William Meinhold

Sidonia the Sorceress, Volume I (Dodo Press) William Meinhold

Reverend Johann William Meinhold (1797- 1851) who wrote under the pseudonym Abraham Schweidler, was a German pastor and author. In 1813 he attended the University of Greifswald and then in 1820 he became the rector of the Town School of Usedom. In 1821 he became a pastor of Coserow in Usedom. In the 1840s he claimed to have discovered the manuscript of another minister, Abraham Schweidler, among the rubbish in the choir in the old Coserow Church. This was the story of Mary Schweidler: The Amber Witch (1843) described as "the most interesting trial for witchcraft ever known".