Sidonia von Borcke (1548-1620) was a Pomeranian noblewoman who was tried and executed for witchcraft. In posthumous legends, she is depicted as a femme fatale, and she has entered English literature as Sidonia the Sorceress. Amongst all the trials for witchcraft with which we are acquainted, few have attained so great a celebrity as that of the Lady Canoness of Pomerania, Sidonia von Bork. She was accused of having by her sorceries caused sterility in many families, particularly in that of the ancient reigning house of Pomerania, and also of having destroyed the noblest scions of that house by an early and premature death. Notwithstanding the intercessions and entreaties of the Prince of Brandenburg and Saxony.

Author Biography

Johannes Wilhelm Meinhold (1797 - 1851) was a Pomeranian priest, author, poet, playwright and novelist. Meinhold was born in Ltow on the island of Usedom, where his father Georg Wilhelm Meinhold (1767-1728) was a Lutheran priest. Growing up in the atmosphere of the Napoleonic Wars, he enrolled as a student at the University of Greifswald in Swedish Pomerania in the fall of 1813. After his theological education, he was priest in Koserow on Usedom from 1821 until 1827. For the next 17 years, he was priest in Krummin, also on Usedom, before he relocated to Farther Pomerania. He retired early on account of his insubordinate behavior and died in 1851 in Berlin-Charlottenburg.