Unemployed man starved himself to death

A 58-year-old man in the northern German town of Uslar starved himself to death after he stopped receiving unemployment benefits and suffered from isolation. Two hunters found the former sales representative’s mummified corpse in a tree house. The man had kept a dairy outlining his slow death.

Published: 12 February 2008 11:26 CET

According to the diary, the man did not eat or drink anything for 24 days aside from a few drops of water. The last entry was from December 13th of last year. He left the diary to his daughter.

The diary, which starts in October, says that the man’s marriage had fallen apart, he was unemployed and would not receive anymore unemployment benefits. His daughter had broken off contact as well.

The man is believed to have come to the tree house via a roughly 130 kilometre ride from Hannover. It is still unclear as to why the man chose the tree house as his place to die, however, the man knew the area well through his work as salesman in the region.