about fattening up Hansel to cook and eat him.

When Meiwes' father left, it fell to his mother to become the dominant parent, who would often admonish him in public and insisted in accompanying him everywhere. Meiwes, lacking a father figure, created an imaginary brother called Franky through whom he vented his first cannibalistic thoughts, as Franky would 'listen' to Meiwes, something his mother never did.

At age 12 Meiwes began to fantasise about eating his friends so that they would become part of him and stay with him forever, a desperate solution for a very lonely and misunderstood only child.

In 1999 Meiwes' mother died and left him the family's large mansion house in Amstetten. Totally alone for the first time in his life, without the demands of his controlling mother, he reportedly constructed a shrine to her in the house, complete with a plastic mannequin that he would lay on a pillow each night.

After his mother's death he also developed an interest in internet pornography, particularly that featuring torture and pain, and through these internet sites Meiwes found his way into his first chat rooms about cannibalism.

The Crimes

In 2000 Meiwes posted a message saying, “I am looking for a young, well-built man aged 18 to 30 to slaughter”. Several men responded, one of which was a man called Borg Jose who was about to become Meiwes' first victim. While laid out on his table preparing to be butchered, Jose complained of feeling ill and asked to be released, which Meiwes obliged.

The final man to reply to Meiwes' internet message was Bernd-Jürgen Brandes. Brandes was a 43-year-old bisexual engineer, who wrote to Meiwes on 14 February 2001 saying that he would agree to be eaten. They exchanged various lurid emails, discussing the best way in which he should be eaten and his body used afterwards. Brandes even suggested his skull could be used as an ashtray.

On 9 March 2001, Brandes went to Meiwes' home in Amstetten and after having sex, Brandes swallowed numerous sleeping pills, a bottle of Vicks cough medicine and some schnapps before Meiwes amputated his penis for the pair to eat together. Brandes tried to eat a piece of the penis raw but it was apparently too “chewy” and so Meiwes proceeded to fry it with a little garlic and pepper but burned it, meaning that neither of them was able to consume the dismembered part.

Losing large amounts of blood from the injury, Brandes lay bleeding to death in the bath over the next three hours, while Meiwes read a Star Trek book. Ten hours later, Brandes was still alive, so Meiwes stabbed him several times in the neck to put an end to his pain, and his life. Meiwes woud later explain: “My friend enjoyed dying, death. I only waited horrified for the end after doing the deed. It took so terribly long.”

Then the cannibalism began. Meiwes hung Brandes' lifeless body on a meat-hook and proceeded to cut the flesh into sizeable chunks and grind the bones into flour. He dismembered the entire body so that he could store the parts in his freezer, which he proceeded to eat over the following 10 months.

The entire process of Brandes' penis amputation and subsequent death had been recorded on videotape by the pair and would later be used as evidence against Meiwes.

The Arrest

By November 2002 Meiwes had nearly finished his supply of Brandes' frozen flesh and posted another message for a victim on the internet. It was seen by an Austrian student who reported it to local authorities. On 11 December 2002 police raided Meiwes house and found 15lbs of Brandes' flesh under pizza boxes in his freezer, as well as the video of the killing.

Meiwes reportedly admitted to what he had done almost straight after his arrest in December 2002. It took police seven months to put together a case, after going through Meiwes' computer to trace evidence of his correspondence over the previous few years. They found thousands of images of torture and pornography and on 17 July 2003 he was charged with murder.

The Trial

On 30 January 2004, Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.

The case attracted considerable media attention and started a debate over whether Meiwes could be convicted at all, due to the fact that Brandes had voluntarily taken part in the cannibalism and had entered Meiwes' house fully aware of his intentions. It also proved problematic for German lawyers who discovered that cannibalism is in fact legal in Germany and subsequently charged Meiwes with murder for the purposes of sexual pleasure and with 'disturbing the peace of the dead'.

At the trial, 19 minutes of the video showing key moments of the crime was shown to the court, after reporters and the public were removed.

Only a year later, in April 2005, a German court ordered that there should be a retrial, after prosecutors appealed Meiwes' sentence as being too lenient. Their argument was that he should have been convicted of murder, not manslaughter, and been given a life sentence.

The retrial began on 12 January 2006, where prosecutors questioned the actual reasoning for Brandes’ killing as being a way to satisfy Meiwes' own sexual desires, rather than obliging Brandes his request. They also brought to light the fact that Brandes was not capable of making any decisions on the evening of 9 March, as he had consumed significant amounts of alcohol and drugs to numb the pain of his penis amputation.

On 10 May 2006, a court in Frankfurt convicted Meiwes of murder and changed his initial eight and a half year sentence to life imprisonment.

The Aftermath

According to a report in October 2007, by German newspaper Bild-Zeitung, Meiwes was helping investigators in the analysis of two suspected cannibal murders from 1998 and 2000, in which two young boys were found horribly mutilated, possibly by the same murderer.

Upon entering prison Meiwes became a vegetarian, worked in the prison library and joined a prisoners' group which stands for Green Party politics.

Meiwes has also rejected substantial offers from film companies and publishers to bring his story to the big screen and has instead assigned the global rights to his story to Stampf’s Hamburg-based company, Stampfwerk, for no charge, on the condition it gives an accurate account of his case.

Timeline

Born
1 December 1961

The Victim
9 March 2001: Bernd-Jürgen Brandes

Arrested
11 December 2002: Armin Meiwes

Trial
3 December 2003

Convicted
30 January 2004

Sentenced
Eight and a half years in prison

Re-Trial
12 January 2006

Sentenced
Life in prison

German cannibal laid out wine and candles, ate his victim with potatoes and sprouts

Torontosun.com

February 10, 2016

CAUTION: This story includes descriptive sexual and violent details that may not be suitable for all readers

German cannibal Armin Meiwes has offered a sickening, detailed account of how he killed his willing lover then ate him with potatoes and sprouts.

The stunning new documentary, Docs: Interview With A Cannibal, offers insight into "Der Metzgermeister" -- the Master Butcher.

Meiwes is currently serving a life sentence in a German prison.

That's where the film crew found him, and where he spoke about his sexual urge to seek out a willing victim -- which he found in 43-year-old Bernd Brandes in March 2001.

They discovered each other in a chat room for cannibal fetishists under the ad: "Dinner - or your dinner," in which Brandes offered "the chance to eat me alive."

They agreed to film the entire gruesome slaughter -- though the videos, mercifully, have never been released by the court.

The sick couple had sex before Brandes demanded Meiwes cut off his penis, so they could eat it together.

The first knife was too dull, Meiwes recalled. A second one did the trick.

"He screamed. Horribly. But it was short. Maybe for 20 to 30 seconds," Meiwes recollects in the documentary, showing no emotion. "The blood was squirting from the open wound, similar to a fountain."

He blanched it, seasoned it with salt, pepper and garlic powder and fried it. Unfortunately, he said, it shrivelled to almost nothing.

"He tried to eat it. He was disappointed that he couldn't. It wasn't edible."

Meiwes then ran Brandes a bath, and read a Star Trek book in another room as his victim bled to death in the water.

After finishing him off by slitting his throat, Meiwes cut the body into pieces -- as he learned to do online.

His first meal -- "a piece of rump steak -- a piece from his back" -- was "a special occasion." Meiwes laid out candles, his good dinnerware and wine. He ate it with potatoes and sprouts.

Meiwes referred to the taste as "like pork, but stronger. More substantial."

Hunting down more victims proved to be his undoing. When Meiwes told a young, prospective victim he "wouldn't be the first" the man went to police, who discovered several pounds of Brandes in Meiwes' deep freezer.

In the end, Meiwes said, neither one of them had their fantasies fulfilled.

"Today I know that what I did was wrong," he told the film crew. "The wishes, the fantasies you have, that these could never be fulfilled. That these things you dream about could only be a dream."

