WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT. When Armin Meiwes’s crime was uncovered, it led to one of the most extraordinary trials in German history given the defendant’s unique defence – that he had his victim’s consent
To his neighbours, Armin Meiwes seemed like a normal, everyday man. He would help fix their cars, mow their lawns and even host them for dinner. But under the facade, the 42-year-old computer technician was hiding a horrifying secret.
Meiwes was a self-confessed cannibal. In a bid to fulfil his unthinkable desires, he lured a 43-year-old engineer from Berlin, named Bernd Brandes, to a heinous death. It led to one of the most unique trials in German criminal history.
On the first day of his trial, Meiwes said it had been a dark thought he’d been harbouring for some time. “I always had the fantasy and in the end I fulfilled it,” he chillingly admitted. Prosecutors said that Meiwes had fantasised about killing and devouring someone from the age of eight, a desire which grew stronger after the death of his mother in 1999.
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In March 2001, Meiwes advertised on the internet for a “young well-built man, who wanted to be eaten”. Bernd Brandes replied. On the evening of 9 March, the two men went up to the bedroom in Meiwes’ 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 – who was by this stage bleeding heavily – then took a bath, while Meiwes read a Star Trek novel. In the early hours of the morning, he finally killed his victim by stabbing him in the neck with a large kitchen knife. He reportedly kissed him first.
Meiwes then chopped Mr Brandes into pieces and put several bits of him in his freezer, next to a takeaway pizza, before burying his skull in his garden. Over the next few weeks, he defrosted and cooked parts of Mr Brandes’ body 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, via the Guardian. Meiwes told detectives that he had eaten his victim – who he said tasted like pork – with a bottle of South African red wine. He had got out his best cutlery, and decorated his dinner table with candles.
The case caused shockwaves around the world – and also caused a problem for lawyers who discovered that cannibalism was not in fact illegal in Germany. Instead, they had to charge him with murder for the purposes of sexual pleasure and “disturbing the peace of the dead”.
Meiwes, however, has a unique defence: his victim had actually agreed to be killed and eaten. He had made a video tape throughout the evening, in which Brandes apparently made clear he was giving his consent. Prosecutors said 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. The events of that night were uncovered when, in July 2001, a student found one of Meiwes’ new advertisements and wrote him an e-mail to Meiwes, asking if he had actually killed anyone.
When Meiwes answered in the affirmative, the student reported Meiwes’ e-mail address to the authorities. On 30 January 2004, the regional court of Kassel convicted Meiwes of manslaughter and sentenced him to eight years and six months in prison.
Then, on 22 April 2005, the German Federal Court ordered a retrial after prosecutors appealed Meiwes’ sentence, arguing that he should have been convicted of murder because he killed for sexual gratification, a motive proved by his having videotaped the crime.
The court ruled that the original trial had ignored the significance of the video in disproving the argument that Meiwes only killed because he had been asked to kill.
His retrial began on 12 January 2006. A psychologist stated that Meiwes could re-offend, as he “still had fantasies about devouring the flesh of young people”. On 10 May 2006, the higher regional court of Frankfurt am Main convicted Meiwes of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
