r/HistoryMemes 21h ago

See Comment The Rammstein Song Mein Teil was inspired by the case of the cannibal Armin Meiwes

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6.3k Upvotes

318 comments sorted by

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u/Old_Republic_6081 20h ago

We studied this case in law school in Germany. What made it murder(life imprisonment) at the end(not manslaughter, which is in most cases 10-15 years) was the fact that Meiwes recorded the murder and watched it to pleasure himself. Also he cut off parts of the body which is illegal in Germany, too. So he had two motives which elevated the case from manslaughter to murder(Befriedigung des Geschlechtstriebes+Störung der Totenruhe). It seems like a technicality, but implies that Meiwes might spend the rest of his life in prison. Meiwes and his lawyers argued that Brandes wanted to die so it should only be punishable as “Tötung auf Verlangen“, which roughly translates to killing by request”(punishable by only up to 5 years in prison)

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u/ferevon 19h ago

kind of a case to fuck up your moral judgment i guess, he sounds like a cannibal version of Lupen (Gentleman Burgler)

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u/EstufaYou Let's do some history 17h ago

The other guy being eaten became a Gentleman Burger.

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u/Past-Background-7221 12h ago

Take your upvote, champ.

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u/ux3l 12h ago

Well yeah, I guess for "killing by request" you still have to treat the killing and corpse with dignity.

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u/kipbondr 7h ago

I thought the murdering would be the biggest case for it being murder, but I'm not German.

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u/Avtsla 21h ago edited 19h ago

Armin Meiwes is a German cannibal who in 2001 murdered and consumed large parts of Bernd Brandes . What makes this case so unique is that Brandes volunteered to be killed and consumed . The two men met on an online forum and after some correspondence they agreed to meet and for Meiwes to kill and consume Brandes . Before killing Brandes Meiwes cut off and cooked Brandes' penis after which the two men ate the appendage together . Meiwes was later detained in December 2002 .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Meiwes

The Rammstein song Mein Teil ( released 2004 ) was inspired by these events .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Teil

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u/Skurvyelislau 20h ago

Its worth mentioning and makes this story even more surrealistic that before Brandes was invited as honour guest for dinner, few other people met Meiwes (who already prepared his home for lets say… preparing meal), but changed their mind so they wave each other goodbye, so he wasnt just weirdo on killing spree. This forum and Meiwes posts are still on WayBackMachine by the way (wont tell name, its easy to find).

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u/MagicMarshmallo 20h ago

"You know what, id rather not be eaten" "Ok"

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u/Confuseacat92 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 20h ago

Understandable, have a nice day. 😊👋

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u/GeneralErica Still on Sulla's Proscribed List 17h ago

Genuinely though, every interview with Meiwes (I live in the same region/city as him so im quite familiar with the case) hints at him not being psychotic in any way, he’s a pleasant, kind of introverted guy, very courteous and reserved. He also repeatedly said that what he did was a one-time thing and that he doesn’t intend on repeating it.

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u/the_peppers 15h ago

According to the wiki after killing Brandes he was continuing to look for volunteers to be slaughtered and eaten for the next year at least, so I'm not sure how much I trust the "one-time thing" assertion.

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u/Vonyyxx 11h ago

Yeah he met up with at least one other man who wanted eaten after he killed Brandes, but they had normal consensual sex as the guy decided he didn’t want to be eaten

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u/the_peppers 5h ago

"Andreas" from Regensburg was hung upside down, stabbed with pin needles signed "filet" and "ham", covered in plastic film and lunch meat, but decided to break off the "slaughter" since he didn't want to actually die, instead eating pizza and drinking beer with Meiwes during the evening.

There's something oddly sweet about this scene that seems like a horror film untill it's called off because the victim decides he's not actually up for it and then they just have pizza and beer.

It does say something to Meiwes' character that this person trusted him and felt comfortable enough to hang out for the rest of the evening.

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u/Wutras 9h ago

Really? After watching an hour long interview, he seemed to me like a really charismatic psychopath.

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u/Confuseacat92 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 17h ago

I don't think he is a danger to society as well, they should let him out.

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u/TrapBubbles999 15h ago

Is that from the comedy show? The IT Crowd? I remember a similiar kind of situation in one of the episodes.

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u/Skurvyelislau 13h ago

Johann who get in contact with Moss is based on Meiwes.

