Her father rebuilt the house and set up a tailor shop in 1874. They were the first in the village who could afford a sewing machine. Margarete and her sister soon had many orders. Acting upon the advice of her cousin Wilhelm Adolf Glatz she opened a felt business in 1877. With several permanent seamstresses a small company developed. For the Heidenheimer market she and her seamstresses customized two sacks full of pincushion in pattern of an elephant in 1879. The Elephant Pincushion was not the only animal she designed, as it became a success. Her first illustrated Steiff catalogue appeared in 1892. "Only the best is good enough for children," Margarete also said in her catalogue as her motto.
Margarete Steiff was born in Giengen. Her parents were Friedrich and Maria Margarete Steiff. When she was 18 months old she got sick with poliomyelitis. When she was older she had a surgery, but the surgery didn´t help. Although she was sick, she visited a Sewing School and learned to tailor.
The sales figures of the toys were about 16,000 Mark in 1893 and rose over the firgures of the felt driving. In 1901, the sales figures were 180 000 Mark, since the toy was exported to the USA, too. Richard Steiff, a nephew of Margarete, developed the teddy bear (55PB) in 1902 as the company's notice tag, but it was at first produced unsuccessfully. He sold 300 copies, after which he was finally presented at the Leipzig Toy Fair. The management was handed over to the nephews of Margarete Steiff, after the Margarete Steiff GmbH was founded in 1906. The number of sewn teddy bears increased to 973 999 until 1907. In addition, 1 800 homeworkers and 400 employees produced about 1 000 000 toy items. Margarete Steiff died on May 9th, 1909 at the age of 61 years, from pneumonia. Meanwhile, the Steiff stuffed animals in Germany as well as in other countries are very well known and popular.
Margarete Steiff