Steiff Bears

The story of an extraordinary woman and a unique company

The story of children’s dreams come true: As an energetic young girl, Margarete Steiff fought for her place in life, against much resistance.

With a pin cushion in the shape of a small stuffed elephant, she wrote the first chapter of the unprecedented success story, which is still being continued today, over 100 years later.

In 1892 the first illustrated Steiff catalogue was released which showed the diversity of the range. In addition to elephants there were monkeys, donkeys, horses, camels, pigs, mice, dogs, cats, hares and giraffes. In the catalogue was also Margarete’s motto, “for children, only the best is good enough!“.
1902

The teddy bear is born…

Richard Steiff, Margarete’s creative favourite nephew, entered the company in 1897. He attended the school of applied arts in Stuttgart and studied in England. His animal sketches were the basis for many Steiff creations. In 1902 he designed the “Bear 55PB” bears, the worldwide first stuffed bears with moveable arms and legs. When searching for a suitable covering, Richard found the cuddly and good for colouring mohair plush, produced by the Schulte pile weaving mill in Duisburg.

The breakthrough came when an American trader discovered the bears and ordered 3,000 of them. The bears began an unprecedented selling success in the USA from 1906 under the name of teddy bear – named after the American president Theodore ”Teddy“ Roosevelt.
1904