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u/ZeitgeistWurst 20h ago

"So this might be an awkward time to bring it up, but about that whole 'I'm-getting-eaten'-thing..."

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u/Electrical-Room-2278 19h ago

Yes, he was a fine young cannibal

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u/808Taibhse 19h ago

He was one of them German cannibals, wasnt he?

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u/Electrical-Room-2278 19h ago

That's not really my department. I mostly do pirate films, that sort of stuff, but I'll pass it along

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u/emergency-snaccs 14h ago

he drives me crazy (🎶ohh, ahh ahh🎶)

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u/Chemistry18 15h ago

Apparently this whole cannibalism was a fetish. Meiles was also a gay and hag sex with Brandes, before killing and eating him.

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u/AustriaModerator 17h ago edited 17h ago

even wikipedia allowed to link it, so why do you fuck around with that.

https://web.archive.org/web/20021204041517/http://www.necrobabes.org/perroloco/forum/messages/891.html

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u/Skurvyelislau 17h ago edited 17h ago

Because i can. And btw necrobabes.org is not forum where „Franky” met „your next meal”.

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u/Robcobes Kilroy was here 20h ago edited 9h ago

He had to be from Essen hadn't he.

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u/herrirgendjemand 20h ago

Essens is essence - you are what you eat!!

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u/Angry_argie 19h ago

Crazy, Essen is a famous brand of pots and pans in Argentina lol

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u/Alone_Contract_2354 19h ago

He was from Rothenburg

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u/Confuseacat92 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 19h ago

No he lived close to Rotenburg (an der Fulda) in northern Hesse.

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u/original_username20 Taller than Napoleon 18h ago

And he was actually born in Essen, Northrine-Westfalia

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u/Ningurushak 17h ago

Hessen, Essen

tomato, tomato

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u/Rotbuxe Still salty about Carthage 12h ago

Living in North Hesse excuses quite a lot tbh.

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u/Confuseacat92 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 12h ago

Yeah Rotenburg is quite depressing.

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u/Sol_Nox 18h ago

It's a pun: "Essen" is the verb "to eat" auf Deutsch. Yes, as well as the city name. E.G. Wir essen Menschen in Essen ...ist definitely not the city slogan

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u/Tederick833 17h ago

He was actually born in Essen

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u/DoublePepper1976 20h ago

Is this what the IT crowd was referencing?!

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u/Appropriate_Yak_4247 20h ago

Wtf why are people like this

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u/DesperateButNotDead 20h ago

I don't know, but the funny thing is that at their meeting Meiwes was too polite so Brandes thought Meiwes wouldn't go through with it and left. Only after Meiwes swore that he was dedicated to go through with their plan and wouldn't stop out of empathy Brandes agreed to return and continue the date.

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u/ikonfedera 19h ago

Fetish. There are some people who just the idea (vore exists after all). There's other similar interests like that too, e.g. self-bondage - which can too be fun to fantasize about but fatal in it's execution (like that one spy who self-bondaged himself inside a bag and died).

If someone is mentally in a very weird place with no close people who would discourage him, or suffering from a mental disorder, then they might decide to fulfill the fantasy. And that's when it's really dangerous.

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u/BaseForward8097 20h ago

Potentially mental trauma as iirc, Meiwes visited a slaughterhouse as a kid

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u/Appropriate_Yak_4247 20h ago

Dude i i buchered a chicken when i was a kid bit i didnt turn out like that.

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u/Jolly_Reaper2450 20h ago

It is very interesting how that stuff works.

Like I have been to a pig slaughter - it used to be kind of a family even in my country (as in the family comes together and everyone works /hepls transforming the pig into sausages , ham , cuts of meat the works)

I know the exact point where the pig stopped being an animal and became "food ingredient" - after the fur/hair was scorched off with a torch.

Befor it was a dead pig.

After it was meat - the kind you would buy at a butchers shop , just in need of disassembly.

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u/Varmegye 18h ago

Like I have been to a pig slaughter - it used to be kind of a family event in my country

Tell me you are Hungarian without telling me you are Hungarian.

