Stories about white ladies are plentiful in Europe, especially in Germany, and this particular The White Lady In Freihung ended up winning against the U.S Army.
The main town in Freihung has a long history of Bavarian culture and the industry of mining lead. There is also a ghost said to be haunting the quaint little Bavarian town.
This The White Lady In Freihung who is supposedly haunting the city center is said to be a middle aged woman who used the old mining tunnels to glide through, scaring people so much that in the end they destroyed the tunnels altogether. One hotel was greatly bothered by it and ended up taking matters into their own hands to rid themselves of the ghost.
The Noble White Lady In Freihung
Who The White Lady In Freihung was is not certain, but there are tales that there used to be a castle at this place were it now was a hotel, although there are no direct historical proof of it.
According to the legend, there lived a noble woman in this mysterious castle who died tragically, although her name and manner of death is not known as with the rest of the facts of the legend.
According to reports, there are tales about seeing The White Lady In Freihung since 1625. Ghosts that are reported on wearing white are very common in ghost stories from Germany, especially if the ghost is linked to a noble house. This is the case with the haunting of the house of Hohenzollern as well as an example.
The noble family of Hohenzollern of Germany has been haunted for centuries. The White Lady follows them, wherever they go. Who is she? And what does she want with the life of the nobles?
She is said to haunt the grounds where the castle once stood. Archaeological findings of a castle named Freihung Castle, exist, but in another place than where the hotel is today, and it is unclear whether that has any connection at all.
Today, most reports come from The Gasthaus Alte Post Hotel that they built over the underground mining tunnels.
Weiße Frauen in Germanic Folklore
Why exactley is germanic ghost stories riddled with stories about the lady in white or as they are called in german, Weiße Frauen
In German legends and folklore the stories of the Weiße Frauen or White Women used to be a name meant to the elven-spirits and the stories of the light elves from pagan times and has probably evolved to refer to the female ghosts said to haunt castles, forests, homes and everywhere women have met a deadly end.
The Missing Castle: could the ghost of the Lady in White come from the remains of a supposed castle that used to stand in Freihung? Did the castle even exist?
Now the name is also used on women dying in grief, of sorrow or with an urge of revenge. It has spread throughout Europe and is an image with strong connotations, even today.
Even outside of Europe, there are tales about female ghosts clad in all white, from the Korean Virgin Ghosts to the vengeful spirit on the Onryo in Japan.
The U.S Army on Ghost Hunt
The terror of The White Lady In Freihung got so bad that the local owners of the hotel called in the U.S troops to the The Gasthaus Alte Post Hotel where most sightseeings of her were reported.
From 1945, the American army had a training center in Grafenwoehr, not far from Freihung. Elvis Presley was once stationed there. It is still used today as a training area by the army.
The hotel owners were desperate by the 1970s and asked for their help and help they received. The army from the base came and used explosives to seal off all the tunnels under the hotel, hoping it would silence the ghost that supposedly walked underneath inside of the tunnels.
The Haunting Continues
This was not enough to stop The White Lady In Freihung however, as she just finds new ways to move among the locals to scare them. And if we are to believe the stories, she is still wandering the streets in the city center of Freihung and showing herself in the rearview mirror of passing cars.
The Black Forest in Germany is known for its haunted dark fairy tales from the brothers Grimm and the magical place has more than one legend about something magical and strange happening. But how haunted is really this place?
The Black Forest in Germany is not really a single forest, but a whole forested mountain range covering a large part of the country of dark fairy tales where around 60 % of the area is covered with some form of woodland. The Black Forest or Schwarzwald in German goes from southwest in Germany, down the Rhine Valley to the west, almost reaching the border to France and Switzerland, covering over 6000 km2.
The place is mainly rural with a few large towns and many scattered little villagers around and has become a place where legends of the supernatural and fables are allowed to live between the brooding thick woodlands with miles and miles of a forestry trail.
The Most Haunted Places in the World?
The place often pops up on lists of Most Haunted Places both in Germany as well as worldwide, but what exactly makes this entire place haunted as it is known as this dark and magical place for any outsiders? Calling the entire place haunted in the strictest sense doesn’t quite cover it all as the world enchanted does, with both the good and the bad.
