When the internet was young, people were still getting to know about this technology.
But because there were no apparent rules, or laws, that govern what can and cannot be uploaded or made, a number of weird and controversial websites were developed, and that the government did nothing.
And at that time, there was Armin Meiwes, a German former computer repair technician.
He had a fetish, but nothing about his fetish is ordinary.
To fulfill this, he used the early World Wide Web to post an advertisement on a website called "The Cannibal Cafe Forum." Through the now-defunct forum where people with a cannibalism fetish gather, Meiwes's advertisement stated that he was "looking for a well-built 18- to 25-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed."
In the forum, Meiwes used the name "Franky," his imaginary childhood friend.
Many other people responded to the advertisement, but eventually, all backed out.
One remained, and his name was Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes.
Brandes, a 43-year-old engineer from Berlin, answered the advertisement in March 2001, saying that "I’ll bring myself as breakfast."
While Brandes is older than what Meiwes wanted, Meiwes agreed.
The two then met on March 9th, 2001, at Meiwes' house, located in the small town of Wüstefeld, west of Rotenburg an der Fulda. Germany.
There, the two had sex, and talked about hobbies, including computers, while drinking some coffee.
Meiwes explained that he isn't forcing Brandes to do anything against his will, in which Brandes agrees.
It was only after this, that the gruesome act began.
Meiwes revealed how he had decorated the table with candles in preparation for the illegal act. He then ate part of Brandes' back, describing how he had been "longing" for it.
"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," he 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."
Meiwes then attempted to amputate Brandes' penis, with his agreement. The two men wanted to eat it together.
Brandes initially insisted that Meiwes should try biting his penis off. This did not work, and ultimately, Meiwes had to use a knife to remove it.
Brandes thought he couldn’t go through with it, and asked to be taken to the train station. However, he stayed when he managed to deal with the pain, by swallowing around twenty sleeping pills, and a bottle of cough syrup.
He drank everything with a little bit of schnapps.
Both Meiwes and Brandes then tried to consume the phallus, but failed because it was too hard, and "chewy," as Brandes puts it.
To make it 'edible,' Meiwes fried the penis in a pan with salt, pepper, wine, and garlic. Meiwes even tried frying it with some of Brandes' fat. But apparently, it seems that human fat burns faster than animal fat, and because of that, the penis was too burnt to be consumed.
Because of this, Meiwes chopped the penis up into smaller chunks and fed it to his dog.
During this time, Brandes was already too weak to eat any of his penis, caused by blood loss and due to the amount of medicine he consumed.
Meiwes then put Brandes inside a bathtub, giving him a bath, and let him rest, before going to read a Star Trek book for a few hours straight. Meiwes checked on Brandes every fifteen minutes, during which time Brandes lay bleeding in the bath, drifting in and out of consciousness.
After long hesitation and prayer, Meiwes killed Brandes by stabbing him in the throat.
"I waited horrified for the end after doing the deed. It took so terribly long," Meiwes said.
Brandes, now dead, was then hung on a meet hook.
Meiwes allegedly dismembered the corpse, cutting it to smaller pieces, and then placing the flesh into plastic bags that he labeled and stored in his freezer under some pizza boxes. He even tried grinding the bones to use as flour.
As for the remains he couldn't make use of, Meiwes buried them in his backyard.
In the span of ten months, Meiwes consumed at least 20 kilograms of Brandes, before the police arrested him.
It was only after this, that Meiwes received mass-media attention.
After his arrest, even more websites dedicated to cannibalism, and also Meiwes, started appearing, with many people started advertising themselves for willing victims.
Armin Meiwes was arrested in December 2002, when he posted another ad on the forum looking for his next victim and describing in detail what he did to his last victim.
It was another reader of the forum who notified the police.
Then, in January 2004, Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years and six months in prison.
This happened because there is not apparent law against cannibalism, including in Germany, and many other countries.
But then in April 2005, a German court ordered a retrial after prosecutors appealed Meiwes' sentence, arguing that he should have been convicted of murder. It's said that Meiwes murdered Brandes for sexual gratification.
A motive for this is proved by a four-hour videotape, which has never been released to the public due to its gruesome content.
The court ruled that the original trial had indeed ignored the significance of the video, and because of that, on 10 May 2006, a court in Frankfurt convicted Meiwes of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
A psychologist stated that Meiwes could reoffend, as he "still had fantasies about devouring the flesh of young people."
During the trial, Meiwes defended himself saying that it was a voluntary killing. Because of this, he was tried for murder for the purposes of sexual pleasure.
Because of his acts, Meiwes is also known as the Rotenburg Cannibal or Der Metzgermeister (The Master Butcher).
Human cannibalism is a are occurrence, but it does happen from time to time.
In the past, humans have engaged in cannibalism when dealt with certain situations, such as famine, or when stranded and that there's nothing to eat but other fellow humans.
Cannibalism is also practiced by some indigenous tribes. In Fuji, the Amazon Basin, the Congo, and the Māori people of New Zealand, for example. Then, cannibalism was also practiced in New Guinea and in parts of the Solomon Islands. Human flesh was also sold at markets in some parts of Melanesia.
However, human cannibalism is extremely uncommon in the modern world.
And what makes Armin Meiwes' case concerning, is the fact that he suffers cannibalism, and considers it as a sexual fetish.
Meiwes experienced sexual pleasure when thinking about eating people, and had even more pleasure when mutilating, and consuming Brandes.
Often, cannibal fetishists can experience sexual ecstasy, and even orgasming, just by cutting into the flesh of their victims.
Brandes ‘"came to me of his own free will to end his life. For him, it was a nice death," Meiwes said during his trial.
Due to the taboo nature of this fetish, it's not known how many people experience these fantasies or why they come about.
What's more, cannibals in the modern world tend to be loners.
Regardless, Meiwes who described the taste of human flesh as like pork, but stronger, has become a a vegetarian since in prison.
He also said that he doesn't want anyone to follow his footsteps.
"They should go for treatment, so it doesn't escalate like it did with me," said Meiwes, who believed that there are hundreds of people like him.
It's worth noting that Meiwes was already addicted to internet pornography, particularly to those that show pain and torture as its theme.
In 2023, the Meiwes' house was burned down. While the police didn't detail the cause of the overnight blaze in the small central town of Rotenburg, officials said they weren't ruling out arson,
Mayor Christian Grunwald said that he hoped the fire would put an end to frequent trips to the location by people coming out of curiosity and for other reasons.
"The ruin must be removed permanently; it must not become a pilgrimage site," he said.
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