Ole Kirk Christiansen

Ole Kirk Christiansen (7 April 1891 – 11 March 1958) was the founder of the Danish construction toy company The Lego Group.

Christiansen was born in Filskov, South Jutland, Denmark, the 10th son of an impoverished family in Jutland. He trained as a carpenter and started making wooden toys in 1932 to make a living after having lost his job during the Great Depression. Soon after, his wife Kirstine died, leaving him to raise his four sons. Christiansen was inspired to construct a small wooden duck toy for his children. He never remarried. He soon learned his sons loved the new toy and decided to put the ducks into production, using the leftover wood from his old business.

In 1942, a fire broke out at the factory, forcing them to rebuild. Initially, he made miniature versions of the houses and furniture as he worked on as a carpenter, but in 1947 moved to using plastics, which were originally small plastic bears and rattles. By 1949 he had produced over 200 plastic and wooden toys.

Ole wanted a name for the group. In 1934 he launched a competition to name the company. The prize was a bottle of his own homemade wine. He won it himself. Lego is a shortened form of the Danish words leg godt, meaning "play well", and the company grew to become The Lego Group.^[1]

On 11 March 1958, Christiansen died from a heart attack at the age of 66, and his third son Godtfred promptly took over the company.^[2]

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