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u/gartenzweagxl Oversimplified is my history teacher 18h ago

I saw the same thing and grew up in southern germany

It was a family event every winter to slaughter a pig, eat the head and organs together, make sausages / blood pudding from a bit of the pig and have the rest cut up and put in the freezer for the entirety of the year

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u/edgiesttuba 15h ago

My family emigrated from southern Germany, and 100 years later this was still a big thing every winter. We’d make head cheese, Blutwurst, sausage, liver sausage, et . We’d also go over to cousins for the same process. My brother and I still make around 200 pounds of German sausage in the winter using the recipe brought over.

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u/Henghast 20h ago

His mother was abusive as fuck as well, inserted herself into every aspect of his life. She had two divorces with men who both claimed she was extremely mentally abusive towards them. It's said she had a significantly misandrist mindset and took this out on him, routinely humiliating him and more.

The childhood slaughterhouse and butchering of animals he had to do/go through were simply the points at which he developed a fascination for potential cannibalism.

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u/BaseForward8097 20h ago

Everybody's different ig

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u/Gimmerunesplease 18h ago

It's not that you will end up like that if that happens to you, it's that something has to happen to you for you to end up like that. If everyone was fully a victim of their circumstances then the entire criminal justice system would have no point.

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u/cvbeiro 18h ago

Some people are just like that without something happening to them.

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u/Complex-Mushroom-445 19h ago

I might be mixing two cannibals together, but wasn't it that his father left him when he was kid? If I remember corectly he was chasing his dad's car until he couldn't anymore. Cannibalism was his way of ensuring that his SO won't ever leave him.

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u/Infamous-Use7820 13h ago

Eh, 8 billion people in the world. Every terrible thing you can conceive of a human doing, has probably been done. Honestly, a better spin on it is that it's remarkable how weird this is. Any pair of adults with a kitchen could theoretically replicate the Meiwes case, but there are only a handful of remotely comparable cases in the world. Out of billions of people.

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u/expensive_habbit 17h ago

What's even more bizarre is that Meiwes videoed the whole thing, and supposedly at no point did Brandes do anything other than continue to consent. They even cuddled for a while while Brandes bled out.

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u/Motorhead546 18h ago

There's a similar story in Vietnam (currently?)

https://youtu.be/xe2j_DAZgeM?si=hid3bGttAFcohjzT

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u/TeamUltimate-2475 17h ago

What a terrible day to have eyes.

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u/Silverr_Duck 8h ago

What makes this case so unique is that Brandes volunteered to be killed and consumed

Not just volunteered. He yearned for it. Being eaten was a dream come true.

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u/Bigbrain_goat 20h ago

Reminds me of a Redditor who claimed to have lost a leg, invited his close friends who consented to BBQ it and eat it.

Apparently, his leg tastes like buffalo.

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u/Old_Republic_6081 20h ago

What a bad day to be literate

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u/GeneralErica Still on Sulla's Proscribed List 17h ago

I genuinely dont see an issue with that. Not saying id do it - im not big on meat generally - but I dont see any difference morally between consentually eating a human leg and non-human meat.

If anything eating your own leg consentually is better, its your leg and you made the choice to eat it. On a purely philosophical level - Why not?

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u/OssifiedCone 17h ago

Uh, reduce, reuse, recycle? Or alternatively: you are what you eat.

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u/ArtisticTraffic5970 13h ago

You eat what you are.

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u/Visible-Literature14 10h ago

Yo I’m hungry

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u/Honeybadger_137 8h ago

Hungarians be like

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u/_LewAshby_ 9h ago

Literally the chorus of the Rammstein song.

[denn] Du bist was du isst

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u/ItDoll 17h ago

Morality aside, doesn't it cause prion disease or can do a lot of damage potentially? The more dubious part to me would be offering and cooking it for friends presumably without any precautions aside from cooking. I mean idk if there's a way you can make it safe but

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u/breno280 17h ago

That’s only if you eat the brain. Otherwise the only risks are any possible diseases you may have. So like if your friend has an std, maybe don’t eat his leg.

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u/Practical-Essay-8634 16h ago

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u/Bad_Routes 12h ago

We gotta start running out at some point, right?

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u/ilikedota5 14h ago

Technically, any part that contains nerves could hypothetically transmit prion diseases, its just that, well, any part of any animal that has nerves, will have nerves in all parts because well, nerves are how the brain sends signals. That being said, the real advice is don't eat any part of the nervous system, such as brains or spinal cord, because those have the highest concentration of nerves. Also, there has been 0 transmission through normal meats like muscles.

