What happened
No German court had a white lady as famous as the Hohenzollerns'. She was first spoken of at Plassenburg Castle in Franconia, where she was said to have heralded misfortunes in 1486, 1540, 1554 and 1677. She was identified as Countess Kunigunde of Orlamünde, who according to legend killed her children in order to marry the Burgrave of Nuremberg – only for him to choose another woman. In Berlin the white lady was reported in 1598, shortly before the death of Elector John George, and again in 1618 and 1625, among other years. Here she was linked to Anna Sydow, mistress of Elector Joachim II, whom his son John George, breaking a promise, imprisoned in the Spandau Citadel, where she died in 1575. Reports of the apparition appearing before deaths in the royal family were repeated well into the 20th century.
Witnesses
Courtiers, servants and palace guards according to court chronicles and later collections of legends; individual witnesses are usually not named.
Explanations and hypotheses
Historians regard the Hohenzollern White Lady as a dynastic legend – other noble houses, such as the Rosenbergs in Bohemia, had similar “heralds of death.” The identifications of the ghost (Kunigunde of Orlamünde, Anna Sydow, even Perchta of Rožmberk) contradict one another and arose long after the supposed events. The story survived because it was “confirmed” in hindsight: the apparition was remembered after a ruler died. The Berlin Palace, damaged in the Second World War, was demolished in 1950; a reconstruction housing the Humboldt Forum now stands on the site.
Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.
Sources
- Ernst Jaedicke, Deutsche Sagen – „Die weiße Frau in dem Schlosse zu Berlin” (nach W. Schwartz; Projekt Gutenberg)
- Travelbook – Die Legende der Weißen Frau im Berliner Schloss (2024)
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