Billund

"Things had otherwise been going well since he took over Billund Maskinsnedkeri back in 1916. Billund was a small village in the middle of the Jutland heath. There were some larger farms and smaller smallholdings, a school, a dairy, a general store, a masonry business, a smithy, an inn, a mission house, a cooperative association—and then the carpentry and joinery workshop. The town mainly lived off agriculture around the town."

"In 1932, the yo-yo emerged as a popular toy. Ole Kirk Kristiansen set out to produce thousands of yo-yos. They sold well, and he got the business going more and hired unemployed craftsmen in Billund and the surrounding area."

"By 1934, toy production had become so extensive that Ole Kirk Kristiansen thought it should have a name. He announced a contest among the people in the workshop with a bottle of homemade red wine as the prize. It was Ole Kirk Kristiansen himself who got the bottle. He thought it should be related to good play and came up with LEGO—a contraction of LEg GOdt. Thus, the LEGO Toy Factory in Billund was created."

"Godtfred Kirk Christiansen also did not find recognition for the wooden toys among his peers at the Handicraft School. While the other students wanted to build houses or work in machine factories and workshops, Godtfred sketched designs for new toys, which he sent to his father in Billund."

"Godtfred also established the Ole Kirk’s Foundation, which invested heavily in the local community in Billund. It was both a desire to give back, a tribute to his father, and an initiative to make little Billund more attractive to new, skilled employees from around the world. After all, in the 1960s, there were no kindergartens, after-school facilities, sports facilities, and barely any shops in the town. The foundation funded, among other things, a center with a library, theater, church, kindergarten, and after-school care."

"In Denmark, the factory in Billund expanded significantly. LEGO bought both its own trucks and planes, and Godtfred ensured that Billund got its own airstrip so that factory personnel could quickly reach new markets—and customers could easily visit the small Danish village. Relocating the company was out of the question. It would have been a betrayal to the people who dedicated their lives to LEGO, and a catastrophe for the local community, which Godtfred would not entertain."

"LEGO’s success garnered much coverage in the press, and already in the early 1960s, schools, organizations, and businesses visited Billund every week to see how the famous bricks were made. Godtfred had his cousin, the artist Dagny Holm, build a series of large models with LEGO bricks, depicting houses, castles, and animals. The exhibition became a major attraction, and the queue kept growing. In 1963, Godtfred had the idea for a permanent exhibition area. The plan was to use an area the size of a football field and build a small cafeteria. He approached the local bank for backing for the construction. The answer was no. The bank refused to believe that 300,000 visitors would come to Billund each year, which was the condition for the project to be profitable."