Poems Without Frontiers

Sophie was born as the youngest of six daughters to an apothecary in Pappenheim who was proprietor of a long established pharmacy that had descended through a century of family ownership. She experienced a carefree youth and found early interest in the works of Byron and Goethe. She published her first work, which was directed towards female emancipation, Goethe als Erzieher (Goethe as Educator), in 1896.

She subsequently spent spring and autumn in Dornburg, winters in Berlin and summers in Pappenheim; but her closing years were spent in the town of Dachau. She was a musician who played piano, violin, ocarina and accordion. She learnt Latin, Italian and French. She wrote several novels and numerous works of poetry and was an accomplished painter.

Her works achieved great recognition throughout Germany and she maintained contact with the leading literary figures of the time. She was created an honorary citizen of Pappenheim in 1933.