We’ve all heard of personal ads. “Man Seeking Companion”, or “Looking to Adopt a Cat”. They vary from relationships, to the purchase of home goods, to looking for pets. What you wouldn’t expect to find is an ad looking for someone to eat. But that’s just what Armin Meiwes did.
In 2001, 39-year-old Armin Meiwes of Rotenburg, Germany, placed an ad on a now-defunct forum called The Cannibal Cafe as “Anthropagus” or “Franky”. He was “looking for a normally-built 18- to 25-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed.” He found several gay men with cannibalistic fetishes.
Meiwes moved forward with meeting the men in hotel rooms, where they would role-play the act, but in the end, none were willing to actually go through with it. He even encountered a man who wanted to be beaten to death, which was too “weird” for Meiwes.
On March 6, he met another user named “Cator99” who said he wanted to have his penis bitten off and to be killed. The user was 43-year-old Bernd Brandes, a Siemens engineer from Berlin. Though he wasn’t exactly what Meiwes was looking for, he made Brandes a proposal, which he ultimately agreed to..
According to Harper’s, the proposal, read in part:
“After you’re dead, I’ll take you out and expertly carve you up. Except for a pair of knees and some fleshy trash (skin, cartilage, tendons), there won’t be much of you left… I’ll dry out the knees and grind them up soon after…You won’t be the last, hopefully. I’ve already considered catching a young person from the street.”
Brandes sold off all of his personal belongings including a sports car. He erased his hard drive and bought a one-way ticket to Kassel, where Meiwes was to meet him.
The two stopped at a pharmacy before driving to Meiwes’ house where they proceeded to have sex. Ready for the main event, Meiwes was disappointed when Brandes started to back out. But then he took 20 sleeping pills and drank a bottle of cough syrup to dull the pain of what was to come. He was ready.
The pair set up a video camera to record the event. Brandes can be heard saying, “Now do it.”
At first, Brandes insisted he attempt to bite his penis off. This did not work, and Meiwes retrieved a knife to remove it. The video showed the two men attempting to eat it together. Brandes could not, claiming it was “too chewy.”
Meiwes proceeded to fry it – with salt, pepper, wine, garlic, and just a little of Brandes’ own fat. Now cooked, Meiwes fed Brandes a little, but he was only able to take one bite as he slid in and out of consciousness.
Meiwes, in cooking the penis, burned it and so he decided to ground it up, and fed it to his dog. As for Brandes, Meiwes drew him a bath and made sure to check on him every 15 minutes. Knowing that cannibalism wasn’t a crime in Germany at the time, but murder was, he hoped that Brandes would regain consciousness and survive. But after a time, he gave in and stabbed the man in the throat.
Meiwes took the body and hung it on a meat hook where he proceeded to drain his blood and carefully carved him up, placing his meat into meal-sized portions in the freezer. The entire incident was recorded on a four-hour video, which has never been released to the public.
His first “meal” was a special one. “I decorated the table with nice candles. I took out my best dinner service, and fried a piece of rump steak – a piece from his back – made what I call princess potatoes, and sprouts. After I prepared my meal, I ate it.”
In a 2016 interview with The Independent, Meiwes said, “The first bite was, of course, very strange. It was a feeling I can’t really describe. I’d spent over 40 years longing for it, dreaming about it. And now I was getting the feeling that I was actually achieving this perfect inner connection through his flesh. The flesh tastes like pork, but stronger.
Armin Meiwes stayed true to his proposal. He ultimately buried his skull and other inedible body parts in the garden. Over the next 20 months he consumed 44 pounds of Bernd Brandes.
In the meantime, Meiwes continued his search for further victims. It wasn’t until December 10, 2001, when an Austrian student reported him to the police. When police entered his home, they found a false bottom in his freezer and pounds of flesh.
Meiwes claimed the meat was wild boar, but then police found the video tapes.
Meiwes was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder, but was still deemed fit to stand trial. The trial began on December 3, 2003 and on January 30, 2004, he was convicted of manslaughter. He was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison.
In April 2005, a German court retried Meiwes, after prosecutors argued that he should have been tried for murder rather than manslaughter. This time he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
Armin Meiwes has since become a vegetarian.
Still interested in cannibalism? Check out this story about Sawney Bean – the inspiration behind the movie, The Hills Have Eyes.