*****

The "Der Metzgermeister" story:

Armin Meiwes, 54, a former computer technician and retired German solider, is serving a life sentence for killing and eating a man who shared his cannibal fetish and offered himself as a victim. As there was no law in Germany against cannibalism when he was arrested in 2002, and because his victim was a willing partner -- as seen in detailed videos the pair took of the grisly slaughter -- Meiwes was initially convicted of manslaughter. That was later upgraded to murder. Doctors say he is well aware of his fetish, and is no danger to the public as he wouldn't hurt anyone who didn't share his fantasies.

In Meiwes' own words:

"I killed a man, slaughtered him and ate him. Since then, he's always with me."

On growing up with an imaginary brother and Meiwes' fantasy of slaughtering and eating a boy: "Over the years, I would add various components. The boys were also people I found attractive, who I imaged as my brother. And then I thought, if they were to become a part of me, I would have to eat them."

"I wanted to be with someone, but i never found the right woman."

"(Brandes) wanted to experience the ultimate high. For him that was to be eaten alive. For him, that would be ultimate bliss."

"I prayed, and kissed him on the mouth. I picked up the knife -- you can see it on the video -- then laid it aside ... I asked myself whether I should pray to the Devil or God. I prayed to God for forgiveness. I picked up the knife, and after hesitating some more, I cut his throat with it."

"The first bite was, of course, very strange. It was a feeling I can't really describe. I spent over 40 years longing for it, dreaming about it. Now I was getting the feeling that I was actually achieving this perfect connection through his flesh."

'I fried a piece of rump steak from his back and ate it with sprouts': German cannibal who ate his gay lover 'with his permission' describes how he went about killing and eating him

• Armin Meiwes killed and ate lover Bernd Brandes after the pair met online

• Brandes posted an advert on cannibal site offering 'the chance to eat me'

• Meiwes described his first bite of human flesh as 'very strange' in interview

• Gave graphic insight into the shocking 2001 killing for a new documentary

• After having sex, chopped off Brandes' penis which the pair ate together

By Imogen Calderwood For Mailonline

February 9, 2016

A notorious German cannibal has described in shockingly graphic detail how he killed and ate his gay lover ‘with his permission’.

Armin Meiwes became one of the most infamous cannibals in history after killing and consuming 43-year-old computer technician Bernd Brandes in 2001.

The pair met after Brandes posted an advert online entitled ‘Dinner – or your dinner’ and offering ‘the chance to eat me alive’.

Meiwes, 42, from Rotenburg, has given horrific insight into the killing which stunned the country.

‘I decorated the table with nice candles,’ he said. ‘I took out my best dinner service, and fried and piece of rump steak – a piece from his back – made what I call princess potatoes, and sprouts,’ he said, in an unprecedented interview for new documentary ‘Docs: Interview with a Cannibal’.

‘After I prepared my meal, I ate it.

‘The first bite was, of course, very strange. It was a feeling I can’t really describe. I’d spent over 40 years longing for it, dreaming about it.

‘And now I was getting the feeling that I was actually achieving this perfect inner connection through his flesh. The flesh tastes like pork but stronger.’

Meiwes became the first person in Germany to be charged with murder for sexual satisfaction, or ‘love cannibalism’.

After the pair met they went to Meiwes isolated farmhouse, where they had sex. But, according to Meiwes, Brandes was not satisfied because ‘he wanted to be eaten alive’.

Brandes then swallowed 20 sleeping tablets with half a bottle of schnapps before Meiwes cut off his penis ‘with his agreement’, and fried it for them both to eat.

Meiwes later ran a bath for Brandes, and read a Star Trek novel while checking on him every 15 minutes.

He eventually killed Brandes in the early hours of the morning, by stabbing him in the neck and then chopping him into pieces.

He put parts of him in the freezer, and buried his head in his garden.

Meiwes filmed much of the gruesome killing, and 19 minutes of the four-hour video were later shown during his trial.

But according to the documentary the video is ‘too disturbing to show’.

Meiwes – who has become known as Der Metzgermeister, or the Master Butcher – blames his father for his behaviour, after he abandoned his family when Meiwes was just five years old.

He was left as the only ‘man of the house’ when both of his older brothers also left.

It was only after the death of his mother that Meiwes stumbled across the world of cannibalism online, where he discovered chatrooms of people offering themselves to be eaten.

Meiwes was arrested in December 2002, after police were tipped off by a young Austrian student that Meiwes had killed and eaten someone.

Police visited his isolated farmhouse, and discovered meat that Meiwes claimed was wild pig in a freezer, which had a false bottom.

At his trial, several men who harboured fantasies of eating human flesh testified that there was a large network of like -minded individuals who connected through cyberspace in a bid to satisfy their fantasies.

Meiwes’ obsession with eating someone began as a teenager, he said during his trial.

But after killing Brandes he admitted that he ‘had my big kick and I don’t need to do it again’.

He said his victim ‘came to me of his own free will to end his life. For him, it was a nice death’.

He was convicted of manslaughter on January 30 2004, and jailed for eight years. During his time in prison, Meiwes is reported to have become a vegetarian.

Sicko German cannibal places a personal ad for a well-built 18- to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then eaten — and he finds a taker!

BY Mara Bovsun - New York Daily News

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Of all the mysteries surrounding the case of the Monster of Rotenburg, the most baffling has to be why anyone answered his online personal ad posted in 2000.

It went like this: “Looking for a well-built 18- to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed.”

Granted, the author of that invitation, Armin Meiwes, was posting on a site known as the Cannibal Café, and he had chosen “antrophagus,” a word that means “cannibal,” as his email address. About 200 people, by Meiwes’ own estimate, found his ad intriguing and offered up their bodies.

He had to screen candidates for months. Many of the men who reveled in the fantasy of being eaten found the idea less appealing when facing the knife.

In February 2001, Meiwes received this message from Bernd Juergen Brandes, a computer engineer from Berlin. “I am 36 years old, 175 cm and weigh 72 kg. I hope you are really serious about it because I really want it.”

Brandes would become the realization of a dream that Meiwes had since he was a little boy who had been abandoned by almost everyone in his life.

Born in 1961, Armin was the third son of Waltraud Meiwes, a woman, who, by age 45, had been dumped by three husbands. Meiwes was 6 when his half-brothers left to pursue their own lives. Two years later, his father fled.

That left him alone, the sole emotional support of a bitter, domineering woman. She criticized him nonstop.

How much his mother’s battering contributed to his yearnings is hard to say, but by the time the boy was 8, he was musing about chowing down on his school chums and other youngsters.

Through eating them, he hoped they would become his brothers. It was a way to keep them with him forever.

At 18, Meiwes joined the army but did not make the cut for a career in the military.

In 1991, upon reentry to civilian life, he chose to become a computer technician, developing expertise that would put him at the forefront of a revolution, journalist Günter Stampf said in his book, “Interview with a Cannibal.” It had been just a few years since the first email had been received in Germany.

Meiwes embarked on a career as a PC repairman. In his spare time, he roamed around cyberspace.

His mother succumbed to cancer in 1999 and he turned to the Internet to find his tribe, an enormous social network of maneaters. By some estimates, there were hundreds of thousands of cannibal sites. He started posting personals.

Meiwes and Brandes chatted online for about a month, making detailed plans, until March 8, 2001, a day before their date. “I’ll bring myself as breakfast,” Brandes wrote. “I'll have an appetite — rely on it,” Meiwes replied.

The victim willingly entered a soundproofed “slaughter room” that Meiwes had designed. For part of the evening, they sat around like a pair of tech nerds, drinking coffee, smoking and chatting about computers. At one point, Brandes had a change of heart and asked to be taken back to the station. Just before he got on the train for Berlin, he suggested that with a big dose of sleeping pills, some schnapps and cold medicine, he might be able to go through with it.

They went back to the room. At around 6 p.m., he cried out, “Do it. Now!”

