Margarete Steiff
Margarete Steiff
Margarete Steiff (July 24, 1847 - May 9, 1909), was a seamstress who in 1880 founded Margarete Steiff GmbH, making toy stuffed animals.
Biography
Born in Giengen, Germany she used a wheelchair, due to polio that she contracted as a baby. She started making stuffed animals as a hobby.
These toys began as elephants, which were originally a design Steiff found in a magazine and at first sold as pincushions to her friends. However, children began playing with them, and in the years following she went on to design many other successful animal-themed toys for children, such as dogs, cats and pigs. She designed and made most of the prototypes herself.
She died of pneumonia in Giengen.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Margarete Steiff. |
- http://www.museocasalis.org/
- BBC News: "Teddy bear celebrates 100th birthday"
- Margarete Steiff at the Internet Movie Database
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