RAMMSTEIN Sued By German Cannibal

January 12, 2006

United Press International is reporting that a convicted German cannibal has filed suit against industrial metallers RAMMSTEIN, claiming their song "Mein Teil" (My Piece) is based on his crimes.

Armin Meiwes was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison for eating a man (Bernd Juergen Brandes) he met on the Internet. He filmed the entire incident and confessed as well, but said it was not murder since his victim wanted to be eaten.

Speaking to MTV.com in December 2004 about the inspiration for the track, RAMMSTEIN guitarist Richard Kruspe said, "I was really interested to find out about why he would want to kill a man and eat [him]. What I figured out from some research was that Meiwes' mother totally destroyed all kinds of relationships he had in his childhood. So, he felt that if he did this, his victim would stay with him forever. It was just a really interesting story, so we decided to make a song about it."

Since Meiwes videotaped his entire grisly encounter with Brandes, RAMMSTEIN initially wanted to use some of the footage for the song's video. But the tape was in police custody. So instead, the band and director Zoran Bihac shot a stark, contrast-y clip in Berlin that had nothing to do with cannibalism.

"The director had everyone in the band come into the room for two hours and do anything he wanted," Kruspe told MTV.com. "And nobody knew what the other guys were doing. It came out even darker than I thought it would. But I'd still like to see the police video."

Meiwes is also suing to stop the release of the horror film "Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story", calling it a "slavish re-enactment" of his story, The Hollywood Reporter said. "I feel used," the killer added.

Attorney Harald Ermel said his client did not give permission for his story to be fictionalized in the film starring Keri Russell. He has already given rights to document his case to a Hamburg company, Stampfwerk.

Meiwes returns to court in Cologne, Germany Thursday (Jan. 12) where prosecutors are expected to push for an extended prison sentence.

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