Steiff-Museum in Giengen: Fluffy Paradise

Group photo outside the museum

When our friends from New Zealand came to Germany in 2017, we quickly agreed on the Steiff museum in Giengen an der Brenz as our meeting point and activity. We had no idea that Kimi the Bear would arrive with a whole bag of siblings! There was his brother Bernhard with him, and three donkeys. We are sorry, we can't tell them apart!

They had been travelling the south of Germany before, hence they sported brand new Bavarian outfits, complete with lederhosen and chequered shirts. Very fashionable!

Russell's brother Billy Joe was still very young. He had only arrived in Germany a few weeks earlier. This was one of his first real outings.

After arriving at the railway station, you can follow the signpost - but it is much easier to simply follow the bear pawprints on the pavement. They mark the whole way to the museum.

The museum is attached to the factory where loads and loads of Steiff animals are bred and born to this very day. There are several, or shall I admit: several dozens of, Steiff animals living in our household in Karlsruhe.

Some of them date from the 1950s. They belonged to my mother when she was a kid. Grandpa had to travel a lot for business in those times, and he used to bring a new animal for his youngest daughter from his trips.

Then there is the collection from my own childhood. I have kept them all, unless they really fell apart.

"Steiff" animals are a renowned brand. They made the best quality and the most naturally looking animals, that's what I liked and still like about them so much. (Although I have to admit that in recent years a competitor arose who makes even more beautiful animals, that is the manufacture in Kösen.) And Steiff count as the inventor of the Teddy Bear.

It all started with a brave and ingenious young woman. Margarethe Steiff was bound to the wheelchair after catching polio as a young child. A painful operation would not help. She'd have to find her place in a society that was not friendly towards handicapped people. She learned sewing and set up her little business, making clothes and household items from felt. And that's when it all began. No, not with a bear, but with an elephant.

In 1879 she found a pattern and made a sack full of little elephants, originally meant as pincushions. When she tried to sell them on a market she soon realized that the women had little interest, but the more the children! They weren't pincushions, they were toys!

Soon they made other animals like dogs, cats, horses. The business would thrive so-so - until her nephew invented, in 1902, a soft bear with movable joints. Export into the USA started its success, the connection with president Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt gave it its name which has stuck to this very day. Bear toys are teddy bears. Since then Steiff and the "Steifftier" has become a brand of worldwide fame.

Steiff factory

The museum visit starts with a walk through different presentations of moving animals and puppets, arranged with light and sound. It starts with the original teddy bear telling the history of Steiff and of himself. (Apologies for the lousy photo, he is moving and the light is dim...)

Then the visitors are guided along scenes and presentations around various topics. Here one has to follow a fixed route.

Then comes the main hall with animals from more recent times. Among the showcases they have huge, life-size animals - the kind we used to adore open-mouthed in department stores where they worked as eye-catchers, with a strict "Do not touch!!!" sign next to them.

Here you may touch them. Children may even ride on them.

Unlucky kids with photo-obsessed parents will have little chance to enjoy themselves in here, though. We really felt sorry for a little girl next to us. Her mum would make her pose and grin at her stupid cell phone in front of each and every animal, instead of letting her look at the displays and play. I do not think that the girl had much fun at the museum.

The elephant is big and strong enough to carry grown-up kids. We could not resist...

Then comes the historical part.

Animals from different eras are on display in showcases. Even soft toys undergo fashions!

I was most interested in the 1960s and 1970s displays. Many of these looked oddly familiar.

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I had and still have:

the horse "Ferdy" (although mine does not look this neat and tidy any more)

a larger version of the squirrel

and a Bambi, although a 1950s one but the design is almost the same.

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"Official" group photo, taken by a kind passer-by who had much fun observing fluffies visiting a fluffy museum

Everywhere in town they have put up colourful bears as a reminder of the town's most famous offspring, namely the Steiff teddy bear.

Market square and town hall, and a pedestrianized shopping street constituted the centre of this small town.

It was beautiful summer weather but also quite hot. Too hot to write much...

Where is the ice-cream?

The church looked interesting, so we did a little detour for a closer look. It was open, and the interior was indeed worth seeing.

Now where is... Ah, this looks promising.

Finally!

And, in the end, another group photo of our fluffy companions in the teddy bear chair outside the town hall.