Read also: Check out all the haunted places around Germany: Here
The Black Forest with its ominous sounding name is said to house everything from wicked witches, hungry werewolf, beautiful nymphs and forest goblins between the dark trees. Many of the stories sound like they come from one of the Grimm brother’s fever nightmare, and a couple of the stories of the Grimm brothers actually take place in a place that looks a lot like the Schwarzwald.
Stories like Hansel and Gretel losing their way in the forest and being captured by a witch, the menacing Pied Piper leading the children away from the urban town into the wild or the Little Red Riding Hood with the wolf knocking on the door. But do they actually take place here like the tourist guides would like you to believe? Have a bite of the Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, and finish your glühwein, because many of these legends is like a super dark fairy tale.
Background of the Black Forest
Walking through the landscape of the Black Forest you will see the romantic part of Germany with stout timber farmhouses and remnants of Baroque fortification from the 17th century, especially on the mountain passes. The highest peak is the Feldberg at 1493 meters above sea level before drooping down with its deeply carved valleys and rivers like the Danube river starts and continues through Europe.
In ancient times, The Black Forest was known as Abnoba Mons after a Celtic deity, Abnoba. She was worshiped in the Black Forest and the surrounding areas and couldn’t encapsulate the spirit of The Black Forest better. She was of course a forest and river goddess, showing just how much of an importance the thick woodlands with its wispy waterfalls and evergreen meadows had for the people living there.
Historically the people living in this forest area were known for forestry and the mining of ore deposits. Today however it is tourism that is the primary industry.
It was the Romans that gave the mountain range the name The Black Forest because of the densely growth of the very dark green conifer trees.
Because of its long history, it is easy to believe like The Black Forest area has been this unchanged and wild place forever without any disturbances. However that is not the case and the area has been through many changes and has been thoroughly cultivated by the human hand.
It used to be a mixed forest until the 19th century, when the Black Forest was almost completely deforested by too much forestry. It was replanted, this time, mostly with spruce as the only type of tree. Then in the 90s, a series of windstorms, among them Hurricane Lothar in 1999, swept over the Black Forest and destroyed much of the replanted forest. Large areas were left to nature and have since grown into a natural mixed forest again, showing how nature always finds a way.
Myths and Legends of Schwarzwald
Deep and dark forest landscapes create mysteries and legends and Schwarzwald is no exception. Legend has it that the forest area is haunted by werewolves and witches and in some cases, the devil himself.
Read more about the haunted forests around the world: Here
There are also stories about a headless horseman riding on a great white steed, a mythical motif we see in many instances in countless ghost stories and written horror like the famous Sleepy Hollow for example.
We can also find dark fairy tales of an evil king who kidnaps women to take them to his magical underwater lair where he lives among the nymphs.
The Black Forest is not short of stories that tell about the dangers of the wild and what will happen to those that step outside from the path. And none more of them than what we can find in the Grimm brothers collected stories. But did the brothers really find some of the stories among the dark pine cone trees?
The Stories of The Brothers Grimm
This is a place where magic is everyday, the birthplace of Cuckoo Clocks ticking away on walls, fairy tale is real life and the people use tarot cards as playing cards. The Black Forest is also were most people connect the often bizarre and dark fairy tales of the Grimm brothers, and many of them can be traced back to the area.
Stories from the Black Forest: The Brother Grimm’s Fairy Tales definitely helped making the Black Forest a place of magic and wonder.
Brothers Grimm set many of their most scariest folk tales to the Black Forest as this was one of the places where they collected them throughout Germany. The brothers didn’t actually write the fairy tales themselves though. The stories themselves had been told orally for ages locally, they simply put them down to paper.
Like Hansel and Gretel’s encounter with the witch were well suited as the place had a reputation for witches and witchcraft long before any of these tales were written down. Fairy Tales like Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty are also said to have been set inside of the Black Forest. But is this true?
How accurate it is though is hard to say, as many of the stories are also said to be from northern part of Germany, especially around Hesse. Although the fairy tales doesn’t really have a super specific location attached to them, and many are reworks of tales that have been told all over the place, locating these fairy tales to this specific mountain range is difficult.
Although the marketing of the tourism in the Black Forest will tell you another story, because many parts of the area really fits perfectly for the more darker tales.
If you are looking for a fairy tale which explicitly plays in the Black Forest is the more under the radar fairy tale called “Heart of Stone” by Wilhelm Hauff.
