This decorative plate with embossed images based on the works of the German poet and artist Ludwig Richter is a souvenir of the anniversary of Tilsit, where Prussia signed that unfortunate treaty. Queen Louise visited the city on the occasion of the signing of the Tilsit Peace Treaty of 1807 and met with French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, hoping that through friendly and amiable conversation she could induce him to agree to more favorable terms of peace for Prussia, but her efforts were futile.
When Napoleon’s army occupied most of Prussia, Memel (now Klaipeda, the Republic of Lithuania) was the only free city in the north, and the Prussian royal couple decided to go there from Königsberg. The queen at the time was seriously ill with typhoid fever. But the fear for the family and the court was stronger than the physical exhaustion.
The queen stayed in Kranz (now Zelenogradsk,
Kaliningrad Oblast). The house on Turgenev Street is now renovated and
decorated on the outside with a beautiful bas-relief by sculptor F.A. Moroz.
The further way ran along the narrow strip of the Curonian Spit, almost
impassable in the winter time. Another overnight stop was Nidden (now Nida, the
Republic of Lithuania). Louise spent the night at the post station of David
Gottlieb Kuvert. Legend has it that the queen inscribed lines from Goethe on
the window pane with the diamond of her ring: