Germany has been seized by a national mood of morbid fascination since last week, when prosecutors arrested a man in a ghoulish case that involved the Internet, homicide and cannibalism.

The story has dominated the newspapers here for days, eclipsing reports about the dismal economy, the political travails of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and even crippling strikes by transportation workers.

The facts of the case are beyond lurid, according to the news release from the state prosecutor in Kassel, a central German city not far from where the crime took place. (In keeping with standard German practice in homicide cases, the full names of those involved were not revealed.)

A 43-year-old microchip designer, identified as Bernd Jürgen B., sold his car and responded to an Internet advertisement, described by German newspapers as saying: ''Wanted: well-built man for slaughter.'' B. is believed to have presented himself at a dilapidated half-timbered house in the river town of Rotenburg an der Fulda that is the home of the suspect, a 41-year-old software technician identified as Armin M.