Richard Steiff (February 7, 1877 – March 30, 1939) was a German designer, known for helping create the

teddy bear A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy b ...

. In 1897 he joined Steiff, a

stuffed toy A stuffed toy is a toy doll with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys, plushies, stuffed animals, and stuffies; in Britain and Australia, they may also be ...

company founded in his hometown

Giengen Giengen (; full name: Giengen an der Brenz; Swabian: ''Gẽänge'') is a former Free Imperial City in eastern Baden-Württemberg near the border with Bavaria in southern Germany. The town is located in the district of Heidenheim at the eastern ed ...

by his aunt

Margarete Steiff Margarete Steiff (24 July 1847 – 9 May 1909) was a seamstress who in 1880 founded Margarete Steiff GmbH, making toy stuffed animals. Born in Giengen, Germany, Steiff contracted polio as a child, leaving her with both legs paralyzed and pain ...

, and gave the company an enormous boost by creating stuffed animals from drawings made at the zoo.

Early life

Steiff was born in

, and entered his aunt

Margarete Margarete is a German feminine given name. It is derived from Ancient Greek ''margarites'' (μαργαρίτης), meaning "the pearl". Via the Latin ''margarita'', it arrived in the German sprachraum. Related names in English include Daisy, Gre ...

's toymaking enterprise in 1897. While attending the School of Arts and Crafts (''

Kunstgewerbeschule A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for thes ...

'') in Stuttgart, he would regularly visit the nearby Nill'scher

Zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...

(closed 1906) and spend much of his time drawing the residents of the bear enclosure. His sketches of the bears were incorporated into the prototype of the toy bear he created in 1902 and codenamed ''Steiff Bär 55 PB'' (where 55 = the bear's height in centimeters; P = ''Plüsch'',

plush Plush (from French ) is a textile having a cut nap or pile the same as fustian or velvet. Its softness of feel gave rise to the adjective "plush" to describe something soft or luxurious, which was extended to describe luxury accommodation, or s ...

; and B = ''beweglich'', moveable limbs).

Career with the Steiff company

At its debut at the Leipzig Toy Fair in 1903, the bear initially attracted little attention, but its fortunes were saved when an American buyer snapped up the entire lot of 100 bears and ordered another 3,000 just before the exhibition finished. Thus began the heyday of the

Steiff company Richard Steiff (February 7, 1877 – March 30, 1939) was a German designer, known for helping create the teddy bear. In 1897 he joined Steiff, a stuffed toy company founded in his hometown Giengen by his aunt Margarete Steiff, and gave the compa ...

, which had been founded by Margarete Steiff in 1880. At the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, the Steiffs sold 12,000 bears and received the Gold Medal, which was the highest honor at the event. The kind of toy bear they pioneered acquired the appellation "

teddy Teddy is an English language given name, usually a hypocorism of Edward or Theodore. It may refer to: People Nickname * Teddy Atlas (born 1956), boxing trainer and fight commentator * Teddy Bourne (born 1948), British Olympic epee fencer * Tedd ...

" from several legends about

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

. Steiff bears, with a small metal "Steiff" clip in the ear, can now be quite valuable. Richard Steiff also attained several technological milestones. He developed the Roloplan, a kind of

kite A kite is a tethered heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create lift and drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have a bridle and tail to guide the fac ...

which could take

aerial photographs Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing aircra ...

of the Steiff

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

and its surroundings in Giengen. The Imperial German Army expressed interest in the Roloplan for aerial

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

, but abandoned such plans when it proved to be unreliably slow. In 1903, Steiff planned and erected in

a factory building of

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

and steel called the ''Jungfrauenaquarium'' (''Virgins' Aquarium''), which allowed the workers inside to enjoy ample natural light, a first for its time. He equipped the building with a ramp so that his aunt could reach the upper levels of the factory in her

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

. In 1923, Richard left his wife Else in Giengen Benz, Germany and boarded the '' SS President Arthur'' bound for New York City and arrived on March 20, 1923. On October 1, 1923, he signed a Declaration of Intention to become a United States citizen in the Atlantic County, NJ Court of Common Pleas. At this time he was residing at 2445 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ.Search , New Jersey Digital Highway
*undated search engine link generates no relevant results as of 1 June 2022 Steiff died in 1939 at the age of 62 in Jackson, Michigan,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Notes

References

*Pfeiffer, Günther. ''125 Jahre Steiff Firmengeschichte - Die Margarethe Steiff GmbH''. Königswinter: Heel Verlag GmbH, 2005. . *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Steiff, Richard 1877 births 1939 deaths 20th-century German inventors Toy inventors Businesspeople from Baden-Württemberg People from Heidenheim (district)

Early life

Career with the Steiff company

See also

Notes

References

External links