July 24, 2018 ▸ People, True Crime

Episode 317: Armin Meiwes: The Rotenburg Cannibal

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On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we turn our gaze to some true crime and talk about the bizarre and horrible case of Armin Meiwes, aka the “Rotenburg Cannibal.” Meiwes is a murderer. Kind of. Depending on how you interpret the law. You see, in 2001, this German computer repair technician (I’m looking at you, Brent…) put an ad on a cannibal website, like you do. It said what you’d expect: “looking for a well-built 18 to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed.” Since this is humanity we’re talking about, he had volunteers. Plural.

The first one was too fat, so Meiwes didn’t go for it. The second one got scared and backed out at the last minute, and the third one was just right. His name was Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes, and he was a German engineer. He agreed to be killed and eaten, but Brandes included the one request you’d expect in such circumstances; he wanted to eat his own penis first.

So, Brandes and Armin Meiwes got to know each other. They corresponded through letters together, then met in person, had lots of sex apparently, and recorded a video tape. Of everything. The sex, the agreement to kill and eat Brandes, him saying he was willingly surrendering his life, and even the killing and slaughter of the body to bite-sized portions. It was all caught on tape.

Meiwes ate this meat for months and even ground the bones into flour. Eventually, as his man-meat was running low, Armin Meiwes put out another advertisement, and this time, it got him in trouble. The German officials raided his house, finding his horrible video tapes, the frozen body parts, and the used kill-room. Meiwes confessed and was quickly arrested.

So, what did Armin Meiwes finally get convicted of? What happened at his retrial, and why was it allowed? What happened to the penis he cooked? What body part did he let his dog eat? How do you prepare a fried penis, anyway? Listen, laugh, learn.

Ramstein: Mein Teil music video that mentions Meiwes, you know, in German.