Thread by @MikeStuchbery_

With the news of *another* case of sexual cannibalism in Germany out there, maybe it's time to go over the fact that, well, eating folks has a long history there...

Let's make something clear first, however: Archaeologists, historians and anthropologists *hate* saying that cannibalism was unequivocally practiced at a site - so let's take everything with trace amounts of salt - there could be other explanations, of course...

The story starts around 7,000 years ago in South-West Germany, at a place that is now called Herxheim. While building a new housing development, archaeologists doing an inspection found the remains of 1,000 people who appear to had been eaten...

Skulls had been split, heat applied, knife marks on bones. If you're interested, read the article for the evidence gleaned from the site.

Whatever went on there, it sure looked like people had been eaten, possibly in a ritual context... google.com/amp/s/www.spie…

Cannibalism is mentioned on and off by Roman historians in reference to the Germanic tribes, but this is super sketchy - they had their reasons for wanting to portray the natives as beasts...

Now here's where things get wild. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, we know that body parts were considered medicinal. Blood and fat were collected as elixirs at executions, skulls (old or news) were powdered to ingest or use as a salve... google.com/amp/s/www.spie…

That was by choice. In 17th century, what is now Germany was the main theatre of the Thirty Years War. Pillaging troops, disease & bad weather led to massive famine, and the church received regular reports of cannibalism among populations - some propaganda, but surely not all...

Cannibalism usually pops up in times of great hardship, and perhaps the most trying time in modern Germany's history was the 20th century.

War, a smashed economy and widespread poverty led to desperate times - and there were those who took advantage of it...

Fritz Haarman, Carl Großmann and Karl Denke are all said to have sold human meat on the black market in the pre-war period, taken from their victims - all were serial killers.

Peter Kürten was also said to enjoy drinking the blood of his victims. He inspired Fritz Lang's 'M'...

There's also speculation that in the immediate post-war period, some of the meat sold in cities such as Berlin was not pork - although that could be a mixture of propaganda and miscommunication...

...and finally we get to Armin Mewes, who until now was Germany's most famous cannibal. In 2001, he ate part of a bloke who responded to an ad he placed, seeking someone to eat. filmdaily.co/news/cannibal-…

Truth be told, I'm not so sure that there's been anymore cannibalism in Germany than anywhere else. I just think that it's worked it's way into folklore and stories of the past in a unique manner, and that in being picked up by media, it perpetuates itself...

There's loads more I could say, but it's lunchtime. Bon appetit!