Margarete Steiff began making stuffed animals in 1880, despite her confinement to a wheelchair due to childhood polio.  Her motto, "The best is just good enough for our children," characterizes the spirit of Steiff even today.

When her son Richard joined the company, he designed the first plush animal, a bear.  The bear gained popularity when Theodore Roosevelt's caricaturist used it on all of his pictures of the president.   Soon the president's nickname, "Teddy,"  attached itself to the stuffed animal, and the Teddy bear was born.