Word: giengen
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...three generations, the craftsmanship of West Germany's toymaking Steiff family has delighted children the world over. As the town's biggest employer, the family has also endeared itself to the burghers of Giengen (pop. 14,000), a community of cobblestone streets and gingerbread houses that has nestled for the past 900 years in the wooded foothills of the Swabian Alps. Although it seems an anomaly in such a storybook setting, the bronze bust of Theodore Roosevelt in the lobby of Giengen's town hall is there for good reason: the Steiff company is best known...
...company's painstaking approach to toymaking began in 1880 in the Giengen dressmaking shop of Margarete Steiff, Hans-Otto's great-aunt. Partially paralyzed by polio since childhood, Margarete happened on the idea of fashioning toy elephants from scraps of felt and cloth for use as pincushions. They proved so popular with friends that Margarete soon gave up dressmaking, began turning out other stuffed animals with the help of relatives. When several Steiff-made bears wound up as table decorations at the 1906 White House wedding of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Teddy's daughter, the resulting publicity made...
...little bears in oudoor togs and placed them in various poses around the banquet tables. When the President said that even he as a bear expert could not name the breed, a guest said, "Well, let's call them Teddy bears." The following year the Steiff factory in Giengen, West Germany sold nearly 1,000,000 Teddy bears in America alone, and prosperity of the tiny hamlet where the factory is situated boomed. Accordingly, this year, the townfolk of Giengen will turn out in a giant Teddy Bear Festival honoring President "Teddy" Roosevelt on the 100th anniversary...
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