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Subject: 
Ole Kirk Christiansen - the early years
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lugnet.general
Date: 
Thu, 1 Nov 2007 10:14:37 GMT
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Every major corporation likes to start its history with how poor the founder was and how unlikely it’ success was. However in Lego’s case it’s true.

So here is the early history of Ole Kirk Christiansen. The formative years, as it were. Let me know what you think.


Ole Kirk Christiansen was born 7 Apr 1981 in the rural Central Jutland village of Filskov to Jens Niels Christiansen and Kirstine Christiansen.(1) Jens Niels was what was known as a smallholder - he owned a small farm. For over two centuries the Danes have tried, with varying amounts of success, to cultivate the regions’ sandy soil and by the turn of the century the area was primarily hog or dairy farming. Or, as Harold Foght stated in his classic 1915 treatise on Danish education:

“Taken as a whole, nature has treated Denmark in a stepmotherly fashion so far as riches of soil are concerned. The fact that the country is producing great crops from the land is not because of any fresh, virgin fertility or other natural resource; but because of the broad, general intelligence to the work of building up a naturally meager soil, forcing it to produce more and more.“(2)

Jens, with a small farm and working with poor soil, had to work on the surrounding farms to provide for his family. By all accounts the family, grew up in hardship and poverty. The Christiansens had 10 children and all were expected to help with the farm chores as soon as possible. In one example often repeated in official Lego PR, Ole was sent out at age six to watch the family’s sheep.

Ole spent two days a week in a local school learning to read and write and, like most of the rural children at the time, would spent the rest of the time working on the farm. At most he received a grade school education.

What carried the family though these difficult circumstances was their faith in God. The Christiansens, and Kirstine in particular, were devout followers of Indre Mission, an evangelical offshoot of the Danish Lutheran Church. As Godtfred recounted in a 1982 interview:

“I am convinced that father’s faith in God, which was evident in everything he did, helped carry him through his grief and the difficulties that followed... His faith made him a active man. It gave him the courage and solace that enabled him to take on new responsibilities - and the strength to see a job through despite hardship.” (3)

Ole was not destined for any further formal education. He followed the path of most poor rural boys and instead learned a trade. After his Lutheren confirmation at the age of 14 he was apprenticed to an older brother, Kristian Bonde Christiansen, to learn carpentry and joinery. He spent the next four years studying under his brother and was awarded a journeyman’s certificate on 24 Aug 1911.

Having completed his apprenticeship, and realizing that there was no real work to be had in Filskov, he left to seek his fortunes abroad, He worked in Germany from 1911-1912 and Norway from 1912-1916. It was here in Norway that he met his first wife, Kirstine Sörensen.

After he had saved up enough money Ole and his new wife returned to Denmark. They settled in Billund, just 30 km southeast of his birthplace in Filskov. In 1916 Ole used his saving to purchase the Billund Maskinsnedkeri og Tømreforretning (The Billund Carpentry Shop and Lumberyard), which had been originally established in 1895.

Life in Billund was much like that in Filskov 20 years earlier. At the time the village was really nothing more than several buildings clustered around the road, and later the railway, between Vejle and Grindsted.(4) One writer described the village in the early 1920’s as “A God-forsaken railway stopping-point where nothing could possibly thrive.” Most of the population lived on the surrounding farms or plantage (plantations). Life was difficult for the farmers and, perhaps, even more for the tradesman and craftsman who supported them.

Ole and Kirstine quickly started their own family: Johannes was born in 1917, Karl Georg in 1919, Godtfred on 8 July 1920 and Gerhardt in 1926.

Ole would spend the spring and summer working on any construction or home repair jobs he could find. In the winter he would make furniture and stock up on doors and windows. He started with small jobs and, as the community slowly began to grow and his reputation for honest, quality work spread, he began to be awarded larger projects. An early commission around 1918 for a church hall in Almstok was followed by diaries in Billund and Randbol and a church in Skjoldborg. But throughout the 1920s Ole’s business was a struggle. Even in the best of times the regions’ farmers were cash-strapped and Ole was often on the verge of bankruptcy.

There have been no less at four major fires that affected the company, and the first occured in 1924. On a Sunday afternoon, while their parents were sleeping, Karl Georg (then 5 years old) and Godtfred (4) were playing in the shop and set fire to some wood shavings with a glue smelter. The shop and the Kirk Christiansen house burned to the ground. Undaunted, Ole had an architect draw up plans and built a new, larger building. The new building was much larger than he could afford. Ole and his family lived in a single apartment next to the shop in the back and rented the other rooms out. The new building, which would be known for its large dormer and two lions flanking the front door, is now part of the Lego Group and is one of only a few of Ole’s buildings that still exist.

It was the combination of the hardships of farm life and his devout religious faith that would help shape Ole’s character. As Ole himself states in his most famous quote:

“Life is a gift, but it’s more than just that. Life is a challenge.“(5)

But that dosent completely explain Ole’s success. In addition to his Lutheran traits of hard work, honesty and loyalty, Ole was also somewhat of a maverick and had an optimism that was hard to explain under the circumstances. Against the advice of his family he would build larger workshops and factories and continually invest in new equiptment. None of which he could afford. It would be these qualities that would allow him to survive an upbringing in poverty, two World Wars, and a worldwide depression.


1. nee Anderson

2. Foght, Harold W. Rural Denmark and its Schools. Macmillan, New York, 1915

3. The Lego Group. 50 Years of Play. Lego, Billund. 1982

4. Billund received its first telephone in 1902. The railway station was built in 1914 and the first electric generator was built in 1917. By 1930 the official population was 1,046.

5. I dont know the original source of this quote but feel free to use 50 Years of Play as one reference.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Ole Kirk Christiansen - the early years
 
(...) Um, I think that should be 1891 ?? Paul Sinasohn LUGNET #115 BAYLUG and sometime technical editor... (16 years ago, 1-Nov-07, to lugnet.general, FTX)

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