Dorothea Hoffman (died 1710), was a Swedish milliner and hatmaker. She was the daughter of the

Elder (administrative title) The term Elder, or its equivalent in another language, is used in several countries and organizations to indicate a position of authority. This usage is usually derived from the notion that the oldest members of any given group are the wisest, and ...

Fischer of the hatmaker's

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

Norrköping Norrköping ( , ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Lin ...

. She married the hatmaker Mårten Hoffman (d. 1702) in Stockholm, with whom she had ten children. Dorothea Hoffman conducted her own business independently from her spouse, despite the fact that she as a married woman who was formally under the guardianship of her husband. As with other married businesswomen, her activity is not very visible in the documents, but she was sued in 1678 by the hatmaker's guild in

Köping ''Köping'' was a Swedish denomination for a market town since the Middle Ages, derived from the Old Norse word '' kaupang''. The designation was officially abolished with the municipal reform of 1971, when Sweden was subdivided into the Munic ...

for having imported 92 of her own hats to Köping for sale. When she was widowed in 1702, she was formally noted as a businesswoman of her own business as well as inheriting the hatmaker's guild privilege and workshop of her late spouse. Hoffman was the most successful hatmaker in Stockholm: she is listed with a larger staff and more

journeyman A journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee ...

's than any other of her profession in the capital, and her workshop and business was noted to have been the largest within her trade. She imported from Lübeck and Copenhagen, and her goods were known for their high quality. She died during the

Great Northern War plague outbreak During the Great Northern War (1700–1721), many towns and areas around the Baltic Sea and East-Central Europe had a severe outbreak of the plague with a peak from 1708 to 1712. This epidemic was probably part of a pandemic affecting an area fr ...

. Her business was inherited by her son Elias Hoffman (1690–1719), who had to defend it against the rest of the members of the hatmaker's guild of Stockholm, who wished to have it divided among the guild members due to its disproportionate size. It was still the biggest of its kind in Stockholm in 1719–26, when it was managed by Dorothea Hoffman's daughter-in-law Christina Udd, who, however, dissolved it when she remarried in 1726.Du Rietz, Anita, Kvinnors entreprenörskap: under 400 år, 1. uppl., Dialogos, Stockholm, 2013

References

* Du Rietz, Anita, Kvinnors entreprenörskap: under 400 år, 1. uppl., Dialogos, Stockholm, 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Dorothea 17th-century births 1710 deaths 17th-century Swedish businesspeople 18th-century Swedish businesspeople 18th-century deaths from plague (disease) People from the Swedish Empire Swedish milliners

See also

References