Apollonia Margarete Steiff was born in the small German village of Giengen-on-Brenz, on 24th July 1847. Margarete studied needlework and soon became an expert seamstress, opening her own dressmaking factory, in 1877, called the Felt Mail Order Co. The company was an immediate success and soon progressed from making felt petticoats and children's clothing, to felt elephant pincushions and soft toys. Margarete received an increasing number of requests for the elephants and on 29th December 1880, decided to start selling them.

Margarete Steiff's brother Fritz played a vital role in the development of his sister's company, and all six of his sons, Richard, Franz, Paul, Otto, Hugo and Ernst, assisted greatly in building it into a flourishing concern. By 1892, the Steiff teddy bear had begun its journey that would see it perfected and established as the world's most popular soft toy.  Steiff is German's largest teddy bear manufacturers and they are still in production today, over a hundred years later.