Sophie Tieck

Sophie Tieck
Sophie Tieck with her brother Ludwig Tieck
Born	(1775-02-28)28 February 1775 Berlin
Died	1 October 1833(1833-10-01) (aged 58) Reval (now Tallinn)
Spouse(s)	August Ferdinand Bernhardi

Sophie Tieck (28 February 1775 – 1 October 1833), later known as Sophie Bernhardi or Sophie von Knorring, was a German Romantic writer and poet. Her role as a writer of the Romantic period was overshadowed by her brother Ludwig and her first husband. She was only really appreciated as an important writer when her letters were published in the 1960s. A plot twist in her brother's story is an unattributed invention by Sophie Tieck.

Tieck was born in Berlin in 1775 to Ludwig and Ann Sophie Tieck. Her father was a rope maker. She was the middle child of three and, unlike her two brothers, she was educated at home by her mother. Her elder brother was Ludwig Tieck, also a notable writer, whilst her younger brother Friedrich was a successful sculptor.

Sophie and Ludwig worked closely together particularly in the period 1795–96, when they worked on stories for Friedrich Nicholai's Ostrich Feathers. Ludwig submitted sixteen stories but eight (or nine) of these were from the pen of Sophie. It has been said that their relationship was "too close" and may have been incestuous. They wrote and performed plays, translated Shakespeare and read the works of the Enlightenment. When the Shakespeare translations were published it was Ludwig who took the credit. This was not an oversight, as when Ludwig's daughter Dorothea Tieck also translated Shakespeare's other works her father forgot to credit her too.

In 1799 Sophie married a fellow writer and translator, August Ferdinand Bernhardi, who had taught her brother. Bernhardi also published stories and he collaborated with Sophie. He continued Ludwig's habit and did not credit his wife. He published a three-volume work, the last volume of which is thought to have been written almost entirely by Sophie, although she was not acknowledged. The marriage was not happy and she had an affair with the poet and translator August Wilhelm Schlegel. Sophie left with her two children. There was a legal fight over the custody of the children whilst the divorce in 1807 caused a stir. Sophie went travelling with her brother Ludwig to Rome where she met the Baltic German Karl Gregor von Knorring from Reval, Estonia. The three of them went on a grand tour of Munich, Prague and Vienna, before the Sophie and von Knorring set up house together in Munich.