Käthe Kruse was born Katharina Simon in Breslau, Germany in 1883. She spent her early years in modest circumstances. As a young woman Käthe joined an acting school and became famous in the Berlin theatres under the name of Hedda Somin.

At the turn of the 20th century the coffee shops in Berlin had a lively and academic atmosphere that attracted authors, painters, sculptors, actors, and art critics. In 1901 in Café des Westens the eighteen-year-old Käthe met and fell in love with Max Kruse, a 46-year-old sculptor.

After their second daughter was born, Käthe and Max decided that Berlin was not a good place for children to grow up. Max stayed in his workroom in Berlin but Käthe and the two daughters, Mimerle (Maria) and Fifi (Sophie) moved to Ascona in the countryside of Switzerland.

One time before Christmas Mimerle was Watching her mother giving a bath to the baby sister. Seeing how her mother played with the baby Mimerle said that she wanted to have a baby of her own. "I want a bambina, too, just like you and Mother maria have!" Käthe wrote her husband and asked him to bring a doll from Berlin. Max wrote to Käthe: "I cannot buy any doll! I think they are awful! How can such a cold, stiff creature arouse any motherly feelings? A doll must be soft and warm so that it is something a child can love. Make a doll yourself! Is there in fact any better way to train your artistic skills?"

Käthe said later: "I took a towel and filled the centre with (Warm!) sand and made little knots at the ends so that they became arms and legs. On one side of the towel I enclosed a potato as the head of the doll and took a used match to draw eyes, nostrils, and the mouth."

Some time later Käthe found the real doll maker in her: "Handwork! I will never give up this principle. The hand follows the heart. Only the hand can create what comes from the heart."

In 1910 and 1911 Käthe showed her self-made dolls in public for the first time. The dolls were displayed at the Tietz department store in Berlin. The dolls were a great succes among both the general public and the press. All of a sudden everybody wanted to have a doll, a warm and soft doll that looked like a real baby. An American order of 150 dolls became the turning point for Käthe: she employed painters and home workers and turned her home into a workshop. Käthe Kruse started to produce dolls. She applied for her first patent and from now on she was not just a mother, but also a businesswoman and an enterpriser.

In 1912 Käthe and her family (the number of children being four at the time) moved to the town of Bad Kösen an der Saale. Three more sons were born in Bad Kösen and Käthe, now the mother of seven, modified her dolls and their production again and again. In 1923 Käthe turned an old school into a workshop and an apartment and created several new doll series.

At the time of the second World War doll production was very demanding due to tha lack of materials. When the war ended, export was still complicated while Germany had been divided into occupation zones. Käthe Kruse prepared for the worst and established branches on the Western occupation zones. Käthe sent two of her sons, Max and Michael, to take care of the doll factories in Bad Pyrmont and Donauwörth.

In 1947, under the management of Käthe’s son Michael Kruse, a branch factory was founded on Donauwörth. By the end of the 1940’s, all doll production from Bad Kösen and Bad Pyrmont moved west to Donauwörth. Soon after this the factory in Bad Kösen became national property, which was expected in a socialist country. Dolls were made in Bad Kösen from 1951 to 1957 and they had a triangular factory mark that said "V.E.B. Bad Kösen a.d. Saale".

In 1952 Michael Kruse took Heinz Adler as the technical manager of the Donauwörth factory. Käthe’s third daughter Hanne Adler-Kruse was the art director of the factory and she created new dolls, the so-called Model Hanne Kruse Dolls. In spite of everything, the Käthe Kruse Doll Company suffered hard times. In 1967 the company achieved financial success thanks to new terrycloth toys for babies and small children. In the following year Käthe Kruse died at the age of eighty-four.

In 1990, the Adler-Kruse hamily gave the management of the company to Andrea-Kathrin and Stephen Christenson. They have enlanged the selection so that the company now produces also textiles, and children’s room accessories. The old doll models are still in production and they are sold in limited editions. The tradition and succes of Käthe Kruse dolls go on from one generation to the other as the toys are still carefully made by hand, with love, and of first-rate materials.