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, 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" as being based on Sophie. 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. 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), where she was buried in the now-destroyed
Kopli Cemetery. ==Legacy==