Armin Meiwes, The Rotenburg Cannibal

Wustefeld Manor

Investigation and Arrest

Although Brandes was missing, Meiwes managed to elude detection for the rest of 2001 and for most of 2002. It wasn’t until a college student from Austria called the police in December 2002 to report that he’d seen advertisements for victims on the Internet, along with details about a killing. The tip, along with photographic evidence of a butchered body, presumably that of Brandes, which he’d allegedly sent out to future invitees, eventually led police to Meiwes’ home, an expansive 16,000 square foot residence with 36 rooms, known as Wustefeld Manor, located in Amstetten in central Germany about 160 kilometers southeast of Kassel and surrounded by meadows. The home’s origins could be traced back to the year 1299, but some say it may have actually been built around 900 A.D. Even Meiwes’ deceased mother’s bedroom remained intact, with some of her personal items still laid out on a dresser, reminiscent of a scene right out of the Alfred Hitchcock movie, Psycho. The only thing missing was “mother’s” mummified corpse.

Meiwes purportedly constructed a shrine to his mother inside the house, including a plastic mannequin that presumably represented her which he laid to rest on a pillow in her bed each night.

When they searched the premises, led to the various areas by Meiwes himself who readily confessed what he had done, they found body parts and the videotape that Meiwes had recorded of his actions. They also uncovered a torture room that Meiwes had constructed, consisting of a cage meant for a future willing victim and an oversized barbecue pit, and a large formal dining room where police theorized he had consumed meals consisting of Brandes’ body parts. Meiwes also led police to a container of ground bone-meal.

A skull, bones, and internal organs were found buried in the yard.

When they viewed the videotapes, the police could see a man dressed in a butcher’s apron disemboweling and cutting up a male body with precision. His grisly acts helped earn Meiwes the German moniker of Der

Armin Meiwes' bathtub

Metzgermeister, or The Master Butcher in English.

According to the German daily Bild, police also learned that Brandes had sold all of his belongings, including his car, and then took off from work the day he disappeared for personal reasons. Police also learned of a last will and testament that Brandes had written, dated January 2001 about two months before he disappeared and was killed.

Meiwes was arrested and initially charged with murder.

“I had the fantasy, and, in the end, I fulfilled it,” Meiwes had told the police after his arrest. He also said that he hated himself for having killed another person, but felt that eating Brandes had somehow made him whole and provided him with a soul mate.

“With every bite, my memory of him grew stronger,” Meiwes said. “My friend enjoyed dying, death. I only waited horrified for the end after doing the deed. It took so terribly long.”

The investigation revealed that Meiwes had been a well-behaved child who had been obsessed with the Brothers Grimm story, Hansel and Gretel. He particularly liked the part of the story in which the witch had fattened up Hansel to cook and eat. By the age of 12, according to police and court records, Meiwes had begun to fantasize about eating his friends so they would remain a part of him forever.

A neighbor told a Reuters television reporter that Meiwes “had a different perspective on life than we did, but he was a normal person, to speak to him, drink a glass of beer with him—just like you and me.”

Police learned that Meiwes sometimes went sailing with friends, mowed a neighbor’s lawn when needed, helped a neighbor repair a car, and invited some neighbors over to his house for dinner. He also was known to babysit a female neighbor’s four children. The neighbor said she trusted him enough to allow him to babysit her children again, even after knowing what he had done to Brandes. To those who were unable to see what was going on inside his head, Meiwes seemed like a perfect neighbor and friend.

Both Meiwes and Brandes were respected by their neighbors, and neither seemed to fit the part that led to their actions prompting police to conclude that both had led very secret lives.