Sophia had considerable influence on cultural life in Bayreuth, which was described as the finest venue for singspiel in Germany.[1] 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 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.[2]
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 (imperial countess) of Hoditz and Wolframitz.[3] To marry him Sophia converted to Catholicism and as a result she was granted an annual pension from the imperial court in Vienna. 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.[4] After her death, her second husband remained a widower and never remarried, dying in debt after selling Schloss Rosswald, in Potsdam, Kingdom of Prussia, under the protection of Frederick the Great.
Issue
By her first marriage to George William, she had five children, but only one daughter reached an 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.
Hans-Joachim Böttcher: Christiane Eberhardine - Prinzessin von Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Kurfürstin von Sachsen und Königin von Polen. Dresdner Buchverlag 2011. ISBN978-3-941757-25-7.
References
^(in German) Hans Joachim Bauer: Barockoper in Bayreuth, Laaber 1982, S. 5
