• Source:JND
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In a chilling case that shocked the world, Armin Meiwes, a German man, lured his victim through a disturbing online advertisement and proceeded to kill and eat him over the course of 10 months. The gruesome story unfolded after Meiwes posted a request for a willing volunteer to be slaughtered and consumed, leading to one of Germany’s most horrifying cannibalism cases.

In March 2001, Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer technician from Rotenburg, Germany, posted an online advertisement on a cannibalism-themed forum. His request? A “young, well-built man willing to be slaughtered and eaten.” What was expected to be dismissed as a grotesque fantasy turned into a real-life horror when someone replied with a shocking offer.

Bernd Jurgen Brandes, a 43-year-old engineer from Berlin, not only responded, he volunteered. According to later interviews and the documentary Docs: Interview with a Cannibal, Brandes wanted to be eaten alive. The two men met on March 9, 2001, at Meiwes’s home. After consuming a sedative-laced cocktail and alcohol, Meiwes amputated Brandes’ penis, which they attempted to eat together.

A Grisly Feast

After the initial act, Meiwes killed Brandes and methodically butchered his body. Over the next 10 months, Meiwes consumed nearly 20 kilograms of human flesh, storing parts in his freezer. He even prepared one meal using a piece of Brandes’s back, potatoes, and sprouts, served on his finest dinnerware.

Meiwes’s fascination with cannibalism reportedly began in childhood. Prosecutors said he was emotionally neglected, abandoned by his father, and lost his mother in 1999. He invented an imaginary friend named “Franky” and fantasised about “becoming one” with him through cannibalism. Influences included Hansel and Gretel, Robinson Crusoe, and his early exposure to animal slaughter on farms.

Dark Online World

Meiwes was active on cannibal fetish forums under the alias "Anthropophagus." He posted more than 60 advertisements before Brandes replied. Many users expressed interest but backed out. Meiwes had met others in person, including a man named "Meatboy," but they never followed through. Brandes, however, was disturbingly resolute.

Meiwes filmed the entire event as proof of Brandes’s consent. He was initially convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years, but was retried and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 2006. The court ruled that true consent could not legalise such an act.