Murder of Bernd Brandes

Background

Bernd Jürgen Brandes was born on 19 January 1958 in Berlin-Schöneberg to a wealthy family; his father was a physician and his mother an anaesthesiologist. His mother died in 1963 in circumstances later found by police to likely be suicide disguised as an accident. Brandes was raised largely by au pairs and grew distant from his father after his father's remarriage. Despite academic and professional success — he earned engineering degrees from the Technische Universität Berlin and became a division chief at Siemens with an annual salary of €70,000 — Brandes struggled with interpersonal difficulties, a strained relationship with his father, and conflict over his bisexuality. He had solicited male sex workers for increasingly extreme requests, including one incident in which he asked a sex worker to cut off his penis.

Armin Meiwes, born 1 December 1961 in Essen, developed a cannibal fetish beginning in adolescence, influenced by childhood exposure to home killing of animals and a dominant, controlling relationship with his mother. After his mother's death in September 1999, Meiwes began posting online advertisements seeking a person to be "killed and then consumed." Several people responded over time but backed out.

The killing

On 5 February 2001, Brandes responded to one of Meiwes' advertisements using the alias "Cator99." The two exchanged near-daily emails for a month. Brandes did not want to be eaten but was willing to accommodate Meiwes' fetish in exchange for being castrated. On 9 March 2001, the two met at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station and traveled to Meiwes' house in Wüstefeld, part of Rotenburg an der Fulda. Brandes insisted the act take place that day. Meiwes attempted to bite off, then cut off, Brandes' penis using a knife; the two attempted unsuccessfully to eat it. Brandes was given sedatives and alcohol during the encounter and bled heavily over several hours. Early on 10 March, after Brandes collapsed, Meiwes killed him by stabbing him in the throat and then dismembered the body. The act was recorded on a four-hour videotape that has never been publicly released.

Meiwes subsequently consumed portions of Brandes' remains over the following months and buried other remains on his property. Brandes' disappearance was reported to police by his boyfriend on 12 March 2001, but the report produced no leads at the time.

Investigation and prosecution

Meiwes continued to seek further "killing" partners online through late 2002. In December 2002, an Austrian student who had corresponded with Meiwes reported him to police. Meiwes was arrested, confessed to killing Brandes, and led police to buried remains. In January 2004, a court in Kassel convicted Meiwes of manslaughter and sentenced him to eight years and six months in prison. Germany's Federal Court of Justice ordered a retrial in 2005, finding that the original court had not adequately weighed video evidence suggesting Meiwes killed for sexual gratification. In May 2006, the higher regional court of Frankfurt am Main convicted Meiwes of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. As of 2025, Meiwes remains incarcerated at JVA Kassel I, with requests for early release pending further review.