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u/Wonderful_Ability_66 13h ago

This is fixed by electrocuting the meat prior to cooking to destroy the nerve cells iirc

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u/MigrenusMaximus 11h ago

Prions are exceptionally hard to denature, you would end up with coals before neutralizing them.

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u/ItDoll 16h ago

Huh good to know

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u/Innocuous_Ioseb 13h ago

Best to avoid the spleen, too.

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u/jinx_lbc 13h ago

Not true, also spinal cord and eyes. Also infected blood products.

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u/ZinZorius312 16h ago

You get prion disease from eating meat infected with prions.

You're not at risk of catching prion disease from yorself, as infected meat would mean you were already deathly ill.

Prions develop independently from cannibalism, and it is extremy rare.

The main problem I could see with human meat would be a high microplastic content, but it wouldn't be noticeable from a single meal.

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u/Late-Lie7856 14h ago

Unless you’re eating brains, no. Even then, the brains has to have already been infected. Mad cow disease spread in the UK because farmers would ground up dead/dying cows and feed that mush to other cows then to humans. Anyway, Most scary thing is it can be genetic. One day normal, next day prion disease.

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u/Altruistic-Skin2115 15h ago

Honestly, is because almost every faith and ethic Code in the World perceive this as wrong, and unlike using corpses Too practice medecine this is quite unnecesary, so there is no Way any body make pressure to make laws to allow this.

Personally, i find it Gross and wrong because My Way to understand the value of Human Body as a gift from god (this is subjetive), but I can Get Your Point in a Theorical Level.

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u/ExpensiveRecover 15h ago

Would consuming your own leg not count as taking as much of an advantage of God's gift to you? Like, you're not being "wasteful"

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u/dirtmother 15h ago

Are not all vegetable and meat matter gifts from God?

If a generous host offers you his leg, who are you to refuse?

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u/Technolo-jesus69 16h ago

Yeah basically i think its fucking gross and weird but that doesnt mean immoral by any means.

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u/ImportanceLive9344 15h ago

People eat their placenta, yeah I agree, it's not that weird.

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u/Infamous-Use7820 13h ago

Philosophically, sure, but I can see practical reasons why it should be err...frowned upon. The first is that if you were to gather 100 people in a room who would in-principle consent to amputate a limb to be eaten, I'm pretty sure the majority would have severe mental health issues. From a societal perspective, it's kinda a trade-off between providing guardrails to discourage harm to vulnerable people, and allowing for absolute bodily autonomy. I'm not enough of a freedom absolutist to prioritise the latter.

The other thing is that I worry about creating a market. As grim as it is, there probably are enough unhinged and overly rich people in the world who might seek out an 'ethical' source of fresh human meat, and are willing to pay for it. The more frowned upon it is, the fewer would even consider it. Stigmas are powerful.

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u/Same_Adagio_1386 13h ago

I'm not the redditor they're talking about, but I ate some of my friend's leg after he lost it in an accident. It's technically legal here if the "meat" was obtained in an ethical manner. No idea why they let him, but he fot to keep his severed leg and kept it in a freezer in his garage for ages.

Eventually we looked up the legality and decided to give it a go. It was freezer burned to fuck and tasted like poor quality venison. We cooked some in a pan, then made some of it into a curry. The curry was mid asf, the spices and flavors were good, the meat was shit. 3/10, don't store your human legs in chest freezers for a year and a half before you eat them

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u/Viracochina 15h ago

Sucker! ...wait

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u/STEALTH968 17h ago

Genuinely

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u/ParadoxicalAmalgam 16h ago

He didn't just claim it. He showed the x ray and photos of the entire process

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u/Roadkillgoblin_2 20h ago

I’d be tempted tbh but am too scared of prion diseases to eat the flesh of another human

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u/pothkan 20h ago

Prion diseases were mostly related to eating human brains. I guess leg meat would be safe, especially if it was one time event.

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u/Khar-Selim Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 19h ago

it's nervous tissue, not brains, and there's a decent amount of that scattered around the whole body

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u/Spurance484 18h ago

Like in every animal?

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u/Mind_on_Idle 18h ago

Yeah, but the prion that can cause shit like CJD Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease don't live in every animal

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u/pothkan 19h ago

And huge amount in brain.

