Jens Andersen - The LEGO Story

Dear reader,

Its estimated that each year between eighty and ninety million children around the globe are given a box of LEGO, while up to ten million adults buy sets for themselves. Yet LEGO is much more than a dizzying number of plastic bricks that can be put together and combined in countless ways. LEGO is also a vision of the significance of what play can mean for humanity.

This book tells the story of a global company and a Danish family who for ninety years have defended childrens right to playand who believe grown-ups, too, should make the time to nurture their inner child.

Since the early 1930s, LEGO has been creating toys and experiences for younger and older children alike, often crossing social and cultural lines, and always keeping pace with broader developments. This stretch of time has seen global crises and the emergence of the welfare state in Denmark and the other Nordic countries. There has been a shift from the patriarchal familywith the father firmly ensconced at the head of the tableto a world in which women entered the workforce and led their own households. Society has witnessed the advent of new gender roles and family structures and, with these changes, new ways of playing. Play used to be an exclusively physical activity; today, its just as likely to be digital. LEGO has been there all along.

The idea behind The LEGO Story came to me in the autumn of 2019. This isnt a traditional business book, but rather a cultural history and biographical chronicle of three generations of the Kirk Kristiansen family, all of whom created and shaped LEGO into the company it is today, as the fourth generation is poised to take over: the worlds largest producer of play materials and one of the most beloved brands in the world.

The book is built on my access to LEGOs own archives at Billund, as well as on monthly conversations that took place over eighteen months with Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, former president and CEO of the LEGO Group and grandson of its founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen. Born literally in the thick of operations in 1947, Kjeld has helped shape the evolution of LEGO for nearly fifty years.

On the following pages, he is referred to as simply Kjeld. Thats what he wanted to be called in this book because thats what hes called at Billund, and thats how hes known to the 20,000 LEGO employees and to the official list of adult fansmore than five times that numberfor whom LEGO is a passion and a lifestyle.

Speaking of names, the familys surname has caused some confusion from time to time over the years. Theres no controversy about the middle bitKirkbut should the last part be Kristiansen or Christiansen?

According to old church records and certificates of baptism, it ought to be Kristiansen with a K, but for unknowable reasons, the founder, Ole Kirk, chose to spell his name Christiansen with a Ch, when he settled in Billund as a young carpenter in 1916. He continued spelling it that way, with the occasional exception, until his death, and this is how his name was chiseled onto his gravestone at Grene Parish Cemetery, just outside Billund.

Ole Kirks son Godtfred also spelled his last name with a Ch instead of a K, and as a young, ambitious foreman in the 1940s he began to use the initials GKC. They stuck with him all his life, even becoming his nickname among the companys employees, as well as business associates, fellow townspeople, and good friends. GKCs son, Kjeldthe primary figure in this bookopted as a young man to stick to the church records and has always been known as Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.

I have chosen to respect the wishes of each individual family member. So on the following pages, LEGOs founder is either Ole Kirk or Christiansen, his son Godtfred or GKC, and the third generation simply Kjeld.

It may surprise some readers that I have written LEGO and other companies in the LEGO GroupKIRKBI, for examplein capital letters. I have found it more natural to follow the corporations usual styling.

Readers who are employed by or connected to LEGO, however, will have to put up with my deviation from the companys internal orthographic guidelines on one point, where I have chosen to follow the conventions of standard English: I have largely avoided using the registered trademark symbol () after LEGO. This is purely for ease of reading.

Just as two classic eight-stud bricks can be put together in at least twenty-four different ways, there are many paths to take when telling the story of LEGO. I have opted for a broad, epic sweep, without references and notes. At the back of the book youll find an extensive selection of literature as well as an index of names, and an acknowledgments section thanking everyone who made this book possible.

I should acknowledge upfront, however, that I would never have emerged from this project unscathed if not for the tireless help of Jette Orduna, director of LEGO Idea House, and archivist Tine Froberg Mortensen, the entire Kirk Kristiansen family, Niels B. Christiansen at LEGO A/S, Jrgen Vig Knudstorp, Ulla Lundhus and Sren Thorup Srensen at KIRKBI A/S, as well as Kim Hundevadt and Ulla Mervild at Politikens Forlag. Thanks also go out to Caroline Waight for her deft translation into English and to Elizabeth DeNoma for her editorial insight and wordsmithing.

Lastly, especially heartfelt thanks are due to Kjeld, for offering me an insight into a fairy-tale episode in Danish history. The Danish words leg godtmeaning play wellare the origin of the name LEGO, so it seems only appropriate to adapt them here:

Read well!

Jens Andersen, July 2021

Ole Kirks tools

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Thats how a famous saga set in outer space begins, one that will come to play a role in the story youre about to hear. The story starts in Denmark, way out in the countryside in the autumn of 1915, when a young craftsman in Western Jutland heard about a woodworkers workshop for sale in the little provincial town of Billund.

Like his fiance, the young man had grown up on the windswept heaths of rural Denmark, where money was tight and most people worked as day laborers. As a boy he looked after sheep and cows, learned to watch out for marl pits and adders, and when storms were brewing he could dig a cave better than anyone else in the area.

Hed become a journeyman carpenter, dreaming of a permanent roof over his head and talking of marriage and running his own business. Several of his siblings had helped him borrow 10,000 kroner from the bank, and in February 1916 he took possession of a single-story white house with a workshop on the outskirts of Billund, a small village in the Jutland region of Denmark. With Gods helpand that of the Varde Bankeverything would work out. On his twenty-fifth birthday in April, Ole Kirk Christiansen married Hansine Kristine Srensen, and the following year she gave birth to the first of their four sons.

Kjeld:My granddad was born in 1891 in Blhj, which is roughly twelve miles north of Billund. He grew up in a family of six boys and six girls, each with a middle name my great-grandfather came up with himself. Well, the girls didnt get middle names, because of course they were supposed to change their names when they got married. One of the sons was called Randbk, the second Kamp, the third Bonde. My granddad got his first and middle namesOle Kirkfrom a respectable West Jutland farmer and member of the Stnderforsamlingen, the Assembly of the Estates of the Realm, whom my great-grandfather had worked for and admired. By the age of six, my granddad was already looking after the animals, working on various farms, but he ended up as a carpenters apprentice alongside one of his older brothers. Like other journeymen, he traveled around to work at first, but soon returned home to help his older brother build the post office in Grindsted. Then, in 1916, that was when he turned up in Billund