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THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES ARE FREE 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.
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1847- How it All Began On 24th July 1847, Margarete Steiff was born in Giengen an der Brenz as the third of four children. When she was 18 months old, she was ill with a high fever, following which her legs became paralyzed and it hurt her to use her right arm. |
1862 - Apprenticeship and First Steps In spite of the pain in her right hand, Margarete went to sewing school and at the age of 17 she completed her training as a seamstress. |
1874 - The foundations are laid - the step towards independence In 1874, Margarete’s father converted her parent’s house and built herself her own work room, a small tailors shop. With the first money that she earned herself, she bought her own sewing machine. She could only move the fly wheel on the right hand side with difficulty, and so without further ado the machine was reversed. |
1880 - Margarete Steiff GmbH is founded The official founding date of Steiff Manufacture was 1880. The first big seller was the elephant, which her younger brother Fritz sold at the nearby Heidenheim market. Just six years later Margarete had sold over 5,000 elephants and was now designing other stuffed animals, too. In 1890, Fritz built a house for his sister, with a flat on the first floor, designed for disabled people, and a small shop on the first floor. At the house in what is today ”Margarete Steiff Straße“ (Margarete Steiff Road) there is the sign “Filz-Spielwaren-Fabrik” (Felt Toy Factory). |
1902 - The Teddy bear is born ... and conquers the world 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 world's first stuffed toy bears with moveable arms and legs. When searching for a suitable covering, Richard found the cuddly and good for coloring mohair plush produced by the Florweberei Schulte (Schulte pile weaving mill) in Duisburg. |
1904 - A"Steiff - Knopf im Ohr" (Button in Ear) - a brand sign arises and an eventful life comes to an end
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1910 - Steiff worlds arise In 1910 Steiff won the Grand Prix at the world exhibition in Brussels, show pieces with a multitude of stuffed toys and animals inspired the public. |
1927 - Hard times in a positive sense In the "Golden Twenties" there was once again a demand for fabric and plush. Steiff introduced assembly line production in order to satisfy the high demand for, above all, their stuffed dogs. The plush dog Molly went down a storm and over 500,000 were sold by 1932. |
1951 - The new beginnng The next difficult time was during the Wold War II. After the end of the war the company restarted in 1947, and just a year later it had nearly 1,000 employees, and 5 years later twice as many. Among other things this rapid growth was due to Mecki, the mascot of a television newspaper and a figure from the puppet feature film by the Diehl brothers, which was manufactured by Steiff as a stuffed puppet from 1951. |
1980 - 100 years of dreams in cloth and plush The 80’s began with the company's 100th year anniversary, when the Margarete Steiff Museum was opened in Giengen - a forerunner of today’s experience museum, ”The World of Steiff“. In addition, Steiff began to produce animal replicas in limited editions for their fans. ”Petsy“ - the children’s favourite captured the market and the hearts of Steiff friends around the globe. |
1992 - Steiff Club Then, finally on the 1st of April 1992, the Steiff Club was founded for lovers and collectors of all Steiff animals, with exclusive club advantages and own club editions. |
2005 - The new millennium Naturally, the success story continued into the new century, and new paths were walked. The world première of the musical ”Teddy - A Musical Dream“ took place in 2002. Also in Giengen, the home of all Steiff animals, there were things going on: the "World of Steiff" experience was presented in 2003 for the first time. Up until 2005 the ”World of Steiff“ experience museum was built on the company grounds, according to instructions of architect Andreas Ramseier. It is an architectural paramount achievement and offers an animated dream world for the whole family on an area of 2,400m². Just right for the 125 year company jubilee "the World of Steiff" opened its gates. The icing on the cake of the company jubilee was the costly 125 carat Teddy bear edition. |