Meiwes had set up a video camera to record it all, starting with sexual mutilation. Brandes was still awake and wanted to taste his own flesh. Broiling, however, left the organ too tough to eat. Then, Brandes asked to take a bath. Meiwes left his victim soaking in the tub and went off to his own room to read a Star Trek novel.

Brandes was still alive the next morning, so Meiwes slit his throat and cut the body into pieces, the action caught on tape. He pan-broiled some flesh and then, on a table set with his mother’s best tablecloth, he paired the meal with a good red wine. He labeled and froze the leftovers, then hit the keyboard seeking another victim.

One of his online friends found the tone of Meiwes’ discussion disturbing, even for a site that catered to horror and nervous thrills. He contacted the police. Not long after cops started sniffing around, taking some of the bags from his freezer, Meiwes confessed. By the time of his arrest, he had already consumed 45 pounds of Brandes’ flesh, much of which he fried in garlic. He told police it tasted like pork.

No German laws made cannibalism a crime, so the charges against Meiwes were murder for purposes of sexual pleasure and disturbing the peace of the dead.

His defense, however, was that there was no crime since the victim asked for it. The video showed Brandes giving consent, up until the moment he lost consciousness. Lawyers suggested mercy killing.

There would be two trials. In the first, the judge gave him 8½ years, saying that it was not murder, but a case of “two psychologically sick people who found each other.” A retrial sent him away for life. In 2007, the UK’s Daily Mail reported that he has since become the head of the prison Green Party, a group of murderers and pedophiles who talk about how to make the world a better place. The Mail also noted that the cannibal has become a vegetarian.

'Human Flesh Tastes Like Pork'

In his first television interview, German cannibal Armin Meiwes describes the taste of human flesh, provides a decent recipe for steak, explains his fascination with the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel -- and insists that he's a normal person.

Spiegel.de

October 16, 2007

Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal serving a life sentence for killing and eating a man who begged to be devoured, has described how the meat tasted of pork and how he prepared an elaborate meal of human steak in a green pepper sauce with croquettes and Brussels sprouts.

In his first television interview, broadcast on Monday night on the RTL channel, Meiwes, 46, looked relaxed and healthy as he spoke about his decades-long yearning to consume another man.

The case came to light in December 2002, and the grisly details made world headlines. Meiwes filmed himself killing, disembowelling and cutting up the corpse of computer engineer Bernd Brandes, 42, whom he had met after posting messages in Internet chatrooms seeking "men for slaughter."

"Yes, people who can't think their way into this find it monstrous. But in principle I'm a normal human being," he told his interviewer Günter Stampf, who has written a book, "Interview with a Cannibal," based on 30 meetings with Meiwes in jail. The interviews were approved by the Frankfurt district court that convicted him.

"I sauteed the steak of Bernd, with salt, pepper, garlic and nutmeg. I had it with Princess croquettes, Brussels sprouts and a green pepper sauce," said Meiwes. He said the meat was a little tough. He froze meal-sized portions of Brandes, some in the form of minced meat, and ate more than 20 kilograms of it in the months following the March 2001 killing.

Lifelong Fantasies

During his two trials in 2004 and 2006, Meiwes said he had always dreamt of having a younger brother -- "someone to be part of me" -- and had become fascinated with cannibalism as a way to fulfil that obsession. His desires were fuelled by the Internet, where he had contact with around 400 men interested in cannibalism.

He found a perfect match in Brandes, who was obsessed with being eaten. "The first bite was of course a peculiar, indefinable feeling at first because I had yearned for that for 30 years, that this inner connection would be made perfect through this flesh," Meiwes said in the interview.

"The flesh tastes like pork, a little bit more bitter, stronger. It tastes quite good," he said.

He said that when he was a child, he had enjoyed his mother reading him the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel," about a witch who traps two children and prepares to eat the boy. "The bit where Hansel is to be eaten was interesting. You wouldn't believe how many Hansels are whizzing around the Internet."

Police estimate that around 10,000 people in Germany alone share Meiwes' fascination with cannibalism -- either eating human flesh or being eaten.

Meiwes, serving his sentence in a prison in Kassel, central Germany, could be eligible for parole after serving a mandatory 15 years in jail. A psychiatric examination conducted ahead of his trials concluded that he is not insane but has a "severely disturbed soul."

"I want to undergo therapy, I know I need that and I hope it will be done at some point," said Meiwes.

German court sentences cannibal to life in jail

Associated Press

May 9, 2006

FRANKFURT, Germany — A man who admitted killing and eating an acquaintance he met on the Internet was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison Tuesday, following his retrial in a case that engrossed and appalled Germany.

Armin Meiwes, a 44-year-old computer technician, also was convicted of disturbing the peace of the dead. His lawyers had argued that the Frankfurt state court should instead convict him of the lesser offense of “killing on demand,” on the grounds that he was only following his victim’s wishes.

The retrial of Meiwes opened in January. It was held after a federal appeals court overturned his initial manslaughter conviction to allow prosecutors to seek a tougher sentence.

At the retrial, Meiwes renewed a detailed confession, telling the court his version of the grisly details of the March 2001 killing of Bernd Juergen Brandes at Meiwes’ home in the central town of Rotenburg.

Meiwes said Brandes — who had traveled from Berlin after answering his Internet posting under the pseudonym “Franky” seeking a young man for “slaughter and consumption” — wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness. He testified that Brandes, 43, had wanted to “be eaten alive.”

“Otherwise, I would never have done it,” Meiwes, who captured the killing on video, told the court during the trial.

‘I didn’t want to kill him’

Meiwes also maintained that Brandes had urged him to carry out further killings after his death.

Still, the defendant claimed he had hesitated before going through with the act.

“I wanted to eat him — I didn’t want to kill him,” he told the court.

Police tracked down and arrested Meiwes in December 2002 after a student in Austria alerted them to a message Meiwes had posted on the Internet seeking a man willing to be killed and eaten.

In early 2004, a court in the city of Kassel convicted Meiwes of manslaughter and sentenced him to 8 years in prison, but prosecutors appealed the verdict.

Federal judges overturned the original ruling last year and ordered a retrial, arguing the lower court, in rejecting murder charges, failed to give sufficient consideration to the sexual motive behind the killing.

German Cannibal Gets Life For Eating Willing Victim

Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal whose case of extreme sado-masochism made worldwide headlines, has had his sentence increased from 8 1/2 years to life imprisonment. In a retrial, he was convicted of murder even though his victim wanted to be killed.

Spiegel.de

May 9, 2006

Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal who killed, sliced up and ate a Berlin computer engineer begging to be devoured, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. The sentence came following a retrial of a shocking case that gained worldwide attention because of its gory details.

Meiwes, a 44-year-old computer repair man, had originally been sentenced to 8 and a half years for manslaughter but that verdict was overturned by Germany's federal appeals court which deemed it too lenient and ordered him to be retried on a murder charge.

The judge ruled that Meiwes had killed to satisfy his sexual urges. The Frankfurt court ruling means Meiwes could be eligible for parole after serving a mandatory 15 years in jail.

Meiwes's defence lawyers had argued that he should face the lesser conviction of "killing on demand" -- a form of illegal euthanasia -- and said they planned to appeal against the new verdict. Legal experts have said the case presents the justice system with a dilemma because the victim, Bernd-Jürgen Brandes, had wanted to be eaten.

For witnesses at the trial, it was hard to imagine the quietly spoken, polite and surprisingly ordinary-looking Meiwes hanging up the victim's body from a meat hook in the slaughtering room he had set up in his home, disembowelling him and cutting him up into meal-sized portions ready for storage in his freezer.

Skull in the freezer

Yet that is what he did, filming the process with a video camera in an orgy of gore that marked the culmination of an obsession with cannibalism since puberty. He defrosted Brandes portion by portion in the following months and turned him into gourmet meals. He kept the skull in a freezer and buried other parts in his garden.

"I wanted to eat him but I didn't want to kill him," said Meiwes during the four-month trial.

