Frau von Pfuel

Frau von Pfuel is the name given to an alchemist who visited the Prussian Court in 1751.

Although Frederick the Great was generally skeptical of alchemy, in 1751 he welcomed a woman known as Frau von Pfuel, or Madame von Pfuel, and her two daughters into his court in Potsdam, on the recommendation of his adviser, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf. Claiming that she could "extract the soul of gold", Frederick accepted her offer to perform the experiment in front of him so that he could "expose the folly" under his own "strict surveillance". Unable to detect any fraud, the king provided the trio with at least ten thousand thalers of gold with which to repeat their process.