Armin Meiwes: "The Master Butcher"

NOTE: Cannibalism is not a crime in Germany.

This topic has seemed to have struck a cord in us bloggers considering my blog on it recieved #1 top blog yesterday. It too, struck a cord in me, when I first read about it, and I was glad to see, after reading all of your responses so far, that you all agree with me: Meiwes should be convicted for murder.

However, I must state before I continue on to tell you all the result of this case, that after doing more investigation into the case, I discovered Meiwes videotaped the entire incident and provided the defense with email from Brandes asking to be killed, giving the defense physical evidence that their client was indeed telling the truth: his victim had ASKED to be killed.

But, in my opinion, regardless of the fact that Brandes asked Meiwes to kills him, Meiwes still must be considered a murderer and should be tried and convicted as so.  He premeditated the murder of another person, planning out way before that particular bloody night in March 2001 that he was going to kill this man Brandes. If my sister asked me to shoot her and I did, I would be considered a murderer, simple as that.

The defense argued it was assisted suicide. Meiwes was helping Brandes end his life.  However, in the case of assisted suicide, it usually occurs in when a person is uncapable of ending their own life themselves (hense the name assisted suicide). In assisted suicide, a person is ending their own life, is committing suicide, via the aid of another person because they themselves cannot physically do it on their own. That person is, in a sense, acting in place of the person committing suicide. I'm not going to argue whether assisted suicide is right or wrong. I am merely stating that this is what assisted suicide means.

Meiwes was not assisting Brandes in a suicide that Brandes was physically unable to commit himself. Brandes was a healthy man in his 40's with no disabilities. Meiwes murdered Brandes.

I also discovered that in Germany there are only two types of murder: Murder (both premeditated and unpremeditated) and manslaughter (same as our meaning: without intent to murder or by accident).

Without further ado, here are the results of the most famous and sensational German trial of the 21st century: The trial of Arwin Meiwes, also known as "The Master Butcher":

Meiwes was arrested in December 2002, after apparently posting new requests for victims on the internet. A young man who read one of the ads reported it to the police.

Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 8 and a half years in prison in 2004; the case attracted considerable media attention and also led to a debate over whether Meiwes could be convicted at all given that Brandes had voluntarily and knowingly participated in the act. Evidence provided by the defense was a video tape made my Meiwes of the entire incident.

During the trial Meiwes' lawyer, Harald Ermel, cited e-mails in which the victim insisted on being killed and eaten. One read: "There's absolutely no way back for me, only forwards, through your teeth."

Meiwes' video of the killing in March 2001, as well as a note left by Bandes in his apartment saying he was a willing victim, persuaded even prosecutors to concede the death was voluntary.

Media and observers were kept outside while the tape was shown to the court. One newspaper said a woman almost fainted during the film, which shows Meiwes talking to the severed head while he disembowels the body, hung from a hook.

Emotionless and calm, Meiwes recalled how he began the killing by cutting off the victim's penis at the victim's request, how they fried it in a pan and tried but failed to eat it.

Brandes: A new kind of sausage.

Meiwes then told how they waited for hours until the victim, weakened by loss of blood from his wound, fell unconscious.

He then stabbed Brandes to death, cut him in pieces and ate 20 kilograms of him over the following months, defrosting pieces portion by portion. Psychiatric experts have found Meiwes to be sane and fit to stand trial.

He told the court he had fantasized since puberty about consuming a man. But he said he regretted the deed and would not repeat it. "I had my big kick and don't need to do this any more," he told the court.

However, several witnesses in the case disagreed, citing personal examples of meetings they had with Meiwes after replying to his ads.

One man, Jorg Bose, testified that he had agreed to become the second victim of Armin Meiwes. Bose, the first of five men who initially agreed to become Meiwes' supper and for various reasons never made it to the dinner table, said that he, like Brandes, met Meiwes on an internet cannibalism bulletin board about five years ago and they kept up an email dialogue where they discussed their fantasies. Bose said that shortly after he arrived at Meiwes' home he removed his clothes and Meiwes strung him up on a meat hook, then using a pulley, brought him over a butcher table where his body was smeared in oil and Meiwes marked out his body for butchering. Bose said he finally began to feel ill and Meiwes let him off the hook. He said he left soon after.

Dirk Moller, 27, a London-based hotel worker, was the second witness. He told the court how he was chained to a bed by Meiwes and also had his body marked out for butchery before changing his mind and released. Like the other two, Moller said he met Meiwes on the internet where Moller outlined his desire to be killed and eaten by Meiwes. But Moller got cold feet after they met in person and Meiwes showed him a video of Bose hung up on the meat hook.

Meiwes agreed that everything both witnesses had said was true.

This month, a German court ordered a retrial after prosecutors appealed against his sentence. They believed he should have been given a life sentence for murder, and not the one for manslaughter. A date for the new trial has not been set.

Meiwes is undergoing psychotherapy in prison and is a model prisoner. If he continues, he should be out in 2008 on good behavior. He is currently writing a book on how he came to live his ultimate fantasy.  

The song "Mein Teil" by German metal band Rammstein was inspired by the case (Here are the English version of the lyrics). In 2004, a German filmmaker announced plans to make a movie about the German cannibal entitled Your Heart In My Head; it has already received funding from a regional film foundation and is in production.

(Taken from various news sources)