German Steiff

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In 1899 Margarete Steiff registered patents for a dancing bear and a brown bear with a handler. In 1902 the American President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear cub while hunting in Mississippi and the incident made national news. In the same year Richard Steiff looked for new ideas for toys and saw bears in an American travelling circus. He sketched an idea of an upright bear. In 1903 Rose Michtom designed a stuffed bear toy. Michtom wrote and asked permission from President Roosevelt to name the toy after him. “Teddy” Roosevelt agreed and the "Teddy's Bear" was born. Other makers such as Bing, Hermann, Schuco, Strunz, Joseph Pitrmann and Edward Cramer followed soon after.