After the Imperial Deputation of 1803, the areas of the Electoral Palatinate on the right bank of the Rhine fell to Margrave Carl Friedrich of Baden. In the same year of Baden's elevation to a Grand Duchy (1806), Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte married his adopted daughter, the Imperial Princess Stéphanie de Beauharnais, to the Hereditary Prince Karl Ludwig of Baden to secure the Franco-Baden alliance. Stéphanie's fate as a mother is legendary - only three of her five children survived infancy. After the early death of her husband, Mannheim Palace remained her widow's residence until her passing. Grand Duchess Stéphanie very much enjoyed spending time in the summer months at the Schwetzingen summer residence, where her first daughter Luise was born (1811). The bench is located at the "Dreibrückentor".
