Speculah:Prior Lives of Witches
With witches are fallen magical girls theory proven true, the fan base has moved to speculate the prior lives of the girls and the nature of their wishes prior to their witchification. This page is dedicated to such speculations:
Gertrud
Her rose and mustached minions led one to believe that she may once been a ouji-sama that fell in love and made a wish similar to Sayaka's.
Suleika
Charlotte
Based on her lair that splices hospital and dessert imagery, the fanbase speculated that Charlotte was a young terminal cancer patient whom contracted with Kyuubey in order to recover. Her desire for cheese can be explained by the fact that many cancer patients cannot ingest dairy.
A number of fans suspect that the title character of the unreleased prequel manga Oriko Magica will become Charlotte. Oriko herself is clearly a young girl, as many speculate Charlotte was, and it seems that she will be associating with Kyoko and Mami. Since Kyoko loves food, and Mami gets killed by Charlotte, Oriko becoming Charlotte would then be ironic. Furthermore, since Homura is stated to appear in Oriko, it's possible that the events of the manga will occur while Homura is in still in the hospital. If that is true, then it's also possible that Homura will appear because Oriko herself is in the same hospital, matching the speculation of Charlotte being a cancer patient.
There may actually be some evidence for this. The runes in Episode 3 refer to Mami by name and Homura as "Homuhomu" (which seems to be the origin for Homura's fan nickname). All runes appear to be messages from the witch or her familiars, which then implies that Charlotte actually knew their names.
Elly
Judging from the imagery within her barrier (in particular the silhouette of a girl with twintails within the TV-body of Elly; it must be noted that the witch herself also has twintails) and the statement that the witch is a shut-in, she may have been a recluse who wished for popularity as an idol and eventually broke down under the pressure (of being an idol, a magical girl, or both.) H.N. may thus refer to not just her nickname on the internet, but her handle name as an idol.
Albertine
Gisela
Elsa Maria
Possibly a similar story to Kyouko, or possibly Kyouko's younger sister.
As she seems of a religious bent and her shadow takes humans and animals alike without discrimination, her wish could have been a vaguely-worded one to help others (which the Incubators' plan already does) or to bring salvation to all, and she might have devoted her life as a magical girl to the destruction of "demonic beings" witches appear to be (many Christian demons have unusual forms, so thinking witches as agents of Hell is presumably an easy mistake to make.) Her own transformation into a witch might have been initiated by the reveal that witches are former magical girls, leading Elsa Maria to realize that the witches she had been slaying without question until now were other magical girls instead of servants of the Devil and consequently fall into despair. If that is the case, her intentions are ironically fulfilled after she is transformed into a witch, as her shadow now liberates any and all. Her praying posture may be as a result of her regret for inadvertently slaying witches, she thus seeks redemption by constantly praying for their souls as well as the rest of humanity. Her thematic links to the Tree of Knowledge might come from her belief that she made the same mistake as Eve when accepting to become a magical girl, with Kyuubey taking the role of the Serpent.
Uhrmann
Oktavia von Seckendorff
See Sayaka.
Izabel
May have wished to be an artist, based on all the references to Picasso and other artists in her barrier.
It gains more evidence from her official description, which calls her an artist witch, with the nature of vanity. Perhaps she desired to be famous.
Patricia
Up this witch's skirt appears to be some sort of infinite orifice. Given the uniforms, the above fact that witches originate from young girls, take note of the odd position the Witch appears to be in... It is likely Patricia was someone who fell to despair and turned into a Witch because of sexual abuse. The uniforms on clotheslines could symbolize her constantly washing her uniform due to her feeling "dirty".
The official descriptions says she is a "class representative witch". Perhaps she wished for the position, but found it wasn't what she expected? It's also possible she may have been a very controlling person, based off the spider and spider-thread imagery, and the fact that her familiars are entirely controlled by the witch's threads.
Roberta
As the witch was shown in an alternate timeline, it is speculated that this witch was Mami. The reasons for this speculation are as follows: a flower pattern is seen on Roberta's clothing and the floor of her barrier (although the pattern also resembles a gear), she seems to explode into muskets (Mami's weapon) when killed, and of course, the witch has no head. The cage she appears in, as well as the general emptiness of her barrier, would then symbolize Mami's isolation,
The main strike against this theory is that if Mami transformed into a witch in that timeline, she wouldn't have lost her head against Charlotte.
- It could be seen as the fact that Mami doesn't have a very solid head on her shoulders, or maybe the witch's head as just hidden from sight behind the cage.
The official description of the witch also seems to contradict this theory, suggesting instead a party girl who desired attention from others.
- Mami made her magical girl stuff flashy and attentionseeking. I don't think that particular line debunks the theory entirely.
Kriemhild Gretchen
See Madoka.
Walpurgis Night
Some fans speculate that this is the witch form of Homura. Evidence supporting this theory are mechanical gears on the witch's body, also seen in Homura's shield. This would imply that Homura becoming a witch is a meta-timeline event, thanks to her time travel-related wish.
Others speculate that Walpurgis is the witch-form of a magical girl who defeated a previous Walpurgis. Some go as far to suggest that Walpurgis is of extraterrestrial origin.
Another line of speculation is that Walpurgis is actually a composite being formed from a number of witches fusing into one super-witch. This comes from the fact that Walpurgis Night is, in German folklore and Goethe's Faust, a gathering of witches. According to this theory, the witches are "gathering" into one. If true, Walpurgis technically has no prior existence as a magical girl. It also offers an explanation for the subtle differences between the Walpurgis seen in episode 1 and the other two seen in episode 10; they're formed from different combinations of witches.
Other people have stated that this witch may in fact be Madoka, whose association with Homura led to its bearing similarities.
Also see Speculah:Walpurgis Night.