TV Report Sparks Occult Fears in Germany

Cannibalism hit the headlines in Germany at the end of last year with news of the gruesome last moments in the life of a 42-year-old homosexual man, who willingly agreed to his own murder.

Investigators believe the victim, Bernd Jürgen B. was fully aware of his situation, and of the intentions of his murderer to eat his flesh after killing him at his house near the city of Kassel.

The horrific crime, to which a 41-year-old computer systems expert has confessed, unleashed a wave of concern surrounding access via the internet to even the most bizarre of cult practices. The two men met in an internet chat room after the victim responded to one of dozens of ads placed by the suspect, looking for ‘hunks to slaughter’.

Television report

The latest furore was sparked by a report transmitted earlier this week on Germany's public television station ZDF about cannibalism and cult rituals within the federal borders. The report contains testimony by two women and a young child, who claim to have witnessed horrifying occult rituals, in which people were murdered and sometimes eaten.

A report in the German news magazine, Der Spiegel says that following the ZDF programme, the district attorney’s office in the southern German city of Trier has announced it is investigating several suspects in connection with "sexual practices against an occultist background." Trier’s Chief District Attorney, Georg Jüngling, said the report described “horrible, almost unimaginable things”.

Jüngling, who has been investigating occultist claims by a 34-year-old woman since last year, added that the program had turned up some new details which would now have to be investigated. But he declined to comment on the reported Satanic acts of murder and cannibalism.

The report also provoked a comment from the German Minister of Justice, Brigitte Zypries. Speaking to the television network ‘News 24’, Zypries said that reported cases of occult practices in Trier should be taken seriously. She called on the German states to investigate the reports.

No Hard Evidence

Such reports about cannibalism are bound, if not designed to unleash both fear and skepticism. Speaking on ZDF, Sect Representative for the Evangelical Church, Ingolf Christiansen said “there is a lot of circumstantial evidence which points at groups which carry out such extreme and publicly dangerous crimes”. And if the estimates given by Psychologist Rudolf Egg from the Centre of Criminology in Wiesbaden are anything to go by, then at least several hundred people in Germany are passively involved in bizarre occult practices.

Yet for all the estimation and circumstantial evidence, there appears so far to be no firm proof. With the Minister of Justice calling on the Federal states to set the wheels of investigation turning, perhaps it is simply a matter of time before a little light is shed on the currently dark occult rituals.