The fire, the cause of which is still unclear according to the Bild newspaper, has attracted media attention as it is one of the most famous “crime scenes” in the world. The house had been abandoned for years.
80 firefighters participated in extinguishing the flames, and they arrived at the scene twelve minutes after the incident was reported. During the extinguishing, one entire wall of the building collapsed. Excavators will now raze it to the ground for safety reasons.
Meanwhile, the police are looking for witnesses who could contribute to clarifying the cause of the fire. “At this point we cannot rule out that it was set up intentionally,” a police spokeswoman said. No one was injured, not even on the part of the firemen, who quickly brought the flames under control.
Residents of Rotenburg and its surroundings may now be relieved, as Mieweis’ “house of horrors” has become a pilgrimage site for many in recent years. People came here repeatedly to take pictures of the object.
“Frankie the Master Butcher”
Today, 61-year-old Mieweis, known as the “Cannibal of Rotenburg”, is still in prison. His victim was 43 years old. At the time, Mieweis was looking on the Internet for someone who wanted to be killed and eaten. He had the pseudonym “Frankie the Master Butcher” under which he confided his fantasies.
He also spoke about Nazi crimes. “If I were a butcher in a concentration camp, I wouldn’t need gas, just a knife,” he wrote to one chat partner.
On the death of Brandes, Mieweis said in court that he did not deny the act, but that it was a killing at the request of the victim. The perpetrator then apologized in writing to the murdered man’s partner, saying that Brandes had a “beautiful death that he had wished for years.”
Mieweis was originally sentenced in 2004 to just eight and a half years in prison. However, the higher instance court changed the verdict to life imprisonment two years later.
The German cannibal was given a life sentence
Foreign
