Gerberga II

Gerberga II ( – 13 or 14 November 1001, also called Gerbirg or Gerburg) was the daughter of Henry I of Bavaria and his wife Judith, and a niece of Emperor Otto I. She was Abbess of Gandersheim from 956 to 1001 and personally instructed dramatist and poet Hrosvit of Gandersheim. Her parents were Henry I, Duke of Bavaria and a member of the Ottonian dynasty, and Judith. At least three of her siblings are known: Henry II of Bavaria, Hadwig of Swabia, and Brunon, Count of Brunswick. Gerberga was sent for education to Gandersheim Abbey at an early age, and became abbess in 956. She supported her brother Henry II in his quest to achieve more influence for their family, but also remained on good terms with her uncle Emperor Otto I and cousin Emperor Otto II. Gerberga II's ascension to abbess in 965 suggests that Ottonian imperial ties to Gandersheim remained strong throughout the following century. Gandersheim became a center of Ottonian intellectual and spiritual activity, functioning as a hospital, library, a rest stop for refugees or travelers, and, most notably, a school. Many aristocratic families sent their daughters to the abbey to be educated. Among them was the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu, who sent their five-year-old daughter Sophia I to live under Gerberga's care and eventually become her successor.

Gandersheim was given a great deal of independence by the Ottonian rulers. In 947, Gerberga's uncle Emperor Otto I freed the abbey from royal rule and granted the abbess the authority to hold courts of law, keep an army, and coin money. Hrotsvit praised her abbess in the preface to her legends, writing, "It was she, who, other authors concerning, continued my instruction, offering me an introduction to the works of those writers whom she herself studied with learned men."