Ruth Handler, Barbie's creator, has been blamed for taking the Barbie doll design from a doll made in Germany in 1955, the Lilli doll that was sold mainly at tobacco shops, for men. Lilli was originally a cartoon character in a tabloid newspaper in Germany created by Reinhard Beuthein in 1952. O.M. Hausser/Elastolin Company had Max Weissbrodt, a doll maker of theirs get a patent for Lilli's limb design. Ruth is rumored to have purchased a few of the dolls while in Switzerland with her family. 