WEBVTT 1 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:16.280 World War II is over, 2 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:22.520 and post-war Europe begins the difficult task of rebuilding a broken continent. 3 00:00:27.040 --> 00:00:30.640 Meanwhile in Sweden something else is being built: 4 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:34.920 the welfare society, with a better life for everyone. 5 00:00:35.080 --> 00:00:39.160 Child care, health care and a national pension system. 6 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:47.480 Swedes get three weeks holiday a year and have more cash to spend than ever before. 7 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:51.000 And there will be plenty of opportunities to spend it. 8 00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:58.480 The beginning of the 1950s is a milestone in the IKEA story, 9 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:02.160 as the first home furnishing catalogue is published. 10 00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:06.800 At a time when everything can be measured and calculated, 11 00:01:06.960 --> 00:01:14.520 IKEA now starts using flat packs to reduce transport costs and prevent transport damage. 12 00:01:19.720 --> 00:01:25.960 With that comes an unconventional idea: customers can put their own furniture together. 13 00:01:31.600 --> 00:01:36.680 The world opens up, and Swedes can now afford to travel abroad. 14 00:01:37.440 --> 00:01:41.120 The home is modernised with household appliances. 15 00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:50.960 Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe; 16 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:56.640 modern American culture has a huge impact on the small country in the north. 17 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:03.120 The 1950s also see the arrival of television, 18 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:08.840 and Swedes can now watch a world tired of war enter a new one; 19 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:10.760 the Cold War. 20 00:02:13.640 --> 00:02:17.320 Levelling out at eighty-five hundred feet for an IFI. 21 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:22.920 Political tensions between superpowers 22 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:27.160 lead to several dramatic events in the decades to come. 23 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:32.760 And it's not long before the two giants of the communist world 24 00:02:32.920 --> 00:02:36.040 jointly control more than a billion lives. 25 00:02:38.720 --> 00:02:42.160 But neutral Sweden is going strong. 26 00:02:42.320 --> 00:02:46.680 It's a true golden age of construction and development. 27 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:51.600 IKEA now starts seriously developing its business concept. 28 00:02:53.320 --> 00:02:58.720 Well-designed furniture with good function and quality at a low price. 29 00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:02.800 And things happen quickly: 30 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:09.200 in 1958 the company opens its first store in Älmhult, Småland. 31 00:03:13.320 --> 00:03:16.160 A real store - thats huge! 32 00:03:17.200 --> 00:03:22.000 Surely Ingvar Kamprad, who started out as a kid playing businessman, 33 00:03:22.160 --> 00:03:24.400 should now be satisfied? 34 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:30.320 No, the future holds much, much bigger things.