Johanne Sophie Dorothea Albrecht (née Baumer; December 1756, Erfurt – 16 November 1840, Hamburg) was a German actress and writer. She played leading roles in plays by Friedrich Schiller, who was a good friend of hers. She wrote poetry, novels, and prose, and was married to the doctor and writer Johann Friedrich Ernst Albrecht. Life Sophie Albrecht was born to the Baumer family. Her father was a Professor of Medicine at University of Erfurt, until he died when Sophie was 14. At age 15, she married Dr. Johann Friedrich Ernst Albrecht, who was one of her father's students. In 1776, Friedrich and Sophie traveled to Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia), where Friedrich was the personal physician of Count Manteuffel. There, Friedrich edited a literary anthology, which included Sophie's first published poems. The Albrechts returned to Erfurt in 1781 due to Sophie's mother's failing health. Her mother died the next year. In Erfurt at age 25, Sophie published her first book of poetry and started acting. Actress Albrecht's first performance as an actress was in an amateur production of Christian Felix Weiße's Romeo and Juliet with great success in her hometown of Erfurt. Her debut as a professional actress happened in 1782, with the Grossmann troupe. The troupe did performances in Frankfurt and Mainz. A year later, she met Friedrich Schiller and played Luise Miller in his first performance of Kabale und Liebe. Sophie Albrecht and Friedrich Schiller had similar interests and became close friends. In 1786, Albrecht joined the Bondini troupe at Dresden Court Theater. In 1787, she traveled to Leipzig to act in the Leipzig premier of Schiller's Don Carlos, where she played Princess Eboli. The following year, Albrecht traveled to a small court theater in Schwerin, where her performance often consisted of acting like a naive girl. Later, she traveled to Prague, Mannheim and eventually Hamburg to be a guest performer at the Theater am Gänsemarkt. In 1796, Albrecht and her husband, now a popular playwright, managed the National Theater in Altona (at that time part of the Kingdom of Denmark). Sophie commemorated the event with her Antrittsrede bei Eröffnung des Nationaltheaters (Welcoming Address at the Opening of the National Theater) on September 1, 1796. A year later, Albrecht quit the Altonaer Nationaltheater and divorced her husband. Works Poetry In Reval, Albrecht's poems were first published in a literary anthology edited by her husband. Although Sophie never did find