Ole Kirk Kristiansen

"He tried to find new ways to make money and talked with the National Association for Danish Work, which worked to promote Danish production. The government, led by the Social Democrats’ Thorvald Stauning, had enacted import bans and high tariffs on a range of goods to protect Danish businesses and jobs. The association suggested that Ole Kirk Kristiansen start the production of wooden toys. There was an opening now, as Germany, Europe’s great toy factory, was struggling to export."

"Ole Kirk Kristiansen built houses and furniture for the farmers in the vicinity, and he had built up a quite reasonable business. But some years earlier, something had gone wrong in America. The stock market in New York had collapsed, and suddenly no one had money. Banks closed, companies closed, jobs disappeared, and millions of people lost their homes."

"The year was 1932. Master carpenter Ole Kirk Kristiansen faced a serious problem. His customers couldn’t pay their bills. There were no new orders. And the cash register was empty. Ole Kirk Kristiansen was at a loss. He had a family to feed."

"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."

"And it wasn’t just the neighbors’ children who deserved the best. Ole Kirk Kristiansen maintained the quality when he later produced in large quantities for customers far away. He even gave the quality a motto, which he found in a book: “The best is never too good.” It was put up as a sign in the workshop. Even today, this motto is a guiding value for LEGO."

"Despite the adversity, the master carpenter in Billund began crafting chests of drawers, wardrobes, ironing boards, stools, and many other miniature wooden furniture pieces, plus toy cars, ducks on wheels, dolls’ carriages, etc. The first customers were the neighbors, so it was crucial for Ole Kirk Kristiansen that the quality was top-notch. No neighbor should be able to say a critical word about his craftsmanship. Therefore, knothole-free beech wood was used, air-dried for two years before the toys were milled, sanded, polished, painted, and varnished three times, just like real furniture. Children should play with something proper. Children deserve the best, Ole Kirk believed."

"Initially, sales of the toys did not go spectacularly. In the first year, Ole Kirk sold for only 4,000 kroner, which was far from enough to make ends meet. He suddenly faced a bankruptcy petition because he couldn’t pay his bills. Ole Kirk Kristiansen went around to family and friends in the area asking for help. He got it, even though people nearby frowned upon the master carpenter who made toys. It wasn’t really man’s work."

"In June 1950, Ole Kirk Kristiansen appointed his now 31-year-old son Godtfred as junior director at LEGO. He remained the managing director and chairman of the board."

"Ole Kirk Kristiansen decided to put the blocks into production. The blocks were slightly adjusted—the thickness was changed, and the studs were flattened, but otherwise, they were like Kiddicraft’s blocks. That same year, LEGO entered the market with the so-called Automatic Binding Bricks—it was popular to have English names for toys back then—and sold them, as Kiddicraft did, in a cardboard box with pictures showing what children could build with them."

"In 1952, Ole Kirk Kristiansen suddenly intervened in the operations by deciding that the factories in Billund should be expanded again—he wanted greater production capacity. However, liquidity was tight, and the investment, according to Godtfred’s accounts, was larger than LEGO could bear: “I said to father: ‘Let’s start with a third.’ But shortly after, he poked his head in and said: ‘Here, I decide what is to be built, but you get the task of finding the money!’.”"