Godtfred kirk christiansen
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Christiansen, Ole Kirk
Danish toymaker Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891-1958) founded The LEGO Group, one of the world's largest toy manufacturers. A carpenter by training who began making wooden toys during the Great Depression, Christiansen devised the multicolored plastic blocks that could be fashioned into numerous combinations of colors and shapes and which went on to become one of the world's best-selling toys. Christiansen died in 1958, and his son inherited the company and turned it into a global powerhouse whose “brightly colored interlocking bricks have virtually revolutionized the worldwide toy market,” wrote Robert D. Hershey in the New York Times in 1977.
Christiansen was born on April 7, 1891, in Vejle, a town in the Jutland peninsula of Denmark. He began tending his family's sheep in the fields at the age of six, and to pass the time during the long hours outside, he carved small wooden figures. Later, he trained under his older brother, Kristian Bonde Christiansen, to become a carpenter. Around 1916, he bought the Billund Woodworking and Carpentry Shop, and had s
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Perhaps one of the most beloved and well-known toys in history, Lego has entertained children for over 70 years, with the simple interlocking brick inspiring a franchise today which includes movies, games, competitions and eight Legoland amusement parks.
The brainchild of Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, the toy nearly didn’t come to fruition, after a series of devastating fires, the Great Depression and Nazi occupation threatened the company’s closure.
However, today it is estimated that there are a staggering 600 billion Lego pieces in existence, and as of 2021, Lego was the largest toy company in the world.
So who was Ole Kirk Christiansen?
He was born into a poor family
Ole Kirk Christiansen was born in 1891 in the village of Filskovand, Jutland, Denmark. The tenth child of Jens Niels Christiansen and Kirstine Christiansen, his family were poor but Ole managed to achieve basic schooling. While working as a farmhand from the age of six, Christiansen developed a fascination with whittling wood.
In 1905, aged 14, Ole was apprenticed to his older brother t
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Ole Christiansen
In the first half of the 20th century, Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen created one of the most beloved toys of all time, enjoyed all over the world by millions of children and quite a few adults as well. Those toys are the building blocks known as LEGOs.
Christiansen was born in 1891 in Filskov, Denmark, a small village north of the Danish town of Billund. He was educated up until high school, and then began working in a factory, eventually becoming a woodworker and master carpenter. He set up his own business in Billund in 1932. Among the products he made were stepladders, ironing boards, and wooden toys – which would become his specialty. Toys, especially wooden blocks, were, in fact, the business’s most successful product. In 1934, the company adopted the name “LEGO,” from the Danish words “Leg Godt,” or “play well.” (Appropriately, “Lego” also means “I study” or “I put together” in Latin).
In 1944, Christiansen’s factory burned down, but he rebuilt it in 1947 and picked up where he left off. This time, however, his business was dedicated to cre
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