Who invented LEGO®?

27 June 2018

LEGO® was invented by Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish carpenter who lived from 7 April 1891 to 11 March 1958. He is also the founder of the LEGO® Group.

Ole Kirk Christiansen was a carpenter who earned his money at the beginning of the 20th century by building houses and furniture for farmers in the Billund area. His workshop, however, burned down in 1924, after which he built an even larger workshop. The Great Depression in the 30s of the 20th century also touched his company and Christiansen therefore decided to build cheap miniature versions of his furniture to earn an extra income. This went so well that manufacturing wooden toys became his main source of income. In 1934 he changed the name of his company to LEGO® and this is derived from the Danish 'leg godt', which means 'play well'.

Now we make a leap in time. In 1947 Ole Kirk Christiansen and his son Godtfred were given some plastic building blocks that had been produced by the company Kiddicraft and designed by the Brit Fisher Page. Ole Kirk Christiansen made some changes and released them a few months later under the name 'Automatic Binding Bricks'.

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Automatic Binding Bricks

These were put on the market as a process for creative play, a marketing formula that is still very powerful in our age. The LEGO® stones back then looked different than the current LEGO® stones and so, for example, the hollow tubes that were present under the current l LEGO® stations were missing. Ole Kirk Christiansen just witnessed that they were added before he unexpectedly died of a heart attack in 1958 at the age of 66. After his death, his son Godfredt took over the management of the company.

After this, LEGO® continued to grow to the success it is today. Do you find this article interesting? Then we have good news for you, because we will publish more background articles about LEGO® in the future.

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