Armin Meiwes

Armin Meiwes (English: /ˈɑːrmɪn ˈmaɪvəs/; born 1 December 1961) is a German computer repair technician who achieved international notoriety for killing and eating a voluntary victim who he had found via the Internet. After Meiwes and the victim jointly attempted to eat the victim's severed penis, Meiwes killed his victim and proceeded to eat a large amount of his flesh.^[1] Because of his acts, Meiwes is also known as the Rotenburg Cannibal or Der Metzgermeister (The Master Butcher).

Killing and cannibalism

Looking for a willing volunteer, Meiwes posted an advertisement on the website, The Cannibal Cafe (a blog site for people with cannibal fetishes). Meiwes' post stated that he was "looking for a well-built 18 to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed."^[2] Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes, an engineer from Berlin, answered the advertisement in March 2001. Many other people responded to the advertisement but backed out; Meiwes did not attempt to force them to do anything against their will.^[3][4]

The two made a videotape when they met on 9 March 2001 in Meiwes' home, in the small town of Rotenburg, showcasing Meiwes amputating Brandes' penis (with Brandes' agreement) and the two men attempting to eat it together, before Brandes' ultimate demise. Before doing so Brandes swallowed twenty sleeping pills, and half a bottle of schnapps. Brandes initially insisted that Meiwes attempt to bite his penis off. This did not work, and ultimately, Meiwes used a knife to remove Brandes' appendage. Brandes apparently tried to eat some of his own penis raw but could not, because it was too tough and, as he put it, "chewy". Meiwes then fried the penis in a pan with salt, pepper, wine, and garlic; he then fried it with some of Brandes' fat, but by then it was too burned to be consumed. He then chopped the penis up into chunks and fed it to his dog.^[1] According to court officials who saw the video (which has not been made public), Brandes may already have been too weakened from blood loss to eat any of his penis.

Meiwes then ran Brandes a bath, before going to read a Star Trek book, while checking back on Brandes every fifteen minutes, during which time Brandes lay bleeding in the bath. Later Brandes got out of the bath and collapsed, falling into unconsciousness, due to blood loss. Meiwes then claims to have dragged him upstairs. Brandes continued to drift in and out of consciousness before finally collapsing again. After long hesitation and prayer Meiwes killed Brandes by stabbing him in the throat, after which he hung the body on a meat hook. The incident was recorded on a four-hour videotape. Meiwes ate the corpse over the next ten months, storing body parts in his freezer under pizza boxes and consuming up to 20 kilograms (44 lb) of the flesh. According to prosecutors, Meiwes committed the act for sexual pleasure.^[5][6]

Arrest, trial, and conviction of manslaughter

Meiwes was arrested in December 2002, when a college student in Innsbruck phoned the police after seeing new advertisements for victims and details about the killing on the Internet. Investigators searched his home, and found body parts and the videotape of the killing.

On 30 January 2004, Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in prison. The case attracted considerable media attention.^[7]

Meiwes has admitted cannibalizing Brandes and has expressed regret for his actions. He added he wanted to write a book of his life story with the aim of deterring anyone who wants to follow his footsteps. Websites dedicated to Meiwes have appeared, with people advertising for willing victims. "They should go for treatment, so it doesn't escalate like it did with me", said Meiwes. While in prison, Meiwes has since become a vegetarian.^[8] He believes there are about 800 cannibals in Germany.^[7]

Retrial and murder conviction

In April 2005, a German court ordered a retrial after prosecutors appealed Meiwes' sentence. They believed he should have been convicted of murder. Among the questions courts answered is whether Brandes agreed to his killing, and whether he was legally capable of doing so at the moment, taking into account his apparent mental problems as well as his significant intake of alcohol.