"He was close to me with every bite," Meiwes recalled, adding that Brandes had encouraged him to seek out other slaughter victims. "Bernd told me he didn't want to be on his own in the freezer for long," said Meiwes, who did indeed keep advertizing for fresh victims on the Internet until 18 months later, December 2002, when police arrested him after receiving a tip from a Web user.

Meiwes and Brandes had contacted each other through the Internet where Meiwes had been seeking "fit men for slaughter". They met in March 2001 in Meiwes's rambling, half-timbered house left him by his domineering mother in the central German town of Rotenburg.

Skip the next two paragraphs if you're squeamish. Brandes asked Meiwes to emasculate him and drank half a bottle of Schnapps and painkilling tablets to cope with the pain. Meiwes obliged and they both tried to eat Brandes's penis together.

After Brandes became unconscious from loss of blood, Meiwes took him to his slaughtering bench and -- this is the main reason for Monday's murder conviction which was widely expected -- killed him by cutting his throat with a butcher's knife.

"Everybody has right to decide about own life"

Meiwes told the court he regretted what he did. But he added: "Everybody has the right to decide themselves about their own life and their body." His lawyers pointed out that Brandes had in e-mails, Internet chat forums and telephone conversations clearly expressed his desire for his life to be ended, and for him to be "nullified".

Meiwes said he has written his memoirs in jail and wants to show people with similar fantasies "that it can never bring them fulfilment." Police estimate there are 8,000 to 10,000 people in Germany alone who are using Internet chat rooms to share fantasies about eating a person or being eaten.

Psychiatrists who examined Meiwes said he was severely disturbed but sane and fit to stand trial.

During the retrial, Meiwes told how he had fantasized about eating his schoolmates and how he would record televison documentaries about post-mortems. He would also barbecue dolls, and would form human limbs out of marzipan and eat them wedged in bread rolls. The fantasies became more intense after the death of his mother in 1999 left him alone in her large house where he began to surf the Internet.

Profile: Cannibal Armin Meiwes

BBC.co.uk

May 9, 2006

Before the media dubbed him "The Cannibal of Rotenburg", Armin Meiwes led an outwardly quiet life, described by one woman he befriended as a friendly and sensitive person.

But in the prosecutor's words, the well-spoken 42-year-old computer technician "slaughtered his victim like a piece of livestock and treated him as an object of his fancy".

The details of the case were re-examined after a federal court ruled that his conviction for manslaughter should be overturned because the sentence - eight-and-a-half-years in jail - was too lenient.

In the previous trial, prosecutors say he should have been jailed for life for murder, while his defence team maintains the death was a mercy killing as the victim was a willing participant.

Meiwes grew up with his mother in a large house in the German town near Kassel.

A former school friend recalls her as a domineering figure who scolded him in public.

Living alone with her son until her death, she constantly intruded, accompanying him on dates and even going on troop outings in the early 1980s when he was serving in the German army.

Brother figure

Meiwes claimed in court that his lonely childhood had led him to create "Franky" - an imaginary brother who listened to him.

At the start of his trial in December 2003, Meiwes said his motive for killing and eating his victim, Bernd Juergen Brandes, was born from a desire for this younger brother he never had - "someone to be part of me".

In eating Mr Brandes, he finally got his "big kick", he told his trial.

According to a psychiatrist who testified at the trial, Professor Georg Stolpmann, Meiwes was incapable of showing "warm and tender feelings towards others".

Meiwes insisted throughout the trial that the death had been part of a mutual pact rooted in sado-masochistic homosexual fantasy.

But he said he hoped other people with similar fantasies would seek help before it was too late.

Investigators found Meiwes had been in internet contact with more than 200 people who shared his fantasies while the cannibal himself claimed there were thousands more like him.

Professor Stolpmann described Meiwes as "extremely smug and self-assured" and as having a "schizoid personality" - but said he detected no indication of mental illness.

Psychiatrist Warns Meiwes Could Kill Again

The trial of Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal who killed and ate a man begging to be devoured, is gradually drawing to a close. A psychiatrist has warned that the computer repair man remains obsessed by male flesh and could kill again.

Spiegel.de

April 24, 2006

Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal standing trial for the second time for killing and eating 44 pounds of flesh from a man who wanted to be eaten, is so fixated on male human meat that he could kill again, a psychiatrist told the court on Monday.

Georg Stolpmann, professor of psychiatry at Göttingen university who examined Meiwes, told the Frankfurt district court that he saw a "very high danger of a repeat" and that Meiwes, 44, had a "severely disturbed soul."

Meiwes is facing a retrial after Germany's top criminal appeals court ruled that his original manslaughter verdict and sentence of eight-and-a-half years were too lenient. It ordered a retrial on murder charges. Monday's testimony marked the end of the evidence-hearing phase and the verdict is expected on May 9 after the defence and prosecution sum up.

The case sparked grim fascination around the world when it came to light in 2002 and confronted the German legal system with an unprecedented dilemma -- whether killing a man who wants to be eaten can constitute murder.

Meiwes said during his retrial: "I wanted to eat him but I didn't want to kill him." He said he had fantasized since puberty about consuming a man to fill the void caused by the sudden departure of his father. Using the pseudonym "Franky," he had been in touch with hundreds of people on the Internet, where he posted ads seeking fit men for "slaughter."

Deeply disturbed

Meiwes, a computer repair man long obsessed with cannibalism, gave a full confession at his first trial. He met 43-year-old Berlin computer engineer Bernd-Juergen Brandes via the Internet where Brandes had sought someone to kill and eat him. The details of the case were so gory that many newspapers declined to print how Meiwes mutilated his victim's body at the latter's request and how they both tried to eat parts of it.

Once Brandes had lost consciousness from loss of blood, Meiwes killed him on a special butchers bench he had set up in a "slaughtering room" in his rambling, half-timbered house in Rotenburg, central Germany. He suspended the body from a meat hook and disembowelled it, filming everything on a high quality video camera. The film was shown to the shocked court.

Meiwes was caught in December 2002, almost two years after the deed, when police received a tip-off that he was seeking victims for slaughter. Stolpmann said the fact that Meiwes continued to look for willing victims after killing Brandes showed he was ready to kill again. He said he had no indications that Meiwes was any less prone to kill than before.

Stolpmann said Meiwes had told him that even as he was cutting up Brandes, he had thought to himself: "The next one mustn't be this fat."

German Maneater on Trial Again

Armin Meiwes, convicted in 2004 of killing and eating a man, is back on trial Thursday after his original verdict was deemed not harsh enough. His victim, though, gave Meiwes permission to polish him off, presenting German law with a devilish dilemma.

By David Crossland - Spiegel.de

January 12, 2006

Armin Meiwes is back and so is his tale of extreme sado-masochism that has shocked and fascinated the world. The self-confessed German cannibal, sentenced to over eight years for manslaughter in 2004 for killing and eating 44 pounds of a man yearning to be eaten, went on trial for the second time on Thursday after his original verdict was deemed too lenient.

Looking markedly thinner after spending over two years in jail, Meiwes, 44, entered the Frankfurt district court in handcuffs and a smart dark suit, to fight a case that has confronted the German legal system with an unprecedented dilemma -- whether killing a man who wants to be eaten can constitute murder.

Tall, gaunt and remarkably ordinary looking, he smiled nervously at his team of defense lawyers before sitting down in front of a large folder of documents. People who have interviewed him have said he is of above average intelligence, well-spoken and polite. His lawyer has reportedly described him as so harmless that he would allow Meiwes to look after his children.

The Federal Criminal Court, the countrys top criminal appeals court, overturned his original manslaughter conviction and ordered a retrial on murder charges. But legal experts say the case could eventually go as high as Germanys highest court.

Schnapps and painkillers

Meiwes, a computer repair man obsessed with cannibalism since puberty, gave a full confession at his first trial. He met 43-year-old Berlin computer engineer Bernd-Juergen Brandes via the Internet where Brandes had sought someone to kill and eat him.

