In addition to his other work, Nikolaus was literary executor of his father, Friedrich von Adelung.

Other children of the marriage between Alexandrine and Nikolaus included a son, named after his father, who became a noted entomologist, and another daughter, Olga, with whom Sophie collaborated on several works.

She wrote regularly for magazines such as Die Frau (Woman) and Fürs Haus (For the House).

[3] Her circle included the pianist Maria von Harder, a former pupil of Chopin, whose memories of the composer were recorded by von Adelung,[4] and her own cousin, Sofia Kovalevskaya, who visited her Adelung relatives as a young woman.

[5] Sophie von Adelung produced a memoir of her cousin in 1896, after Kovalevskaya's death.