Born in Franzburg, she was the second child and eldest daughter of Bogislaw XIII, Duke of Pomerania-Barth by his first wife, Clara of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

Clara Maria belonged to the last generation of the House of Griffins, who ruled the Duchy of Pomerania since the 12th century; from her ten siblings, only one sister, Anna (by marriage Duchess-Consort of Croy and Havré), produced surviving offspring.

[citation needed] In Barth on 7 October 1593, Clara Maria married firstly Sigismund August, youngest son of John Albert I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Because of his reported "weaked mind", he was effectively disinherited by his father's will and awarded with a pension of 6,000 florins, although he received the rights to live in the towns of Strelitz, Mirow and Ivenack but without real government over them.

In Strelitz on 13 December 1607, Clara Maria married secondly Augustus the Younger, Lord of Hitzacker, son of Henry, Duke of Brunswick-Dannenberg.