Ole Kirk Christiansen started a building boom on carpeted floors with Lego bricks. In over 80 years, his company
has become an internationally successful toy company with over 9,000 employees.

The destitute village where Ole Kirk Christiansen was born on April 7, 1891, is located in the Jutland nowhere. There, where pragmatism, diligence and faith in God are unshakable. And a little stubbornness is part of life. Even as a twelve-year-old apprentice carpenter, Ole doesn't like to conform. He is supposed to make fences, ladders and ironing boards. But he prefers to make toys. Useless stuff, according to brother Kristian.

After the First World War and a few months of apprenticeship in Norway, Ole decides that in future no one should forbid him his useless stuff. His savings are topped up by the family - enough to buy the small carpentry shop Billund Maskinsnedkeri. In the same year he marries Kristine Sørensen. The third son, Godtfred, can hardly wait until he is allowed at the workbench himself. On a boring Sunday in 1924, the five-year-old heats a pot of wood chips together with his brother Karl Georg. "My first company success was burning the workshop and the apartment to the ground," Godtfred confesses. "Our life is a gift - and a challenge at the same time," is Ole's motto. He builds a new workshop. Again it goes uphill. This time until 1932, when the Great Depression hit Denmark and Ole had to lay off employees. Then Kristine dies. Suddenly he is alone in the workshop with four sons. Not a gift. Just a challenge. "I have to find a new profession. Or invent really good children's toys," Ole ponders. He decides on toys. And for a new wife - his housekeeper Kirsten Sofie Jørgensen. Two years later, Ole and his six employees are producing drawing ducks, simple building blocks and girls' toys. Sales double during the Second World War. Things are looking good. Until a fire on March 20, 1942, burns everything to the ground again. Ole kneels on the charred floor and prays. Then he starts all over again. In 1944, more than 40 employees produce wooden toys for the "Toy Factory LEGO Billund A/S". Lego is made up of "leg" and "godt" and means "play well".

When Ole sees plastic building blocks patented by British child psychologist Hilary Harry Fisher Page in 1947, he senses the opportunity of a lifetime. Can't these building blocks be used to make a real splash? He buys the first plastic injection molding machine in Denmark, a Windsor SH, for the enormous sum of 30000 Danish crowns. His sons are against it. A carpentry business that produces plastic things? In 1949, Lego brings the first building blocks onto the market.

The colorful bricks from Billund trigger a building boom in children's rooms. Son Godtfred is impressed. He patented the principle of the downward-pointing tubes in the hollow space of the building blocks on January 28, 1958. When Ole died in 1958, Lego was making more sales with plastic than with wood. A few years later, the 450 or so employees under Godtfred's management produce plastic from the bite- and scratch-resistant wonder material AcrylonitrileButadieneStyrene. Lego becomes the plastic building king.

Just six years later, Lego sells over 700 million parts for 57 playsets in 42 countries. 1000 employees work for Denmark's richest family business. In 1977, Godtfred's son, academic Kjeld Kirk Christiansen, takes over. His idea of offering expansion sets for existing series becomes a sales hit. Wheels, people, entire cities - Lego increases its sales by double digits every year. Until 2003, Lego now wants to move with the times. It based new series on well-known films such as "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter. And fails grandiosely. Sales fall by 500 million euros from 2002 to 2004 to 850 million euros. Lego made a loss of over 200 million euros. On the brink of insolvency, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen brought in an external CEO, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp. He shifts production abroad and initiates a return to traditional building blocks. In 2005, Lego is back in the black. In 2011, sales are 2.5 billion, profits 550 million euros. Things are looking up. Life is a gift.

Text: Jennifer Bligh