The early years of LEGO in Germany
Posted by Huw,
Our resident historian Gary Istok has contributed another article for #ThrowbackThursday:
1956 was a very important year for Germany. It was the year that LEGO was introduced there.
At that time, the county was split, with the east behind the Iron Curtain of communism. But even as a split country, the 55 million people in West Germany made it Western Europe's most populous country. This was going to be a big challenge for LEGO to start sales there, since the company had only 140 employees at the time.
When Sweden and Iceland came online to LEGO in 1955, the Norway A/S Norske LEGIO subsidiary in Oslo picked up much of their production (as well as some of the LEGO production in the Netherlands starting in 1957), since LEGO Denmark was about to start production in Europe's largest toy market, West Germany.
German toy representatives at the 1955 Nuremberg Toy Fair scoffed at the idea of LEGO as a plastic toy, being as popular as wooden toys in Germany. So Ole Kirk and Godfredt Kirk Christiansen had to convince German retailers that plastic toys would be popular in Germany.
At Christmas 1955 they paid for LEGO toy ads to be played before films at cinemas around Hamburg, Germany's 2nd largest city. Many parents went to their local toy stores to enquire about LEGO, and toy store owners took note, and became very interested in LEGO sales.
The Evolution of LEGO basic set box designs from 1956-60
On the 12th of January 1956, Ole Kirk and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen were guests at a dinner by new LEGO director Axel Thomsen and his wife Grete (Axel far right, Grete left) that "christened" the beginning of LEGO Germany in Hohenwestedt, the capital of LEGO German (LEGO GmbH), near the Danish border.
Starting in March 1956, LEGO sales began in West Germany, and LEGO Billund was busy producing enough LEGO for the German market. All the first LEGO basic sets had boxes with German writing on top, as did the first spare parts packs. They started out with Godtfred Kirk Christiansen's 3 children on the box in 1956, and in late 1957 the box designs changed to a newer Town Plan scene with mature children. Then in 1958 LEGO set boxes started having the international "LEGO System" text, so that the same boxes could be used in all European countries.
The first German LEGO spare parts pack boxes of 1956-57 had Godfredt Kirk Christiansen (via artwork changes disguised as a policeman), along with his 3 children Kjeld, Gunhild and Hanne, as well as older cousin Jörgen.
The original photograph of the Christensen children, along with Godfredt, before being altered and "colourized" for the German parts pack box tops.
In late 1957 (after Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Portugal started LEGO sales) continental European spare parts packs changed designs, but still mostly in the local language(s), with the German/Austrian box design in the upper right. By late 1958 all continental European countries started using the universal "LEGO System" box designs, as was done with the basic sets.
A 1960 German retailer display binder page, showing all the new "International" design LEGO sets introduced from 1960-61 throughout Europe. In the upper left are the designs for German wooden box sets. By 1961 there were over 11,000 toy stores in continental Europe alone, and LEGO was on its way to being the world's most popular toy.
One last thing about LEGO Germany Director Axel Thomsen, shown walking in Billund with his wife Grete: although he was a Dane, and longtime friend of Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, he remained the Director of LEGO Germany in Hohenwestedt for many years.
Before 1958, he is credited with forwarding complaints to Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, received by German retailers about a lack of clutch power of hollow bottom LEGO bricks. It was this that helped the LEGO bricks evolution to tube bottom bricks that year.
Photos courtesy of Jim, Thomas, Diana and Henk.
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16 comments on this article
I seem to recall something in the live lego house tour mentioned that some of the lego employees went into toy stores asking for lego on purpose knowing it wasn't stocked but to generate pull demand from the retailers.
Some of my earliest LEGO memories are those of - when visiting my grandmother - playing with sets my uncle (born 1953) had as a kid. 310-5 (ESSO Filling Station) was my favorite at the time.
When my grandmother died and her house was cleaned out, I got to keep what was left of the aforementioned set and the rest of my uncle's LEGO as he was no longer interested in it.
@Shropshire said:
"I seem to recall something in the live lego house tour mentioned that some of the lego employees went into toy stores asking for lego on purpose knowing it wasn't stocked but to generate pull demand from the retailers."
fake it till you make it
It's incredible how long LEGO has been at the forefront of the toy industry worldwide
Interesting article. Thanks to Gary for researching and writing it, and @Huw for posting it.
Was any LEGO smuggled into East Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain? What, if anything, is known about LEGO’s availability in the East before and immediately after reunification?
@Zander said:
"Interesting article. Thanks to Gary for researching and writing it, and @Huw for posting it.
Was any LEGO smuggled into East Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain? What, if anything, is known about LEGO’s availability in the East before and immediately after reunification?"
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Some LEGO did make it into East German thru official channels, but it was considered a luxury toy, and only the party elite could afford it.
East Germany did produce a LEGO clone for the masses called PEBE...
https://www.inverso.pt/legos/clones/texts/pebe.htm
Well written, interesting article! I like history in general along with Lego history so its nice to see the old clothes and cars. Its very much that era. Good on Ole and Godtfred for using the pictures (movies) to advertise Lego.
I personally have always wondered whether, during German occupation of Denmark, Lego received any notice from German families, I dont see why German soldiers couldnt have bought Lego toys to send home to their children.
Very interesting the part about it being German retailers who pointed out the lack of clutch power.
@Istokg said:
" @Zander said:
"Interesting article. Thanks to Gary for researching and writing it, and @Huw for posting it.
Was any LEGO smuggled into East Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain? What, if anything, is known about LEGO’s availability in the East before and immediately after reunification?"
----------------
Some LEGO did make it into East German thru official channels, but it was considered a luxury toy, and only the party elite could afford it.