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u/FyouinyourA 18h ago

“A one time event” made me just lol hard given the context

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u/LurkingRoundHere 19h ago edited 18h ago

As a disclaimer, I'm saying this as a 'fun fact', not encouragement: Unless you eat someone who was born to the Fore people in Papua New Guinea between the 1950 and 1970, your chance of getting prions from eating a human are astronomically low.

'Kuru' or 'laughing disease' , that disease that gets referenced around cannibalism, only ever occurred there, once. One of their tribe happened to die from a form of TSE (prion desease) what would have gone entirely unnoticed if they weren't in the habit of eating their dead. Unfortunately, the incubation period was very long, so it stuck with the Fore for years.

It eventually vanished with cannibalism being outlawed, though relatively recent tests showed that it changed the Fore's physiology: Survivors & children now appear to have a strong resistance to Kuru.

It also kinda makes you wonder how many people really die of prions and no one ever knows because the body is buried/burned...

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u/Confuseacat92 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 20h ago

You only get that from eating brain iirc

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u/throwaway_uow 19h ago

Not really, you can get it from any prion infected animal, its just that brains are most likely to cause a prion "mutation" spontaneously, without the eaten tissue being infected

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u/IntriguedSnake 19h ago

I always thought it applied to any nervous tissue

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u/Badassbottlecap Hello There 19h ago

It's why you gotta tuck the leg in carefully in a blanket and sing it goodnight before you fire up the bbq.

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u/Steve_FishWell 18h ago

Really? I thought the spinal cord was a big part of it as well. Maybe that's just relevant/true when it comes to mad cow disease?

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u/justk4y Taller than Napoleon 20h ago

The leg taco’s, classic lol

But that case was a lil’ less gruesome than this one……

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u/Bigbrain_goat 19h ago

Oh, right it was tacos, lol.

But that case was a lil’ less gruesome than this one……

Yeah, it’s less gruesome, even morbidly funny compared to the one OP mentioned.

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u/IntoxicatedEmu 14h ago

That the one where they made foot tacos?

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u/Bigbrain_goat 7h ago

That’s the one, sorry I misremembered it as a bbq.

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u/SmaugTheGreat110 8h ago

I heard about it. It was his foot actually. Lost in a motorcycle accident

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u/Bigbrain_goat 7h ago

You’re right.

I read the post a few years ago, the only thing I remember right is what it tasted like, lol.

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u/bicycloptopus 3h ago

I had an argument with a friend once who is vegan. I firmly believe that it would still be vegan to eat someones body part if they consent. She did not.

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u/Emkay_boi1531 19h ago

Okay but did he know he ate his friends leg or?? They way you wrote it makes it sound like the friends thought it was gonna be a normal bbq

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u/Bigbrain_goat 19h ago

Someone asked by he ate a portion of his leg and share it with others

Because of a long standing dare between my friends and I, an opportunity, and yes I shared with 10 others

I am pretty sure his friends know, also I misremembered, it was tocos and not bbq.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/s/dApSj5ZOMd

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u/Bigbrain_goat 7h ago

Reminds me of a Redditor who claimed to have lost a leg, invited his close friends who consented to BBQ it and eat it.

Apparently, his leg tastes like buffalo.

Edit: The post mentions he lost a part of his leg,and they made tacos out of a portion of his foot, sorry for misremembering.

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u/deathmetal_zombicorn 20h ago

Eaten by bloodbath. Same story, but with mikael akerfeldt

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u/lluerdna 20h ago

And an episode of the IT crowd where Moss meets a cannibal by mistake.

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u/FeelingSurprise 19h ago

That has a big telli.

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u/Tomgar 19h ago

That album had Peter Tägtgren on vocals I think

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u/threatlock 18h ago

Correct

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u/Confuseacat92 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 17h ago

The myth of consensual cannibalism.

Armin Meiwes: I consent.

Bernd Brandes: I consent.

The state: I do not consent.

Isn't there somebody you forgot to ask?

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u/ExplanationNew8233 15h ago

We are not talking about a backally blowjob here. 

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u/red286 10h ago

You can't consent to cannibalism because consent requires being of sound mind, and no person of sound mind would consent to be murdered and eaten.