The Modern Myth of Der Grossmann
There is a particular creature that shows up today on many listicles online about the Black Forest being one of Germany’s most haunted places. This is the story of Der Grossmann and it looks like it originated online together with the urban legend of Slenderman, not in the forest as a fairy tale to keep children out from the dark forest.
Der Grossmann tells of a tall and ugly man, badly disfigured with bulging eyes and too many arms. He is associated with woodcuts carved in the 1700s by an unknown artist in Germany and has as of today a pretty extensive backstory. According to ‘local legend’ bad children were sent into the forest, and they had to confess their sins to der Grossman. It is said that the worst children never came out from the forest again.
This particular story looks like it didn’t originate in the depth of the Black Forest because all information about it comes from articles discussing the historical aspects of the urban legend, the slender man. And in no place does the old legends from Germany mention a creature like this.
Even though it isn’t necessarily an old folk tale, the story is a pretty good one.
Hauntingly Beautiful
Whether a modern ghost story from one of the small towns, or an ancient legend that over time turned into one of the darker fairy tales, the Black Forest holds the macabre and haunted together with the whimsical and magical.
It has and probably will continue to draw people that wish to disappear in between the trees and off the beaten path that leads into the wild.
In an old nazi soldier camp in Germany called Conn Barracks there are still those thinking they never left. Several American soldiers tell about the ghost of them still haunting the place.
One of the most freakiest types of barracks are the ones that were used as a Nazi psych ward during world war two. The Conn Barracks is just outside of the Schweinfurth city limits in Germany.
The Conn Barracks was before the war, known as Flugplatz Schweinfurt, constructed as a Luftwaffe airfield particularly for Stuka pilots built in 1936. During the war it was a bomber base mainly, and according to legend, also used as a sort of hospital or a psych ward of some sort.
Although not likely to be the main thing for the barracks, it makes sense there was some sort of hospital-like place during this type of place during the war. Especially considering this particular barrack went through seventeen bombing attacks from the allied.
After the war the Americans took control and renamed the whole place Schweinfurt Air Base which Conn Barracks is a part of. Like many former Nazi camps, barracks and other military places it was in the hands of the American Military and it was used by them until 2014 when most American forces pulled out of Germany. At its peak Schweinfurt Air Base housed around 11 000 people, soldiers as well as their families.
The Nazi Soldier and Bloody Nurse
When Conn Barracks was used as living quarters by the Americans, they occupied the space above a former drainage room where the Nazis stored their bodies before embalming them, according to the stories. Whether true or not is a bit tricky to confirm or deny, but in any case it is from these particular rooms many of the paranormal reports about Conn Barracks come from.
At least two American soldiers on two separate occasions in the same room. In the middle of the night they woke from their sleep and saw a Nazi soldier together with a nurse covered in blood, standing by their beds.
The soldiers are unable to move at all as the visitations from the ghosts are there. The Nazi soldier kept saying something to the nurse in German, almost as if he was giving orders. The nurse leans over the bed with a sad face and chokes the soldier until they go back to sleep.
More Than One Ghost
But it is not only bloody nurses and nazi soldiers that have been whispered about in Conn Barracks.
Another ghost that allegedly haunts the old barracks is that of a young woman carrying a fetus as she floats down the hallways. Who and what happened there will probably remain a mystery.
An old fortress of protection turned into a prison of a mistress who died and started haunting Zitadelle Spandau where she met her end. And the ghost of the mistress Anna Sydow are said to haunt both the place and the family who caused her death.
One of the best preserved Renaissance military structures in Europe is the citadel in today’s Berlin, in German called Zitadelle Spandau. It was built in 1559 on top of another fort and designed to protect the Spandau town which is now a part of modern day Berlin.
Many castles in Germany have stories about a certain Lady in White haunting it, and in Spandau Citadel there is the ghost of Anna Sydow.
Anna Sydow was the mistress of the Brandenburg Elector Joachim II. Joachim II was a part of the Hohenzollern who has been rumored to be plagued by the ghosts of a Lady in White. Anna Sydow is just one of the many rumored to be at least one of them.
Read more about the curse of the House of Hohenzollern: Here
Anna Sydow: Portrait of the mistress Anna Sydow who are believed to be the Lady in White that haunts Zitadelle Spandau after she was imprisoned by the son of her lover.