The details of the case, so shocking that many newspapers have shied away from printing them, were brought to life once more on Thursday as prosecutors gave a full account of the spring day, March 9, 2001, when Meiwes and Brandes met.

What happened next in Meiwes home, a rambling half-timbered house left to him by his late, domineering mother, is gory in the extreme.

Brandes asked Meiwes to emasculate him and drank half a bottle of Schnapps and painkilling tablets to cope with the pain. Meiwes obliged before they both tried to eat Brandes's penis together.

After Brandes became unconscious from loss of blood, Meiwes took him to a slaughtering room he had set up in his house. Led on by sexual motives, he laid him on a table in the slaughter room and switched on a video camera to film proceedings, said Köhler.

Ultimately, Meiwes cut the body up into little pieces, filming much of the procedure. He ate 44 pounds of his victims remains in the following months, defrosting pieces portion by portion. He kept the skull in a freezer and buried other parts in his garden.

Gourmet recipes

He ate the meat prepared as normal dishes, said Köhler. He also watched the video for his sexual gratification.

Even as he ate Brandes, barbecuing some parts and following gourmet recipes for others, Meiwes continued to advertise for other victims. It was not until December 2002, after he was reported to the police by an Austrian student, that he was arrested.

Meiwes has not denied what happened -- that would be difficult given that police have 4.5 hours of video tape recording the deed -- but has argued that he was fulfilling the victims desire to be killed.

His defense team is seeking the lesser conviction of killing upon request," a form of illegal euthanasia, which carries a term of six months to five years. Prosecutors accuse him of murder to gratify his sexual desires and of other crimes linked to the cutting up of the body, which would carry a term of at least 15 years. German courts tend to follow the recommendations of the Federal Criminal Court, which has called for a murder conviction, but they are not obliged to.

Meiwes, who according to psychiatrists reports presented at the first trial is sane but deeply disturbed, told the court in 2004 how he had fantasized about consuming a man to fill the void caused by the sudden departure of his father. Using the pseudonym Franky," he had been in touch with hundreds of people on the Internet, where he posted ads seeking fit men for "slaughter."

Joachim Bremer, one of Meiwess three defense lawyers, said: In e-mails, Internet chats, and telephone conversations, Brandes had clearly expressed his desire for his life to be ended. Brandes had told Meiwes he wanted to be nullified, said Bremer.

Cannibalistic fantasies

Herr Brandes consistently expressed the desire to be emasculated, to pass out, then to be killed and to be consumed. He even wrote a will before traveling from Berlin to meet Meiwes, said Bremer.

But Köhler, the prosecutor, said Meiwes was aware that his yearning for self-destruction resulted from a severe disturbance of the soul.

Police estimate there are 8,000 to 10,000 people in Germany alone who are using Internet chat rooms to share fantasies about eating a person or being eaten.

Professor Arthur Kreuzer of the Institute for Criminology at Giessen University said: This is unique, even compared with all other cases of cannibalism. The defendant left it totally open to the victim whether he wanted to be killed or not. I cant imagine a murder where the victim wants the deed to happen and is even encouraging the person to do so.

You can only explain it with the technology of the Internet that two reciprocally perverted people, the one a sadist and the other a masochist, meet, agree everything down to the last detail and then do everything with the condition that the victim can say no at any time.

Kreuzer said the decision to overturn the verdict and order a retrial may have been influenced by the publics moral outrage at the relatively lenient sentence for a deed seen as deeply perverted.

A documentary on its way

After his initial trial brought him worldwide attention, Meiwes rejected cash offers from film companies and publishers and instead assigned the global rights to his story to Hamburg-based publisher Stampfwerk for no charge, on condition that it gives an accurate and full account of his case.

Meiwes is writing his memoirs in jail and Stampfwerk plans to publish them this autumn. It is also preparing a documentary on the case and both HBO and the BBC have expressed an interest in it, said Guenter Stampf, Stampfwerks managing director.

Meanwhile Meiwess lawyer Harald Ermel has taken legal action in US and German courts to prevent the release of an American-made film -- "Butterfly, a Grimm Love Story" -- which he claims is so closely based on his case that it may prejudice his trial.

Produced by California-based film production company Atlantic Streamline, it stars Thomas Kretschmann, who played the ships captain in "King Kong," and Keri Russell, who is to appear in "Mission: Impossible III."

Was the 'Cannibal of Rotenburg' Sane?

Germany's Federal Court of Justice is currently considering the case of Armin Meiwes, the cannibal who met his victim on the Internet and then ate him. After he was sentenced to only eight years in prison, shocked prosecutors are seeking to have him classified as insane so that he can be put away indefinitely.

By Gisela Friedrichsen - Spiegel.de

April 18, 2005

It's been said that there's only one thing that truly frightens Armin Meiwes, 43, known as the "Cannibal of Rotenburg": being classified as insane. Apparently nothing else scares him. He would even accept life in prison, just as long as he's not thrown into the "loony bin." He doesn't want to go there. Insane? No, that's one thing he doesn't want to be called.

Meiwes certainly isn't the only defendant with this attitude. A criminal who's sent to prison will eventually be released. In fact, it's usually even possible to predict the precise date of his release. Even criminals sentenced to prison for murder can hope to be released one day. "Normal" prisoners, that is, those who aren't classified as insane, don't have to worry about being locked up in an asylum for life.

But when should a psychologically disturbed criminal hope to be released from a closed prison medical facility for psychopaths within a prison? When does society decide that he's no longer a "ticking time bomb," and when is it ever willing to accept the "residual risk" he's believed to pose after having committed his crime?

On Jan. 30, 2004, the district court in the northern German city of Kassel sentenced Meiwes to a prison term of eight years and six months for committing homicide against Berlin engineer Bernd B. Was the sentence appropriate? The public prosecutor sought a life sentence for the cannibal. Would that have been the right solution? Meiwes is one of those people who behave extremely well in closed institutions like prisons. They're able to conform and they don't challenge authority.

He can already look forward to the prospect of being released. But is this justifiable? A dangerous, disturbed personality structure cannot simply be shed in a prison's wardrobe when the perpetrator arrives to serve his sentence. It's not something that can be cleaned, ironed and repaired. And when he's released, the perpetrator can't just put on a new set of clothes and adopt a new persona.

The Kassel court, after having heard expert testimony by Klaus Beier, an expert on human sexuality, and Göttingen psychiatrist Georg Stolpmann, ruled that Meiwes has "a special form of fetishistic obsession with male flesh with an androphilic orientation," as well as an "absolutely uncommon … highly pathological form of bonding experience." In plain English, Meiwes can only perceive a bond (or whatever this means to him) to another human being to the greatest possible degree of intensity by consuming that person's flesh.

On March 9, 2001, he met his victim at the main train station in Kassel, then drove with him to his farm in the town of Rotenburg an der Fulda. Based on the men's previous agreement, Meiwes then severed his victim's penis and, after blood loss and pain caused the man to lose consciousness, stabbed the man to death and disemboweled the corpse. In the next few days, he either froze or ate portions of the flesh.

Legal experts call such behavior "severe psychological abnormality," one of the first introductory characteristics (first stage) of diminished or even absent criminal responsibility. More plainly put, someone like Meiwes is simply a cannibal.

A meticulously organized slaughter

Despite this "psychological abnormality," a severe personality disorder, the court held that the defendant was fully responsible for his crime, citing his organized, planned and deliberate behavior before and after the crime.

For example, Meiwes insisted on his victim's consent. Whenever a potential victim who had allowed himself to be tempted by Meiwes' bizarre slaughtering propositions would suddenly panic, Meiwes would lose interest and abruptly ask the person to leave.

For legal experts, this is strong evidence that the defendant was capable of controlling himself. In other words, he could have done things differently. He could have stopped himself. He didn't act in the heat of the moment, he wasn't under the influence of some drug, not even when he lifted his unconscious victim onto the slaughter bench and, finally on the verge of reaching his objective, slit his throat.

