He was called “The Cannibal from Lower Silesia”. He cured human flesh and sold it in the market

Almost 100 years ago, a man came running to the police station in today’s Ziębice in Lower Silesia, claiming that he had miraculously escaped death. He informed the police about an attempted murder by one Karl Denke. As it turned out later, the crimes he committed were bloodcurdling.

How did Karl become a murderer? Nothing foreshadowed the crimes he was about to commit

Karl Denke was born in 1860 and came from Kalinowice Górne, one of the Lower Silesian villages. Karl’s parents ran a farm, but the boy did not get along with them. He was considered a difficult and characterful child. He studied poorly and caused trouble. After his death, his parents bequeathed the farm to his brother, Adolf. Karl was left with nothing, so his brother took pity on him and gave him some money, but on a condition. Karl was never to return to his home village. Until the end of World War I, Denke lived affluently. He bought a house with a garden in Munsterberg, and the neighbors saw him as a man with a heart of gold. The situation changed after the war, when the inflation crisis came. Karl lost a large sum of money and was forced to sell the house. The new buyer, however, was kind enough to let the former owner stay on the ground floor in a specially designated part of the building. Karl started gardening and selling his crops at the market. With time, he also began to sell meat.

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A good-natured neighbor. Nobody suspected what he was really doing

Karl Denke was famous for helping the homeless and the poor. One such person was Vincenz Oliver, who asked him to write a letter to his brother. Karl gladly agreed to the offer. The men met at Denke’s apartment, but at one point Vincenz Oliver saw that the host was reaching for a hoe and about to hit him on the head. He managed to escape and immediately went to the police. The police did not believe his story, but after Oliver’s persuasion, they decided to keep Karl overnight in custody. When they returned to the police station in the morning, it turned out that the man had hanged himself with a handkerchief tied to the prison bars.

When the police entered the house, they were shocked. He sold human flesh in the market

The officers entered Karl Denke’s house. What they found sends shivers down their spines. Human meat cured in jars, bloody clothes, victims’ documents and the diary of their tormentor. Under the pretext of helping, Denke lured beggars and the homeless to him, killed them, and later not only ate them himself, but also sold their meat at the market. – The number of his victims has never been established. It is estimated at 20-40 people. Even after World War II, human remains were found in his garden – Marek Czapliński, author of the book “History of the town of Ziębice in Silesia”. Karl Denke’s house still stands in the village today.