Empire dress

This yellow, ankle-length silk garment with a high waistline is a maternity dress – the shape and cut indicate this. The silk was presumably produced in a French manufactory. Who the wearer of this dress was can only be reconstrued in parts. The fact that it was found in a chest belonging to the local heritage association ‘Heimatverein Schöneiche’ in the mid-1980s appears to suggest that it originated from the town’s castle. The dress is hence likely to have been owned by Friederike Struensee von Carlsbach (1787 - 1858), who was the daughter of Carl August von Struensee (1735 - 1804), Prussian Minister of State and Chief of the Customs and Excise Department, and who married Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (1782 - 1856) in the year 1804.