In 1549, the wife of Elector Joachim II suffered an accident which left her walking on crutches. She fell down the floor and impaled herself on a couple of antlers that hung in the room below. Something that the elector thought ruined the marriage and the enjoyment of hunting. He chose then to take a mistress and he chose Anna Sydow.
During her life as his mistress, Anna Sydow bore him two children and lived in the Grunewald Hunting Lodge for two decades and is also said to haunt the grounds of that place. This was also the place where the wife of Joachim II got impaled and ended up on crutches.
Imprisoned in Zitadelle Spandau
Johann Georg was the heir and son to Joachim II, and had explicitly promised his father on numerous occasions that he would spare and protect Anna Sydow after he died. But when the elector died in 1571, she was imprisoned in the Zitadelle Spandau until her death in 1575.
The Zitadelle Spandau was often used to house prisoners of the state for a long time, and Anna Sydow was one of the first. She was arrested under false pretenses though and saw no trial. Although the arrest was unjust, she at least didn’t end up being executed like many others of his fathers old court did. Or according to some of the legends, she was actually murdered.
In any case, Johann Georg felt haunted by her after her death. On January 1st in 1598, Johann Georg saw the specter of a Lady in White that he thought had to be Anna Sydow and died eight days later.
In 1709, there was a skeleton of a woman found buried inside of the Zitadelle Spandau during renovation, and everyone thought it had to belong to the Lady in White that was plaguing the fortress as well as the Hohenzollern family. They gave her a proper burial in hopes of ending the hauntings, but according to reports, there is still something haunting within the Zitadelle Spandau walls.
Immured in the Hunting Lodge
There is also this rumor that it wasn’t in the fortress Anna Sydow met her end but in the Grunewald Hunting Lodge. So she is thought to haunt both places as well as members of the Hohenzollern family.
It is a legend that she was immured alive in the small spiral staircase in the western corner wing. Since then she has been haunting the castle around midnight.
The abandoned sanatorium in Germany is said to be haunted by all those souls that died inside of it because of its dark history. And in the Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital, it wasn’t just sick people who ended up dying, but several murders took place in it or around it as well.
Some buildings are just thought to be haunted by the look of them. Especially these old abandoned buildings with a dark and sinister history attached to them. One of these buildings with long ominous corridors and peeling paint is the Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital not far from Berlin in Germany.
The sanatorium was first built in 1898 as a response to the rapid increase in tuberculosis patients at the time as it was the number one cause of death in Germany at the time for people between 15 to 40.
The Abandoned Sanatorium: The Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital was originally built in 1898 as a treatment place for tuberculosis. Today it is abandoned with a haunted reputation over it.//source//wikimedia//qbanez
One of the treatments for this was fresh air, so the sanatorium was built in a remote pine forest. The Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital was a complex of around 60 buildings that in the end, almost served as a small town of itself, with its own bakery, shop, apartments, post office, stables, butcher shop and laundry houses. At the time it was the largest treatment center in the world for lung diseases with at its peak beds for over 1200 patients.
During the first world war Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital served as a field hospital, and it got famous for treating Adolf Hitler who was wounded in his leg as well as being blinded by a gas attack by the British forces in the Battle of Somme.
When the second world war started it would again be a treatment hospital for the Nazi forces until they lost and ended up being occupied by the Russians from 1945. Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital stayed like that until 1995 before closing its door for good. At least for treating patients.
The Abandoned Buildings as a Murder Place
Many murders have taken place in this remote area and around it. After the Soviet left, it became a hotspot for satanic and occult people to gather to drink and keep seances. And it was also those with an even more sinister idea.
In March 1991, a mother and her newborn child of three months were brutally murdered right outside the old sanatorium. It was the Beast of Beelitz who had struck again, a notorious serial killer that had started on 24 of October in 1989.
The serial killer Wolfgang Schimdt used to be called Beast of Beelitz or Pink Giant because of his choice of weapon. The killer who legally changed name to Beate and underwent gender reassignment had terrorized the local women for years and his modus operandi was to strangle the victims with pink womens underwear. The Beast of Beelitz is in prison to this day after killing 6 people.
But it wasn’t the only murderer who used this place for his crimes. A photographer and sadist named Michael K brought a 20 year old model named Anja P. to Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital for pictures, and as he explained it, an erotic photo session that ended with her accidental death.
