The teddy bear! Who doesn’t have one or had one as a child? The Teddybär has been around for over 100 years and shows no signs of stopping. Collectors, conventions, magazines, … there even is a Teddy Bear Day in US, which is celebrated on September 9th.
There are many reasons why we think of Germany when talking about teddy bears. Ask any German what they associate with Teddybär they will most likely say Steiff.
Margarete Steiff
Margarete Steiff (1847-1909), bound to a wheelchair after suffering from polio when she was little, founded her company Margarete Steiff GmbH in Giengen (Swabia) in 1880 and sold table cloths, pillow cases, and clothing, mostly made out the durable felt. In 1879 she made her first stuffed animal, an elephant “Elefäntle”. It might have been used as a toy for her nieces and nephews, or as a pin cushion by her sister-in-law Anna.
Every year, new stuffed animals would be added to the catalog, monkeys, horses, cats, dogs, camels, mice, giraffes, and also bears (though not with joints). They also had a stuffed animals sitting on a metal tricycle for sale. In 1897, her nephew Richard Steiff joined the company and in 1902 made the first plush bear with movable arms and legs. It was called Modell 55 PB (55 cm, about 22 inches, P=Plüsch (plush), B=beweglich (movable, adjustable)); none of the originals have survived.
At the same time in the US, shop owners Morris and Rose Michtom in Brooklyn made a toy bear to put into the shop window for decoration. It was a big hit, and in 1907 they founded the “Ideal and Novelty Toy Company”.
Where did the teddy bear get its name?
So far, so clear. But how did the toy bear get the name teddy bear, not just in the US but in Germany as well as other languages like Afrikaans (teddiebeer), Welsh (tedi), Swahili (kubeba teddy), Uzbek (Teddy ayiqcha), Hmong (teddy Xyooj), and Norwegian (Teddybjørn)?
There are two versions of the story but they both involve US president Theodore Roosevelt whose nickname was Teddy though he didn’t like to be called that.
The American version
In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt was in Mississippi with other statesmen and governors to settle a dispute over the border between Louisiana and Mississippi. They were bear hunting but Roosevelt didn’t have any luck. And here the story diverges: either the bear tracker Holt Collier under order to save the first bear kill for the president had found a bear, stunned it, and tied it to a tree for the president to shoot, or the other hunters had hunted a bear cub and tied it to a tree for Roosevelt.
But the president considered killing a tied up animal as unsportsmanlike and he refused which led to the famous caricature by Clifford Berryman from the Washington Post “Drawing the line in Mississippi”.
It seems that the original cartoon showed an adult bear but in newer versions, Berryman made the bear smaller and cuter. From then on, he always drew Roosevelt with a bear cub.
In New York in 1903, store owners Morris and Rose Michtom were inspired by this story and made a toy bear as a window decoration. They either got Roosevelt’s approval to call these plush bears “Teddy’s bears” before they sold the first ones or after. Whichever way, Roosevelt gave them permission to promote the bears and they were a big hit. The Michtoms could hardly keep up with production and they founded the “Ideal Novelty and Toy Company” in 1907.
The German version
When Richard Steiff developed the toy bear Modell 55 PB, he sent it, along with other stuffed animals, to the sample stock in New York. By that time, 1903, the Steiff company already had international connections to London and other European cities. Richard Steiff had tried to break into the American market for some time, his brother Paul had spent two years working in New York, but nobody was interested. The toys were expensive and the rather tall bear (22”) seemed too big and unwieldy.
Margarete Steiff took the bear to the toy convention in Leipzig in spring of 1903 where it was bought by an American who needed a souvenir. The person he gave the bear to didn’t like it and regifted it. It ended up in a shop’s window where Roosevelt’s secretary saw it and bought it as table decoration for Roosevelt’s daughter’s birthday. It seemed fitting since the president was known as a skilled bear hunter. The girl liked the bear so much she named him Teddy after her father.
I have read the souvenir and regifting part of the story only on wikipedia.de and nowhere else. And considering the following, I feel it is highly unlikely that it had happened. Also a 22” plush bear as table decoration seems rather large.
