Armin Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer specialist from Rothenburg, confirmed that he stabbed and ate a man in March 2001. He also told the court that from the age of 8 he dreamed of becoming a cannibal.
According to investigators, in early 2001, a 42-year-old cannibal posted an ad on the Internet that he was looking for a "well-fed candidate to be devoured."
In the spring, Bernd-Jürgen Brandes, a 43-year-old resident of Berlin, a Siemens programmer, responded to his call. For two weeks, the cannibal and the victim communicated with each other. On March 10, 2001, Brandes arrived from Berlin at Meiwes' house in Rothenburg. Before coming to the stranger, Bernd-Jürgen sold his personal car and took a leave of absence from work "to solve personal problems."
According to the materials of the investigation, before killing the man, Armin Meiwes cut off Brandes' penis, fried it, and they ate this dish together. Brandes then begged Meiwes for ten hours to "cut him something else" and eventually kill him. As a result, a programmer from Berlin lost consciousness from severe blood loss, and the hospitable host finished him off with an 18-centimeter kitchen knife. According to experts, Brandes died as a result of several blows to the neck. The scene of the murder and subsequent eating was recorded by the cannibal on a video camera, which was then attached to the materials of the criminal case.
After the murder, Meiwes kissed the corpse, asked for forgiveness, and then dismembered Brandeis's body and stored its parts in a freezer, labeling them "tenderloin," "fillet," and "steak."
He also left Brandes' skull in the freezer. “Every time I got meat, I thought about it,” the cannibal later told investigators. Over the next few months, Meiwes ate about 20 kg of meat from his victim. Maniac was arrested only in December 2002. The cannibal was reportedly arrested thanks to an Austrian student who stumbled upon messages Meiwes was leaving on an online conference.
During a search of the suspect's house, the police found a room equipped with all the equipment necessary for butchering carcasses.
The first trial of Meiwes began on December 3, 2003. Court sessions were held in the city court of Kassel. The psychiatric commission found some violations in the mental activity of Meiwes, but recognized him as fully sane. Commission member psychiatrist Wilmer stated at the trial that Meiwes "thought more of himself while performing this act."
As the doctor put it, the cannibal was simply "fulfilling his dream."
The psychiatrist also stated that Meiwes started eating human flesh, most likely to stimulate his emotions.
The defendants of the defendant, in turn, insisted on the version according to which the main motive for the murder committed by Meiwes was the desire to satisfy the perverse request of the victim. Under German law, such an act could correspond to illegal euthanasia, for which a term of three to five years in prison was set. Prosecutors countered that Meiwes committed the murder out of his own unbridled desires. But the state prosecution simply could not demand the highest measure of punishment for Armin Meiwes - life imprisonment, since the investigation established that the victim herself wanted to be killed and eaten.
Meiwes himself pretended to repent of his deed, but calmly spoke about the shocking details of the murder.
As a result, in January 2004, Armin Meiwes was sentenced to only eight and a half years in prison.
Armin Meiwes was born on December 1, 1961 in Essen, West Germany (Essen, West Germany). When he was 8 years old, his parents divorced. Myvers rarely saw his father, being under the excessive guardianship of his mother. After her death, Armin lived in isolation from society in a 30-room estate in the city of Rotenburg an der Fulda in Hessen.
Looking for a willing victim, Meiwes placed an ad on The Cannibal Café website, where the line between reality and fantasy was very blurred. In his non-trivial announcement, the maniac stated that he was "looking for a well-built 18-30-year-old man, whom he would first kill and then eat." Homosexual programmer Bernd Jurgen Brandes, with masochistic inclinations, responded to the "tempting" offer. Many people also showed interest, but eventually backed out; Meiwes did not try to force them to do anything against their will.
As it became known from the video recorded by the victim and his executioner, on March 9, 2001, they met at Meiwes' house, where Meiwes amputated Brandes' penis. The two men had sex and then tried to eat the penis before the master butcher finished off his lover. Brandeis insisted that Meiwes bite off his penis, but this proved problematic, so a knife was put into action. Apparently, they wanted to eat the cut piece of flesh raw, but it turned out to be too tough. Then Meiwes fried the penis, using the fat of his partner, and seasoned it with salt, pepper, wine and garlic. As a result, the food was seriously burnt. They cut it up and gave it to the dog.
Meiwes read a book for three hours while Brandeis bled in the bathtub. Brandeis took a large dose of alcohol and painkillers, 20 sleeping pills and another bottle of schnapps and "took" the last kiss of his executioner before he killed him in a specially prepared room - the Slaughter Room. After Meiwes slashed the throat of Brandes, who died from this, he hung the body on a meat hook and began to tear out pieces of flesh. The cannibal from Rothenburg even wanted to grind the bones to make flour out of them. This entire horrific procedure was captured on video lasting about 2 hours. Meiwes stored approximately 20 kg of human meat in a freezer in pizza boxes and ate it for 10 months.
The man-eater was arrested in December 2002 after a college student in Innsbruck led the police on him after seeing a new ad looking for volunteer victims and details of the Brandeis murder online. Investigators searched Meiwes' home and found body parts and a video of the murder.
Brandes' email was presented at the trial, where he really agreed to be eaten and hoped that Meiwes' proposal was not a joke. On January 30, 2004, Meiwes was found guilty of simple murder and sentenced to only 8 years in prison. This case attracted a lot of media attention and provoked discussions about the sentencing, because. Bernd Jurgen Brandes voluntarily and consciously took this step.
