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 Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

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.

Life

Tieck was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

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 Johann Ludwig Tieck (; ; 31 May 177328 April 1853) was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Early life Tieck was born in Be ...

, also a notable writer, whilst her younger brother

Friedrich Friedrich may refer to: Names * Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' * Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' Other * Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Year ...

was a successful sculptor.Sophie Tieck
FemBio.org, retrieved 4 February 2014 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, with literary criticism later identifying the character Bertha (the main character's wife, who is revealed to be his half-sister) in Ludwig's "

Der blonde Eckbert Der blonde Eckbert is a Romantic fairy tale written by Ludwig Tieck at the end of the eighteenth century. It first appeared in 1797 in a collected volume of folktales published by Tieck under the publisher Friedrich Nicolai in Berlin. For some ...

" as being based on Sophie. They wrote and performed plays, translated

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

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 August Ferdinand Bernhardi (24 June 1769 in Berlin – 1 June 1820 in Berlin) was a German linguist and writer. After studying philosophy in Halle an der Saale, in 1791 Bernhardi became a teacher at the Friedrichwerderschen Gymnasium in Ber ...

, 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 August Wilhelm (after 1812: von) Schlegel (; 8 September 176712 May 1845), usually cited as August Schlegel, was a German poet, translator and critic, and with his brother Friedrich Schlegel the leading influence within Jena Romanticism. His trans ...

. 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. Sophie Tieck

Tieck married von Knorring in 1810 and converted to Catholicism on account of him, provoking considerable comment.Sophie Bernhardi
, Epoch-Napoleon.net, retrieved 4 February 2014 They moved in 1812 to his estate in Erwita and von Knorring supported his wife well. They lived in Heidelberg in 1820 and then in Estonia until she died in 1833 in Reval (

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

),Sophie Tieck
utlib.ee, retrieved 4 February 2014 where she was buried in the now-destroyed

Kopli Cemetery The Kopli cemetery (german: Friedhof von Ziegelskoppel or ; et, Kopli kalmistu) was Estonia's largest Lutheran Baltic German cemetery, located in the suburb of Kopli in Tallinn. It contained thousands of graves of prominent citizens of Tallinn ...

Legacy

Her novel was not published until 1836, three years after her death. Her son William also published three volumes of his parents' stories in 1847; in these it is clear which parent wrote which story.Ostrich feathers and other stories
retrieved February 2014 Her letters were not available until the 1960s but she is now well regarded as a result. Her works are confused with those of her brother and her first husband. For example, eight or nine of the sixteen stories submitted by Ludwig for ''Straußfedern'' (1787–1798) were by Sophie.

Work

* ''Bambocciaden.'' vol. 2, co-author:

, Berlin 1799 * ''Bambocciaden.'' vol. 3, co-author:

, Berlin 1800 * ''Lebensansicht.'' In: Athenaeum, vol. 3, Berlin 1800 * ''Ballade.'' S. 64–78, ''Bilder der Kindheit.'' pp. 129–132 In: ''Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1802'', ed.:

Tübingen 1802 * ''Wunderbilder und Träume in eilf Mährchen.'' Königsberg 1802 * ''Dramatische Fantasien.'' Berlin 1804 * ''Egidio und Isabella.'' Ein Trauerspiel in drei Aufzügen. In: ''Dichtergarten'', Würzburg 1807, p. 183–334 * ''Klagen I–IV.'' In: ''Dichtergarten'', Würzburg 1807, pp. 167–170 * ''Flore und Blanscheflur.'' Berlin 1822 * ''Evremont.'' vol. 3, Breslau 1836 * ''Reliquien: Erzählungen u. Dichtungen.'' co-author:

, Altenburg 1847

References

External links

*
Sophie Tieck / (Sophie Tieck (gesch. Bernhardi, verh. Knorring))
*
Wunderbilder und Träume / Neuausgabe der Märchen von Sophie Tieck-Bernhardib
Review of an edition of her fairy tales, 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tieck, Sophie 1775 births 1833 deaths Writers from Berlin German women writers