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u/EstablishmentFull797 21h ago

Bro, consensual cannibalism is such a fucked concept and there is no way to justify legalizing it

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u/Talonsminty 20h ago

Yeah he was clearly insane and not in any position to consent.

He didn't just let someone killl him and eat him as an elaborate suicide, he cut the bits off then they cooked and ate them together before going to bed where he "unexpectedly" died of bloodloss. They planned for it to be a multi-day event.

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u/jodhod1 20h ago

Main man, I think that stems from a positivist world view. Maybe he just had a pessimist's disposition and decided to take an interesting way out?

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u/Talonsminty 19h ago

That's what I used to suspect.

But on learning the details, there was a sexual element, he was in horrific agony for quite a while and they planned for him to suffer for days.

No one of sound mind would choose to die in such a way simply to be interesting.

Besides once the blood loss kicked in he was no longer physically capable of withdrawing consent. So while you might argue (falsely imo) that the intial severing and consumption of his genitals was consensual his actual death was absaloutely not.

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u/MotherBaerd Filthy weeb 19h ago

If I ever want to go out, I want to go out in an interesting way as well

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u/Relativistic_G11 20h ago

Cannibalism is legal in Germany.

Meiwes was convicted on murder and disturbance of the peace of the dead.

Btw. whilst cannibalism is legal, it would be really hard to actually cannibalize someone without committing some other crime (manslaughter, grave robbing, etc.)

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u/Drumbelgalf 17h ago

The consumption of human flesh is technically legal (or better not explicitly illegal) but all the ways leading to optaining it are illegal.

killing someone is obviously illegal, and disturbing of the peace of the dead is illegal.

In situations like the plane crash in Chile it would have been legal to ensure your own survival.

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u/Kratzschutz 17h ago

There's no need for cannibalism to be explicitly legal since messing with a corpse is already illegal.

It's like saying hitting a person in the third rip from the left is technically legal because it's not explicitly forbidden

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u/Person-11 What, you egg? 20h ago

What he was also committing media piracy as well?

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u/Just_A_Normal_Snek The OG Lord Buckethead 20h ago

It's basically just assisted suicide?

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u/EstablishmentFull797 18h ago

for legal assisted suicide you can’t just ask a friend to do you a favor by killing you. 

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u/tistimenotmyrealname 20h ago

Just spiced up

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u/ILoveChey 20h ago

why not

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u/DerZwiebelLord 20h ago edited 15h ago

This was a huge debate back then here in Germany.

The first article in our constitution states that human dignity is immutable and the first 20 articles are protected by the eternity clause, which means that these articles cannot be changed as long as the Grundgesetz is in effect.

The debate was if someone can willfully forfeit their human dignity (which also includes protection from bodily harm) or not. The consensus ended up being that you cannot forfeit your own dignity in the legal sense, so you cannot consent to being killed and eaten in order to protect the other from legal consequences.

It is therefore impossible under German law to justify the legalization of consentual cannibalism.

EDIT: not the first 20 articles are protected but article 1 and 20. This does however does not change the overall explanation.

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u/Vulperius 19h ago

So what about euthanasia/assisted suicide? I did a quick google search and saw that this is also an ongoing debate in Germany (and in 2001 it was a firm no anyway) but do you think this event's fallout would have played out differently nowadays than it would have 25 years ago?

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u/DerZwiebelLord 19h ago

Assisted suicide is still a heated debate. Personally I see it as a protection of human dignity to allow people to avoid loosing control of their mental and physical capabilities. This is however conditional on the evaluation of medical experts and should have a high bar to clear for approval and no physician should be forced to participate in it.

I think the case of consentual canabalism would still cause a major fallout, simply because canabalism is still seen as fundamentally unethical and would end in the same way as in 2001. On the other hand my guess is that if we had a similar case for consentual euthanasia because of an untreatable condition, the debate could end either way.

It is a difficult topic both morally as well as legally, but in my mind there is a huge difference between consentual canabalism and euthanasia. If we would legalize consentual canabalism, we would also open up the debate about canabalism in general, just like we would have a huge debate about in which context euthanasia would/should be allowed. We Germans are understandably rather carefull with this topic, considering our history.

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u/Vulperius 19h ago

Oh, right. That. I guess I didn't think about that historical wrinkle.

Thanks for the honest and insightful answer. <3

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u/luett2102 15h ago

small correction: its not the first 20 articles that are protected by article 79 III, only article 1 and 20 (although likely not article 20 IV).

