Gerberga II (c. 940 – 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.

[3][4] 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.

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.

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.

[3] The canoness Hrotsvit wrote of Gerberga's education, "She is younger in years than I, but as befits the Emperor's niece, more advanced in learning.

[8] 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.