Meiwes confessed to everything and expressed his regret. He added that he would like to write a book about his life in order to deter all those who wish to follow his example. Websites dedicated to the master butcher immediately appeared, where people were looking for those who were ready to give themselves to the slaughter. Meiwes said on this occasion: "They need to be treated so as not to come to what happened to me." According to him, about 800 cannibals lived in Germany.
In April 2005, a German court insisted on a retrial when the prosecutor decided to appeal the verdict. The question was raised as to whether Brandeis himself had actually consented to his murder and whether he was legally capable of doing so, given his mental problems as well as his state of intoxication. The question also arose that, probably, by killing Brandes, Meiwes satisfied his own desires, including sexual ones, and did not commit it only because the victim allowed him. After a second trial, the psychologist said that Meiwes is able to do this again and to this day lives "fantasies about devouring the flesh of young people." On May 10, 2006, a court in Frankfurt (Frankfurt) sentenced Meiwes to life imprisonment.
Cannibalism - eating living creatures, including people of their own species, has been known since ancient times. However, in our enlightened age, such an act seems more than just a crime. This is an immoral act, the lowest point of the fall of human consciousness. Nevertheless, to this day there are people who are thirsty to taste the flesh of their own kind. In 2003, such a person was a German citizen Armin Meiwes, who killed and ate his friend Bernd Brandes. This whole story does not fit into the minds of normal people. However, it happened.
In 2003, the whole of Germany shuddered during the trial of 42-year-old cannibal Armin Meiwes. From the materials of the case, it became known that in the winter of 2001, a man posted an ad on one of the Internet portals that he was looking for a "well-fed candidate to be devoured." It would seem that "black humor" in its purest form. However, there was a person who took the ad in all seriousness. Bernd-Jürgen Brandes, a 43-year-old Berliner working for Siemens, showed up at Meiwes's doorstep on March 10, 2001. Before going on this trip, he sold his car, his apartment, settled all his personal affairs and took a leave of absence from work. According to Meiwes, they talked for a while. After that, he cut off Brandes' penis, which he fried and shared the "delicacy" with the guest. Brandeis bled for several more hours and begged to be killed. In the end, he lost consciousness, after which the landlord butchered the body with a 20-centimeter cleaver. The whole process of murder and butchering was meticulously recorded on tape, which became the main evidence of the criminal case. Meiwes scrupulously, with purely German pedantry, cut up the corpse into "tenderloin", "fillet" and "steaks". Separating the head of the unfortunate programmer, he put in freezer. In total, Meiwes managed to eat 20 kilograms of Brandeis before the police knocked on his door. A young Australian student stumbled upon a correspondence between a maniac and a victim on one of the forums, and it seemed strange to him. He told the law enforcement officers about this, and they decided, just in case, to check the apartment and its owner. During the search, even not particularly impressionable cops fainted. The participants in the search completely spoiled their appetite for several days. At the trial, which began in December 2003, Meiwes said that he was only fulfilling his dream. A psychiatric examination confirmed his sanity. The defense operated on the fact that the victim herself wished to be eaten. They wanted to reduce everything to illegal euthanasia. Investigators, on the other hand, focused on the complete lack of remorse in the cannibal. In addition, it turned out that after the murder of Brandes, he again advertised, wanting to get more "fresh meat." And at least twenty people responded to it, who were involved in the case as witnesses. Meiwes's fate fluctuated between a life sentence and several years of probation. As a result, the judge sent the cannibal to eight years in prison.
During the process, the man behaved very decently, answered questions calmly and adequately. It was hard to believe that this man a few years ago ate his own kind with appetite. The judges never found a motive in his actions. He did not receive sexual pleasure from the torment of the victim, did not fall into aggression. He didn't feel any emotion at all. It was like butchering a lamb carcass. The judges were confused.
The former lover of the eaten Brandes, Rene Jasnik, added fuel to the fire. The man stated that they were in a homosexual relationship with the victim, were open to a friend. But Bernd never showed suicidal thoughts. And even more so in such a sophisticated way. After Jasnik got acquainted with the correspondence between the killer and the victim, he fell into hysterics.
Either way, Meiwes went to jail. For some period of time, they tried to forget about this delicate matter. However, the man in prison behaved decently, did not violate the prison regime, and in 2005 he received the opportunity to apply for early release. And again the question arose with an edge. The whole of Germany was thrown into the cold at the mere thought that a terrible cannibal could be free again.
The Frankfurt judge had to watch at least five hours of the terrible home video, on which Meiwes cooks the meat of a murdered person in order to prepare for a new process. It was impossible to release a person who committed such an atrocity.
After all, the history of the cannibal received wide publicity, and he himself became a popular personality. He inspired several writers to create novels about similar psychopaths. And the rock band Rammstein dedicated a song to him. In the end, his story was filmed. The film "Rothenburg" was released on German screens in autumn 2008. Ultimately, Meiwes himself sued this creative fraternity, saying that they slandered him, presenting people with a "killer beast."
In April 2005, the case was finally reviewed. First, Meiwes was denied early release. Secondly, having considered the crime from a new perspective, the judge noted that there was no question of considering the cannibal a person performing an act of mercy. Ultimately, the cannibal was given capital punishment - life imprisonment. In his final speech, the prosecutor stated that "cannibalism is morally and ethically so reprehensible that under no circumstances can it be given a different assessment." According to him, "the accused has stooped to the level of an animal."
