Clemens

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Company History

Date	Event
	Hans Clemens learned the shoe trade in Dusseldorf and soon owned his own factory in Alsace.
1939	At beginning of WWII Hans and family deported to Germany
*1947*	Hans opened a shop in Mannheim selling glass, china and gifts. Responding to requests from customers for toys Hans had the idea of making teddy bears from German Armed Forces blankets - his sister, Sophie, handmade the bears. Clemens was founded.
1952	Clemens represented at Nuremberg Toy Fair
1953	Hans Clemens son, Peter, began working at factory
1968	The original gift shop in Mannheim closed
1983	Hans retired, Peter took over management of company
1992	Collectors range of teddy bears introduced
*2001*	Hans Clemens died, aged 96 years
*2002*	Peter retired from managing the company to concentrate on design. American entrepreneur Ren Lee takes over Clemens trademark and designs

Clemens Bears

After WWII there was great demand for teddy bears, Hans Clemens named his first collection "The Post War Teddy Bears".

Today several award winning bear artists work with Clemens who carefully reproduce their bears to the same high standard. Artists include Martina Lehr, Eleonore Unkel-Schaufelin, Jack & Marion Finhold, Isabella Hoffmann and Nadja Bears.
Clemens also make their own collection of “Nostalgic” mohair bears in sizes from 10cm to 90cm and a range of lifelike soft toys and animals for younger collectors . All “Nostalgic” bears over 40 cm have their own Clemens growler. Several of these bears have been specially made to celebrate Company Birthdays with stitching showing the year they were produced.



1950's Clemens Doll Bears (above)

These are just a few examples of older Clemens bears, visit our new collectable bears where you will see new Clemens bears which are for sale.

Clemens Bear Identification

Each bear has the famous “Clemens badge”, which is their trademark - the tag has changed very little. In 1952 the triangular, metal chest tag was introduced, in 1957 a red triangular wooden tag was used but in 1960 metal was used again. Between 1963 and 1968 a triangular plastic tag was used in parallel with that metal tag, at first plastic was only used for cheaper products but then for all. However, in 1989 metal tags were used again for all products and today it hangs from a blue cord ribbon. This ribbon stands for reliability, unique design, safety and care of the environment.

All limited edition bears are also given a "passport" as a seal of authenticity, the passports comprise a small hang tag with the name, number and size of the edition written by hand to emphasise each bear’s own individuality.

Clemens triangular tags

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