Maria Sophia von Erthal
According to a study group in Lohr, Bavaria, Snow White is based on Maria Sophia von Erthal, born on 15 June 1729 in Lohr am Main, Bavaria. She was the daughter of 18th-century landowner, Prince Philipp Christoph von Erthal and his wife, Baroness von Bettendorff. After the death of the Baroness, Prince Philipp went on to marry Claudia Elisabeth Maria von Venningen, Countess of Reichenstein, who was said to dislike her stepchildren. The castle where they lived, now a museum, was home to a mirror that was famous for its extremely smooth and even surface, something uncommon in that period. It was referred to as ‘talking mirror’, because “it always spoke the truth” (now housed in the Spessart Museum). The mirror, constructed in 1720 by the Mirror Manufacture of the Electorate of Mainz in Lohr, had been in the house during the time that Maria's stepmother lived there. Her gravestone was found in 2019.[9]
The dwarfs in Maria's story are also linked to a mining town, Bieber, located just west of Lohr and set among seven mountains. The smallest tunnels could only be accessed by very short miners, who often wore bright hoods, as the dwarfs have frequently been depicted over the years. The Lohr study group maintains that the glass coffin may be linked to the region's famous glassworks, while the poisoned apple may be associated with the deadly nightshade poison that grows in abundance in Lohr.[10]
