Sophie Tieck Bernhardi von Knorring (1775–1833)

Sophie Tieck was born in Berlin, Prussia, to the family of a rope maker. She was educated at home by her mother. Her brother Ludwig Tieck also became a writer and helped found the Romantic movement. The two were extremely close and worked together on stories submitted to periodicals. They also wrote and performed plays and translated works by Shakespeare, but these publications appeared solely under Ludwig's name. In 1799, Sophie married August Ferdinand Bernhardi, a fellow writer and translator with whom she had three children. They also collaborated on writings, although again Sophie was not credited. The marriage was unhappy and Sophie left her husband, taking her children. A custody battle ensued during the divorce, which was finalized in 1807. Sophie traveled with Ludwig to Rome where she met Baron Karl Georg von Knorring, an Estonian aristocrat. The three went on a trip through Munich, Prague and Vienna before Sophie and von Knorring began living together in Munich. The couple were married in 1810 and Sophie converted to the Roman Catholic faith. They lived in Heidelberg in 1820 and then in Estonia. Her novel Evremont was not published until 1836, three years after her death. Her son Wilhelm Bernhardi published three volumes of his parents' stories in 1847.