Sophia of Saxe-Weissenfels (2 August 1684, Weissenfels - 6 May 1752, near Hotzenplotz in Roßwald) was a German aristocrat and culture patron,

Margravine Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Empir ...

Brandenburg-Bayreuth The Principality of Bayreuth () or Margraviate of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (''Markgraftum Brandenburg-Bayreuth'') was an immediate territory of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a Franconian branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty. Since Burgrave Frederi ...

by marriage to

George William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth George William of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (German: ''Georg Wilhelm''; 16 November 1678 in Bayreuth – 18 December 1726 in Bayreuth) was a member of the House of Hohenzollern and Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. Family He was the first son of ...

Life

Sophia was a daughter of

Johann Adolf I, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels Johann Adolf I, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (2 November 1649, in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle – 24 May 1697, in Weissenfels), was a duke of Saxe-Weissenfels-Querfurt and member of the House of Wettin. He was the first son of Augustus, Duke of Sax ...

(1649-1697) by his first wife, Princess

Johanna Magdalena of Saxe-Altenburg Johanna Magdalena of Saxe-Altenburg (14 January 1656 in Altenburg – 22 January 1686 in Weißenfels) was a member of the House of Wettin. She was a Duchess of Saxe-Altenburg by birth and by marriage a Duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels-Querfurt. Life ...

(1656-1686), daughter of

Frederick William II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg Friedrich Wilhelm II (12 February 1603, in Weimar – 22 April 1669, in Altenburg), was a duke of Saxe-Altenburg. He was the youngest son of Friedrich Wilhelm I, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and Countess Palatine Anna Maria of Neuburg, Anna Maria of th ...

. This made her a princess of

Saxe-Weissenfels Saxe-Weissenfels () was a Duchy of the Holy Roman Empire from 1656 until 1746 with its residence at Weißenfels. Ruled by a cadet branch of the Albertine House of Wettin, the duchy passed to the Electorate of Saxony upon the extinction of the line ...

and a member of the

Albertine branch The Albertine branch is a German princely family of the House of Wettin. The name derives from the progenitor of the line, Albert III, Duke of Saxony. The Albertine branch ruled from 1485 to 1918 as dukes, electors and kings in Saxony. History o ...

of the

House of Wettin The House of Wettin () was a dynasty which included Saxon monarch, kings, Prince Elector, prince-electors, dukes, and counts, who once ruled territories in the present-day German federated states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynas ...

. In

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

on 16 October 1699 Sophia herself married

(1678-1726), who she had met during a visit to the Leipzig Fair earlier the same year. She thus became

. Soon afterwards he founded his own court, giving him the opportunity to build the Schloss Erlangen. Sophia had considerable influence on cultural life in

Bayreuth Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

, which was described as the finest venue for

singspiel A Singspiel (; plural: ; ) is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera. It is characterized by spoken dialogue, which is alternated with ensembles, songs, ballads, and arias which were often strophic, or folk- ...

in Germany. Sophia brought her love for German-language opera to Weissenfels, making it the only theatre which exclusively showed German-language works. However, her spending on festivities and culture increased the state's debt. In 1705 the foundation stone was laid for a new church in the St. Georgen district of the city - it was dedicated to

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

after her. Sophia was described as superficial, and her marriage proved unhappy. Her dalliance with a Swedish baron irritated George William that he attacked the baron at table with a stick and had his wife taken to

Plassenburg Plassenburg is a castle in the city of Kulmbach in Bavaria. It is one of the most impressive castles in Germany and a symbol of the city. It was first mentioned in 1135. The Plassenberg family were Ministerialis, ministerial of the counts of And ...

. After her husband's death, she moved to Schloss Erlangen, where she lived for 8 years. She remarried on 14 July 1734 to Albert Joseph, Count of Hoditz and Wolframitz (1706-1778), the son of Count Carl Joseph von Hoditz und Wolframitz (1673–1741) and his wife, Eleonore Barbara von Paczensky und Tenczin (1676–1725). He was twenty-two years her junior, making her

reichsgräfin (; feminine: ) is a historical title of the German nobility and later also of the Russian nobility, usually translated as "count". Considered to be intermediate among noble ranks, the title is often treated as equivalent to the British title ...

(imperial countess) of Hoditz and Wolframitz. To marry him Sophia converted to Catholicism and as a result she was granted an annual pension from the imperial court in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. After her death in 1752 Sophia was cremated - this was the first cremation in a German-speaking country since their occurrence in non-Christian parts of the German Empire in the 13th century. Henning Winter
''Die Architektur der Krematorien im Deutschen Reich, 1878-1918'' Verlag J. H. Röll, Dettelbach, 2002, S. 14
/ref> After her death, her second husband remained a widower and never remarried, dying in debt after selling Schloss Rosswald, in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

, under the protection of

Frederick the Great Frederick II (; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled ''King in Prussia'', declaring himself ''King of Prussia'' after annexing Royal Prussia ...

Issue

By her first marriage to George William, she had five children, but only one daughter reached adulthood: * Christiane Sophie Wilhelmine von Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1701–1749) * Christian Wilhelm Brandenburg-Bayreuth (*/† 1706) * Eberhardine Elisabeth von Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1706–1709) * Christian Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg-Bayreuth (*/† 1709) * Franz Adolf Wilhelm von Brandenburg-Bayreuth (*/† 1709)

Bibliography (in German)

* Dieter J. Weiss
''Barock in Franken''
J. H. Röll, Dettelbach 2004, S. 86 f. * Martin Schieber
''Erlangen: eine illustrierte Geschichte der Stadt''
Verlag C. H. Beck, München 2002, S. 49 * Johann G. Mayer
''Nachrichten von der politischen und ökonomischen Verfassung des Fürstenthums''
S. 11 ff. * E.C. von Hagen (ed.)
''Archiv für Geschichte und Alterthumskunde von Oberfranken, Volumes 5-6''
Bayreuth 1851, S. 4 ff. * Hans-Joachim Böttcher: ''Christiane Eberhardine - Prinzessin von Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Kurfürstin von Sachsen und Königin von Polen.'' Dresdner Buchverlag 2011. .

References

{{Authority control House of Saxe-Weissenfels 1684 births 1752 deaths Noblewomen from the Holy Roman Empire Albertine branch Daughters of dukes