The White Lady – A Berlin Ghost Story

The Nikolaiviertel has many stories to tell—not only about real people such as Lessing and Mendelsohn, but also legends and ghost stories. One of these is the subject of the 15th panel of the historical trail in Poststraße: Carl Gause & belief in ghosts. It is the haunting story of the white lady.

Anyone walking from St. Nicholas’ Church to the banks of the Spree and looking at the red sandstone of the Kurfürstenhaus would never guess that this building owes its name not to its builder or architect, but that it hides a truly spooky story.

Carl Gause, who built the part of the Kurfürstenhöfe facing the Spree between 1895 and 1897, created a magnificent commercial building in the German Renaissance style. On its other side, the complex extends to the plot at Poststraße 4. It was expanded again in 1927 and is now a listed building. By the way, Gause was one of the great architects of his time—he also designed the Savoy Hotel, the Bristol, the Borchardt wine shop, and, completed after Gause’s death, the old Adlon in Berlin.

However, the Kurfürstenhaus bears its name because of a Hohenzollern, Elector Johann Sigismund, who wanted to escape a haunting in the castle—but was unsuccessful.

The ghost he wanted to escape is the most famous figure in Berlin mythology: the White Lady, the Hohenzollern family ghost, messenger of death, and essentially a shadow of the dynasty. The origins of this legend date back to the Middle Ages, and three people are associated with it. One is Bertha von Rosenberg, who is said to have died of a broken heart in the 15th century. The best known is Kunigunde von Orlamünde, whose story tells of tragic misunderstanding and unfulfilled love. She is said to have lost her children out of longing for Burgrave Albrecht der Schöne and to follow the Hohenzollerns as a restless spirit. And finally, the most recent figure is Anna Sydow, the “Beautiful Caster,” mistress of Elector Joachim II, who was imprisoned in Spandau Fortress after his death and died there. She is said to have appeared as a warning shadow to the adulterer shortly before his end.

When the Hohenzollerns moved to Berlin and built the City Palace, the White Lady followed them to the Spree. People claimed to have seen her in the chambers, on the stairs, in dark corridors. It was said that she always appeared shortly before the death of a family member. Superstition mingled with courtly fear, and soon the haunting became part of Berlin’s chronicles. Elector Johann Georg is said to have seen her on New Year’s Day 1598 – a few days later he was dead. And a courtier under the Great Elector is said to have fallen down the stairs after encountering her.

But hardly any event shaped the reputation of the White Lady as much as the death of Elector Johann Sigismund in 1619. The elector, weakened by a stroke and severe gout, feared her appearance more than all his illnesses. Legend has it that he saw the White Lady in the castle, gliding wordlessly through the walls, her robe vibrating like cobwebs in the breeze. Horrified, he fled—out of the halls of power across the Spree, into the narrow alleys of the Nikolaiviertel.

He sought refuge in Poststraße, in the home of his valet Anton Freytag. The building, a simple town house overlooking the church, was the exact opposite of the castle. Here, he believed he could escape the ominous messenger and death. A month earlier, he had already handed over power to his son and now he hoped to gain a few weeks of peace. But the White Lady, he feared, would find every Hohenzollern, no matter where he turned.

On December 23, 1619, Johann Sigismund died in his servant’s house, surrounded by family and confidants. Above his deathbed, Anton Freytag later had a bronze plaque installed, which recorded the time of his master’s death in Latin script. But in the city, people told a different story: the White Lady had found him…

When the Berlin Palace was rebuilt or extended with the dome added in the 19th century, and the Nikolaiviertel district also changed, the sightings continued. Newspaper reports from the 18th century mentioned the white lady, and romantic writers of the 19th century took up the legend again. She was believed to have been seen in the palace, on the Spree Bridge, and even in the Spandau Citadel. And, of course, in the alleys of the Nikolaiviertel—always dressed in white, always silent, always shortly before death.

And so today, the Kurfürstenhaus on the banks of the Spree and the Kurfürstenhöfe in Poststraße stand as silent witnesses to a story that has become established over centuries—a legend that interweaves architecture, politics, and superstition. The house owes its name to an attempt by a member of the Hohenzollern family to escape a haunting at this location, and since then, people in Berlin have said, “The White Lady finds everyone.”