In Goethe's Faust, Gretchen, also known as Margarete, was the name of Faust's lover.Based off her appearance and her desire to create 'heaven', it can only be concluded that this shadow is Kriemhild Gretchen. In Episode 1, shortly after the runic text reading 'Prologue in Heaven', we see the upside-down form of a giant shadow above Walpurgis Night's spell circle (the symbols seen behind Walpurgis Night).

She is slain by the 'goddess' form of Madoka before she can consume the earth. She inhabits a comet-sized grief seed and, unlike the second and fourth timelines' versions of Kriemhild, has a fully-shown face (although the left half is either blank or covered in shadow) her head is sun disc-shaped, her open mouth resembles the moon, and her right eye resembles the earth. In episode 12, Madoka's all-powerful witch form, who may or may not be considered another form of Kriemhild Gretchen, appears at the end of the universe, born from all the grief Madoka had shouldered from the magical girls she had saved, due to her supremely hopeful wish. Her appearance in both timelines is essentially identical (if one looks closely at her fourth timeline appearance, they will see the head at the top of the shadow between the outstretched arms), though in the second timeline only her head was really shown at all, with the body still forming. According to Kyubey, strength of this incarnation of hers is of such a magnitude that she could obliterate the planet within ten days. Her name was not shown at all during initial broadcast, but was added in the fourth timeline in a webcast version one week later. In the fourth timeline, she is shown as a giant creature, actually the size of a mountain. In the second timeline, her formation involves thunderclouds coalescing initially into a giant humanoid and then she seems to form a mountain-like being. She appears in second and fourth timelines of Episode 10 a witch form of Madoka (whether she can be considered Kriemhild is up for debate) also appears in episode 12. GRETCHEN) is the witch form of Madoka Kaname.

Goethe and brocken spectre