He Posted an Ad Seeking a Man to Kill and Eat. Someone Responded

Two decades ago, a German courtroom confronted a question that sounded impossible: could someone be guilty of murder if the victim had signed a contract agreeing to be killed—and eaten?

The case revolved around Armin Meiwes, who admitted to killing and cannibalizing Bernd Brandes, a man he connected with through an online forum focused on extreme sexual fantasies. Meiwes had posted an ad seeking a “well-built male” for “slaughter and consumption,” and Brandes replied, according to NBC News. The two later met in person and prepared a written agreement detailing what would happen.

Meiwes’ defense argued the crime should have been treated under Germany’s then-existing laws on so-called “killing on demand,” rather than murder, because Brandes had explicitly requested death and documented his consent. Under German law at the time, per The Guardian, killing on demand carried a maximum sentence of five years—dramatically less than a murder conviction. Prosecutors rejected that framing and maintained Meiwes committed murder.

Before his death, Brandes was a successful, financially stable professional who lived with his girlfriend. The girlfriend, identified as Bettina L., told German television that the couple had a healthy sex life but later separated after Brandes disclosed he was also attracted to men, according to The Guardian. Prosecutors said Brandes suffered from a severe psychiatric disorder and had a powerful drive toward self-destruction.

According to trial accounts described by CBS News, Brandes drank alcohol and took sleeping pills before Meiwes cut off his genitals with Brandes’ consent. The two then attempted to eat the victim’s private parts together.

Brandes did not die quickly. Instead, he bled for hours.

Prosecutors said Brandes lay in a bathtub as he hemorrhaged, while Meiwes stayed with him and read aloud from a Star Trek novel. When Brandes did not die from blood loss, prosecutors said, Meiwes stabbed him to death—then dismembered the body and stored portions in a freezer.

The cannibalism continued for months. Meiwes said he ate parts of Brandes’ remains that he had kept frozen, according to a prison interview cited by Spiegel International.

In later interviews, Meiwes claimed his actions were rooted in a lifelong obsession with “absorbing” another person. He said he had always wanted a younger brother—someone he could make part of himself—and that cannibalism became, in his mind, a way to realize that fantasy.

“The first bite was of course a peculiar, indefinable feeling at first,” Meiwes said. “Because I had yearned for that for 30 years, that this inner connection would be made perfect through this flesh.”

Meiwes told investigators he received hundreds of responses to his online post but turned most away, the BBC reported. He said he chose Brandes because they shared sexual chemistry.

In 2004, Meiwes was initially convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. Germany’s Federal Court of Justice later overturned the punishment as too lenient and ordered a retrial, ruling that consent could not cancel out murder in a case involving sexual gratification and cruelty.

At the retrial, prosecutors again highlighted the sexual and ritual elements of the crime. In 2006, a German court sentenced Meiwes to life in prison for murder, Al Jazeera reported.

The case reentered public attention in 2020 when The Times of London reported that Meiwes—described by officials as polite and cooperative in custody—had been granted limited supervised day releases, prompting renewed public alarm over the brutality of the crime.