Currently, the LEGO brand is one of the most recognized worldwide in the toys sector, for the little ones and not so much, because it has also become part of popular culture with the creation of Legoland parks and with The success of the film franchise that began with the Lego Movie in 2014.
But behind one of the most successful brands linked to childhood a tragic story is hidden that is worth remembering every January, when the International Lego Day is celebrated, in honor of the date on which this invention was patented.
The dramatic history of the creation of LEGO comes from the hand of Its founder, Olek Kirk Kristiansenborn in the Danish city of Filskov on April 7, 1891 in the humble family, and that obtained its first profits as an official carpenter in Billundwhere he made all kinds of objects to his neighbors such as stools, doors, and even built houses and barns.
But everything collapsed for Kristiansen when his carpentry business suffered a fire that left everything very mined, which forced him to reinvent himself. However, the tragedy would not take breath because a short time later his wife died from complications in the childbirth of his fifth son.
This should be added that the carpentry business would suffer the consequences of the serious economic crisis generated company to subsist.
The rebirth of the ashes that gave rise to Lego
This would be like Olek Kirk Kristiansen began with the creation of a series of wood toys Together with his son Godtfredwhat would be the germ of the future Lego, but which began with models such as trains or animals. This idea would save its carpentry workshop, which soon had its main source of income in this production.
The demand for toys was increasing until in January 1936 the Lego brand was born, a name that It is the abbreviation of “playing well” in Danish (leg Godt) and that referred directly to the quality of the models they manufactured.
The business marched well, but misfortune would splash the Kristiansen again, who saw how in 1942 the toy factory suffered a fire. Again, it was time to start again, and that formulated the change that would be in the current LEGO: the wood was changed to the plastic due to the shortage of material by the war.
The postwar period: the key moment of the success of Lego
The postwar period, in fact, was a complicated time, but the team led especially by Godftred experienced to develop the plastic toys model, which he had in The Ferguson tractor His first great success in 1951 with more than 100,000 units sold in just three years.
But it would not be until 1955 when the Lego Empire would begin, with the creation of Town Plan And with which the classic plastic bricks went on sale, which would add their famous tube in 1958, a perfection that would be the key to the success of a construction game that just coincided with the reconstruction of Europe after World War II.
A success, however, of which its creator, Olek Kirk Kristiansen, who would die that same 1958 on March 11, would not be fully aware, but that he would leave Lego in the hands of his family to this day, being one of the most successful brands and classic childhood toys.
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