Godtfred Kirk Christiansen

He was the third son of company founder Ole Kirk Christiansen and took over as managing director in 1957, eventually becoming the sole owner.

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen was born on 8 July 1920 into a poor family and received limited formal education.

[3] In 1924, at the age of four, Godtfred and his brother Karl Georg accidentally caused a fire and burned the woodworking shop to the ground.

"[2] During the 1930s, the business suffered from the impact of the Great Depression, and Godtfred's father focused on the production of household essentials, such as ironing boards, stepladders and small wooden toys.

[3] At the age of 12, Godtfred showed a particular interest in his father's business and helped out in the woodworking shop on the alternate days when he was not attending school.

[5] From 1939 to 1940, while studying at Haslev Technical College on the Danish island of Zealand, Godtfred sent sketches for wooden toys to his father as ideas for new products.

One day, he had proudly declared to his father that he had saved the business money by applying two coats of varnish to a batch of wooden ducks instead of the usual three.

[5] Motivated by his ambition to better understand the business, he embarked on a sales trip in 1951, accompanied by his wife, Edith, which involved visiting all the customers in southern Jutland.

On 28 January 1958, Godtfred sat in a meeting with his brother, Karl Georg, and Axel Thomson, the head of the sales office in Germany, and they discussed the complaints that they had received regarding the lack of sturdiness and clutch power of the bricks.

After discussing several solutions, Godtfred sketched some ideas on paper and finally handed a design to Ove Nielsen, the head of the Lego moulding shop.

In 1955 Godtfred summarised the concept behind the system, "Our idea is to prepare the child for life, appealing to its imagination and developing the creative urge and joy of creation that are the driving force in every human being."

The following day, Godtfred made the decision to focus on producing plastic bricks and discontinue the manufacturing of wooden toys.

Godtfred decided to solve the problem by exhibiting the models outdoors and asked Arnold Boutrup, a chief designer of a store in Copenhagen, to create a park.

The role of managing director was assumed by Vagn Holck Andersen from 1973 to 1979, until Godtfred's son, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen took over as CEO in 1979.

[13] Christiansen died on 13 July 1995 at the age of 75 at his home in Billund; his son Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen took over the company after his death.