During the photo session he ended up killing her, but the police found clear evidence that this was not an accident, but a premeditated murder. He beat her with a frying pan and had sex with her corpse after she died.
Dark Tourism of Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital
Like many of these mysterious and abandoned places there are many people attracted to the eerie beauty of the macabre building and its history. Many visit the place to get a closer look at the building itself or just explore the paranormal rumors that are created by just the haunted atmosphere of the place.
Dark Tourism: Most of the buildings of Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospitalare left to decay and a number of visitors come to experience the eery atmosphere of the abandoned building. But one of the reasons it is fenced off and off limits is because it is dangerous. Several people have had accidents in the unsecured and abandoned building who is falling apart. //source:Wendelin Jacober
Before 2015 it was mostly left to its own devices and people would come and go as they pleased. It was used as a movie location for the 2002 movie “The Pianist”, as well as being the place for horrific crimes.
Today it is more closed off and taken back by the public to renovate and made into a tourist attraction rather than an urbex location for exploration.
A Haunted Hospital
So is Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital really a haunted place? Considering all the dark stuff that have happened inside of the building complex it is easy to think why people would call this place haunted. But rather than a specific story or encounter that made the place famous, it seems to be the other way around.
This is not the only allegedly haunted hospital either. How about checking out some of the other stories about Haunted Hospitals like Gonjiam Asylum, Weston State or Poveglia Island?
There are however those who enter the place that exit it with tales of something paranormal happening to them. It is the usual stuff of seeing apparition where there are suppose to be none as well as hearing strange sounds and having the feeling of being watched as the room gets colder.
So what do we think? Is Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital haunted or just plain spooky?
It the cold North Sea, there is a ghost ship where the crew plays for your soul with dice. That is what happened to Baron Falkenberg.
In the seas outside the shores of Germany, there is also a Captain of a ghost ship, haunting the dark waters, collecting souls and trapping them there. It goes into the European tradition of ghost ships and a cursed crew, just like The Flying Dutchman. That is the base of the legend of the story of Baron Falkenberg.
Baron Falkenberg
The Baron was invited to a wedding to his long lost brother who had just come back home as a new man. When the brother returned, he was a very wealthy man, unlike the Baron, who had very little money to his name.
Advertisements
The Baron had long had his eyes set on a girl he wanted to marry from the village, but hadn’t dared to declare his love for. But to his horror, he found that the wedding of this girl and his brother he was going to attend. Not only was his brother now a much richer man than the Baron himself, he was going to marry the love of his life.
Still, the Baron thought they should live in peace. It was after all her choice, and he had no real money to offer her, so he shouldn’t hold a grudge.
The Wedding Violence
The wedding went as smoothly as one could expect and there were lots of champagne, songs and festivities that night. It all was well until his brother touched the Baron the wrong place or way as it says in the legend. The Baron went mad after this and grabbed a champagne bottle and smashed it into his brother’s head.
The brother fell dead to the ground and the bride fled screaming away as she had seen it all. The Baron chased her to explain himself. He declared his love and tried to persuade her to escape with him, but she told him that she would rather die than be with him. The Baron took her word for it and stabbed her with a knife, also killing the girl he loved.
The sound of the fighting didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the guests and they came to investigate and soon found the tragedy that had unfolded to the newlyweds. The Baron fled the scene and went for a walk, trying to clear his head and figure out what to do next. He found himself at the beach nearby and found a man was sitting there, almost like he was waiting for the Baron.
“The Captain expects you, Baron,” the boatman said to the Baron and extended his hand to help him into the boat right next to them. The Baron had nowhere to go, no one to go to and accepted and got into the boat rowed further out to sea where a ship was waiting.
And when the Baron first entered the ship, he didn’t get off for the next 600 years. The ship can sometimes be seen on wild winter nights in the North Sea going north. The ship is painted gray and sailed under a yellow flag. You can see the Baron sitting there with the devil, playing dice for his soul and cursed to sail the ship forever.
Thes old and noble family House of Hohenzollern in Germany seems to forever be haunted by a Lady in White. Both the ancient family homes of the family, and also the family members, however far they go away, the curse of the house will follow.