In fact, the expert witnesses and the Kassel court were even able to observe Meiwes' actions with their own eyes, since he videotaped the penis amputation (on a kitchen chopping board), the killing and portions of the disembowelment.

During his trial, Meiwes spent hours talking about how his fantasies had developed during childhood and how he began to incorporate sexual components in puberty, about his attempts to establish contact with women, who were always rejected by his ever more controlling mother. The increasingly monstrous fantasies into which he escaped took shape in 1999, when Meiwes discovered the virtual subculture of the Internet, where he found abnormalities of unheard-of proportions. It was this exposure that finally destroyed any remaining inhibitions he may have had, as he realized that his secret dreams could become reality.

On the Internet, he communicated with supposedly like-minded individuals. The Internet made it possible for perpetrators and victims to approach one another. Bernd B., his victim, was controlled by a similarly severe personality disorder. Instead of being excited by the idea of disemboweling corpses and eating human flesh, he sought the "ultimate kick" in extreme sexual practices. Meiwes and Bernd B. really only had one thing in common: their bizarre fantasy.

When the Kassel court issued its rulings, the audience in the courtroom immediately began figuring out when this convicted criminal would be released. And they have good reason to be concerned. As soon as he had committed his crime, Meiwes began searching for his next victim.

There was no doubt that Meiwes is a dangerous man, and the public prosecutor's office promptly filed an appeal against what prosecutors believed to be a flawed ruling. Indeed, the language the court used to write its opinion is unusually gentle, perhaps reflective of an unconscious reaction to the defendant's prior sentence.

Last week the matter was brought before the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH). Like the prosecutors in the trial in Kassel, the Federal Prosecutor's Office, wants to see Meiwes convicted of murder. And, "as a special precautionary measure" (to ensure that Meiwes will be kept behind bars for as long as possible), they want the court to acknowledge the special seriousness of the offence.

To achieve their objective, the federal prosecutors would have to demonstrate that the case involves several characteristic features of murder. But the problem is finding these features without borrowing from other cases. "Maliciousness" is out of the question, as is "satisfaction of a sexual impulse," at least according to the experts. What about "reprehensible motives?" On the one hand, Meiwes was only interested in satisfying his own desire. On the other hand, Bernd B. agreed to be killed, also to satisfy his desire. Each participant supported the other's objective. Perhaps they even canceled each other out.

And what about the possibility of convicting Meiwes of a different crime? One consideration would be his macabre treatment of the corpse. But this still puts the prosecutors in a difficult position, as well as the BGH's second criminal court, should the court rule that a more severe penalty is called for.

Any attempts by the court or prosecutors to commit Meiwes to a closed facility for psychopaths (for an unlimited period of time) were frustrated by the fact that the lower court in Kassel had already found him to be fully criminally responsible. And if Meiwes, feeling forced into a corner, had not fired his attorney Gunter Widmaier, a specialist in legal appeals, just one day before the hearing in Karlsruhe, the debate before the second chamber would have been capable of lending a new dimension to the case. Perhaps the court would then have discussed whether a person who is so much under the control of his psychological abnormality should be considered reasonable and capable of controlling himself as soon as individual actions only have the appearance of being planned and organized.

Meiwes has been living in an abnormal fantasy world since childhood. He has trained himself to behave rationally in his dealings with the outside world. This highly unusual case could serve as an impetus for the German judiciary to revisit the application of legal provisions relating to the ability to behave reasonably and exercise self-control in cases, like this one, of "severe psychological abnormality."

One question worth raising is whether Meiwes can even escape his bizarre and pathological system of thought. Would the system allow him to do so? After all, the ability to control one's action means that a person is able to consciously interact with his own inner world, and not be a slave to it, as Meiwes is.

One thing about the Meiwes case is clear: He is able to stop his behavior when a potential victim withdraws his consent. But does the ability to move around within the confines of one's own abnormality correspond to the definition of competency in the German criminal code? If Meiwes disembowels his victims, is he competent in the normal sense?

A person with an abnormal emotional life does not necessarily behave like a monster. The fact that Meiwes believed the ill-fated Bernd B., who was willing to allow Meiwes to bite off his penis, to be normal should in itself serve as reason for concern.

Of course, it would probably be easier to give in to the prosecutors' demands and refer the nightmarish case to the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt, with the stipulation that Meiwes be purged of murderous character traits. This would be sufficient punishment for his crime. But it would not eliminate the danger.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

German Cannibal Gets 8 1/2-Year Sentence for Manslaughter

German defendant gets 81/2 years in prison for killing and eating a man.

Jeffrey Fleishman - Los Angeles Times

January 31, 2004

BERLIN — In a case that has tested Germany's legal system and horrified the public, a computer technician was found guilty of manslaughter Friday and sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison for killing and eating a man he met in an Internet chat room.

The verdict against Armin Meiwes underscored the legal complexity that unfolded during the two-month trial in the town of Kassel. The victim, Bernd Brandes, consented to be killed and cannibalized in March 2001. The court rejected the prosecution's argument that the 42-year-old defendant murdered Brandes for "sexual gratification."

Judge Volker Muetze said Meiwes' twisted fantasy was "viewed with repulsion in our civilized society." But he added that "seen legally, this is manslaughter -- killing a person without being a murderer."

The ruling dismissed the defendant's contention that he was culpable only of "killing on request," which carries a sentence of less than five years in prison.

The trial of Meiwes -- a meticulously dressed computer repairman with thinning hair and a ready smile for television cameras -- offered a lurid glimpse into the dark side of cyberspace. It took the public into the mind of a man who built a death chamber in his half-timbered farmhouse and dined on parts of Brandes while sipping South African red wine.

A videotape showing Meiwes stabbing his 43-year-old victim was shown to the court. The footage reveals that Brandes, a Berlin engineer with a history of depression, numbed himself with sleeping pills and schnapps and willingly chose to die and be eaten.

Prosecutors characterized the defendant as a "human butcher" and sought a life sentence for murder.

The case fascinated and sickened this staid nation. Images of Meiwes flickered across TV screens. He became a kind of macabre celebrity, seen grinning in court and whispering intently to his lawyer.

Newspapers and magazines gave pulp fiction accounts of Meiwes as a forlorn child who had long dreamed of eating a friend so he would never be alone. Brandes was portrayed as a disturbed son still mourning the death of his mother decades earlier and surfing Internet chat rooms dedicated to cannibalism.

The two men met in the anonymity of cyberspace. Meiwes, who confessed to the killing and was found legally sane to stand trial, had posted an ad seeking a young man wanting "to be eaten." He received more than 200 replies, including one from Brandes. Days later, the two met at Meiwes' home and each ate a piece of Brandes' flesh before Meiwes stabbed his victim in the neck and beheaded him.

Meiwes carved Brandes into pieces and put them in a freezer. He ate 44 pounds of flesh and organs over several months, sometimes sauteing them in oil and garlic.

The crime alarmed the small town of Kassel as people discovered that Germany had no law against cannibalism. The bloody saga opened a window onto the fetishes and perversions lurking on websites and chat rooms.

Meiwes said he was repeatedly drawn to the Internet. "If I hadn't been so stupid as to keep looking on the Internet," he testified, "I would have taken my secret to the grave."

In his closing statement to the court, Meiwes, who noted that he was writing a book, said: "Bernd came to me of his own free will to end his life. For him, it was a nice death.... I had my big kick, and I don't need to do it again. I regret it all very much, but I can't undo it."

Muetze, the judge, said of the crime: "We have opened up a door, which one is inclined to close again immediately."

The challenge of the 'cannibal consensus'

By Clare Murphy - BBC News Online

January 28, 2004

Armin Meiwes is, on the surface of things, an attractive, well-dressed, and amiable 42-year-old German.

