 After the Soviet occupation of eastern Germany, Bernhard Hermann selected Hirschaid in the American occupied zone as the new site of his company to avoid dispossession by the East German communist provisional government.In 1948 Bernhard Hermann sent his son Werner to Hirschaid to develop the company's presence at its new location.By 1953 the Hermann family had managed to flee to West Germany and completed the company's move, reconstituting it as the “Teddy Plüschspielwarenfabrik Gebr.