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As children shape their own worlds with LEGO bricks, we help make a positive impact on the world they live in today and will inherit in the future.

The LEGO Group is a private company based in Billund, Denmark. The company is still owned by the Kirk Kristiansen family, who founded it in 1932.

The history of the LEGO group

LEGO wooden duck

The name 'LEGO' is an abbreviation of the two Danish words "leg godt", which means "to play well". It is our name and it is our ideal.

The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The company was passed down from father to son and is now owned by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, the founder's grandson.

It has come a long way in the last almost 85 years, from a small woodworking shop to a modern global company that is now one of the largest toy manufacturers in the world.

The LEGO brick is our most important product. We are proud to have been named "Toy of the Century" twice. Our products have undergone extensive development over the years, but the basis is still the traditional LEGO brick.

The brick in its current form was launched in 1958. The interlocking principle with its tubes makes it unique and offers unlimited construction possibilities. It's just a matter of letting your imagination run wild and allowing a host of creative ideas to emerge through play.

Building a business with the full story from LEGO.com

Business creation

On February 1, 1916, at the age of 24, Ole Kirk Kristiansen bought Billund's joinery for 10,000 DKK. The factory manufactures doors, windows, kitchen cabinets, cabinets, caskets, drawers, peat digging tools and car bodies. Everything is top-notch, which is important to Ole Kirk Kristiansen. Gradually, the business broadens its scope and tackles larger projects. Ole Kirk Kristiansen's work includes the construction of a new gallery for Grene Church on the outskirts of Billund, several farms, farm buildings, mission halls, the Billund Cooperative Dairy, a presbytery and several residences.

Billund Dairy, 1917

Ole Kirk Kristiansen also wins the contract to build the Skjoldberg church, a project that yields very little profit, but as he says: "It was for a good purpose."

In 1916, the same year he bought the Billund woodworking factory, Ole Kirk Kristiansen married Kristine Sørensen and the couple had four more children: Johannes, Karl Georg, Godtfred and Gerhardt.

The Kirk Kristiansen family

The First Fire: Building Ole Kirk's House

Ole Kirk Kristiansen's business was devastated by several fires. The first occurs in 1924, when sons Godtfred and Karl Georg play in the workshop while Ole and Kristine take a nap at noon. The boys find a box of matches on a bench and try to light the glue heater to warm it up a bit. The fire spreads to some wood chips, and the factory and the house are completely burned. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen later said that "My first achievement was burning down the workshop and house below."

Ole Kirk Kristiansen, in collaboration with Jesper Jespersen, an architect from Fredericia, builds the house on Main Street, Billund, now known as Ole Kirk's House. The architect's values ​​harmonize with the values ​​and mindset of Ole Kirk Kristiansen, resulting in a building that clearly indicates high quality and an aesthetic approach. Ole Kirk Kristiansen is inspired by the gathering to build farms in the same style as the best building practices that Jesper Jespersen represents. The Danish School of Good Building Practices has promoted simple, attractive and appropriate buildings using good materials and traditional crafts.

Ole Kirk House, 1924

Ole Kirk Kristiansen is very fond of children. With pieces of wood in his workshop, he is adept at making miniature versions of various full-size products, and the jump to wooden toys is not very good. There is no denying a craftsman's eye for detail. Sanded corners, fine, smooth wood, and many layers of varnish.

His marriage to Kristine lasted until 1932, when he died of complications after phlebitis. Ole Kirk Kristiansen is now a widower with four children between the ages of 6 and 15 and a company struggling to survive. Like so many other companies, Ole Kirk Kristiansen's carpentry factory was hit hard by the global economic crisis that followed the Wall Street collapse in 1929.

Coping with the crisis

Spurred by a global economic crisis, Ole Kirk Kristiansen decides to switch to toy production and lays the cornerstone of what should become a global success. In October 1929, the Wall Street stock market in New York collapsed with devastating consequences for the entire Western world. Businesses are collapsing and the industry has its back to the wall. Agriculture is even more affected. The United States and the United Kingdom impose import restrictions, which brought the crisis directly to the Danish farming community in 1930. The prices of butter and pork fall dramatically, and as these products account for a large part of exports Danish, life becomes very difficult for Danish farmers. This also has serious consequences for Ole Kirk Kristiansen. Farmers and smallholders, his most important customers, can no longer afford to do carpentry and joinery work and, in 1931,

Times of adversity

Reflecting the crisis in agriculture, his carpentry and joinery business did not go well in 1932 and in the midst of his financial problems he lost his wife and found himself alone with four children between 6 and 15 years old. The future looks very bleak. Ole Kirk Kristiansen faces the fact that life is a gift, but at the same time it can be a challenge. A thought that he often repeats to his children.

National Association of Danish Companies

The National Association of Danish Companies (Landsforeningen Dansk Arbejde) supports Ole Kirk Kristiansen's business during the economic crisis and thus plays an indirect role in Ole Kirk's journey in the transition from a common woodworking business to a manufacturer Of toys. The association, founded in 1908, aims to promote Danish manufacture and sale of Danish products in Denmark and abroad. Ole Kirk is a member of the association and in a member magazine he reads in a column of advice the common sense to make easily marketable products, such as stairs, ironing boards and other useful items, and something that will radically change his future, toys. . In 1934, when LEGO® wooden toys were first displayed at a Danish trade fair in Frederica. The National Association of Danish Companies also supported Ole Kirk Kristiansen, giving him a free exhibition space.

Keeping the spirit

Although the economic crisis brings difficult times and sometimes great unhappiness, Ole Kirk Kristiansen manages to maintain his positive attitude towards life. In the face of adversity and obstacles, Ole Kirk Kristiansen generates excitement for new possibilities and a good dose of humor. "Yes, Christiansen had a natural gift for humor, and he knew how to use it," said his first apprentice, Viggo Jørgensen. Another (tall) employee recounts how Ole Kirk Kristiansen once told him, "We don't love you anymore!" Shocked, the employee thinks he's being fired. "Take it easy, I just wanted to say you're tall enough (tall)," smiles Ole Kirk Kristiansen.