He is also, by his own admission, a cannibal, who three years ago ate an engineer he had found through the internet.

On Friday, a court convicted Meiwes of manslaughter and sentenced him to eight and a half years in jail.

The verdict fell short of the murder conviction sought by prosecutors.

It was a complex trial. At issue was whether a person could be tried and imprisoned for murder when his victim had consented to be slaughtered.

'No death wish'

In March 2001, Bernd-Jurgen Brandes, 43, answered an advert Mr Meiwes had posted on the internet for a well-built male who was prepared to be slaughtered and then consumed.

They met, and Mr Meiwes allegedly took Mr Brandes back to his home in Rotenburg, where the victim agreed to the removal of his penis, which Mr Meiwes then flambéed and served up to eat together.

Mr Brandes was then killed, cut up, and put in the freezer.

The act of cannibalism is not in itself a crime in Germany, meaning that particular legal avenue was closed to prosecutors.

Instead they opted for a charge of sexually-driven murder, combined with a charge of "disturbing the peace of the dead" - despite the apparently consensual nature of the act.

The defence, for its part, argued that Mr Meiwes was guilty of nothing more than "killing by request" - an offence which carries a maximum sentence of five years incarceration.

The defence team had sought to prove to the court that not one of the men who met the cannibal was made to go through with anything they were uncertain about.

London-based hotel worker Dirk Moller - one of dozens who allegedly replied to Mr Meiwes' adverts - was called to testify that he had even got as far as being chained to the bed and marked out for butchery before changing his mind and being released.

The prosecution has conceded that Mr Brandes was an apparently willing victim.

But they insisted he was not of a sound mind when he accepted the offer, and moreover, they alleged, Mr Meiwes was aware of this.

Mr Brandes' boyfriend told the court that Mr Brandes, with whom he said he enjoyed a normal sex life, had no apparent desire to die.

Time for contracts

German experts say that while there may be hundreds of people with "cannibalistic tendencies" in Germany, only a tiny proportion of those would be willing to see their fantasies through to their fatal conclusion as Mr Brandes apparently did.

The kind of internet message boards where Mr Meiwes placed his own request still exist, but the real cannibals on these sites appear to be hard to find.

Messages which request people for slaughter are often written off as jokes by other participants, many of whom are keen to stress that their interest in cannibalism is only a fantasy.

While Mr Meiwes received dozens of responses to his postings, he is believed to have only met four other men beside Mr Brandes, none of whom went through with the act.

There were fears that should the court punish Mr Meiwes lightly they would unwittingly encourage real cannibals.

But Mr Meiwes's defence lawyer argued that is his client was put away for life, the true horror of murder will be belittled.

Harald Ermel has said that murder "always happens against somebody's will".

Mr Ermel advised those planning similar forays into the world of cannibalism to ensure both parties draw up a contract before the act takes place.

German cannibal 'fit for trial'

BBC.co.uk

January 23, 2004

Self-confessed German cannibal Armin Meiwes "is fully fit for trial and not mentally ill", a second psychiatrist testified on Friday.

"He carried out an act that was planned and prepared," Georg Stolpman told the court in the city of Kassel.

His testimony, along with that of other experts, means that Mr Meiwes can be held criminally liable.

He has admitted killing and eating Bernd-Juergen Brandes, but says it was "killing on demand" and not murder.

Professor Stolpman said Mr Meiwes was incapable of showing "warm and tender feelings towards others".

His difficult relationship with his mother meant that he did not learn how to maintain relationships.

He apparently fantasised about a friend who would never leave him, and the arrival of the internet and e-mail encouraged him to act out this fantasy, Mr Stolpman said.

The expert described Mr Meiwes as "extremely smug and self-assured" and as having a "schizoid personality" - but said he detected no indication of mental illness.

He said the aacused enjoyed the publicity he was getting.

Verdict in a week

Sexologist Klaus Beier told the court on Monday that the 42-year old computer technician "had at least average intelligence and showed no signs of psychiatric illness".

"I believe the accused was above all fascinated by the act of cutting up corpses," he said.

"Killing was a necessary evil to achieve that end."

Another psychiatrist testified last month that the self-confessed cannibal had a personality disorder but did not need to be kept in a psychiatric hospital.

A verdict is expected next Friday.

Cannibalism is not a crime under the German constitution, but the crime of murder carries a minimum 15-year prison sentence.

The maximum sentence for "killing on demand" is five years.

Cannibal 'sought other victims'

BBC.co.uk

December 8, 2003

A self-confessed German cannibal on trial for killing and eating a man he met via the internet has told a court he had sought more willing victims.

Armin Meiwes said he corresponded with a person who wanted to be slaughtered following the killing of Berliner Bernd-Juergen Brandes in March, 2001.

On Monday, the court in Kassel was shown a series of videotapes of the killing, which Mr Meiwes recorded.

Mr Meiwes said Mr Brandes consented to being stabbed to death and eaten.

Prosecutors say the killing was sexually motivated, but Mr Meiwes' lawyers say Mr Brandes was willingly killed and not murdered.

Flesh 'almost gone'

Mr Meiwes, 42, told the court that after he killed Mr Brandes he explored chat rooms and websites looking for other people who sought the same fate.

He wrote an email to a friend, saying: "I hope I will soon find another victim, the flesh [on Mr Brandes' corpse] has almost gone."

Investigators say Mr Meiwes ate three stone (20 kg) of flesh from Mr Brandes' body, which he dismembered and stored in a freezer.

Mr Meiwes said he communicated via email with a person who called themselves Albineu, who also wanted to be killed.

He said he did not kill anyone other than Mr Brandes, although he conceded he "would have done if the chance had presented itself".

Video horror

The five judges on the panel cleared the public from the court before they viewed three 90-minute videotapes of Mr Brandes' death and dismemberment.

A police officer who has seen the tapes said Mr Meiwes appeared "excited but not sexually aroused" as he cut the body into pieces.

Mr Meiwes said Mr Brandes wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of medicine to make him lose consciousness.

The pair had earlier partly eaten Mr Brandes' penis, which Mr Meiwes cut off with, he says, Mr Brandes' consent.

Mr Meiwes said killing Mr Brandes had been "far worse than I had imagined in my fantasies".

He said he recognised that eating him was "a taboo for which I must justify myself before God and the whole world".

Victim of cannibal agreed to be eaten

Luke Harding - Theguardian.com

December 4, 2003

To the family next door, Armin Meiwes seemed the perfect neighbour. He mowed their lawn, repaired their car and even invited them round for dinner.

Other residents in the small German town of Rotenburg also believed there was nothing odd about the 42-year-old computer expert, whose light burned late into the night inside his creaking mansion. Yesterday, however, Meiwes appeared in court charged with killing - and then frying and eating - another man.

In one of the most extraordinary trials in German criminal history, the self-confessed cannibal admitted that he had met a 43-year-old Berlin engineer, Bernd Brandes, after advertising on the internet, and had chopped him up and eaten him.

It was, he said, something he had wanted to do for a long time. "I always had the fantasy and in the end I fulfilled it," Meiwes told the court on the first day of his trial for murder in the nearby city of Kassel.

Yesterday German prosecutors described how Meiwes had fantasised about killing and devouring someone, including his classmates, from the age of eight.

The desire grew stronger after the death of his mother in 1999, prosecutor Marcus Köhler said.

In March 2001 Meiwes advertised on the internet for a "young well-built man, who wanted to be eaten". Brandes replied.

On the evening of March 9, the two men went up to the bedroom in Meiwes' rambling timbered farmhouse. Mr Brandes swallowed 20 sleeping tablets and half a bottle of schnapps before Meiwes cut off Brandes' penis, with his agreement, and fried it for both of them to eat.

Brandes - by this stage bleeding heavily - then took a bath, while Meiwes read a Star Trek novel.

In the early hours of the morning, he finished off his victim by stabbing him in the neck with a large kitchen knife, kissing him first.

