Rohtenburg (Grimm Love) a 2006 German horror movie inspired by the Armin Meiwes caseGay cannibal Armin Meiwes' first taste of human flesh was a penis flambéed with garlic, which he shared with its owner, Bernd-Jurgen Brandes.
Meiwes was convicted only of manslaughter because cannibalism is not strictly speaking a crime in Germany, and because his victim had volunteered to be eaten after replying to an internet advert.
The two met after Meiwes placed the advert searching for a well built man happy to be killed and eaten.
Brandes replied to the advert and wrote his will immediately before he was killed. The couple first romped on a bare bed, and Brandes, high on a combination of alcohol and painkillers, asked Meiwes to bite his penis off.
It didn't work so, they used a knife, which turned out to be too blunt, but they eventually managed to cut it off with a sharper one. Brandes tried to eat the penis raw, but found it too tough, so Meiwes fried the penis with salt, pepper and garlic.
After the meal, Meiwes stabbed Brandes and left him to bleed in a warm bath for several hours. Later to finish the job he dragged him to another room and cut his throat. Meiwes' next meal of Brandes was accompanied by a South African red wine, and tasted like pork.
The entire incident was recorded on a video which was never made public. Some of the journalists to have seen the video later sought professional counselling. Meiwes was quoted as saying "My friend enjoyed dying, death. I only waited for the end after doing the deed. It took so terribly long."
Posting on websites like 'Flesh and Bone' and 'Cannibal Café', Meiwes had been in contact with hundreds of potential victims before he finally found his match.
He rejected one previous suitor as too extreme, the man wanted him to burn his testicles with a flamethrower. Another man, from London, came all the way to Meiwes' home, but was allowed to leave after balking at the thought of consuming his own flesh. Other potential victims who visited Meiwes' home were strung up by their feet whilst Meiwes outlined the cuts of meat on their bodies with a felt tip pen.
Police were alerted to Meiwes when he went back online to begin looking for another victim. When they came to his house he freely admitted his crime, and led them to the evidence.
Meiwes developed the fantasy of eating a person before he was a teenager. He said at the trial that he felt ignored by his father and longed for a good looking younger brother – to eat, of course. There has also been speculation about both men's relationships with their mothers, and inevitable comparisons between Miewes' enormous house and the creaking motel in Hitchcock's Psycho.
Meiwes' mother beat him publicly and accompanied him on dates, which led to Miewes creating an imaginary brother called Franky. Brandes' mother died in a car crash when he was only twelve years old.
Brandes' father often referred to the accident as suicide, and psychologists believe Brandes may have felt himself responsible.
According to a male prostitute giving testimony at the trial, Brandes had long entertained the fantasy of having his penis cut off, and had even offered him money to do it.
Meiwes is known as the 'Rotenburg Cannibal' or 'Der Metzgemeister', meaning the master butcher. He has stated that he intends to spend his time in jail writing his memoirs, and hopes to cash in when his story becomes a Hollywood blockbuster. The case has already inspired several hit singles, a book, and two films.
Meiwes was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to eight and half years in jail, but is facing a retrial for murder.
The key issue is whether Brandes consented to be killed, or whether he was mentally unfit to consent due to his psychological problems and the large amount of drugs and alcohol in his bloodstream at the time of the killing.
Meiwes is also likely to be found guilty of murder if it is decided that he killed Brandes to fulfil his own sexual desire rather than because of Brandes' own desire to be killed. If found guilty of murder, Meiwes will face life imprisonment.
Update 2021 - Meiwes was found guilty of murder in his 2006 retrial and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. He is supposedly a model prisoner and became a vegetarian while behind bars. Miewes is occasionally left out on day release. He is taken by two accompanying officers to another state where he is allowed to walk around town in disguise, wearing a hat and sunglasses.
Armin Meiwes became known as the real-life Hannibal Lecter from the movie The Silence of the LambsOther articles by Robert Easton
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