We are at the toy convention in spring of 1903. In this story, an American buyer for a large department store bought the 100 bears at the fair and ordered 3000 more. Supposedly they were used again as table decoration at the Roosevelt’s and the guests said: “There are Teddy’s bears!” In a slightly different version, Roosevelt was presented with the Bär PB 55 and then ordered more Steiff bears as decoration for his daughter Alice’s wedding in 1906.
The only PB 55 bears that were produced were the ones exhibited in Leipzig, and they are lost. While there is evidence of the order, there is no record of them being produced or shipped.
Since the first version of the jointed bear was not successful, Richard worked on the design and was able to present PB 35, a smaller, thinner, and overall more delicate bear with light mohair plush. In the spring of 1904, they sold 12,000 of them.
But Richard and Margarete Steiff still felt that the bear is not suitable enough for children, and in 1905 Richard came up with a design that is the bear that we all know and love. The Bär 35 PAB was lighter, had a round face, a flatter snout and a stitched nose. His joints were not round but cut discs that go together more smoothly. The “Bärle” came in different sizes, and the colors dark brown, light brown, and white. In his ear he had the button that has become the trademark of Steiff. To prevent people from copying their designs, the Steiff company started using the “Knopf im Ohr” in 1904, and they have ever since.
Have you ever heard of Billy Possum?
If you haven’t, you are probably not alone. Billy Possum was the invention of the toy industry in the US because they assumed the teddy bear craze would come to an end once Roosevelt was no longer president. As you can tell from its name, it is an opossum or a possum (not to be confused with the Australian possum) and they named it after William Howard Taft who became the 27th president of the U.S.A. in 1909.
In January of 1909, Taft was being honored at a banquet in Atlanta where they served, at his request, “possum and taters“. He liked the meal and the plush opossum he was presented with after the dinner.
The Georgia Billy Possum Company was founded, stuffed possums were produced, postcards and poster were printed, and possum pins were made. The company folded within a year.
The Steiff company also produced an opossum but it was, just like the one from the Georgia Company, a flop. Obviously, nowadays the Beutelratte (lit. pouch rat) will fetch a high price at auction since very few were made.
The Teddy Bear Scene
The teddy bear hasn’t stopped his ascend to one of the most bought and cherished toys among children. But even adults are getting in on the action with collections, clubs, subscriptions to limited editions of bears, and magazines. My mother-in-law started collecting teddy bears some time ago, the picture on the top of this blog post as well as the ones of the Steiff bears show her bears. She used to make teddy bears in painstaking needlework. Some of her books are shown here, as well as magazines.
There are many artists who create single copies of bears which are sold at conventions, fairs, and online. The biggest teddy bear scenes you will find in Germany, Russia, Japan, the Netherlands, and in the UK.
One of the biggest teddy bear was made in Germany and resides there too. It is 5.4m tall (almost 18 ft) and is located in the Deutsches Teddybären-Museum in Sonneberg, Thuringia, where is was also made by the Martin Bären Company. However, since April 28th 2019, the Municipio de Xonacatlán in Mexico holds the world record for largest teddy bear with 19.41m or 63ft 8in. It was constructed to promote children’s day.
The second smallest teddy bear named Mini the Pooh was made by Renate Kaminski of Germany in 2001. It is displayed in the “A World of Miniature” Museum in Carlisle, UK. In 2006, Cheryl Moss from South Africa made an even smaller teddy bear called Tiny Ted. He resides in South Korea in the Teddy Bear Museum. Tiny Ted measures 4.5mm or 0.17 in while Mini the Pooh is 5mm tall. You can see (enlarged) pictures of them here.
Teddy Bears to buy
Please note that the links below are affiliate links and I will earn a small commission if you purchase through those links.
Other Steiff products
Sources and Resources
- Gabriele Katz: Margarete Steiff. Die Biografie, 2015
- Wiki – Margarete Steiff
- Wiki – Teddybär
- Wiki – teddy bear
- History.com
- Kentucky News
- NPS.gov
- Mental Floss
- Insider
- YouTube
- YouTube
- YouTube
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