The cannibal then chopped Mr Brandes into pieces and put several bits of him in his freezer, next to a takeaway pizza, and buried the skull in his garden.

Over the next few weeks, he defrosted and cooked parts of Mr Brandes in olive oil and garlic, eventually consuming 20kg of human flesh before police finally turned up at his door.

"With every bite, my memory of him grew stronger," he said.

Behind bars, Meiwes told detectives that he had consumed his victim with a bottle of South African red wine, had got out his best cutlery and decorated his dinner table with candles. He tasted of pork, he added.

The unprecedented case has proved problematic for German lawyers who discovered that cannibalism is not illegal in Germany.

Instead, they have charged Meiwes with murder for the purposes of sexual pleasure and with "disturbing the peace of the dead".

The accused, however, has a unique defence: that his victim actually agreed to be killed and eaten.

Crucial to the case is a gruesome videotape made by Meiwes of the entire evening, during which Brandes apparently makes clear his consent.

Before setting off on his one-way journey to Rotenburg, Brandes was, outwardly at least, a successful, financially secure professional, with a live-in girlfriend.

The girlfriend, Bettina L, told German TV that she had enjoyed a healthy sex life with Brandes but they had split up after he revealed that he also liked men.

In fact, prosecutors said yesterday, Brandes was suffering from a severe psychiatric disorder and "a strong desire for self-destruction".

After killing Brandes, the German cannibal met five other men who responded to his internet advert, including one from London.

He did not, however, kill them. In July 2001 a student stumbled on Meiwes' chat-room and alerted the German authorities, who arrested him last December. Yesterday Meiwes told the court that he had felt lonely and neglected as a child after his father walked out on the family. He had fantasised about having a blond "younger brother", who he could keep forever by "consuming him".

If convicted, Meiwes faces life in prison. A verdict is due early next year. The cannibal's defence team, however, say that Meiwes is guilty at worst of 'killing on demand', which is punishable by five years in jail. In his pre-trial interview, the cannibal said that after eating Brandes he felt much better and more stable.

Brandes spoke good English, he said, and since eating him his English had improved. He also revealed that he is now writing his memoirs. The trial, which is due to last three weeks, continues.

German cannibal tells of fantasy

BBC.co.uk

December 3, 2003

A man accused of killing, dissecting and eating another man has gone on trial in central Germany.

The court heard how horror films had fuelled Armin Meiwes' childhood fantasies of eating school friends.

The 41-year-old computer technician is charged with murder, even though the victim allegedly volunteered for his fate by replying to an internet advert.

The gruesome incident was all captured on camcorder and the footage is expected to form part of the evidence.

"I had the fantasy, and in the end I fulfilled it," he said. The fantasy first developed between the ages of eight and 12, he added.

Mr Meiwes spoke of how he felt ignored by his father, and longed for a good-looking younger brother - whom he would bind to himself forever by consuming.

Internet link

It is Germany's first cannibalism case, and the world's media have gathered in Kassel to watch the proceedings.

Television images showed Mr Meiwes - wearing a jacket and a tie - smiling and talking light-heartedly to his lawyer moments before the trial began.

It was the first time that the self-confessed cannibal had been seen in public since his arrest.

The grisly details of the case caused a sensation in the German media when Mr Meiwes was arrested in December, 2002.

In a recent newspaper interview he admitted that he had killed and then partly eaten his victim.

Mr Meiwes advertised on the internet for a well-built male prepared to be slaughtered and then consumed.

"Slim and blond, that would have been the type", he told the court.

The victim, 43-year-old Bernd-Jurgen Brandes, answered the advert in March 2001.

Mr Meiwes told investigators he took Mr Brandes back to his home in Rotenburg, where Mr Brandes agreed to have his penis cut off, which Mr Meiwes then flambéed and served up to eat together.

Prosecutors say Mr Meiwes then stabbed the victim repeatedly in the neck and dissected the corpse.

Shock value

Legally it is a tricky case, says the BBC's correspondent in Berlin, Ray Furlong.

Cannibalism is not a recognised offence under German law and the defence will argue that, since the victim volunteered, this was no murder.

If the court accepts the defence argument, Mr Meiwes can expect a jail term of up to five years.

But the prosecution will push for a life sentence on the basis that Mr Meiwes is simply too dangerous ever to be released.

Meanwhile, Germans will continue to be treated to a media frenzy that plays on the story's unrivalled shock value.

And among the "highlights" will be the two-hour video that Mr Meiwes took of the whole incident on his camcorder, our correspondent says.

"The public probably won't be excluded from this part of proceedings; we have a tradition of open trials," says legal expert Felix Hardenberg.

"But the panel of judges will show only the relevant parts: what the victim is saying and doing before and during the killing."

Mr Meiwes has said that after his trial he intends to pass the time in jail - if convicted - by writing his memoirs.

The court will hear 38 witnesses and 14 sessions are scheduled in the trial, which is scheduled to end in late January.

The case only came to light when an Austrian student spotted another advertisement placed by Mr Meiwes on the internet and alerted police.

German 'cannibal' charged with murder

BBC.co.uk

July 17, 2003

A German man who confessed to killing and eating a man he met through a website for cannibals has been charged with murder, prosecutors have said.

The 41-year-old suspect, identified as Armin M, is alleged to have killed the 43-year-old victim in March 2001 in the town of Rotenburg in central Germany, after meeting him through the site.

He then carved up and froze portions of the man's flesh, later eating some of it, prosecutors allege.

The crime was apparently carried out with the victim's full consent, however state prosecutor Hans-Manfred Jung told French news agency AFP that the victim's supposed "death wish" did not change the fact that the killer had wanted to commit murder.

The suspect's arrest in December last year caused a sensation in Germany, as the country's tabloids competed to report the most grisly details of the case.

'Sexual enjoyment'

The suspect and victim met in early 2001, after Armin M is said to have posted a personal ad on several websites and in chatrooms asking for "young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 to slaughter", the German daily newspaper Bild reported at the time of his arrest.

The victim was a 43-year-old Berlin computer technician who had sold his car, written a will and taken the day off work to sort out what he called a "personal" matter.

He then went to Armin M's home, where the pair reportedly agreed to cut off his penis.

The victim was then allegedly stabbed to death - still apparently with his approval - and cut into pieces.

The whole incident was filmed on videotape, and prosecutors say that the whole crime was committed for the purpose of sexual enjoyment.

Authorities were tipped off by internet surfers who found the requests on various sites.

Mr Jung said there was no evidence that Armin M had been involved in further cases, however several people with whom he had been in contact on the internet are still under investigation.

Man held for German 'cannibal killing'

BBC.co.uk

December 12, 2002

A man has confessed to murdering and eating another man who allegedly volunteered to be killed, in a case that has shocked Germany.

The 41-year-old - who was remanded in custody on Wednesday - videotaped the murder, prosecutors said.

The victim, also in his 40s, was chopped into pieces at the killer's home in the central German town of Rotenburg, near Kassel.

Prosecutors in Kassel said the accused and the victim were apparently homosexuals who shared cannibalistic tendencies.

The German daily Bild reports that the victim, from Berlin, had seen an advertisement on the internet which said: "Seeking young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 to slaughter."

The victim, a computer engineer, then sold all his possessions including a car before disappearing, the paper reports.

The state prosecutor's office in Kassel said the man died from deep cuts to the neck. The killer then chopped up the body and kept the parts in his fridge.

Police believe the murder occurred in spring 2000.

They found deep-frozen human flesh, skeleton parts and video recordings at the scene.

Neighbour Joerg Paulusen, speaking to Reuters TV, said of the killer: "It was sort of clear to us that he had a different perspective on life than we did, but he was a normal person, to speak to him, drink a glass of beer with him - just like you and me."

The last alleged case of cannibalism in Germany was when a 33-year-old man on trial for robbery and murder in March 1995 claimed to have eaten his victim's innards, although his claim was never proven, the AFP news agency reports.