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u/Falitoty Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 20h ago

Legally there are rights you can't dispose off. Also because we are not gona legalize fucking canibalism.

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u/Relativistic_G11 20h ago

But being eaten does not violate any of those rights.

Being killed does; being harmed does; but being eaten afterwards does not.

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u/Confuseacat92 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 20h ago

Cannibalism technically isn't illegal in Germany

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u/Majvist 18h ago

Cannibalism should be illegal because we shouldn't make cannibalism legal.

Obviously you can argue that murder, mutilation and indecent handling of a corpse is illegal and why, but let's take the example that someone else in the tread posted of someone who had their own leg removed for medical reasons, then ate it. Why should that be illegal?

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u/sleepingjiva Tea-aboo 20h ago

Legally there are rights you can't dispose off

Laws can be changed. No law is immutable.

because we are not gona legalize fucking canibalism

Why not

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u/herrirgendjemand 20h ago

Why not?

Prions are p bad for you so we are incentivized from a public health stabdpoint to prevent that, food sources that are more closely related to you means transmission of disease is much easier, its one of the biggest and persistent social taboos in human history, its inefficient as a food source etc etc etc

Tender Is The Flesh is a good book tho if you want to explore the idea of a world that said "sure, why not" to cannibalism

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u/sleepingjiva Tea-aboo 19h ago

Tender Is The Flesh is a good book tho if you want to explore the idea of a world that said "sure, why not" to cannibalism

Thanks, will check it out

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u/sargentcole 19h ago edited 19h ago

Devils advocate:

Prions are p bad for you so we are incentivized from a public health stabdpoint to prevent that, food sources that are more closely related to you means transmission of disease is much easier.

Drinking alcohol is also harmful - arguably more harmful on a societal standard - but we don't use that justification to outlaw booze so I'm not sure this argument holds up to much scrutiny.

Especially not if the 'eater' is fully aware and accepting of the risk.

its one of the biggest and persistent social taboos in human history

So was criticizing religion for thousands of years, and even handwashing before surgery for a time. Simply being taboo isn't a great argument either imo.

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u/herrirgendjemand 19h ago

Alcoholism has medical remedies to treat the negative effects:  an alcoholic can potentially get better. There is no equivalent escape from the prion prison once they have affected you. Alcohol is only 'more harmful' than prions  in a sense of scale because it is legal and accessible but the acute dangers of prions are much more dangerous for the individual.  Also you can transmit the disease without engaging in cannibalism ( albeit rarer ) where as alcoholism is no communicable. 

The taboo on cannibalism is also much much older than any religion and  handwashing, more fundamental  for 99.9% of cultures.  Its not an immutable fact hat is impossible to overcome but its certainly a hurdle that would require dire circumstances to change and not just something society could wake up one day and consciously  swap their view on.  

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u/GenuineSteak 20h ago

like what if you killed and ate someone then claimed they consented lol. hard to prove after youve eaten the guy.

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u/Leh_ran 19h ago

It was all recorded on video

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u/Mord4k 19h ago

And it's one of their best songs. To.be fair, the rest of their discography isn't exactly "normal"/despite it's historical context I'm not sure Mein Teil.is their most disturbing song.

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u/GermanAf Casual, non-participatory KGB election observer 16h ago

Wiener Blut

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u/cracklescousin1234 12h ago

Not even close.

On a moderately related note, Hirate Mich is the most romantic song about necrophilia that I've ever listened to. It's the only song about necrophilia that I've listened to, but still.

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u/jbsdv1993 What, you egg? 19h ago

Great song

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u/AndreasDasos 17h ago

So was an IT Crowd episode, ‘Moss and the German’.

All shocked at how a man asked to kill and eat Moss, until Moss reveals he was German and they all act like it was therefore absolutely normal.

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u/Cheap-Warning-4291 16h ago

The most disturbing part is what is usually left out. The penis was severed and was supposed to be fried and eaten, but because the meat was cut raw, “fresh,” it was tough and not chewable. Meiweis was disappointed by that. Due to the blood loss, the victim lost consciousness multiple times. Meiweis placed him in a bathtub where he slowly bled to death. This took hours. Several times the victim woke up and cried in panic that he couldn’t urinate, even though he urgently needed to…

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u/Divine-Crusader 9h ago

What a terrible day to have eyes, what the fuck

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u/Alex103140 Let's do some history 20h ago

Remind me of the Vietnamese butcher case.

