Armin Meiwes: The German Cannibal Who Posted An Ad For Someone Willing To ‘Get Eaten’ And Got A Taker

The fantasy of killing and devouring someone was something Meiwes carried from the age of eight, according to German prosecutors.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the annals of crime throw up a case more bizarre than you could ever imagine. 

Today’s edition of the ‘Most Shocking Crimes’ features the story of Armin Meiwes from the small German town of Rotenburg who advertised on the internet for a man “who wanted to be eaten”, and also got a positive response. 

Meiwes was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison in 2004 after being found guilty of manslaughter in the death of Bernd Juergen Brandes — the man who answered his ad.

‘Anybody Wants To Get Eaten?’

In March 2001, Meiwes, a middle-aged computer expert, posted an advertisement on the internet for a “young well-built man, who wants to be eaten”.  The advertisement was titled, “Dinner – or your dinner”, and Brandes answered, offering Meiwes “the chance to eat me alive,” he said in an interview for a documentary ‘Docs: Interview with a Cannibal’, according to a report in Independent.

The fantasy of killing and devouring someone was something Meiwes carried from the age of eight, according to German prosecutors. That desire only grew strong after the death of his mother in 1999, prosecutor Marcus Köhler said, a Guardian report noted. 

Brandes, a 43-year-old Berlin engineer who was successful and financially secure, met Meiwes on March 9, 2001. 

“I was nervous and excited," Meiwes said. 

The two had sex at Meiwes’s home but he said Brandes was not satisfied and “wanted to be eaten alive”. 

Slaughter Room 

After two rounds of sexual intercourse began a cannibalistic ritual in the so-called “slaughter room” of Meiwes’ isolated timbered house, an NBC News report noted. 

Brandes swallowed 20 sleeping tablets and a half bottle of schnapps before Meiwes cut off his penis, with his agreement, and fried it – to be eaten by both of them, reported The Guardian. By this stage, Brandes, who had started to bleed heavily, took a bath while Meiwes read a Star Trek novel. Meiwes checked on Brandes every 15 minutes. 

In the early hours of the next morning, it was the time for the final goodbye as Meiwes kissed Brandes before stabbing him in the neck with a large kitchen knife. 

The ‘First Bite’ 

Meiwes chopped Brandes into pieces and put parts of him in the freezer while burying the skull in his garden, he said in the documentary. He decorated the table with “nice candles” and took out the “best dinner service”. 

He then “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.” 

Describing the first experience, 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.” 

Over the next few days, he defrosted and cooked parts of his lover in olive oil and garlic, eventually consuming 20kg of human flesh before police finally knocked on his door. 

On December 10, 2002, an Austrian student tipped off the police about what Meiwes had done.

The Imaginary Brother 

During his trial in court, Meiwes claimed his lonely childhood led him to create “Franky”, an imaginary brother who listened to him, reported BBC. At the start of the trial in December 2003, Meiwes said his motive for killing and eating Brandes stemmed from a desire for this younger brother he never had - “someone to be part of me”.

As he ate Brandes, he finally got his “big kick”, he said at his trial. 

Trial And Retrial 

Meiwes was handed an eight-and-a-half-year prison term in 2004 after being found guilty of manslaughter. But a judge ordered a retrial after ruling that the sentence was too lenient. During the retrial, prosecutors said Meiwes had a “fetish for human flesh” and could re-offend.  

The prosecution also made a graphic case and argued that he should never be released from prison, reported BBC. 

A video filmed by Meiwes during the acts of cannibalism was central to the prosecution’s case, and they argued the footage proved that Meiwes killed his victim for sexual pleasure. In 2006, the cannibal killer was sentenced to life in prison as the court overturned his earlier eight-year sentence, reported the Guardian.

Interestingly, during his time in prison, Meiwes became vegetarian.