Armin Meiwes

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Meiwes in a photo taken by a friend.

Armin Meiwes (born December 1, 1961) is a German cannibalistic Internet user who achieved international noteriety as the "Rotenburg Cannibal" or "Der Metzgermeister" (The Master Butcher) after arranging to meet, kill, and eat a man he met over the internet.

Meiwes posted an advertisement on the Internet, looking for a willing victim. Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes responded to the advert. Brandes was known for his interest in mutilation and his activity in the homosexual prostitution scene of his home city. 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 bite his penis off; this did not work, so Meiwes used a knife. When that knife turned out to be too blunt, Meiwes used a sharper knife to slice the penis off. Brandes apparently tried to eat his share of his own penis raw 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 (which 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 body parts in his 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; there were also complications as cannibalism itself was not illegal in Germany at the time [1].

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" [2]. 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.

[edit] 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. Additionally the chorus of Mein Teil says "Denn du bist was du isst" which translates to "You are what you eat." Other songs inspired by Meiwes' story include "The Wüstenfeld Man Eater", by American thrash/death 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 won awards at the 2006 Festival de Cine de Sitges.