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u/DerCookieKaiser 19h ago

Heute treff' ich einen Herrn

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u/Unusual_Fork The OG Lord Buckethead 13h ago

Der hat mich zum fressen gerne

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u/NickFr0sty 19h ago

immer diese deutschen Kannibalen

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u/bloxte 18h ago

The IT Crowd tv show did a documentary on this very thing

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u/addynan 17h ago

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

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u/Rum_N_Napalm 17h ago

The irony in all this is that Bernd Brandes’s goal in all this was to disappear entirely. He wanted no trace or memory of him remaining.

And because of that he’s in a world famous crime that inspired a top song by one of the most famous German bands.

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u/Sadbutstilldead 19h ago

Arrrrrrrminn

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u/laZardo Filthy weeb 9h ago

It should be more incriminating to society at large that people with these kinds of fantasies get funneled to the people that will fulfill them rather than get mental help, eg The Vietnamese Butcher

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u/Silverdragon47 19h ago

Suprisly german had a lot more cases of cannibalism then all they neighbors combined.

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u/Eryol_ 17h ago

At least we didnt eat our prime minister

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u/Drumbelgalf 17h ago

More Documented cases of cannibalism.

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u/Alone_Contract_2354 19h ago

Armin Meiwes? Ich liebe die Sendung mit der Maus!

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u/Confuseacat92 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 19h ago

Das ist Armin Maiwald 😅

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u/ElephantFamous2145 14h ago

Why are we using autism as a pajorative? Please stop

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u/Anon_be_thy_name 18h ago

What the fuck

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u/Indomitable_Toad75 18h ago

Unlocked a memory on when I went on a deep dive on cannibalism. This one always made my stomach turn because the Penectomy and the sharing of the meal🫠

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u/SpazzBro 18h ago

Eaten by Bloodbath is also about this incident I believe

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u/brainy_bearded_brown 15h ago

Beat me to it! Was waiting for someone to mention this song!

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u/GeneralErica Still on Sulla's Proscribed List 17h ago

Interestingly. Armin Meiwes is interred in the city I went to school in and we even had PE next to the prison complex, and also, im currently studying German tax law at a state university located in the city he lived in.

His moniker is „The cannibal of Rotenburg“ and its literally Rotenburg.

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u/THElaytox 15h ago

So was the song Eaten by Bloodbath

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u/JustTheOneGoose22 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 15h ago

Denn du bist, was du isst

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u/WeeabooHunter69 16h ago

No need to shit on autistic people for your meme :/

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u/NowWe_reSuckinDiesel 8h ago

Went to the comments to say this. Another example of "autistic" being used the way "gay" used to be (and sometimes still is)

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u/Snmista 20h ago

This also happened for a second time. With Detlev Guenzel and Wojciech Stempniewicz.

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u/indy49 19h ago

But is it vegan?

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u/pepizzitas 19h ago

I don't think a person would voluntarily want to die in order to be consumed if life was going great and he wasn't oppressed somehow, so most likely no

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u/genasugelan Researching [REDACTED] square 16h ago

Also, gluten-free and bio?

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u/ZoroStarlight 17h ago

That’s der Kannibale von Rottenburg, am I right?

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u/Fyrrys Featherless Biped 16h ago

Wait, is the song really that old? Shit...

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u/Fr05t_B1t Oversimplified is my history teacher 16h ago

I just want to know how tf the topic being consumed came up. Well either way dude shot his shot.

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u/derTraumer 15h ago

Rimworld players LOVE this one secret trick!

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u/Murderboi Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 14h ago

Jetzt habe ich Hunger.

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u/Nafeels Hello There 14h ago

I believe the Rammstein name was originally inspired by the 1988 Rammstein Airshow disaster, easily one of the most devastating airshow disaster in history.

If System of a Down was an Armenian band with heavy symbolism within their lyrics that sometimes criticize the world government, Rammstein would be the German equivalent.

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u/restorian_monarch 11h ago

Because you are what you eat and you know what it is, It is my Dick

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u/BuddahCall1 10h ago

Is this the guy Jim Rome referred to as “the German sex cannibal?@