Other aspects of the retrial determined whether Meiwes killed to satiate his own desires (in particular sexual desires) or because he was asked to, the former having been repeatedly rejected by Meiwes during testimony. At his retrial, a psychologist stated that Meiwes could reoffend and still "had fantasies about devouring the flesh of young people".^[9] On 10 May 2006, a court in Frankfurt convicted Meiwes of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.^[10]

Consultant in criminal cases

According to a Bild report from October 2007, Meiwes was helpful in the analysis of two suspected cannibal murders from 1998 and 2000, in which two young boys were found mutilated.^[11]

Cultural impact

Films

• The short film An Appetite for Bernard Brady (2005), directed by Chris Mangano and written by Todd van der Ark and Chris Mangano, was loosely based on the case but strictly takes the point of view from the victim's perspective as the character comes to terms with the idea of being eaten. The film was nominated for multiple awards at Montana State University School of Film and Photography's 2005 Tracy Awards, and won the Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and Audience Awards. The film also won the 2005 Seattle Student Film Festival's audience choice award.

• The feature film Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story (aka Rohtenburg) was banned in Germany after Meiwes complained that his personality rights had been violated. The ban has since been lifted by Germany's highest civil court on appeal and has been released in German cinemas. 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.

• 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.^[12]

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
• Ulli Lommel's Diary of a Cannibal.

• The 2005 Australian thriller Feed also bears many resemblances to the case but is not a direct adaptation.

Music

• The Swedish death metal band Bloodbath wrote the song, "Eaten", which voices Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes' desire to be eaten alive, all while witnessing the act.
• The rock musician Marilyn Manson has identified Meiwes as an inspiration in the titling of his album Eat Me, Drink Me.^[13]

• The German industrial metal band Rammstein wrote the song, "Mein Teil", which specifically references this case and was hugely controversial when it was released.

Television

• Season 2, Episode 3 of the sitcom The IT Crowd, titled "Moss and the German", parodies the Meiwes case. The character Maurice Moss, thinking he is answering an advert for a German cookery course, ends up in the house of an aspiring German cannibal, where the error is revealed, the fault lying with the man's poor grasp of the English language when writing the advert.

• In 2008, MORE Music and Media released the four-hour interview and documentary from RTL Extra on DVD as Der Kannibale von Rotenburg; it was released in the UK as Armin Meiwes: The Cannibal.^[14]

• Season 1, Episode 1 of the TV series Rake, titled "R.V. Murray", features an accused cannibal who eats his volunteer in similar circumstances to the Meiwes case.^[15] Also, Season 1, Episode 4 of the 2014 American remake of Rake, titled "Cannibal", features an accused cannibal.^[16]

• An episode of Hannibal made reference to the incident with the character of Mason Verger: "You boys remind me of that German cannibal who advertised for a friend and then ate him and his penis before he died. Tragedy being the penis was overcooked. Go to all that trouble to eat a friend and you overcook his penis! They ate it anyway. They had to. They committed. But they didn't enjoy it."^[17]

• In an August 2016 episode of the Pitchfork series "Over/Under", guest Eric André makes reference to Meiwes. "I want to see an episode where Wile E. Coyote violently, savagely, tears Road Runner apart... Eats him alive, you know, cuts his dick off and barbecues it and eats it like that German computer technician did to that guy he found on Craigslist."^[18]

• Season 7, episode 11 of 30 Rock - "A Goon's Deed in a Weary World" - features Pete lamenting about their dwindling advertisers. He says that the only advertiser they have left is a German guy who wants to eat someone but "even Gunter's having doubts."

Theatre

• In 2014, TASTE, an award winning play inspired by the case, premiered in Los Angeles at the Sacred Fools Theater Company. The play was written by Screenwriter Benjamin Brand and directed by Stuart Gordon. The production was nominated for various awards from all of the major Los Angeles theatrical critic organizations. The production starred Chris McKenna and Donal, and was produced by Gordon, Dean Schramm, Ben Rock, and Adam Goldworm.^[19]

See also

• Cannibalism
• Consensual homicide
• Internet homicide
• Luka Rocco Magnotta
• Vorarephilia

References

External links

• Profile: Cannibal Armin Meiwes. BBC News
• Cannibal film banned in Germany. BBC News
• Victim of cannibal agreed to be eaten . The Guardian
• DOCS: Interview With A Cannibal. YouTube