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HERMANN-Spielwaren GmbH
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HERMANN-Spielwaren GmbH
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While in former times all Sonneberg Teddy Bears
were stuffed with excelsior, today the knowledge about this old work is nearly
got lost. It goes without saying, that the HERMANN family is proud, that
the knowledge about this old handcraftship could be preserved in the hands
of the family by handing down from generation to generation. It is one of
the most important unwritten laws in the HERMANNN family since 3 generations,
that each member of the f family first has to learn how to make a good Teddy
Bear in the old traditional Max Hermann kind by own hands.
When the Teddy Bear became popular at the beginning of our century, many Thuringian toy makers set out to make Teddy Bears. Till this point of time the folks of Germany's most famous toy area earned their money by making dolls and wood toys. It was a poor region. The people had nothing beside their hands to work and the wealth of wood in the no end of the Thuringian Forest. So it was, that wood was not only used for making wood toys, but also for stuffing the arms, the legs, the body and the heads of a Teddy Bear. For the Thuringian Teddy Bear makers wood wool, later called excelsior, was at that point of time the cheapest stuffing material, which they could get.
But soon the old Teddy Bear makers discovered,
that a very fine kind of wood wool, called excelsior, is not only a cheap
material but also the most ideal material for stuffing a Teddy Bear. It makes
possible to form the sewn parts like no other material in a perfect kind
and it conserves well like no other material the figure of a Teddy Bear for
many years off. This knowledge, which our ancestors have acquired long before
our today's time, has still today unchangeable validity, and still today
no more wonderful Teddy Bears are existing than hand stuffed Excelsior Bears
with its only one original charm.
In contrast to the past, today it is very expensive to stuff Teddy Bears with excelsior, because it needs much working time.
Therefore in the Sixties and Seventies modern stuffing machines were built. New stuffing material for machine use like polyester was discovered and the Teddy Bears became more and more softly. Suddenly nobody needed any more the work of the excelsior stuffers. The old stuffers died and their knowledge got lost more and more. So it comes, that today only some few men and women are still living, who still today know something about the excelsior stuffing.
Although also in the HERMANN-Coburg factory these stuffing machines exists since the beginning of the Sixties, nevertheless the knowledge about the higher quality of a hand stuffed Excelsior Bear was always present.
Today these stuffing machines are only used in the HERMANN-Coburg factory for the special stuffing of some Artist or New Generation Bears.
It was always the request of the
HERMANN-Coburg company to preserve the tradition.
By all its love for new modern Teddy Bear styles, the HERMANN-Coburg company
always wants to make a sign, that the old knowledge about making the old
original Teddy Bears will be preserved in the family's hands for all times.
The "Old Thuringia Teddy Bear Stuffer" Teddy Bear, which was designed to honour all the old Teddy Bear Stuffers, who have presented us with their work so many wonderful Teddy Bears, is such a sign.
More information about the "Old Thuringia Teddy Bear
Stuffer" Teddy Bear
