In 1932, a Danish carpenter called Ole Kirk Christiansen started a business in a small village in Denmark. It made stepladders, ironing boards – and wooden toys. He called the company LEGO®, from the Danish words ‘LEg GOdt’, meaning ‘play well’. In 1947, LEGO started making plastic toys, and by 1949 the company was producing about 200 different toys, including the first LEGO bricks. At first, LEGO bricks were only sold in Denmark, but by 1958, the bricks had started to look like the LEGO we know today, and demand from other countries had increased.

In 1960, LEGO stopped making wooden toys completely, and four years later they started to make model sets as well as the basic building bricks. The amusement park LEGOLAND opened in 1968 – LEGO had become one the most popular toys on the planet!

But LEGO didn’t stop there: during the 1970s and 1980s new types of LEGO like ‘Technic’ and ‘Space’ were developed. LEGO roads, houses and figures with arms and legs mean that kids could now build whole LEGO towns!

In 1992 a LEGO castle was built using 400,000 bricks, and in 1996 a second LEGOLAND opened in Windsor, England. In 2000, LEGO was voted ‘Toy of the Century’: not bad for something invented by a carpenter in a small Danish village!


Hans Christian Andersen

Denmark was also home to one of the world’s most widely read authors – Hans Christian Andersen. You may not think you’ve heard of him, but you will almost definitely have read one of the 190 stories and fairy tales he wrote. ‘The Princess and the Pea’, ‘The Ugly Duckling’, ‘The Emperor’s New Suit’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’: these and many more of his stories have been told to generations of children, translated into hundreds of different languages, and even made into Disney films!

Unusually his stories were written for both adults and children. Although they sometimes seem very simple, they often deal with serious and interesting subjects like greed or jealousy. Try reading some and find out how good they are for yourself!

Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark in 1805. His family was very poor – his father was a shoemaker and his mother was a washerwoman – and he had to start working as a tailor’s apprentice when he was just 11 years old! By the time he was 14 he had moved to Copenhagen to become a singer and an actor. Although his teenage years were tough, he managed to go to Copenhagen University. He left in 1928, and immediately started writing. Just seven years later he was creating the stories that are now loved throughout the world.

Hans Christian Anderson is still loved by the Danish people, and a statue of the Mermaid in Copenhagen from his story ‘The Little Mermaid’ is the most famous landmark in Denmark. It sits by the harbour, and many people walk or take boat trips to see it every day.

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