Sophie of Winzenburg (1105 in Winzenburg, near Hanover – 6 or 7 July 1160 in Brandenburg an der Havel)Internet portal for the state of Brandenburg was the first Margravine of Brandenburg.
Life Sophie was a daughter of Count Herman I of Winzenburg and his first wife, who was a Countess of Everstein. She donated an oxgang of farmland near Wellen to the monastery at Leitzkau and later another oxgang near Wolmirsleben. In 1158, she accompanied her husband on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Death Her sister, Beatrix, was abbess of Quedlinburg Abbey. Sophie and Beatrix both died in 1160. Some sources suggest that Sophie died on 25 March, other name 6 or 7 July. She was buried in the church of the monastery in Ballenstedt.
Criticism The present state of research is that the identity of her father has not been conclusively proven. She may have belonged to another noble house in which the name Sophie was used.
Image Seven hundred years after her death, a bracteate depicting Sophie and her husband was found in Aschersleben.German Wikipedia article on the find at Aschersleben Her portrait is stylized, as was usual in that period. The fact that Albert depicted his wife beside him on coins is a sign of his extraordinary love for Sophie.
Marriage and issue In 1125, she married Albert the Bear.Karlheinz Deschner: Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, vol. 8, Rowohlt, 2006, , p. 417 She had a dozen children with him. Of these children, Bernhard lived the longest, viz. until 1212. Otto I, Margrave of Brandenburg (1126/1128 – 7 March 1184) Count Herman I of Orlamünde (died 1176) Siegfried (died 24 October 1184), Bishop of Brandenburg from 1173 to 1180, Prince-Archbishop of Bremen, the first ranked prince, from 1180 to 1184 Heinrich (died 1185), a canon in Magdeburg Count Adalbert of Ballenstedt (died after 6 December 1172) Count Dietrich of Werben (died after 5 September 1183) Count Bernhard of Anhalt (1140 – 9 February 1212), Count of Anhalt, and from 1180 also Duke of Saxony as Bernard III Hedwig (d. 1203), married to Otto II, Margrave of Meissen Daughter, married to Vladislav of Olomouc, the eldest son of Soběslav I, Duke of Bohemia Adelheid (died 1162), a nun in Lamspringe Gertrude, married in 1155 to Duke Děpold I of Jamnitz Sybille (died c. 1170), Abbess of Quedlinburg Eilika
Footnotes
References Otto Dungern: Thronfolgerecht und Blutsverwandtschaft der deutschen Kaiser seit Karl dem Großen, Papiermühle, Vogt, 1910, p. 159 Bettina Elpers: Regieren, Erziehen, Bewahren: mütterliche Regentschaften im Hochmittelalter, Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main, 2003, , p. 152
External links Genealogical data for Sophie Genealogical data for Sophie and incomplete data for her children