East Germany did produce a LEGO clone for the masses called PEBE...
https://www.inverso.pt/legos/clones/texts/pebe.htm
"
In behind-the-curtain communist states there were the shops for the elites and then usually one chain per country selling selected foreign (non-communist) goods - in Czechoslovakia it was TUZEX, in Eastern Germany Intershop, in Hungary Intertourist and so on.
As born in Czechoslovakia I can really tell only about local history, but the East German way reads the same https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intershop
You could pay in foreign currency or for locals with "voucher currency" called Bon/Bony. As normal citizen you should be not holding foreign 'western' currencies so whatever you got for example by mail was converted. The exchange rate was not good. There were also shady types called 'vekslak' offering alternative exchanges but quite often scamming you.
So as a normal citizen, you could get a chance to visit such shops. Let's say you had the currency. Then you had to get to one of the few shops (at highest that was low 10s for whole country). Best when you have echo that toys, jeans, alcohol, ... is being stocked that day (even better if you bribed the staff to leave something under the counter) as with you there will be lot of other people https://patrikdiamant.cz/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/fronta-pred-prazskou-prodejnou-tuzexem.jpg
There was also personal import possible. Common people did not get to travel much, but there were still professions that were left to travel. And toys in 'normal' quantity were not that much of contraband, at most you had to pay official or unofficial customs. My uncle was part of the country's infrastructure friendship help (for foreign cash for state coffers of course and as a "bonus" in last years he got to see "his" bridges and highways being bombed on TV) and had chance to buy some stuff on airports on work trips to Egypt, Iraq, ...
Also small quantities also passed in packages from families abroad, sometimes getting 'lost' but without politically sensitive stuff and just kid's things it was possible. Not all customs employees were brainwashed heartless bastards...
Thanks @Istokg (Gary) and @papluh for your insights. Fascinating. It’s scary how ideology and power impact such innocuous things as children’s toys. One should never take the liberties afforded by democracy for granted.
I did make it behind the Iron Curtain including Czechoslovakia (but not E. Germany) during the Communist era but was not into LEGO at the time. Either because of lack of interest or its limited availability, I didn’t see any while I was there, not even in Hungary which was not particularly hard-line Communist.
User ab21 commented about getting Futuron sets in East Germany after it reopened even though the theme was being retired at the time.
brickset.com/article/35817/random-set-of-the-day-interplanetary-rover
I too can remember playing with an uncle's old sets, in Bremen in the early seventies. I can remember the box art with the policeman distinctly as I looked very much like the boy on the left, yes I used to wear a bowtie, and my uncle by then was a policeman. I remember PEBE as well and still have some!
Great article, has really brought back some memories ...
I remember East German plastic bricks not compatible with LEGO. According to German wikipedia, the aforementioned PEBE switched from Lego clone bricks to an incompatible system "PEBE 2000" in the early 80s after a legal battle with LEGO. (Good old days, when LEGO could still have their way, even in nominally communist countries, right? ;-) )
After the German reunification (or maybe earlier, after the monetary & economic union - I was a kid and not aware of the significance of the events), Lego became widely available in toy stores ,and some toys I previously looked at thinking that would be what I would play with when I would grow up suddenly were available on the cheap - I remember one metal construction set in particular.
Several independent toy stores and some chains seem to have stocked up on then-already-out-of-production sets. In the early 90s, my brother got 6522 - with visor-less helmets that were last produced 1987 - as a present, I got various Futuron sets. (Thanks @Norikins for letting me know that my previous comment on that was so memorable. :-) ) Whether that was because the shops' wholesalers sold them their leftovers, because the shops appreciated the bigger variety or just because they did not know better, I cannot tell.
@ab21 said:
"I remember East German plastic bricks not compatible with LEGO. According to German wikipedia, the aforementioned PEBE switched from Lego clone bricks to an incompatible system "PEBE 2000" in the early 80s after a legal battle with LEGO. (Good old days, when LEGO could still have their way, even in nominally communist countries, right? ;-) )
"
I really wonder how Lego pulled that off?? If anyone knows, I'd be interested to hear!
I’d like to know more about that model in the first image!
Oh cool. I think one of our customers used to work at LEGO Hohenweststedt. We bought a lot of their old LEGO they still had. Like the Massey Ferguson and many wooden toys. i think it was around the fifties when LEGO switched totally to Plastic and stoped producing LEGO wooden toys.
Wrecknbuild said: I really wonder how Lego pulled that off?
Maybe it was so they could export to the West? I had a box of Pebe bought in Norway around 1980, the bricks were the same size as Lego but the studs a fraction of a mm smaller (so Lego would losely fit on top of Pebe, but not the other way around). They also had *hard* clutch power, I several times hurt my fingers trying to get them apart (In Soviet Germany, brick scratches YOU!).
I really think it would be nice with an article series about these old clone brands, especially as information about them tends to be sparse nowadays. I particularly remember some interesting Spanish ones:
Exin Castillos - These had 1x1x1 cm bricks (mainly in a marbled tan/brown color) and focused on castles (but there was a Far West line too), I believe they were popular among miniature RPG players. Had some interesting parts like the 2/10 and 3/10 macaronis, which formed a 5-stud circle and were more versatile than the Lego ones.
Tente - Bricks the same size as Lego, but with wider, hollow studs (resembling "Lifesavers" candy). They had small pins (like on 1-by-X Legos) in a diamond pattern on the underside, which permitted more half-stud offset combinations. I particularly remember a series of nice 4-wide microscale ships.
Polly Hobby - A rather weird variant, again the same size as Lego (but with larger studs), but they were supposed to be built with the studs *downwards*. The tops were smooth with round holes, while the underside had gaps around the studs.