Margarete Steiff (2005)

Margarete, the child of impoverished parents, contracts polio while still young. Nevertheless, she insists on going to school and impresses her teacher with her mathematical abilities and self-confidence. When she is a young woman, treatment by the Viennese doctor Dr. Werner seems promising. Her parents cannot afford the cost of treatment, but after persuading the local authorities, they receive financial support from the municipality. When the treatment does not achieve the desired results, those around her are disappointed; Margarete herself, however, is convinced that she can still lead a reasonably normal life, since she is otherwise healthy. During the train journey to Vienna, she meets Julius, a sewing-machine salesman. After the treatment in Vienna, he sells a sewing machine to the Steiff family. In time, Margarete falls in love with Julius, who settles in her hometown. Despite initial difficulties operating the machine, Margarete begins making ready-to-wear clothing. After some early failures, her sewing talent attracts attention in town, including when she sells toy elephants at the Christmas market. When Julius leaves her to marry Margarete’s best friend, Charlotte, Margarete throws herself into her work all the more. Later, Margarete Steiff, now the owner of a company, has been six months behind on repaying her loans. The bank threatens to take over the company, and sales of the toy elephants are also poor. A small toy bear that has symbolized the bond between her and her brother since childhood gives Margarete the idea of making toy bears with movable limbs. When she refuses to agree to the bankers’ takeover terms and foreclosure looms, Margarete’s seamstresses work hard to make her toy bear without pay. The success of the teddy bears—and thus the survival of the company—is finally secured when an American places a large order for the movable toy bears.