In December 1628, the Palace in Berlin can’t keep the cold out, not completely. A hereditary haunting of the ruling family of Prussia sits in the walls of their castles — a bad omen. Most often the bad omen of the curse is seen as a woman dressed in white. You can hear her sometimes, the clanking of the large keys around her waist. A young prince is next this time. She appears to a him and says: – ‘Veni, judica vivos et mortuos’ which means ‘Come, I judge the living and the dead’. The day after, he dies of an illness.
But who is it that haunts this old and noble family? Even the young princes? Years before the young person died, she was also spotted by three young pages in 1619. In one of Hohenzollern Castle halls, it doesn’t need to be the one in Berlin. As long as it is one of the ruling Hohenzollerns. The young pages thought she was a living human being, and approached her. When he asked what she was doing here she turned to him and hit him with her keys, killing him. The two pages ran away, terrified.
The House of Hohenzollerns was growing restless when they heard about the sighting of the woman. She had been spotted again, it was a bad omen. Something was about to happen. Three weeks later, John Sigismund Prince-Elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from the House of Hohenzollern, died.
House of Hohenzollern in Germany
The family is an old one. The House of Hohenzollern once ruled what is now known as Germany as a dynasty being princes, electors, kings and emperors. They ruled the lands of Brandenburg, Prussia, The German Empire and as far as to Romania.
Read More: Check out all of our ghost stories from Germany
They began their ruling dynasty in Swabia, in a town called Hechingen during the 11th century and took their name from their ancestral Hohenzollern Castle. The first ancestors of the House of Hohenzollerns were mentioned in 1061.
Burg Hohenzollern on the Hill: The ancestral home in Swabia, Germany, constructed in the early 11th century to the House of Hohenzollern. The haunting may have started here, but the sightings of the White Lady Haunting the family has been spotted everywhere were a member of the family has been residing.
They were the rulers of the lands, growing in power until 18 71 with the unification of the German Empire with the Hohenzollerns as hereditary German Emperors and Kings of Prussia. This title they held until Germany’s defeat in World War I in 1918 led to the German Revolution. The House of Hohenzollerns were overthrown and the Weimar Republic was established, thus bringing an end to the German monarchy.
Sure, they were powerful, and powerful families makes powerful enemies. Blue blood attracts bad blood. But who was so intent on following the family, haunting them for centuries? There have been many claims as to who exactly is the woman behind the hauntings. And this here, is one of the more famed ones.
The Noble Killer Nun Haunting the House of Hohenzollern
Kunigunde von Orlamünde is a ghostly reminder of the ancient past. She was born in 1303 as the first child of Ulrich I, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg, and part of their Bavarian dynasty in the middle-ages.
According to legend, Kunigunde von Orlamünde fell in love in a man called Albrecht the fair, the fourth son of Frederick IV, Burgrave of Nuremberg. A man of the House of Hohenzollern.
The Abbess: Tombstone of Kunigunde von Orlamünde at Himmelskron, is rumored to be behind the curse of the House of Hohenzollern.
Albrecht had expressed that he would marry Kunigunde von Orlamünde, hadn’t it been for that “four eyes did not stand in the way”. Kunigunde thought he meant her son and daughter. Therefore, she stabbed their eyes out with a needle, and they died, freeing her to marry the man she loved.
Johann Löer made a verse about this in 1559:
And thought, those small children I wanted Will certainly be the eyes that Robs me of my love! And if the woman even did That murdered her own children That misery robbed their life That stabbed them with pins Tender and soft all over
This is not what Albrecht meant though, as he was talking about his parents as they disapproved of their match. He refused to marry her after her actions. He married a woman named Sophie von Henneberg and got two daughters on his own.
Kunigunde von Orlamünde was devastated and full of regret. She had murdered her own children for a man that didn’t even want her. Therefore she started on a pilgrimage to the Vatican to get absolution for her sins from the Pope himself. He ordered her to build a monastery and become a nun. She joined the Kloster Himmelkron.
In some version she she was sentenced to life in prison for the murders, other tell of how she died on the way to the Vatican, not being able to beg of forgiveness. She is one of the origin stories of the curse over the House of Hohenzollern and she has been haunting the family ever since.
Weiße Frauen Haunting the House of Hohenzollern
Could Kunigunde von Orlamünde be the lady following the haunted House of Hohenzollern? Lurking along the walls with her keys, paying close attention on every male descendant in the family that she never got to be a part of? A family growing bigger by every generation while she cut down her own? In any case, the legend of the Lady in White is old. Perhaps so old that even not history keeps it in its records?
