Mendel's Law

This is the third post concerning eugenics on this blog. Take a look at the previous ones here and here and then enjoy the poem below (click to magnify):













Source

I killed my boyfriend and ate his organs because he really, really wanted me to

The British version of the Cannibal Butcher urban legend turns Kebab style:




Well, the infamous first ever winner of the Mr Gay UK contest also tried tried some Mediterranean flavouring (quoted from The Sun):


"Having killed the victim Morley carved away a piece of flesh, took it downstairs to his kitchen where he seasoned it, fried it and tried to eat it. [...] From a chopping board on one of the kitchen units, six pieces of cooked flesh which had been seasoned with fresh herbs and fried in olive oil were recovered."


It's difficult to say what led Anthony Morley in his culinary experiences, but the name of Armin Meiwes comes instantly to mind (look here).


The latter has inspired a few movies and episodes so far, but most of the times he is referred to in a charmingly grotesque form. In Three and Out, he turns French chef:




In an episode of The IT Crowd, the German cannibal is well-mannered, cultivated and absolutely harmless:





The only attempt to focus on Meiwes' case in a more serious manner was probably Grimm Love (a.k.a. Rohtenburg). The end result however is a mixture of pretentious monologues, infantile psychology, ridiculous make-ip (see below) all concocted in an incongruous dish. Meiwes himself didn't like the movie (it was banned by a German court for infringing his personal rights). BTW the first image in this post comes from the same film...






If you're still interested, there's yet another movie: The Diary of a Cannibal directed by Ulli Lommel. It's a gory, heterosexual version of Armin Meiwes' story. Reviews here and here. Trailer below:

Haarmann's Sausages part 4

Alfred Hrdlicka, Stehender - Haarmann 1967 (red marble) 87 x 20 x 30 cm. source

The sculpture above is one of a series of Haarmann ispired statues proposed by Austrian artist Afred Hrdlicka to the city of Hanover. 

Maria Tatar notes in her book Lustmord:

Much as collective cultural memory has excluded Fritz Haarmann from the historical record and preserved his deeds in the popular imagination as something closer to lore than to fact, it was impossible to eradicate his real-life existence entirely. Of late, the Haarmann case has attracted a certain amount of notoriety , but, in one instance at least, the effort to remember turned into what was perceived to be a scandalous attempt to commemorate his deeds. In Haarmann's native city of Hanover, Alfred Hrdlicka proposed erecting a monument to Haarmann - a statue that would be a provocation to be sure - but with hope of provoking thought. It goes without saying that the plan was never approved, but Hrdlicka still had the chance to articulate what it was that made Haarmann worthy of memorialization. Haarmann's offenses lay at the heart of "the enigmas of a nation," Hrdlicka declared. "Haarmann the mass murderer... was not only a lightning flash revealing the state-sanctioned mass murderers that were to come; his antisocial preoccupations and drives were, above all, what made him a prototype of his time."

And another sculpture:

Alfred Hrdlicka, Haarmann (Haarmann und eines seiner Opfer III) 1967 - 1968 (bronze), 212 x 33 x 40 cm. source

Take a look at the 3 previous parts: 1, 2, 3

Haarmann's Sausages part 3

Here comes another piece inspired by the notorious character (look here and here).

This one was written by Erich Weinert, who regarded the case of Fritz Haarmann and the way society reacted to it, as the final proof of the Weimar Republic's degeneration. The text is a little obscure, I leave it in its original form without translation (taken from the book Serial Killers. Das Buch der blutigen Taten by Annette Keck and Ralph J. Poole):

Wie blubbert doch die Volkesseele

Mit schaurig zugeschnürter Kehle

Bei jedem Polizeibericht,

Wenn man was Neues aus der Haarmannshöhle

Zu lesen kriegt.

Vom Nachttopf bis zum Küchenmesser,

Je detaillerter, desto besser!

Mit sanften Graun betrachtest du

Inkriminierte Marmeladenfässer

Mit Hirnragout. -

Daß, der die Sünde widers Fleisch tat

Im sozialen Polizeistaat

Seit Jahren wirkte ungestört

Hat jeden Untertan im deutschen Freistaat

Zutiefst empört.

Doch nein, das wäre Unterschätzung

Der Polizei und Volksverhetzung.

Er schlachtete nicht offiziell.

So was tat nur, in Zeiten der Besetzung

Die O.H.L. (= Oberste Heeresleitung)

Hier dämmert mir des Rätsels Lösung:

Ein Individuum der Verwesung

Erhebt, symbolisch ins Quadrat,

Was man in großer Zeit zur Volksgenesung

Im ganzen tat.

Nimmt man den Sünder ins Examen,

So fällt er gar nicht aus dem Rahmen

Im Gegenteil, er ähnelt ganz

Den Helden, die uns massakriert im Namer

Des Vaterlands.

So mancher Champion im Morden

Ist damals ausgezeichnet worden,

So mancher Recke comme il faut

Erhielt den Haarmann-der-Cherusker-Orden

Für Mord en gros.

Was? Übereifer? Kriegspsychose?

Macht euch man bloß nicht in die Hose!

Ihr habt sechs Jahre Friedensmord!

Auch hierin schlagen wir, in Heldenpose,

Den Weltrekord.

Wenn heute, mit perverser Kälte,

Der höchste aller Staatsanwälte

Am liebsten, wie es früher Brauch,

Den Proletarier an die Mauer stellte,

Ist das nicht auch…?

Der sich in Bajonetten sonnte,

Der ungestraft tranchieren konnte,

Der deutsche Haarmann lebt. Gebt acht!

Er wittert schon am fernen Horizonte

Die Haarmannsschlacht.

1924