Bite Me: New German Motto?

Cannibalism in Germany: Restaurant Advertises for Body Parts

26.08.2010

Cannibalism in Germany: Restaurant Advertises for Body Parts

A sick internet joke or a serious business proposition? A restaurant in Germany has been conducting an advertising campaign for people to donate body parts which will be transformed into delicious dishes at a new restaurant called Flime.

The advertising campaign has been carried out not only online but also on television and in the press. Calling for donors to donate body parts “any part of the body”, the restaurant, called Flime, in a secret location in Berlin, claims that the donors will be considered “members” of a new dining cult.

The “members” will declare themselves willing to donate “any part of their body” while the resulting hospital costs will be borne by the restaurant which is looking for “an open-minded surgeon”.

Flime declares it is inspired by the Brazilian Waricaca tribe, whose “compassionate cannibalism”, consuming the parts of a loved one, was said to help the bereaved get through the mourning process by becoming joined to the dead.

Other dishes advertised at Flime are the traditional Brazilian feijoada, or black bean stew (boiled meats stewed with black beans and served on a bed of white rice) and bolinho, which are fried balls of meat, fish or vegetables served with a dip.

It is not yet clear whether this is a hoax, a publicity stunt by a restaurant that is due to open or simply extremely bad taste, since it evokes the shocking case of Armin Meiwes, the Hannibal of Hesse, who in 2001 filmed himself stabbing to death computer programmer Bernd Juergen Brandes, who had volunteered to be eaten and killed.

Meiwes at the time claimed there were around 800 cannibals in Germany in an underground movement.