Basking in the sunlight, hiding in the shadows, her dress is always white. In German legends and folklore the stories of the Weiße Frauen, meaning White Women used to be a name meant to the elven-spirits and the stories of the light elves from pagan times. Many of the ghost stories seems to be based on these old folklore types of myths and legends, even to this day.
The White Lady Haunting Germany: Illustration from the opera, The White Lady. The White women or the Weiße Frauen has been a part of the German mythology for ages. It has know been a part of German ghost stories as well for centuries.
The legend of the Weiße Frauen or white woman has, as everything does, evolved from its elven origins. Now the name is also used on women dying in grief, of sorrow or with a urge of revenge. It has spread throughout Europe and is an image with strong connotations, even today.
The Family Curse Over the House of Hohenzollern
Some call her the White Lady, some call her ‘The Harbinger’. She brings bad luck to those seeing her, and reports of her sightings has been going on for centuries.
In 1667, Louise Henrietta of Orange, the wife of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg, was lying ill. A few days before she passed away, she saw the White Lady, sitting by her desk almost as an omen that warned the family that death was approaching.
The family members started to learn to spot the signs, but was unable to do anything after her sightings. In 1678, the Margrave Erdmann Philip of Brandenburg saw the White Lady in his armchair as he entered his chamber in Baireuth. He left the room, shocked and terrified. The next day he rode his horse out in the court and there was something weird going on. The horse was uneasy, as if seeing something that scared it and he threw the prince off. The Prince stood up, seemingly fine and he retired to his chamber. But after two hours, he was dead.
Weiße Frauen Curse of the House of Hohenzollern: The White lady, also known as the Harbinger, has been haunting the family for centuries, acting as an omen when someone is about to day, and even as a warning. Is it really a curse, or actually someone watching over them, trying to warn them when danger is afoot?
Even the dead ones seems to warn about the White Lady that haunts the House of Hohenzollern. The White Lady was supposedly absent during Frederick the Great’s reign, but in his death, he came back to warn them about her. In 1792 in Paris, his nephew Frederick William the Second was camped outside the city with his troops, ready to attack the next day. That night his dead uncle appeared before him, warning him about the seeing the White Lady if he didn’t call off the attack. His nephew listened and left France, avoiding the harbinger and according to the legend, a certain death.
Even Napoleon tried to spend a night in one of Hohenzollern castles but left bothered by the ghost haunting the place. In 1806 he had defeated Prussia and claimed some of its land as a French province. He left the next day, never to returned, calling it le maudit chateau, ‘the cursed castle’.
But today? Were is she? Just before World War I in 1914, she was last reported. Just before the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. After they lost the war Kaiser Wilhelm the Second was the last ruling Hohenzollern, and he later abdicated the throne.
And it is said as long as there is no Hohenzollern that rules, the White Lady will stay in the shadows, and hopefully, outside of the Hohenzollern castles.
What is the Truth Behind the Curse?
Such a dramatic story, but does it ring any truth? What is true is that Kunigunde married Otto VI, Count of Weimar-Orlamünde. Historians refute the legend as according to record, their marriage produced no children. It is true that she and her husband adopted a daughter, Podika von Schaumburg, but she grew up and married Poske Ritter von Schweritz in 1341.
There are also records of her dying in 29th of April in 1382. And if she really was born in 1303 she would have been close to 80 and most likely in a comfortable home, not on the road to Rome or in prison.
Kinigunde’s husband died in 1340, leaving her with a vast inheritance. She spent it on the monastery she herself would join as a nun. Funnily enough, sources tells he actually bought the monastery from Albrecht.
The Harbinger of Death
For a story as old as this one, there is now difficult to separate facts from fiction and the story of the curse that allegedly looms over the House of Hohenzollern seems to still be there, even if no one has reported about the White Lady for a while.
But what about The House of Hohenzollern and their sightings of the White Lady over the centuries? All of their stories? Were they just that? Stories? Or is it that some details of the past is not for us to know. Not the living.
Could it be something else than a woman with a flare for eternal vengeance? Perhaps something even older like the German myths and legends have been telling for ages?
An online magazine about the paranormal, haunted and macabre. We collect the ghost stories from all around the world as well as review horror and gothic media.
